Lenin said: "In the initial sense, dialectics is the essential contradiction of the research object." Lenin often called this law the essence and core of dialectics. So when we study this law again, it involves many aspects and many philosophical problems.
These questions are: two world views; Universality of contradiction; The particularity of contradiction; Principal contradiction and principal contradiction; Identity and struggle in all aspects of contradiction; The position of confrontation in contradiction.
There are two views on the law of the development of the universe: one is metaphysical; One is a dialectical view; Formed two opposing world views.
Metaphysics, also called metaphysics. This kind of thought, in China, in Europe and for a long period of history, belongs to the idealistic world outlook and occupies a dominant position in people's thoughts. The so-called metaphysical or vulgar evolutionary worldview is to look at the world from an isolated, static and one-sided point of view. This kind of cosmology regards everything in the world, the form and type of everything, as always isolated from each other and never changing. Even if it changes, it is also the change of quantity and location, and the reason for the change is also driven by external forces. Metaphysical scholars believe that the characteristics of different things and things in the world have been like this since their initial existence.
The world outlook of materialist dialectics advocates to study the development of things from the inside of things and the relationship between things and other things, that is, to regard the development of things as an inevitable self-movement within things, and the movement of everything is interrelated and influenced by other things around. The fundamental reason for the development of things is not that things are external, but that things are internal and contradictory. This contradiction within things is the fundamental reason for the development of things, and the second reason is the mutual connection and influence between things.
Simple external reasons can only cause the mechanical movement of things, that is, the increase or decrease of the size and quantity of the scope, and can not explain why things are so different in nature and change with each other. In fact, even the mechanical movement driven by external forces must go through the internal contradictions of things. In the same country, the society has changed a lot without changing the geography and climate. For example, imperialist Russia became a socialist Soviet Union and feudal Japan became an imperialist Japan. The geography and climate of these countries have not changed. The geography and climate around the earth are also changing, but compared with the changes of society, the changes of the earth show changes in millions of years, while the society shows changes in thousands of years, centuries or even years and months. According to materialist dialectics, the change of nature is mainly due to the development of internal contradictions in nature. Social changes are mainly due to contradictions within society, contradictions between productive forces and relations of production, contradictions between classes, and contradictions between the old and the new. The development of these contradictions has promoted social progress and promoted the metabolism of old and new societies.
At the same time, materialist dialectics does not rule out the influence of external factors. Materialist dialectics holds that external cause is the condition of change, internal cause is the basis of change, and external cause works through internal cause. Eggs turn into chickens because of the right temperature, but temperature can't turn stones into chickens because they have different foundations.
Dialectical world outlook has been produced since ancient times, whether in China or Europe. However, ancient dialectics is spontaneous and simple. According to the social conditions at that time, it was impossible to completely separate from chaos, so the universe could not be completely explained, and was later replaced by metaphysics. Marx and Engels, great proletarian activists, synthesized the positive achievements in the history of human cognition, critically absorbed the reasonable part of Hegel's dialectics and founded dialectical materialism and historical materialism. Later, through Lenin and Stalin, the great theory of dialectical world outlook was developed.
Dialectical world outlook mainly teaches people to be good at observing and analyzing the contradictory movements of various things, and according to this analysis, points out the methods to solve contradictions.
The universality or absoluteness of contradiction has two meanings. First, contradictions exist in the development process of everything; Secondly, the development of everything has a contradictory movement from beginning to end.
The interdependence and struggle of contradictions contained in everything determines the life of everything and promotes its development. Contradiction is the basis of simple motion forms (such as simple mechanical motion) and complex motion forms.
Engels explained the universality of contradiction in this way: "If the simple mechanical movement itself contains contradictions, then the more advanced forms of movement of matter, especially the development of organic life, contain contradictions even more. Life is also a contradiction between self-generation and self-resolution existing in the object and the process itself; When this contradiction stops, life stops, so death comes; . "
Every difference in people's ideas should be regarded as a reflection of objective contradictions. Objective contradictions are reflected in subjective thoughts, which constitute the contradictory movement of ideas, promote the development of ideas and constantly solve people's ideological problems.
From this perspective, whether it is a simple form of movement or a complex form of movement, whether it is an objective phenomenon or an ideological phenomenon, contradictions are universal and exist in all processes.
