In recent years, the Soviet philosophical circle criticized the idealism of Deborah School [3], which aroused our great interest. Deborah's idealism has had a very bad influence in China's * * * production party. Dogmatism within our party cannot be said to have nothing to do with the style of this school. Therefore, our current philosophical research should aim at eliminating dogmatism.
* This philosophical paper was written by Mao Zedong after "On Practice" for the same purpose, that is, to overcome the serious dogmatism existing in China's * * * production party, and once gave a speech at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University in Yan 'an. In the first edition of this book, the author made some additions, deletions and modifications.
One or two views on the universe
In the history of human cognition, there have always been two views on the law of the development of the universe, one is metaphysical and the other is dialectical, forming two opposing views on the universe. Lenin said: "What are the two basics (or two possibilities) of development (evolution)? Or two common ones in history? ) The views are as follows: (1) It is considered that development is reduction and increase, and it is repetition; (2) It is believed that development is the unity of opposites (the unity of things is divided into two mutually exclusive opposites, and the two opposites are interrelated). [4] Lenin said these two different world views.
Metaphysics, also known as metaphysics, has been an idealistic world outlook for a long time, whether in China or Europe, and has occupied a dominant position in people's minds. In Europe, early bourgeois materialism is also metaphysical. Because the social and economic conditions of many European countries have entered the stage of highly developed capitalism, productivity, class struggle and science have reached unprecedented levels in history, and the industrial proletariat has become the greatest driving force for historical development, thus producing the Marxist materialist dialectics world outlook. As a result, among the bourgeoisie, in addition to the open and extremely explicit reactionary idealism, there has also been a vulgar theory of evolution, which has come out to oppose materialist dialectics.
The so-called metaphysical or vulgar evolutionary cosmology is to look at the world from an isolated, static and one-sided point of view. This view of the universe regards everything in the world, the form and type of everything, as isolated from each other forever and never changing. If there is a change, it is only an increase or decrease in quantity and a change in position. The reason for this change is not in the object but outside it, that is, it is driven by external forces. Metaphysics believes that the characteristics of different things and things in the world have been like this since they first existed. Subsequent changes are nothing more than the expansion or contraction of quantity. They think that one thing can only be produced repeatedly as the same thing and cannot be turned into another different thing. In the metaphysical point of view, the exploitation of capitalism, the competition of capitalism, the individualism of capitalist society, etc. In ancient slave society, even in primitive society, it can be found and will exist forever. When it comes to the reasons for social development, they use geographical and climatic conditions outside the society to explain it. They simply look for the reasons for the development of things from the outside, denying the theory that things develop because of internal contradictions advocated by materialist dialectics. Therefore, they can't explain the qualitative diversity of things, and can't explain a qualitative phenomenon to other species. In Europe, this thought was mechanical materialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and vulgar evolution in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In China, there is a metaphysical thought called "the sky remains unchanged, and the Tao remains unchanged" [5], which has long been supported by the decadent feudal ruling class. Mechanical materialism and vulgar evolutionism, which were introduced into Europe for nearly a hundred years, were supported by the bourgeoisie.
