Mao Zedong On Dialectical Materialism

III. The Universality of Contradiction

This problem has two aspects, the first part of which is that contradiction exists in all processes; the second is that in every process the movement of contradiction exists from start to finish. This is called the universality or absoluteness of contradictions.[4-409]

Engels said “motion itself is a contradiction”. Lenin defined the law of the unity of opposites (maodun tongyi) as “the recognition (discovery) [p. 248] of the mutually exclusive opposite tendencies in all natural phenomena and processes (including society and mind)”. Are these ideas correct? Yes, they are. The interdependence of the contradictory aspects present in all things and the struggle between aspects determine the life of all things and push their development forward. Without contradiction nothing would exist.[4-410] As a result, this law is the most universal law, applicable to all phenomena of the objective world, and also applicable to the phenomenon of thought (sixiang). Within dialectics, it is the most fundamental law having decisive significance.

Why do we say that contradiction is motion? Haven’t there been those who have disputed Engels’ assertion? This is because the theory of contradiction discussed by Marx, Engels, and Lenin has become the most important theoretical base of the proletarian revolution. This has led to all-out attacks by bourgeois theorists who constantly hope to overturn Engel’s law that “motion is contradiction”. Raising aloft their obstreperous refutations they have moreover produced the following reasons: the motion of things in the real world is in different instances of time, and through different points in space; when a thing is positioned at a certain point, it occupies that point, and when it moves to another point it occupies that other point. In this way, the motion of things in time and space is divided into many sections; there are no contradictions, for if there were contradictions there could be no movement.

Lenin has pointed out the absurdity of this reasoning, pointed out that this reasoning in fact, by observing continual motion as many sections in time and space and as many static conditions, results in denying motion. They do not know that when a thing occupies a new position, it is because the thing has moved in space from one point to another; namely, as a result of motion. Without the contradiction in so-called motion in which a thing occupies a point and at the same time does not occupy a point, and without this continuous and interrupted unity, the unity of motion and rest, inaction and action, motion would be fundamentally impossible. To deny contradiction is to deny motion. All motion in nature, society, and thought is this motion of the unity of contradictions.

Ceaseless contradiction is the basis of the simple forms of motion (for instance, the mechanical motion discussed above) and is moreover [p. 248] the basis of all complex forms of motion.

There is an indivisible relationship between the process of life and the opposing process of death, and this regardless of whether it is in the various forms of organic life, or within the life of cells within an organism. The supersession of the old by the new, the succession of life and death – this motion of the unity of opposites (maodun tongyi) is the necessary condition for all organic life and development. Without this contradiction, the phenomenon of life is unthinkable.[4-411]

Within mechanics, any “action” contains internal contradictoriness, and leads to “reaction”; without “reaction”, there could be no discussion of action.[4-412]

In mathematics, any number contains internal contradictoriness, and can become a positive or negative number, a whole number, or a fraction. Positive and negative, whole number, and fraction, constitute the movement of contradictions within mathematics.

The law of the unity of opposites of dissociation and combination in chemistry, constitutes the countless motion of chemical change; without this contradiction, chemical phenomena could not exist.

In social life, any phenomenon contains class contradictions. The buying and selling of labour, the organization of the state, and the content of philosophy are like this. The fundamental law of class society is class struggle.

In war, offence and defence, advance and retreat, victory and defeat are all contradictory phenomena. One cannot exist without the other. The two aspects are at once in conflict and in interdependence, and this constitutes the totality of war, and pushes its development forward.[4-413]

Every difference in men’s concepts should be regarded as reflecting an objective contradiction. Objective contradictions are reflected in subjective thinking, and this process constitutes the contradictory movement of concepts, and pushes forward the development of thought.[4-414]

[p. 250] Opposition and struggle between ideas of different kinds constantly occur within the Party; this is a reflection within the Party of contradictions between classes in society. If there were no contradictions in the Party and no ideological struggles to resolve them, the Party’s life would come to an end.

Contradiction[4-415] exists universally and in all processes, whether in the simple or in the complex forms of motion, whether in objective phenomena or ideological phenomena.

At this point there are those who say although they can admit the principle of Engels and Lenin that contradiction is motion, and that contradiction exists in all processes, isn’t it unnecessary for the movement of contradictions within all processes to exist from beginning to end?[4-416] Was it not Deborin and others who clearly asserted that there is no such thing as the so-called motion of contradictions from beginning to end in every process? According to Deborin, contradictions exist, but not at the inception of a process but only when it has developed to a certain stage.[4-417] According to Deborin, the development of a process follows on from this stage; at its inception there are simple differences. There subsequently emerge opposites which finally become contradictions. Is this formula correct or mistaken?

