| [pp. 277‒280] |
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| (pp. 64‒66) |
Two viewpoints. |
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The first viewpoint, the mechanistic view of development, sees development resulting from an increase or decrease in quantity. It sees problems only one-sidedly and externally rather than completely and internally, and cannot explain the reasons for the development of a thing. |
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The second viewpoint, the dialectical materialist view of development, reveals the source of movement within a process. So-called knowledge of a process is the revelation of the various aspects of the contradictions replete within a process, the determination of the mutual relations between these aspects, and the search for the movement of the contradictions of a process. |
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If we take cognisance of a process during its dissociation (fenlie), observe the parts of the contradictions replete within the process and the mutual relations of these parts, we can then know the development of a process from emergence to elimination. As Lenin has therefore stated: The essence of dialectics is knowledge of the dissociation of a unified entity and the parts of the contradictions replete within it. |
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It is necessary but not sufficient to have knowledge of the mutual distinctions of a process, of the many aspects and attributes of the mutual opposites of a process, including a knowledge of the mutual connections of these aspects and attributes; it is necessary also to know the fundamental contradiction which allows development of the process, for that is the source of movement of the process. |
| [pp. 281‒286] |
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| (p. 67) |
In the contradiction between the social character of production and the private character of ownership can be seen the contradiction between the forces and relations of production, and this is the fundamental contradiction. From this fundamental contradiction emerges all other contradictions, because this fundamental contradiction determines the development of capitalism. |
| (p. 69) |
The principal contradiction in the transitional stage in the Soviet Union is the contradiction between socialism and capitalism, and the basis for the continual emergence of this contradiction is the existence of a rich peasantry. All other contradictions are determined by this principal contradiction. It will only be with industrialisation and the socialisation of agriculture that this principal contradiction will be resolved; but there is the possibility that this contradiction can be resolved through the use of internal force. |
| (p. 71) |
The unity of contradictions and their dissociation is also a law (faze) of thought. |
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Knowledge is determined by practice and the history of society. |
| (p. 72) |
The so-called unity of opposites is the dissociation of a unified entity to become mutually exclusive opposites, and includes the mutual connections between these opposites. This is the source of the so-called principal contradiction, of so-called self-movement. |
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The particularity of contradictions is different as the contradictions of each different process are different. |
| (p. 73) |
Qualitatively different contradictions require different methods for their resolution. |
| [pp. 287‒292] |
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| (pp. 73‒74) |
The national contradiction between China and Japan requires for its resolution a united front with the bourgeoisie. The internal (guonei) contradiction after 1927, however, was resolved through a united front with the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie. During normal times, the contradiction between labour and capital will be resolved through a united front of the workers. In the contradiction between the correct line and incorrect tendencies within the Party and revolutionary ranks, use the method of ideological struggle for its resolution. Internationally, revolution is to be employed to resolve the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Industrialisation and the collectivisation of agriculture are to be used in resolving the contradiction between the proletariat and the peasantry in the Soviet Union. Develop the productive forces to resolve the contradiction between society and nature. As the contradictions of processes are different, so too are the methods for their resolution. |
| (p. 74) |
In looking at a problem from a dialectical materialist perspective, it is necessary to expose the particularity of contradictions within any process, and at the same time it is necessary to know the particularity of contradictions of the various aspects of a process. |
| (p. 75) |
Opposed aspects are a condition for the existence of each other, only if one aspect exists can the other exist. |
| (p. 79) |
The central task of dialectics is to study the mutual permeation (shentou) of opposites, namely the identity of opposites. |
| (p. 81) |
If there is no concrete study of a process, there is no way that the identity of opposites, that is their mutual permeation, can be understood. |
| [pp. 293‒299] |
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| (pp. 83‒85) |
Although contradiction exists universally, antagonism only emerges when the contradictions of certain processes have developed to a definite stage. The contradictions between oppressing and oppressed classes, between oppressing and oppressed nations, between state and state, between party and party, etc., all have circumstances in which antagonism is developed. Antagonisms within the social process adopt the form of oppression and war; those within the process of nature adopt the form of clash and conflict; and scuffles and plotting between individuals are of the same order. Many contradictions do not develop to an antagonistic form: within the Communist Party, the contradiction between correct and incorrect; in the realm of culture, the contradiction between advanced and backward; in the realm of the economy, contradictions between town and countryside, between value and use value, between mental and manual labour, between production and consumption; in class relations, the contradiction between workers and peasants; under socialism, the contradiction between the forces and relations of production; in the natural world, between life and death, positive and negative, inheritance and variation, attraction and repulsion, cold and warm, and between ocean and continent. None of these has yet achieved a condition under which it bursts asunder, none of these contradictions contains antagonism. The method for the resolution of contradictions and that for the resolution of antagonism are different. This is the particularity of contradiction and the particularity of the method for the resolution of contradiction, a question which requires distinctions to be made.
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