Annotations on M.B. Mitin et al., Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, translated by Shen Zhiyuan (Volume I).
| [pp. 179‒180] | |
| (p. 142) | Practice is the criterion of truth. |
| [pp. 181‒185] | |
| (p. 143) | Correct theory actively guides practice. |
| (p. 144) | Practice develops, theory too should develop. |
| (pp. 145‒146) | Perceptions and thought are a product of social life. As social life changes, so too do perceptions and thought. |
| Material production is the foundation of the variegated life of humanity. | |
| All knowledge is the result of the struggle of production and the class struggle. | |
| Before Marx, all materialism examined the problem of knowledge apart from the social nature of humankind and apart from its historical development, and was therefore incapable of understanding the dependence of knowledge on social practice. | |
| [pp. 187‒188] | |
| (p. 152) | The purpose of the study of philosophy is not to satisfy one’s curiosity, but to transform the world. |
| Know the laws of the world, find correct theory in order to guide practice effectively, and transform the world. | |
| [pp. 194‒201] | |
| (p. 161) | The fundamental theme of the view of development of materialist dialectics is that it is the contradictory nature of any phenomenon which leads to the development of that thing. |
| (p. 165) | Different processes have different contradictions. |
| (p. 166) | It is because there are different characteristics and different contradictions that there are all sorts of different forms of motion. |
| Knowledge of matter is knowledge of the form of motion of matter. | |
| (p. 169) | [The law of the unity of opposites] is the universal law (faze) of the objective world and knowledge, and all processes fall within its ambit. |
| [p. 207] | |
| (p. 175) | Every difference contains contradiction. |
| Mutual dependence is a manifestation of the struggle of opposites, the absolute exists in the relative. | |
| [pp. 216‒222] | |
| (p. 178) | With regard to the Chinese Revolution, we should emulate Lenin’s analysis of the Russian Revolution. |
| (p. 181) | Scientific research must commence from a knowledge of the distinguishing characteristics of quality. |
| The various and different forms of the motion of matter. Each entity has a definite form of motion, and there are a wide variety of forms of motion; however, there is of necessity one form of motion which manifests any one particular quality of matter. Different forms of motion manifest the different qualities of matter or composition of substances. | |
| (p. 185) | Quantity too is objective, and the concept of quantity is a reflection in human consciousness of those quantitative relations within phenomena themselves. Scientific research should come to know [objective reality] not only on the basis of qualitative difference, but also on the basis of quantitative complexity. |
| (pp. 185‒186) | Within an entity, quality and quantity constitute an indivisible identity, an identity of different substances, namely an identity of opposites. |
| However, the quantitative change of an entity can only emerge on the basis of a certain quality compatible with it, and within a definite period, quality restricts the development of quantity. Feudalism, imperialism, and socialism are three examples. | |
| (pp. 186‒187) | Quantitative change is restricted by the nature of quality, but at the same time quantitative change also has an influence on quality. That is to say, an entity which is determined by a definite quality will remain thus up to the moment at which quantitative change reaches a definite qualitative limit; quantity will then demand a change of quality. At the same time, this change is a change from quality to quantity. Once the old quality has passed away, a new quantity can then develop in a forward direction. |
| Only through quantitative change can qualitative change emerge. |