Three laws of dialectics and their examples. The law of unity and struggle of opposites in philosophy Law and regularity

INTRODUCTION.. 3

1. THE LAW OF UNITY AND COMBAT OF OPPOSITES, ITS MANIFESTATION IN MEDICINE 3

2. THE LAW OF TRANSITION OF QUANTITATIVE CHANGES INTO QUALITATIVE, ITS MANIFESTATION IN MEDICINE.. 4

3. THE LAW OF DENIAL OF NEGATION, ITS MANIFESTATION IN MEDICINE.. 5

4.1 Individual and general. 6

4.3 Essence and phenomenon. 7

4.4 Cause and effect. 8

4.5 Necessity and chance. 9

4.6 Possibility and reality. 10

APPENDIX No. 1. 12

INTRODUCTION

The material world is in constant motion, change, development. Objects and phenomena of the material world are diverse, diverse, and their relationships are diverse. Humanity has always been interested in the question: what causes changes in the world, whether development obeys any laws. The laws of dialectics provide answers to 3 development questions:

1. Why does development occur?

2. How is it accomplished?

3. In what direction is development going?

The law of unity and struggle of opposites shows the reason, the source of development of the material world.

The law of the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones shows how development proceeds.

The law of negation of negation shows in which direction development is going.

The first law is the main one, since it answers the main question of development; it underlies other laws.

The purpose of this work is to show that “Medicine can do just as little without the general truths of philosophy as the latter can do without the medical facts supplied to it.”"(Hippocrates).

THE LAW OF UNITY AND THE STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES, ITS MANIFESTATION IN MEDICINE

There are opposites in every phenomenon.

Opposites- these are opposing sides in an object, a phenomenon, which deny, exclude and at the same time presuppose each other.

Contradiction- this is the interaction of opposites.

Opposites exist in unity. Unity of opposites- these are two related sides of the same phenomenon. The struggle of opposites is the reason for development.

In living nature, the unity and struggle of opposites are manifested in variability and heredity, in the change of generations, health and disease (normal and pathological), in the interaction of the sexes. The processes of brain activity presuppose the unity of excitation and inhibition. Without birth there is no death, without inhalation - exhalation. The human psyche is a unity of biological and social. The essence of life is the unity of assimilation and dissimilation, that is, the synthesis of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and the destruction of these same components. In a young body, the leading process is assimilation, which ensures the growth and development of the body. During the period of maturity, assimilation and dissimilation balance each other. But this balance is temporary, relative. In old age, dissimilation begins to predominate. This leads to aging and death of the body. Therefore, one of the problems of gerontology (the science of aging of the body) is to make assimilation processes longer and more dominant. The problem arises of cleansing the body of toxins, training the thinking center and medicinal factors.

The opposites can be illustrated by the example of the interaction of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems on the heart: the parasympathetic (the main nerve of the vagus) weakens and slows down the heart, the sympathetic strengthens and speeds up the heart. Adrenaline from the adrenal glands increases heart rate, potassium and calcium slow down.

Regeneration of tissues and cells occurs in the human body. Thus, the hematopoietic organ, the red bone marrow, produces blood cells, and in the spleen, leukocytes are destroyed (“graveyard of red blood cells”) after 137 days, and red blood cells after 7 days. In this way, the blood is constantly renewed.

Bone tissue consists of cells that form tissue and cells that destroy tissue. The interaction between them leads to the development of the skeletal system.

The process of interaction of an antigen with an antibody is a protective reaction of the body.

The body’s protective, beneficial reaction can turn into its opposite: peritonitis is inflammation of the peritoneum, this is the body’s protective reaction to the penetration of bacteria into the abdominal cavity. But this is also a harmful reaction, since inflamed tissue is a breeding ground for bacteria, they multiply and poison the body.

Or cough: this is a protective reaction: pathological products are removed from the respiratory tract. But it is also a symptom of diseases: whooping cough, bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis.

Except internal contradictions that are the main cause of change exist external contradictions, for example, between society and nature, which manifest themselves in the ecological crisis, man and society, the organism and the environment: life expectancy changes depending on environmental and social conditions. External contradictions can either accelerate development or slow it down, that is, they affect the pace of development, but do not determine its content.

Basic contradictions express the essence of a given process, play a major role in development and subjugate all others. In medicine, the main contradiction is manifested in the need to cure the patient and the real possibility (AIDS, oncology). This contradiction moves medical science and forces it to develop.