The Deborah School, which was criticized by the Soviet philosophical circles, believes that contradictions do not appear at the beginning of the process, but only when the process develops to a certain stage. Then, the cause of development in the development stage is not internal, but external. If we analyze specific problems from this point of view, we will think that under the conditions of the Soviet Union, there are only differences and no contradictions between rich peasants and ordinary peasants.
But in fact, every difference in the world contains contradictions, and differences are contradictions. Since the emergence of the two classes, there have been contradictions between employers and employees, but they have not intensified. Under the social conditions of the Soviet Union, there are also differences and contradictions. They formed an alliance in socialist construction and gradually solved this contradiction in the process of development.
At every stage of the development of things, there are contradictions and differences, not contradictions. Contradiction is universal and absolute. It exists in all the processes of the development of things and runs through all the processes. Whenever the old process ends and a new process appears, the new process will contain new contradictions and start its own history of contradictions.
Contradictions in various forms of material movement are special. For every form of material movement, we must pay attention to its similarity with other forms of movement. But it is particularly important to pay attention to its special features and the qualitative differences between it and other sports forms, which is the basis for us to understand things. Only by paying attention to this point can we distinguish things.
There are many forms of movement in nature, such as mechanical movement, vocalization, luminescence, fever, current, combination, decomposition and so on. The special nature of the motion forms of all these substances is stipulated by their own special contradictions. This situation exists not only in nature, but also in social phenomena and ideological phenomena. Every social form and ideological form has its special contradictions and special essence.
The distinction of scientific research is based on the special contradiction of scientific objects. Because the study of a certain contradiction unique to a certain phenomenon field constitutes a certain scientific object. For example, the action and reaction in mechanics, the combination and decomposition in chemistry, the productive forces and relations of production in social sciences, and the struggle between classes all constitute different scientific research objects because of their special contradictions and special properties.
The movement of human cognition always extends from knowing individual and special things to knowing general things. People always know the special essence of many different things first, and then it is possible to further generalize and understand the same essence of all things.
When people have known the essence of this * * * identity, they will continue to study various concrete things that have not been studied or studied in depth under the guidance of this understanding of * * * identity to discover its special essence. Only in this way can we supplement, enrich and develop this understanding of the nature of * * *, so that this understanding of the nature of * * * will not become dead.
These two cognitive processes: one is from special to general, and the other is from general to special. Human understanding is always carried out in this way, and each cycle may be a step for human beings to deepen their understanding.
It is necessary to study not only the special contradiction of the material movement form of each large-scale system and its prescribed essence, but also the special contradiction and its essence of each material movement form in each process of its long-distance development. All forms of movement are different in every real development process.
Contradictions of different natures can only be solved by different qualitative methods. For example, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie should be solved by socialist revolution; The contradiction between colony and imperialism is solved by the method of national revolutionary war; * * * Contradictions within the production party are resolved through criticism and self-criticism.
When the process changes, the old contradictions in the old process disappear, and the new contradictions in the new process appear, and the methods to solve the contradictions are different. Solving different contradictions in different ways is a principle that Marxists must strictly abide by.
A great event, in its development process, contains many contradictions. For example, in the bourgeois-democratic revolution in China, the contradiction between the oppressed class and imperialism, the contradiction between the masses and the feudal system, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and the contradictions among various reactionary ruling groups in China society are all very complicated. These contradictions have their own particularity, and both sides of each contradiction also have their own characteristics, so we can't generalize them.
We should not only understand the particularity of every contradiction from its totality, that is, its interrelation, but also study it from all aspects to understand its totality. The so-called understanding of all aspects of contradictions is to know what specific position they occupy in all aspects, in what specific forms they are interdependent and contradictory, and in what specific ways they struggle with each other in interdependence and contradiction, and after the breakdown of interdependence. It is very important to study these problems.
When studying problems, avoid subjectivity, one-sidedness and superficiality.
Subjectivity means not knowing how to look at problems objectively, that is, not knowing how to look at problems from a materialistic point of view. For example, as mentioned in the Theory of Practice, some people are self-righteous and give orders when they go to a place, regardless of the environment and the whole. Such a person is doomed to fall.
The so-called one-sidedness means not knowing to look at the problem comprehensively. If you don't understand the characteristics of all parties to the contradiction, it's called looking at the problem one-sidedly, or seeing only the part but not the whole, so you can't find a solution to the contradiction. For example, we know China, but we don't know Japanese. Only know * * * production party, don't know the kuomintang; Only know the proletariat, not the bourgeoisie. ...