Contrary to the metaphysical world view, the materialist dialectics world view advocates studying the development of things from the inside of things and the relationship between things and other things, that is, the development of things is regarded as the inevitable movement within things, and the movement of all things is interrelated and influenced by other things around them. The fundamental reason for the development of things is not outside things, but inside things, which lies in the contradictions inside things. Everything has this contradiction, which causes the movement and development of things. This contradiction within things is the fundamental reason for the development of things, and the interaction and influence between one thing and other things is the secondary reason for the development of things. In this way, materialist dialectics strongly opposes metaphysical mechanical materialism and the exogenous or passive theory of vulgar evolution. This is very clear. Simple external reasons can only cause the mechanical movement of things, that is, the increase or decrease of scope and quantity, and cannot explain why things are so different in nature and change with each other. In fact, even the mechanical movement driven by external forces has to go through the internal contradictions of things. The simple growth and quantitative development of animals and plants are mainly caused by internal contradictions. Similarly, social development is mainly internal and therefore not external. Many countries have great differences and imbalances in their development under almost the same geographical and climatic conditions. In the same country, the society has changed a lot without changing the geography and climate. Imperialist Russia has become a socialist Soviet Union, and feudal closed-door Japan has become an imperialist Japan. The geography and climate of these countries have not changed. China, which has been ruled by feudal system for a long time, has undergone great changes in the past hundred years, and is now transforming into a free and liberated new China. The geography and climate of China have not changed. The geographical climate of the whole earth and all parts of the earth is also changing, but it is very small compared with the social changes. The former shows its changes in tens of thousands of years, while the latter shows its changes in thousands of years, hundreds of years, decades, even years or months (revolutionary period). According to materialist dialectics, the change of nature is mainly due to the development of internal contradictions in nature. The change of society is mainly due to the development of contradictions within society, that is, the contradiction between productive forces and production relations, the contradiction between classes and the contradiction between old and new. Due to the development of these contradictions, it has promoted social progress and promoted the metabolism of the old and new societies. Does materialist dialectics exclude external causes? Do not rule out. 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. Interaction between people from different countries always exists. In the era of capitalism, especially in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution, the state is politically. The interaction and mutual stimulation between economy and culture is enormous. The October socialist revolution not only ushered in a new era of Russian history, but also ushered in a new era of world history. It affected the internal changes of all countries in the world, especially in China, but this change was caused by the laws of each country and China itself. The two armies fight, one wins and one loses, so the victory or defeat depends on internal factors. The winner is either because of his strength or because of his correct command, and the loser is either because of his weakness or because of his improper command, and the external cause affects through the internal cause. In 1927, the big bourgeoisie in China defeated the proletariat, which worked through opportunism within the proletariat in China (within the Chinese production party). After we liquidated this opportunism, the China Revolution developed again. Later, due to adventurism within our Party, the China Revolution was severely hit by the enemy. When we liquidated this adventurism, our cause developed again. From this perspective, a political party must rely on the correctness of its own political line and organizational consolidation to guide the revolution to victory.
Dialectical world outlook, whether in China or Europe, came into being in ancient times. However, ancient dialectics was spontaneous and simple, and it was impossible to have a complete theory according to the social and historical conditions at that time, so it could not completely explain the universe, and was later replaced by metaphysics. Hegel was a famous German philosopher who lived at the end of 18 century and the beginning of 19 century. He made great contributions to dialectics, but his dialectics was idealistic. It was not until Marx and Engels, great activists of the proletarian movement, synthesized the positive achievements in the history of human cognition, especially critically absorbed the reasonable part of Hegel's dialectics and founded the great theories of dialectical materialism and historical materialism that an unprecedented revolution took place in the history of human cognition. Later, this great theory was developed through Lenin and Stalin. As soon as this theory was introduced into China, it caused great changes in China's ideological circle.
This 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. Therefore, it is very important for us to know the law of contradiction in detail.
Second, the universality of contradictions.
For the convenience of narration, I will first talk about the universality of contradictions, and then talk about the particularity of contradictions. This is because the great creators and successors of Marxism, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, discovered the world outlook of materialist dialectics, and applied materialist dialectics to the analysis of human history and natural history in many aspects, and achieved great success in many aspects of social and natural changes (for example, in the Soviet Union). The universality of contradiction has been recognized by many people. Therefore, only a few words are needed to explain this problem; Many comrades, especially dogmatists, are still puzzled by the particularity of contradictions. They don't understand that the universality of contradictions lies in the particularity of contradictions, and they don't understand the significance of studying the particularity of contradictions in specific things to guide the development of revolutionary practice. Therefore, the particularity of contradiction should be studied emphatically and explained in sufficient space. For this reason, when we analyze the contradictory laws of things, we will first analyze the universality of contradictions, then focus on the particularity of contradictions, and finally return to the universality of contradictions.
The universality or absoluteness of contradiction has two meanings. One is that contradictions exist in the development process of everything; The second is that the development process of everything has a contradictory movement from beginning to end.
Engels said: "The movement itself is contradictory." [6] Lenin's definition of the law of unity of opposites says that it means "recognizing (discovering) all phenomena and processes in nature (spiritual and social) contain contradictory, mutually exclusive and contradictory trends" [7]. Are these views correct? That's right. The interdependence and struggle of contradictions contained in everything determines the life of everything and promotes its development. Nothing does not contain contradictions, and there is no world without contradictions.