The importance of knowing the law.

1. The law characterizes the internal source of development of objects and phenomena.

2. The unity and struggle of opposites means that every phenomenon contains a contradiction that forces it to change and develop.

3. Resolution of contradictions means a transition to a new quality, state.

4. In medicine, this law helps to explain the internal causes of the development of a healthy and sick organism and influence them.

The ancient Greeks answered the question about the causes of the disease by creating the myth of Pandora, who removed the lid from the forbidden vessel and released all disasters and diseases from there, leaving only hope at the bottom (see appendix). This idea of ​​an external factor as the source of disease has long held sway in medicine.

Modern medicine claims that the essence of the disease is not in external influences, but in disruption of life. The cause of the disease is not just an external factor, but also the body’s reaction to this factor, so the task of health workers is to help the body mobilize its defenses to fight the disease.

Thus, knowledge of the law aims at finding the internal material reasons for the development of a healthy and sick organism.

Heraclitus also said that everything in the world is determined by the law of the struggle of opposites. Any phenomenon or process indicates this. Acting simultaneously, opposites create a certain state of tension. It determines what is called the internal harmony of a thing.

The Greek philosopher explains this thesis with an example about a bow. The bowstring tightens the ends of this weapon, preventing them from diverging. Thus, mutual tension gives rise to higher integrity. This is how the law of unity and opposition is realized. He, according to Heraclitus, is universal, constitutes the core of true justice and represents the condition for the existence of an ordered Cosmos.

The philosophy of dialectics believes that the law of unity and struggle of opposites is the fundamental basis of reality. That is, all objects, things and phenomena have certain contradictions within themselves. These could be trends, some forces that fight among themselves and interact at the same time. To clarify this principle, dialectical philosophy proposes to consider the categories that specify it. First of all, this is identity, that is, the equality of a thing or phenomenon to itself.

There are two varieties of this category. The first is the identity of one object, and the second is the identity of a whole group of them. The law of unity and struggle of opposites is manifested here in the fact that objects are a symbiosis of equality and difference. They interact, giving rise to movement. In any given phenomenon, identity and difference are opposites that condition each other. Hegel defined this philosophically, calling their interaction a contradiction.

Our very ideas about the source of development come from the recognition that everything that exists is not a whole. It is self-contradictory. The law of unity and struggle of opposites thus manifests itself as such interaction. Thus, dialecticalism sees the source of movement and development in thinking, and the materialist followers of the German theorist also found it in nature and, of course, in society. Quite often in the literature on this topic you can find two definitions. It is the “driving force” and “source of development”. They are usually distinguished from each other. If we are talking about immediate, internal contradictions, then they are called the source of development. If we are talking about external, secondary reasons, then we mean

The law of unity and struggle of opposites also reflects the instability of the existing balance. Everything that exists changes and experiences various processes. In the course of this development, it acquires special specificity. Therefore, contradictions are also unstable. In philosophical literature it is customary to distinguish four main forms. Identity-difference as a certain embryonic form of any contradiction. Then comes the time of change. Then the difference begins to take shape as something more expressive. Then it turns into a significant modification. And finally, it becomes the opposite of what the process began with - non-identity. From the point of view of dialectical philosophy, such forms of contradictions are characteristic of any development process.

Dialectics can be defined as the doctrine of the development of being, cognition and thinking, the source of which (development) is the formation and resolution of contradictions in the very essence of developing objects.

By the way, I’m not entirely sure whether you asked for examples of the principles of dialectics or the laws of dialectics, but let’s take a look at both.

Dialectics theoretically reflects the development of matter, spirit, consciousness, cognition and other aspects of reality through:

. laws of dialectics;

. principles.

The main problem of dialectics is what is development? Development is the highest form of movement. In turn, movement is the basis of development.

Movement is also an internal property of matter and a unique phenomenon of the surrounding reality, since movement is characterized by integrity, continuity and at the same time the presence of contradictions (a moving body does not occupy a permanent place in space - at each moment of movement the body is in a certain place and at the same time is no longer in it). Movement is also a way of communication in the material world.

There are three basic laws of dialectics:

. unity and struggle of opposites;

. transition from quantity to quality;

. denials denials.

The law of unity and struggle of opposites is that everything that exists consists of opposite principles, which, being united in nature, are in struggle and contradict each other (example: day and night, hot and cold, black and white, winter and summer, youth and old age and etc.). The unity and struggle of opposite principles is the internal source of movement and development of all things.