It is mistaken. The so-called universality of contradictions exists not only within all processes, but at each stage of development of every process. This is the revolutionary law of contradictions of Marxism. According to the Deborin school,[4-418] contradiction appears not at the inception of a process, but only when it has developed to a certain stage: if this were the case, then the cause of the development of the process before that stage would be external and not internal. Deborin thus reverts to the metaphysical theories of external causality and of mechanism. Applying this view in the analysis of concrete problems, the Deborin school sees only differences but not contradictions between the workers and the peasants[4-419]under existing conditions in the Soviet Union, thus entirely agreeing with Bukharin. In analyzing the French Revolution, it holds that before the Revolution there were likewise only differences but not contradictions within the Third Estate, which was composed of the workers, the peasants, and the bourgeoisie (Gorev’s explanation).[4-420] This school does not understand that each and every difference already contains contradictions and that difference itself is contradiction. Labour and capital have been in contradiction” ever since the two classes came into being, [p. 251] only at first the contradiction had not become intense. Even under the conditions[4-421] existing in the Soviet Union, the difference between workers and peasants is a contradiction, although, unlike the contradiction between labour and capital, it will not become intensified into antagonism or assume the form of class struggle.[4-422] The question is one of different kinds of contradiction, not of the presence or absence of contradiction. Contradiction is universal and absolute, it is present in the process of development of all things and permeates every process from beginning to end.[4-423] What is meant by the emergence of a new process? The old unity with its constituent opposites yields to a new unity with its constituent opposites; a new process emerges to replace the old.[4-424] The new process contains new contradictions and begins its own history of the development of contradictions.

4-409

Addition in official text: “For convenience of exposition, I shall deal first with the universality of contradiction and then proceed to the particularity of contradiction. The reason is that the universality of contradiction can be explained more briefly, for it has been widely recognized ever since the materialist-dialectical world outlook was discovered and materialist dialectics applied with outstanding success to analysing many aspects of human history and natural history and to changing many aspects of society and nature (as in the Soviet Union) by the great creators and continuers of Marxism – Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin; whereas the particularity of contradiction is still not clearly understood by many comrades, and especially by the dogmatists. They do not understand that it is precisely in the particularity of contradiction that the universality of contradiction resides. Nor do they understand how important is the study of the particularity of contradiction in the concrete things confronting us for guiding the course of revolutionary practice. Therefore, it is necessary to stress the study of the particularity of contradiction and to explain it at adequate length. For this reason, in our analysis of the law of contradiction in things, we shall first analyse the universality of contradiction, then place special stress on analysing the particularity of contradiction, and finally return to the universality of contradiction.

“The universality or absoluteness of contradiction has a twofold meaning. One is that contradiction exists in the process of development of all things, and the other is that in the process of development of each thing a movement of opposites exists from beginning to end”. SW I, pp. 315‒316; XJ I, pp. 279‒280.

4-410

Official text reads: “There is nothing that does not contain contradiction; without contradiction nothing would exist”. SW I, p. 316; XJ I, p. 280.

4-411

Addition in official text: “Engels explained the universality of contradiction as follows:

If simple mechanical change of place contains a contradiction, this is even more true of the higher forms of motion of matter, and especially of organic life and its development. …life consists precisely and primarily in this – that a being is at each moment itself and yet something else. Life is therefore also a contradiction which is present in things and processes themselves, and which constantly originates and resolves itself; and as soon as the contradiction ceases, life, too, comes to an end, and death steps in. We likewise saw that also in the sphere of thought we could not escape contradictions, and that for example the contradiction between man’s inherently unlimited capacity for knowledge and its actual presence only in men who are externally limited and possess limited cognition finds its solution in what is – at least practically, for us – an endless succession of generations, in infinite progress.

…one of the basic principles of higher mathematics is the contradiction that in certain circumstances straight lines and curves may be the same….

But even lower mathematics teems with contradictions”. SW I, pp. 316‒317; XJ I, pp. 280‒281.

4-412

This and the next three paragraphs have been replaced in the official text with a direct quote from Lenin which reads:

“Lenin illustrated the universality of contradiction as follows:

In mathematics: + and -. Differential and integral.

In mechanics: action and reaction.

In physics: positive and negative electricity.

In chemistry: the combination and dissociation of atoms.

In social science the class struggle.” SW I, p. 317; XJ I, p. 281.

4-413

Official text reads: “…pushes its development forward and solves its problems.” SW I, p. 317; XJ I, p. 281.

4-414

Official text reads: “…pushes forward the development of thought, and ceaselessly solves problems in man’s thinking”. SW I, p. 317; XJ I, p. 281.

4-415

Official text reads: “Thus it is already clear that contradiction…”; SW I, p. 317; XJ I, p. 281.

4-416

Official text reads: “But does contradiction also exist at the initial stage of each process? Is there a movement of opposites from beginning to end in the process of development of every single thing?”; SW I, pp. 317‒318; XJ I, p. 281.

4-417

Mao repeats this sentence in the next paragraph, but one has been deleted from the official text; SW I, p. 318; XJ I, pp. 281‒282.

4-418

Official text reads: “As can be seen from the articles written by Soviet philosophers criticizing it, the Deborin school maintains that contradiction…”; SW I, p. 318; XJ I, p. 281. Compare footnote (2) above.

4-419

Official text reads: “…between the kulaks and the peasants…”; SW I, p. 318; XJ I, p. 282.

4-420

The Chinese rendering of this name is Guoliefu. It is difficult to be certain whether this is actually referring to Gorev, who was a Russian Marxist under Stalin.

4-421

Official text reads: “…social conditions…”; SW I, p. 318; XJ I, p. 282.

4-422

A clause has been added to the official text here which reads: “…the workers and the peasants have established a firm alliance in the course of socialist construction and are gradually resolving this contradiction in the course of the advance from socialism to communism.” SW I, p. 318; XJ I, p. 282.

4-423

There is no paragraph break here as there is in the official text.

4-424

Addition in official text; “The old process ends and the new one begins”. SW I,p. 318; XJ I, p. 282.