Contradiction is the basis of simple motion forms (such as 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 higher forms of physical movement, especially organic life and its development, contain contradictions even more. ..... Life is that a creature is itself at all times, but it is something else. Therefore, life is also a contradiction that exists in the object and process itself and constantly generates and solves itself; As soon as this contradiction stops, life stops, so death comes. Similarly, we have seen that we can't avoid contradictions within the scope of thinking. We have also seen that, for example, the contradiction between the infinite cognitive ability of human beings and the actual realization of this cognitive ability in individuals who are only limited by external and cognitive constraints has been solved in the infinite series of human generations-at least for us, it is actually infinite. "
"One of the main foundations of advanced mathematics is contradiction ..."
"Even elementary mathematics is full of contradictions. ……"[8]
Lenin also explained the universality of contradiction in this way: "In mathematics, positive and negative, differential and integral.
In mechanics, action and reaction.
In physics, positive electricity and negative electricity.
In chemistry, refers to the combination and decomposition of atoms.
In social science, class struggle. "[9]
Attack and defense, advance and retreat, victory and defeat in war are all contradictory phenomena. If you lose one side, the other side will not exist. The struggle between the two sides has formed the whole war, promoted the development of the war and solved the problems of the war. 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.
The opposition and struggle of different ideas within the party often occur, which is a reflection of social class contradictions and contradictions between old and new things within the party. If there are no contradictions within the party and there is no ideological struggle to solve them, the life of the party will stop.
From this point of view, 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 widespread and exist in all processes, which has been clarified. But at the beginning of each process, are there contradictions? Is there a contradictory movement in the development process of everything from beginning to end?
It can be seen from the articles criticized by the Soviet philosophy circle that the Deborin school has such a view that contradictions do not appear at the beginning of the process, but only when the process develops to a certain stage. Then, before that time, the reason of process development is not due to internal reasons, but to external reasons. In this way, Deborah returned to the metaphysical exogenous theory and mechanism. From this point of view, they can see that there are only differences between rich peasants and ordinary peasants under Soviet conditions, and there is no contradiction. They fully agree with Bukharin's opinion. When analyzing the French Revolution, they thought that before the Revolution, the workers, peasants and the third class of the bourgeoisie had only differences and no contradictions. Deborah School's viewpoint is anti-Marxist. They don't know that every difference in the world already 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. Even under the social conditions of the Soviet Union, there are differences between workers and peasants. Their differences are contradictions, but they will not intensify into confrontation and will not take the form of class struggle, which is different from the contradiction between labor and capital. They formed a solid alliance in socialist construction, and gradually solved this contradiction in the development process from socialism to * * * productism. This is a problem of contradiction and difference, not contradiction. Contradiction is universal and absolute. It exists in all the processes of the development of things and runs through all the processes. What happened to the new process? This is the old unity, and the opposing elements that make up this unity give way to the new unity and the opposing elements that make up this unity, so the new process takes the place of the old one. The old process is over, and a new process has happened. The new process contains new contradictions and begins its own history of contradictions.
Lenin pointed out that Marx made such an analysis in Das Kapital. This is a necessary method to study the development process of anything. Lenin himself correctly applied this principle and carried it out in all his works.
"In Das Kapital, Marx first analyzed the simplest, most universal, most basic, most universal and most common relationship in bourgeois society (commodity society)-commodity exchange. This kind of analysis exposes all contradictions (and the germ of all contradictions) in modern society in this simplest phenomenon (this' cell' of bourgeois society). The following narrative shows us the development of these contradictions and the sum of all parts of this society from beginning to end (both growth and movement). "
After Lenin said the above, he went on to say, "This should be ... the narrative (and research) method of general dialectics." [ 10]
China * * * producers must learn this method, in order to correctly analyze the history and present situation of the China revolution and infer the future of the revolution.
Third, the particularity of contradiction.
Contradictions exist in the development process of everything and run through the development process of everything. This is the universality and absoluteness of contradiction, as I said before. Now let's talk about the particularity and relativity of contradictions.
This problem should be studied from several situations.