Examples: there is an idea that is identical to itself, at the same time, it itself contains a difference - something that strives to go beyond the scope of the idea; the result of their struggle is a change in the idea (for example, the transformation of idea into matter from the point of view of idealism). Or: there is a society that is identical to itself, but there are forces in it that are cramped within the framework of this society; their struggle leads to a change in the quality of society, its renewal.

We can also distinguish different types of struggle:

A struggle that brings benefits to both sides (for example, constant competition, where each side “catches up” with the other and moves to a higher qualitative level of development);

A struggle where one side regularly gains the upper hand over the other, but the defeated side persists and is an “irritant” for the winning side, due to which the winning side moves to a higher level of development;

An antagonistic struggle, where one side can only survive by completely destroying the other.

In addition to fighting, other types of interaction are possible:

Assistance (when both parties provide reciprocal assistance to each other without fighting);

Solidarity, alliance (the parties do not provide direct assistance to each other, but have common interests and act in the same direction);

Neutrality (the parties have different interests, do not promote each other, but do not fight each other);

Mutualism is a complete relationship (to accomplish any task, the parties must act only together and cannot act autonomously from each other).

The second law of dialectics is law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones. Quality- a certainty identical to being, a stable system of certain characteristics and connections of an object. Quantity— countable parameters of an object or phenomenon (number, size, volume, weight, size, etc.). Measure- unity of quantity and quality.

With certain quantitative changes, quality necessarily changes. However, quality cannot change indefinitely. There comes a moment when a change in quality leads to a change in the measure (that is, the coordinate system in which the quality previously changed under the influence of quantitative changes) - to a radical transformation of the essence of the subject. Such moments are called “nodes”, and the transition itself to another state is understood in philosophy as "leap".

You can cite some examples the operation of the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones.

If you heat water successively by one degree Celsius, that is, change quantitative parameters - temperature, then the water will change its quality - it will become hot (due to the disruption of the usual structural bonds, the atoms will begin to move several times faster). When the temperature reaches 100 degrees, a radical change in the quality of water will occur - it will turn into steam (that is, the previous “coordinate system” of the heating process will collapse - water and the previous system of connections). A temperature of 100 degrees in this case will be a node, and the transition of water into steam (the transition of one quality measure to another) will be a jump. The same can be said about cooling water and turning it into ice at a temperature of zero degrees Celsius.

If a body is given greater and greater speed - 100, 200, 1000, 2000, 7000, 7190 meters per second - it will accelerate its movement (change quality within a stable measure). When the body is given a speed of 7191 m/s ("nodal" speed), the body will overcome gravity and become an artificial satellite of the Earth (the very coordinate system of the change in quality will change, a jump will occur).

In nature, it is not always possible to determine the nodal moment. Transition of quantity into a fundamentally new quality may happen:

Sharply, instantly;

Imperceptibly, evolutionarily.

Examples of the first case were discussed above.

As for the second option (an imperceptible, evolutionary fundamental change in quality - measure), a good illustration of this process was the ancient Greek aporia “Heap” and “Bald”: “When you add which grain, the totality of grains will turn into a heap?”; “If a hair falls out of your head, then from what moment, with the loss of which specific hair, can a person be considered bald?” That is, the edge of a specific change in quality may be elusive.

Law of Negation of Negation lies in the fact that the new always denies the old and takes its place, but gradually it itself turns from new into old and is negated by more and more new things.

Examples:

Change of socio-economic formations (with a formational approach to the historical process);

. "relay of generations";

Change of tastes in culture, music;

Evolution of the family (children are partly parents, but at a new stage);

Daily death of old blood cells, emergence of new ones.

The denial of old forms by new ones is the reason and mechanism of progressive development. However the question of the direction of development - controversial in philosophy. The following stand out: main points of view:

Development is only a progressive process, a transition from lower forms to higher ones, that is, ascending development;

Development can be either upward or downward;

Development is chaotic and has no direction. Practice shows that of the three points of view, the most

The second one is close to true: development can be either upward or downward, although the general trend is still upward.

Examples:

The human body develops and grows stronger (ascending development), but then, developing further, it weakens and becomes decrepit (descending development);

The historical process follows an upward direction of development, but with recessions - the heyday of the Roman Empire was replaced by its fall, but then a new upward development of Europe followed (Renaissance, modern times, etc.).