Superficiality means ignoring the totality of contradictions and the characteristics of all parties to contradictions, denying the necessity of studying the characteristics of contradictions in depth, and trying to solve contradictions only by seeing a little contradiction. This practice is also problematic.
One-sidedness and superficiality are also subjective, because all objective things are interrelated and have internal laws. If you don't reflect these situations on the spot and only look at him unilaterally or superficially, you don't know the interrelationships of things and the internal laws of things, which is also subjectivism.
The fundamental contradiction in the development of things and the essence of the process stipulated by this fundamental contradiction will not be eliminated until the end of the process; However, in the long process of the development of things, the situation at each development stage is often different. This is because the nature of the fundamental contradiction in the development of things and the essence of the process have not changed, but the fundamental contradiction has gradually intensified in various stages of development in the long process. Moreover, many contradictions, big or small, which are regulated or influenced by fundamental contradictions, have been intensified, temporarily or partially solved, or eased, and some have occurred, so the process presents stages. We need the stage of development of things to properly handle the contradictions of things.
Judging from the process of bourgeois democratic revolution in China since the Revolution of 1911, there are also some special stages. The fundamental contradiction in the whole process is the nature of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolution, which has not changed in the process. However, during this long period of time, it experienced the failure of the Revolution of 1911 and the rule of the Northern Warlords, the establishment of the first national united front and the 1924- 1927 revolution, the rupture of the united front and the bourgeois revolution, the new warlord war, the agrarian revolutionary war, the establishment of the second national united front and War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and other major events. In these stages, some contradictions intensified, such as the Agrarian Revolution and the Japanese invasion of Northeast China. Some contradictions have been partially or temporarily resolved, such as the elimination of the northern warlords; Some contradictions have reappeared, such as the struggle of new warlords and other special circumstances.
To study the particularity of contradictions in each development stage in the development of things, we need to look at the relationship and the whole, and also look at all aspects of contradictions in each stage.
Such as the Kuomintang and communist party. During the first United front period, the Kuomintang implemented Sun Yat-sen's three major policies: uniting with Russia, uniting with workers and peasants, and helping them. This is an alliance of democratic revolutions of all classes. After 1927, the Kuomintang became a reactionary group of landlords and big bourgeoisie. 1936 after the Xi incident in February, 19 turned to unite with the * * * production party to oppose Japanese imperialism. * * * As for the production party, it was still a young party during the first United front period, and its understanding of the nature, tasks and methods of the revolution was insufficient, which led to the failure of the revolution of 1924- 1927. After 1927, he led the agrarian revolutionary war and founded revolutionary troops and revolutionary base areas, but lost the base areas because of adventurism. 1935, he corrected adventurism and led a new anti-Japanese United front.
Only by studying these characteristics can we understand the special relationship between the two parties at various stages of development, and more fundamentally, we should study the foundation of the two parties and the contradictions and oppositions with other aspects formed in various periods. For example, during the first period of national unity, on the one hand, there were contradictions with imperialism at home and abroad, so they opposed imperialism; On the other hand, there are contradictions with the domestic people. It promises many benefits to the working people verbally, but in fact it gives little or no benefits. In the war against * *, the Kuomintang cooperated with imperialism and feudalism against the masses, intensifying its contradictions with the masses. * * * At all times, the production party stands with the people and opposes imperialism and feudalism. But now, during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, because the Kuomintang expressed its resistance to Japan, the * * * production party adopted a moderate policy. As a result of these circumstances, the struggle or alliance between the two parties has occurred, and there has also been a complicated situation of both alliance and struggle during the joint period. Only by studying the characteristics of these contradictions can we understand the relationship between the two parties and other parties and understand the relationship between the two parties.
From this point of view, no matter what kind of contradictory characteristics are studied, you can't talk about things with the supervisor at will, and you must analyze them in detail. Without concrete analysis, we can't understand any contradictory features. We must always remember Lenin's words: analyze specific things in detail.
Because special things are linked with universal things, and because everything contains both the particularity of contradiction and the universality of contradiction, universality exists in particularity. When we study things, we should find these two aspects and their interrelations, and find the two aspects and their interrelations of the internal and external particularities of things.