First of all, the contradictions in various forms of material movement are all special. People's understanding of matter is to understand the movement form of matter, because there is nothing in the world except moving matter, and the movement of matter must take a certain form. 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 point, that is, to pay attention to its qualitative difference from other sports forms. Only by paying attention to this point can we distinguish things. Any form of movement has its own special contradictions. This special contradiction constitutes the special essence that distinguishes one thing from other things. This is the internal reason why all kinds of things in the world are so different, or the foundation. There are many forms of movement in nature, including mechanical movement, vocalization, luminescence, fever, current, chemical composition and so on. The motion forms of all these substances are interdependent and fundamentally different. The special nature of the motion form of each substance is stipulated by its own special contradiction. 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. Therefore, the study of a specific contradiction in a certain phenomenon field constitutes the research object of a certain science. For example, positive and negative numbers in mathematics, action and reaction in mechanics, positive and negative electricity in physics, composition and combination of chemistry, productivity and production relations in social science, class-to-class struggle, attack and defense in military science, idealism and materialism in philosophy, metaphysics and dialectics, etc. All of them constitute different scientific research objects because of their special contradictions and special nature. Of course, if we don't know the universality of contradictions, we can't find the universal reason or basis for the development of things. However, if we don't study the particularity of contradiction, we can't determine the special essence of one thing that distinguishes it from other things, find out the special reasons or special basis for the development of things, and distinguish things from the fields of scientific research.
As far as the sequence of human cognition movement is concerned, it always develops from knowing individual and special things to knowing general things step by step. People always know the special properties of many different things first, and then it is possible to further generalize and understand things of the same nature. After people know the essence of * * *, they will continue to study all kinds of concrete things that have not been studied or studied in depth under the guidance of this understanding, and find out their special essence, so as to supplement, enrich and develop this understanding of the essence of * * *, so that this understanding of the essence of * * * will not become withered. Human understanding is always carried out in this way, and every cycle (as long as it is strictly in accordance with scientific methods) may make human understanding improve one step and deepen continuously. Our dogmatists' mistake on this issue lies in that, on the one hand, they don't understand that it is necessary to study the particularity of contradictions and understand the particularity of individual things, so that it is possible to fully understand the universality of contradictions and the * * * nature of various things; On the other hand, we don't understand that after we know the essence of things, we should continue to study those concrete things that have not been studied in depth or that have emerged newly. Our dogmatists are lazy. They refused to do any hard research work on specific things. They regard universal truth as something that appears out of thin air and turn it into a purely abstract formula that people can't fathom, completely denying and reversing the normal order of human understanding of truth. They also don't understand the interrelationship between the two processes of human cognition-from special to general and from general to special-and they don't understand Marxist epistemology at all.
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 and unimaginable development process. Our research work must focus on this point and must proceed from this point. Contradictions of different natures can only be solved by different qualitative methods. For example, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is solved through the socialist revolution; The contradiction between the people and the feudal system was solved by the method of democratic revolution; The contradiction between colony and imperialism is solved by the method of national revolutionary war; In socialist society, the contradiction between the working class and the peasant class is solved through agricultural collectivization and agricultural mechanization; * * * contradictions within the production party are resolved through criticism and self-criticism; The contradiction in social and natural is solved by developing productive forces. 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. The contradictions solved by the February Revolution and the October Revolution in Russia are fundamentally different. Solving different contradictions in different ways is a principle that Marxists must strictly abide by. Dogmatists don't abide by this principle. They don't understand the difference between various revolutionary situations, so they don't understand that different contradictions should be solved in different ways. Instead, they just used a formula that they thought could not be changed, which could only make the revolution suffer setbacks or make things that had been done well very bad.
In order to reveal the general contradictions in the development of things and the particularity of their interrelations, that is to say, to reveal the essence of the development of things, we must reveal the particularity of contradictions in all aspects of the process, otherwise it is impossible to reveal the essence of the process, which is also something we must pay great attention to when doing research.