Thus, development quicker coming not in a linear manner (in a straight line), but in a spiral Moreover, each turn of the spiral repeats the previous ones, but at a new, higher level.

Let's move on to the principles of dialectics. Basic principles of dialectics are:

. principle of universal connection;

. principle of consistency;

. principle of causality;

. the principle of historicism.

The principle of universal mutual connection occupies a key place in materialist dialectics, since on its basis the most important task is solved - the explanation of both the internal source of development and the external universal coverage of material and spiritual life by it. According to this principle, everything in the world is interconnected. But the connections between the phenomena are different. Eat indirect connections, in which material objects exist without directly touching each other, but are connected by spatio-temporal relations, belonging to a certain type, class of material and ideal objects. Eat direct connections, when objects are in direct material-energy and information interaction, as a result of which they gain or lose matter, energy, information and thus change the material characteristics of their existence.

Systematicity means that numerous connections in the surrounding world exist not chaotically, but in an orderly manner. These connections form an integral system in which they are arranged in a hierarchical order. Thanks to this, the surrounding world has internal expediency.

Causality - the presence of such connections where one gives rise to the other. Objects, phenomena, processes of the surrounding world are caused by something, that is, they have either an external or internal cause. The cause, in turn, gives rise to the effect, and the relationships in general are called cause-and-effect.

Historicism implies two aspects of the surrounding world:

Eternity, indestructibility of history, the world;

Its existence and development in time, which lasts forever.

In fact, these are only the basic principles of dialectics, but there are also epistemological principles and alternative ( sophistry, eclecticism, dogmatism, subjectivism). There are also categories of dialectics, the main of which include:

Essence and phenomenon;

Cause and investigation;

Individual, special, universal;

Possibility and reality;

Necessity and chance.

In Marxist philosophy E. and b. p. acts as a fundamental principle. V.I. Lenin considered it important to study E. and b. n. “...as the law of knowledge (and the law of the objective world)» (PSS, T. 29, With. 316) . The bifurcation of the unity into poles is only what opposites acquire relates. independence. It is possible to consistently reveal what is dialectically contradictory only by extending this principle to knowledge as well.

Marx K. and Engels F., Works, T. 20, 2.4; Lenin V.I., PSS, T. 29; History of Marxist dialectics. From the emergence of Marxism to the Leninist stage, M., 1971; Dialectic , M., 1979; Materialistic dialectics. Brief outline of the theory, M., 1980; Fundamentals of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, M., 19805; cm. also art. Controversy and lit. To her. G. S. Batishchev.

Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .

UNITY AND STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES

one of the basic laws of materialism. dialectics. The essence of this law is that the objective world and knowledge is carried out by dividing the whole into mutually exclusive, opposite moments, sides and tendencies, the relationship of which, on the one hand, characterizes this or that system as something qualitatively defined, and on the other - makes up internal its changes, development, transformation into something new. The relationship of opposites within a single whole acts as a dialectic. Contradiction, which is the essence of this law. Thus, dialectical. the principle of contradiction reflects the dual relationship within the whole: opposites and their inconsistency. Contradictions cannot be separated from the unity of opposites: each of them is dialectical. opposites are objectively impossible and unthinkable without the other, without internal. attitude towards it, “...as it is impossible to have a whole apple in your hand after eating half of it” (Engels F., see Marx K. and Engels F., Works, 2nd ed., vol. 21, p. .70).

Dialectical a contradiction is the relationship between such moments, sides, trends within the whole, which are not given from eternity in a ready-made and unchangeable form, but arise and develop - from an insignificant difference they turn into significant differences, i.e. in contrast. Speaking, for example, about the existence of a commodity as a use value and as a value, Marx noted that this dual “... must develop in, the difference – in and against” (Marx Archive and Engels", vol. 4, 1935, p. 67). Contradiction, clash, and struggle of opposites are the most general and deepest driving force of development. “... The driving principle of all development is the division into opposites, their struggle and resolution...” (Engels F., Anti-Dühring, 1957, p. 328). Any development is the emergence of differences, opposites, their resolution and at the same time the emergence of new opposites and contradictions. In this universal dialectic. form, the endless process of development of the objective world and the process of its cognition are carried out.