The relationship between universality and particularity of contradiction is the relationship between contradiction and individuality. Its * * * exists in all processes and runs through all processes. Contradiction is a movement, a thing, a process and an idea. However, this * * * sex is included in all personality, and there is no * * * sex without personality. Add all the personality, or what * * *? Because of the particularity of contradiction, personality comes into being, and all personalities are conditional and temporary, so they are relative.
This * * * sexual personality, an absolute relative truth, is the essence of the problem about the contradiction of things.
In the development of complex things, there are many contradictions, one of which is the main contradiction, because its existence and development stipulates or affects the existence and development of other contradictions.
If there are many contradictions in any process, one of them must be the main one, which plays the role of leading decision-making, and the others are in a secondary and subordinate position. Therefore, to study any process, if it is a complex process with more than two contradictions, we should try our best to find out its main contradictions.
It is necessary to divide the contradictions in the process into two categories: primary and secondary, and focus on grasping the main contradictions. And for the two aspects of contradiction, we can't generalize. No matter what contradictions and contradictory aspects, their development is unbalanced. Sometimes it is evenly matched, but this is only a temporary and relative situation, and the basic form is imbalance. Of the two aspects of contradiction, one must be the main and play a leading role. The nature of things is mainly defined by the main aspects of the contradiction that obtains dominance.
However, the principal contradiction and the secondary contradiction are not fixed in the process, and the principal and non-principal aspects of the contradiction are transformed into each other, so the nature of things changes accordingly, and the direction of change depends on the increase or decrease of the struggle forces of both sides in the development of things.
This mutual transformation has been experienced. The Qing Empire, which ruled China for 300 years, was overthrown in the Revolution of 1911. The Revolutionary League led by Sun Yat-sen once won, and the fruits were stolen by Beiyang warlords. China * * * United the Northern Expedition and defeated the Northern Warlords; Then the * * * production party was hit by the Kuomintang and became very small; Later, the * * * production party gradually grew; * * * In the revolutionary base areas led by the Producer Party, the peasants changed from the ruled to the rulers, and the landlords changed from the rulers to the ruled. In the world, it is always like this to trade in the old for the new, metabolize and innovate.
Some people think that some contradictions cannot be changed. This is the view of mechanical materialism, not dialectical materialism. For example, productivity is the main contradiction between productivity and production relations. In fact, productivity usually plays a major decisive role. However, under certain conditions, when the productive forces cannot be developed without changing the relations of production, the change of the relations of production plays an important decisive role.
Metabolism is a universal and irresistible law in the universe. According to the nature and conditions of things themselves, one thing is transformed into another through different leap forms, which is the process of metabolism. Everything has old and new contradictions, and the old and new contradictions form a series of struggles. The result of the struggle is that the new aspect has changed from small to large, and uploading has become the dominant; The old aspects changed from big to small, and gradually disappeared. And when the new aspect dominates the old aspect, the nature of the old thing becomes the nature of the new thing. It can be seen that the essence of things is mainly defined by the main aspects of the contradiction of gaining dominance. The main aspects of the contradiction for dominance have changed, and the nature of things has changed accordingly.
Principal contradiction and non-principal contradiction, principal contradiction and non-principal contradiction, the difference or particularity of these two contradictions is the imbalance of contradictory forces. There is no absolute balanced development in the world, and we must oppose the theory of balance. At the same time, this specific contradiction, as well as the changes in the main and non-main aspects of contradictions in the development process, shows the power of new things replacing old things. The research on the imbalance of contradictions, principal contradiction and non-principal contradiction, principal contradiction and non-principal contradiction is one of the important methods for revolutionary parties to decide their political, military, strategic and tactical policies.
Identity, unity, consistency, mutual penetration, mutual penetration, mutual relationship, mutual connection or mutual cooperation, these different nouns all have the same meaning, and they refer to the following two situations: First, in the development process of things, each of the two contradictory aspects takes the opposite aspect as its own premise, and the two sides are in a kind of unity; Second, the two aspects of contradiction, according to certain conditions, are transforming into their opposite aspects. These are so-called identities.
Contradictory aspects cannot exist in isolation. If you add a contradictory side that does not oppose it, its own side loses its conditions for existence. Without ascension, there is no death. There is no happiness without misfortune. Without the bourgeoisie, there would be no proletariat. Without the proletariat, there would be no bourgeoisie. All opposing components are like this. Due to certain conditions, on the one hand, they are opposed to each other, on the other hand, they are interrelated, interrelated, infiltrated and interdependent. This attribute is called identity. All aspects of contradiction are called contradictions because of their non-identity under certain conditions. However, they are the same, so they are interrelated.