A great event, in its development process, contains many contradictions. For example, during the bourgeois-democratic revolution in China, there were contradictions between the oppressed class and imperialism, between the masses of the people and the feudal system, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the peasants and the urban petty bourgeoisie, and between the reactionary ruling groups. The situation is very complicated. These contradictions not only have their particularity and cannot be generalized, but also both sides of each contradiction have their own characteristics and cannot be generalized. We who are engaged in the China Revolution should not only understand the particularity of various contradictions as a whole, that is, the interrelation of contradictions, but also understand the whole of contradictions by studying all aspects. The so-called understanding of all aspects of contradictions is to understand what specific positions they occupy, what specific forms they have interdependent and contradictory relations with each other, and what specific methods they use to fight each other in interdependence and contradiction, and after the breakdown of interdependence. It is very important to study these problems. Lenin said: The most essential thing of Marxism, the living soul of Marxism, lies in the concrete analysis of specific situations [1 1]. That's what I'm saying. Contrary to Lenin's instructions, our dogmatists never use their brains to analyze anything concretely, but always write articles or make speeches with empty stereotyped writing, which has caused a very bad style in our party.
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. This point, I have already said in the article "On Practice". The so-called one-sidedness means not knowing to look at the problem comprehensively. For example, we only know China, but we don't know the Japanese, the production party, the Kuomintang, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the peasants and landlords, the difficulties and difficulties, the past and the future, and the individuals and the whole. In a word, I don't understand the characteristics of all parties to the contradiction. This is called one-sided view. Or you can only see the part, but you can't see the whole, you can only see the trees, but you can't see the forest. In this way, it is impossible to find a solution to contradictions, to complete revolutionary tasks, to do a good job, and to correctly carry out ideological struggles within the party. On the military, Sun Tzu said, "Know yourself and know yourself, and you will be invincible." He is talking about both sides of the war. Wei Zhi, a native of the Tang Dynasty, said: "Listening to all things makes you clear, while favoritism makes you dark." [13] also knows that one-sided is wrong. However, our comrades often look at problems with a one-sided view, and such people often encounter difficulties. On the water margin, Song Jiang hit Zhujiazhuang three times [14], and both times he was defeated because the situation was unknown and the method was wrong. Later, I changed my method, starting with investigation, so I became familiar with Pantuo Road, dispersed the alliance of Li Jiazhuang, Hu Jiazhuang and Zhujiazhuang, set an ambush in the enemy camp, and used a method similar to that described in the foreign story [15], and won the battle for the third time. There are many examples of materialist dialectics in Water Margin, and this Sanda Zhujiazhuang is the best one. Lenin said: "To truly understand the object, we must grasp and study all its aspects, all its connections and' media'. We will never do this completely, but comprehensive requirements will enable us to prevent mistakes and rigidities. " We should remember his words. Superficiality refers to ignoring the overall contradiction and the characteristics of all parties to the contradiction, denying the necessity of studying the characteristics of the contradiction in detail, just standing there watching from a distance, inadvertently seeing a little contradiction, and trying to solve the contradiction (answering questions, handling work, and directing war). It won't go wrong. China's dogmatism and empiricism comrades made mistakes because their way of looking at problems was subjective, one-sided and superficial. One-sidedness and superficiality are also subjective, because all objective things are interrelated and have internal laws. People don't reflect these situations truthfully, but look at them unilaterally or superficially, and don't know the interrelationships and internal laws of things, so this method is subjective.
We should not only pay attention to the characteristics of contradictory movements in the whole process of the development of things, but also pay attention to their interrelationships and various aspects, and also pay attention to all stages of the process development.
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 things development, the situation 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, large and small, are stipulated or influenced by fundamental contradictions, some are intensified, some are temporarily or partially solved, or eased, and some have already occurred, so this process presents stages. If people don't pay attention to the stages in the development of things, people can't properly handle the contradictions of things.
For example, capitalism in the era of free competition developed into imperialism. At this time, the nature of the two fundamentally contradictory classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and the capitalist nature of this society have not changed; However, the contradiction between the two classes has intensified, the contradiction between proprietary capital and free capital has occurred, the contradiction between the suzerain country and the colony has intensified, and the contradiction between capitalist countries, that is, the contradiction caused by the uneven development of various countries, has become particularly acute, thus forming a special stage of capitalism and an imperialist stage. Leninism became Marxism in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution because Lenin and Stalin were correct. He explained these contradictions and correctly formulated proletarian revolutionary theories and strategies to solve them.