Lenin emphasizes that contradiction is the essence, the core of dialectics. “In its proper sense, dialectics is the study of contradiction in the very essence of objects...” (see Works, vol. 38, p. 249). “The bifurcation of the unified and its contradictory parts...is the essence (one of the “essences”, one of the main, if not the main, features or traits) of dialectics” (ibid., p. 357). “The identity of opposites (“unity” of them, perhaps it would be more correct to say? Although the difference in terms and unity is not particularly significant here. In a certain sense, both are true) is the recognition (discovery) of contradictory, in and existing, opposite tendencies in all phenomena and processes of nature (and spirit and society as well)" (ibid., p. 358). Revealing the essence of this law and applying it to analyze reality and knowledge, the classics of Marxism-Leninism did not terminologically use the expression “unity and struggle of opposites.” This formulation of this law has become widespread in the Soviet Union. Philosopher lit-re. In the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, when characterizing this law, they contain the expressions: “dialectical contradiction”, “opposites”, “mutually exclusive opposites”, “division into opposites, their struggle and resolution”, “unity of opposites”, “unity of contradictions”, “struggle of opposites”, etc.

HISTORY OF THE QUESTION. Conjectures that the interaction of opposite principles constitutes the universal law of motion of the world were expressed in ancient times. Already in naive dialectical. the views of many early representatives of ancient oriental and ancient times. natural philosophy was considered as becoming, eternally mobile, combining opposites. So, in other China. letters monument "Tao Tzu", also known as. "Tao Ching" says that "some beings go, others follow them; some flourish, others dry up; some become stronger, others weaken; some are created, others are destroyed" ("Tao Te Ching", § XXIX; quoted from the book .: Yang Hing-shun, Ancient Chinese Lao Tzu and his teachings, M.–L., 1950, p. 131). It states that each, having reached a certain degree of development, turns into its opposite: “The incomplete becomes complete, the crooked becomes straight, becomes filled, the old is replaced by the new and vice versa” (ibid., § XXII; p. 127) (see . Chinese philosophy).

In social phenomena, completely new types of contradictions arise: between society and nature, production and the needs of people, produces. forces and production. relationships, basis and superstructure, between antagonistic. classes, between old and new in all their manifestations. Society contradictions can be either antagonistic or non-antagonistic. character. Antagonistic contradictions are the most acute form of the struggle of opposites (see Antagonism, Antagonistic contradiction). So, for example, basic capitalist classes societies are the bourgeoisie and . The relationship between these classes is expressed dialectically. contradiction (see Class struggle). The bourgeoisie is not something self-sufficient: it is only a side of a single whole and is connected with this whole. From the bourgeoisie comes action aimed at preserving the contradiction, and from the proletariat comes action aimed at its destruction. The bourgeoisie, preserving its own existence, thereby preserves the existence of its opposite - the proletariat. “This is the positive side of antagonism... On the contrary, the proletariat... is forced to abolish itself, and thereby the opposite that determines it - the particular one - which makes it a proletariat. This is the negative side antagonism, his anxiety within himself..." (Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 2, pp. 38–39).

In the struggle, opposites are qualitatively isolated and revealed, which ultimately leads to a severance of the interrelations of opposites, to the destruction of this unity, to a social revolution. This or that social force acquires one of the engines of societies. progress only if it is aimed at resolving beings. contradictions, being at the same time one of the sides of this contradiction and opposing its other side. Enduring qualities. , the old opposites give way to a new unity of opposites, their interaction and struggle at a higher level. Economical the basis of the class struggle in the bourgeoisie. society are contradictions between societies. production and capitalistic. appropriation, the relationship of exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. Antagonism inherent in capitalism. the method of production, according to Marx, is that capitalist. production is inherent in development produces. forces, but since it is capitalist, it constantly encounters narrow barriers: the production of surplus value. The basis of the struggle is the fact of exploitation, i.e. the fact that production is the production of surplus value is economic. enslavement of man by man. Developing within these limits, capitalist. production gives birth to tragedy. collisions: the simultaneous existence of excess capital and excess population; machines are turning from a means of shortening the working day into lengthening it; against the backdrop of overproduction of food, many are starving, etc. Antagonistic the nature of capitalist development. produced by his imperialist. stages not only did not weaken, but even more intensified and deepened. Monopolistic is increasingly deepening the gap between the working class and the bourgeoisie. These contradictions are the most important feature of the general crisis of the world system of imperialism in modern times. stage: "...The world imperialist system is torn apart by deep and acute contradictions. Antagonism between labor and capital, contradictions between the people and monopolies, growing militarism, the collapse of the colonial system, contradictions between young national states and old colonial powers, and most importantly, the rapid growth of world socialism is being undermined and destroyed, leading to its weakening and death" (CPSU Program, 1961, pp. 34–35).