At the same time, opposition is the condition of mutual existence, which is the first meaning of identity.
Contradictory parties can be in a unity because of their identity, but this is not enough. Contradictory parties are not interdependent, but more importantly, they are transformed into each other. That is to say, the two aspects of the internal contradiction of a thing change to the opposite and to its opposite position because of certain conditions. This is the second meaning of contradictory identity.
For example, the proletariat of the ruled is transformed into a ruler through revolution, while the bourgeoisie, which is the ruler, is transformed into the ruled and into the original position of the other party. At the same time, before this change occurs, there must be contact and recognition under certain conditions. 、
The objective thing is this. The unity or identity of contradictions in objective things is not dead or frozen, but vivid, conditional, changeable, temporary and relative. All contradictions are transformed into their own opposites according to certain conditions. This situation, reflected in people's thoughts, has become the world outlook of Marxist materialist dialectics.
The identity of contradictions should be under certain necessary conditions. Without certain necessary conditions, there will be no identity. The so-called identity of contradictions under certain conditions means that the contradictions we are talking about are realistic contradictions and concrete contradictions, and the mutual transformation of contradictions is also realistic and concrete. The ever-changing myths and legends are the changes of people's imagination and subjective fantasy, not the specific changes shown by specific contradictions. Myth is not formed according to certain conditions of specific contradictions, so it is not a reflection of real science. In other words, the contradictions in all aspects of deepening are not specific identities, but imaginary identities.
All processes have a beginning and an end, and all processes are transformed into their opposites. The persistence of all processes is relative, but the variability from one process to another is absolute.
No matter what moves, it takes two States, a relatively static state and a significantly changing state. The movement of both states is caused by the struggle of two contradictory factors contained in things. When things are in the first state, there are only quantitative changes, not qualitative changes, so they seem to be static. When things move in the second state, the change of quantity in the first state has reached a certain peak, and its properties have changed, so it shows significant changes.
Things always change from the first state to the second state. Contradictory struggles exist in the two States, and contradictions are solved through the second state. Therefore, the unity of opposites is conditional, temporary and relative, and the struggle of opposites and mutual exclusion is absolute.
The combination of conditional relative identity and unconditional absolute struggle constitutes the contradictory movement of everything.
There is struggle in the same kind, universality in the special, and * * * in the personality. In Lenin's words, it is called "there are absolute things in relative things"
Among the problems of contradiction and struggle, there is a question of what confrontation is. Confrontation is a form of contradictory struggle, not all forms of contradictory struggle.
There is class confrontation in human history, which is a special manifestation of contradictory struggle. Some contradictions are openly opposed, while others are not. According to the specific development of things, some contradictions change from non-antagonistic to antagonistic, and some contradictions change from antagonistic to non-antagonistic.
The contradiction between the exploiting class and the exploited class, in slave society, feudal society and capitalist society, the two contradictory classes have long coexisted and struggled with each other. When it reaches a certain stage, it develops into a revolution in the form of confrontation. When the bomb didn't explode, it was a contradiction that * * * lived in a unity under certain conditions until the fuse was triggered.
There is no need to develop erroneous ideas within the party into confrontation. On the one hand, we must wage a serious struggle against erroneous ideas; on the other hand, we must give comrades who have made mistakes ample opportunities for awakening. It is not appropriate to struggle excessively.
The law of contradiction of things, that is, the law of unity of opposites, is the fundamental law of nature and society, and it is also the fundamental law of thinking.
According to dialectical materialism, contradiction exists in the process of all objective things and subjective thinking, and it runs through all processes, which is the universality and absoluteness of contradiction.
Contradictory things and each side of them have their own characteristics, which are the particularity and relativity of contradictions.
Contradictory things are the same under certain conditions, so they can live in a unity and can be transformed into opposite aspects. This is the particularity of contradiction? Identity and relativity.
However, the contradictory struggle is constant. No matter when you live in * * *, or when you transform into each other, there are struggles, especially when you transform into each other, the struggle is more obvious, and it is also the universality and absoluteness of contradictions.
When we study the particularity and relativity of contradictions, we should emphasize the main and non-main differences between contradictions and contradictions;
When we study the universality and struggle of contradictions, we should pay attention to the differences between different forms of contradictions and struggles.
These are some simple conclusions of our study on the law of contradiction.