Int. The contradiction of capitalism lies in the fact that the consequences arising from its own foundations and the means of its maintenance, at the same time destroy these foundations themselves. “The growing relationship between the productive forces and production relations imperiously sets before humanity the task of tearing apart the rotten capitalist shell, liberating the powerful productive forces created by man, and using them for the entire society” (ibid., p. 7). Int. contradictions tearing apart modern times. bourgeois society, are intensified by external contradictions between the metropolises, colonial powers and colonies, which finds its clear expression in the ever-increasing barrage of national liberation. movements that throw off the chains of colonialism.

Based on societies. property and the elimination of the exploiting classes and the exploitation of man by man in socialism. society, the unity of the working classes, social groups and nations, their unity around the Communist. party, the monolithic unity of the Communist Party itself. party as the leading force of society, a unified Marxist-Leninist ideology. All this transformed the social, ideological and political. unity of society into a powerful creative force. a force that creates new things and is a social means of resolving emerging non-antagonistic problems. contradictions. Under socialism, the specific forms of manifestation of the law of dialectics have changed. contradictions, although its essence remains: it has a character and manifests itself wherever there is movement, development. First of all, internal contradictions under socialism have ceased to be antagonistic. They have a completely new nature: interaction takes place between completely different social forces; contradictions are resolved by other means, fundamentally different from the methods of class struggle and social revolutions; the party knows the laws of social development, incl. and the law of dialectic. contradictions, therefore, the resolution of contradictions is carried out, as in a timely and conscious, systematic manner.

Contradictions under socialism are contradictions and difficulties of growth, contradictions between the colossal opportunities inherent in socialism. system, and the implementation of these possibilities, the contradiction between the new and the old, between the advanced and the backward.

The destruction of private property and the establishment of public property marks a great revolution in the development of mankind. The goal of production is to fully satisfy the needs of all members of society. In the massive, day-by-day growing consumption of workers, the forces receive powerful growth and improvement, surpassing everything known in the past. For the first time in history, they are experiencing limitless, unprecedentedly rapid growth. The consequence of this striving growth is an increase in the needs of the people, which, in turn, becomes a condition for a further rise in production. strength The need to more and more fully satisfy the multiplying and increasingly complex needs of the population requires a constant, comprehensive expansion of societies, wealth, socialism. property, which is possible only through a continuous increase in people's (national) income. But for this, in turn, it is necessary to expand production as quickly as possible, and therefore to carry out maximum accumulation. Before the socialist The economy faces a twofold task: in order to satisfy the steadily increasing demand of the population, it is necessary to constantly increase production. strength, but for this, in turn, it is necessary to maintain a high and ever-increasing level of consumption.

A typical example is dialectical. interaction, interpenetration of opposites as part of the whole in relation to socialism. society can be served by the principle of democratic centralism. The moment is democratic. self-government acts here as a kind of counterbalance to one-sided centralist tendencies in the management of societies and affairs, and vice versa. The predominance of one of the opposites can lead to a violation of the principle itself.

One of the manifestations of Stalin's personality cult was a violation of the principle of democracy. centralism in the party and state. construction. Stalin in definition During the period of its activity, it sought to transform centralism in leadership and management into a force that fettered the initiative from below.

The Central Committee of the CPSU, showing dialectic. flexibility political thinking, sharply criticized all these perversions of the period of Stalin’s personality cult and restored the principles of democracy. centralism. In order to resolve the contradiction in management, a whole system of measures was implemented, in particular, instead of ministries and departments, the management of these sectors was carried out by people. x-va began to be carried out in economic terms. administrative districts of economic councils.

In development socialist. society there is a contradiction between the advanced Marxist-Leninist worldview that dominates the country and the remnants of capitalism in the minds of people. They are expressed in the presence of elements of parasitism, theft, bribery, hooliganism, bureaucracy, and religion. ideology, in the manifestations of the bourgeoisie. nationalism and bourgeoisism in general. ideology among backward elements of the population. All these and other capitalisms are a brake on the development of socialism. society. Therefore, Communist. party and are waging an irreconcilable struggle against them. The study of the development of socialism from the point of view of the operation of the law is dialectical. There are not only theoretical contradictions, but also great practical ones. meaning. This law is theoretical. justification of the need for constant struggle, mobilization of all forces and reserves, discipline, initiative, etc., the inadmissibility of any complacency and irresponsibility in the communist cause. construction. Comprehensive identification of contradictions and their occurrence - their timely and effective resolution.

An important method for identifying contradictions is socialist. society is . However, having identified contradictions, self-criticism itself cannot resolve them. The resolution of contradictions is ultimately carried out through the labor efforts of the people, through the development of material and technical technologies. base, economy, improvement of state. forms, increasing socialist. consciousness of workers, skillful organization and education. the work of the party and the state. Dialectical contradiction as a law of knowledge. This universal law of development is considered in Marxist philosophy as the most important methodology, principle, and logical. form of development of cognition. Like contradictions in the phenomena of reality, emerging and resolved contradictions in developing thinking, reflecting objective reality, contribute to the development of the process of cognition. Objective dialectics finds its way in subjective dialectics. “The so-called objective dialectic reigns throughout nature, and the so-called subjective dialectic, dialectical thinking, is only a reflection of the dominant movement in all nature through opposites, which determine the life of nature by their constant struggle and their a final transition into each other or into higher forms" (Engels F., Dialectics of Nature, p. 166). Emphasizing the objective source of subjective dialectics, Lenin writes that “the dialectics of things creates the dialectics of things, and not vice versa” (Works, vol. 33, p. 183).

Since the interaction of opposites constitutes internal. and the stimulus for the development of any specific system, insofar as knowledge of this content and the source of self-propulsion of the system presupposes, first of all, the identification of opposing moments, sides, and tendencies in it. The doctrine of dialectic. contradictions include revealing the unity of opposites and their struggle and determining the direction of development based on opposites. Metaphysical thinking, expressed only in analytical. The approach based on the principle: “on the one hand - on the other hand,” limiting itself to the characterization of opposites and their statement, turns out to be scientifically untenable.

Seeing in opposites only the simple fact of difference, he leaves in the shadows the main thing - the relationship, the interaction of opposites. “As long as we consider things as at rest and lifeless, each separately, one next to the other and one after the other, we, of course, do not come across any contradictions in them. We find here certain properties that are partly common, partly different or even contradict each other, but in this latter case they are distributed among different things, so that they do not contain any contradiction within themselves. Since ours remains within these limits, we also make do with the ordinary, metaphysical way of thinking. But the situation is completely different when we begin. to consider things in their movement, in their change, in their life, in their mutual influence on each other. Here we immediately encounter contradictions" (Engels F., Anti-Dühring, p. 113).

Anyone who considers the opposite moments, sides, tendencies of a contradictory process in isolation from each other, who does not rise to the understanding of their contradictory unity, cannot understand what is happening. the development process will stimulate it. strength. In-depth knowledge of dialectic. contradictions are therefore presupposed by synthetic. an approach that captures the emergence and interaction of opposites, their unity and mutual transitions. “The condition for knowing all the processes of the world in their “self-movement”, in their spontaneous development, in their living life, is knowing them as a unity of opposites” (Lenin V.I., Op. , vol. 38, p. 358).

Dialectical the interaction of these opposites - consciousness and matter - in epistemology. plan was first scientifically revealed only by Marxism on the basis of societies, practice, in the process of formation and development, consciousness is formed and developed, in which it turns into, and the ideal into material. Precisely societies. people serves as a mediating link between consciousness and being, the basis for the unity of these opposites. Let's take another one. In the history of the development of political economy, the process of decomposition is classical. Ricardo's school revealed a direct contradiction between the law of value and the average rate of profit. Burzh. political I have never found a solution to this contradiction. As a result, she completely abandoned her achievement - the labor theory of value. “They want to resolve the contradiction between the general law and more developed concrete relations not by finding intermediate links, but by directly bringing the concrete to the abstract... Mill resorts to this method only in cases where he absolutely finds no other way out. But his main one is the method is different. Where the economic relation, and therefore those expressing it, contains opposites, is a contradiction and it is the unity of contradictions that it emphasizes the moment of the unity of opposites and denies the opposites. It turns the unity of opposites into immediate. the identity of these opposites" (K. Marx, Theories of surplus value", part 3, 1961, pp. 76–77. Using the dialectical method, stating the contradiction between the same rate of profit received by capitals of different organic composition and the law of values. showed how, on the basis of this law, forms of economic relations that contradict it actually develop. society.

The above examples show that the only way to overcome the contradictions that arise before theoretical thinking is to go beyond their limits, find a deeper basis for them, identify the transition of one opposite to another and reveal the mediating links of this dialectic. transition. This is, apparently, the most important knot, in untying which lies the most important task of theoretical thinking, which must penetrate into the essence of things. The effective application of this law cannot be carried out automatically. character. It always requires great theoretical flexibility. thinking, deep and comprehensive consideration of the specific conditions of the system of objects under consideration, consideration of place and time. Dogmatic. reference to this law, like any other law of dialectics, without taking into account specific conditions, in violation of the principle of concreteness of truth, can lead to errors. An example of this is Stalin’s erroneous thesis about the intensification of the class struggle after the victory of socialism. building when the exploitative ones were eliminated. Stalin incorrectly transferred the regularity inherent in the transition period from capitalism to socialism to the conditions of a socialist society, which served as the basis for gross violations of Leninist party and state norms. life, socialist democracy and legality. This example shows how great not only theoretical, but also practical and political. the meaning is flexible-dialectical. the law of interaction of opposites.

Discovery and further development of dialectical. contradictions are of great importance not only for the development of science. method of thinking, but also to justify a consistently materialistic. worldview: the principle of dialectic. contradictions reveal the incentives for the development of a particular system in its inherent internal. contradictions and thereby consider its movement and development as self-movement and self-development. Dialectical a look at the source of development shows the inconsistency of searching for the driving forces of the development of the world beyond its borders - in the divine push, in the abs. idea, in the vitality of the vitalists, etc.

Knowledge and ability to apply the law of dialectic. contradictions, allowing a scientific explanation of reality, constitute the necessary revolution. transformations. A striking example of the application of the requirement of dialectics - to take into account the struggle of opposites and, on this basis, to identify the direction of development of an object - is the characteristic of modern. era given in the CPSU Program: “Modern, the main content of which is the transition from capitalism to socialism, is the era of the struggle of two opposing social systems, the era of socialist and national liberation revolutions, the era of the collapse of imperialism, the liquidation of the colonial system, the era of transition to the path of socialism, all new peoples, the triumph of socialism and communism on a worldwide scale" (1961, p. 5).

The law is dialectical. contradictions, which forms the core of Marxist-Leninist dialectics, meets with an extremely hostile attitude from the ideologists of the bourgeoisie, who are trying to obscure social contradictions and justify the possibility of reconciliation and harmony of opposites.

“In its rational form, dialectics inspires only anger and horror in the bourgeoisie and its doctrinaire ideologists, because in its positive understanding of the existing, it includes at the same time an understanding of its negation, its necessary death, it considers every realized form in motion, therefore, also on its transitory side, it does not bow to anything and in its very essence is critical and revolutionary" (Marx K., Capital, vol. 1, p. 20). Distorting the true nature of objective dialectics as a source of progressive development, bourgeois. They believe that it is dialectical. contradictions are not a creative, but only a destructive factor. Unable to refute the dialectic, the bourgeois. they are trying to deprive it of revolutionary content, resorting to the recognition of “peaceful” dialectics, the dialectics of opposites without struggle, they are trying to prove that the contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are being smoothed out, that the struggle between materialism and idealism is outdated, etc. Modern "critics" of Marxist dialectics, for example. Vetter, Bochensky, Sidney Hook, etc., consider the "irrefutable" argument against it, ch. arr. against the law dialectical. contradictions, their own, as if the classics of Marxism did not prove dialectics in general, the reality of contradictions in particular, and at best gave only illustrations to dialectics. Hegel's ideas.

One of the most popular “arguments” of critics of Marxist dialectics is the assertion that the actions and applications of dialectics are only human. society and knowledge. Based on this false principle attributed to Marxism, the bourgeois. ideologues pretend that it makes no sense to talk about the “objective dialectics” of the development of nature, as it exists independently of man. So, for example, Merleau-Ponty claims that Hegel wrongfully expanded the scope of application of dialectic. laws formulated by him as a result of human analysis. spirit, declaring them universal laws of existence. But Hegel, according to Merleau-Ponty, was consistent, because, being an idealist, he declared the spiritual principle to be the essence of being, and therefore considered the pattern of development of the latter to be universal. As for Marxists, they, according to Merleau-Ponty, are inconsistent when, being materialists, they “uncritically” borrow Hegel’s thesis about the universal nature of dialectics in general, dialectic. contradictions in particular. Such criticism of Marxist dialectics only testifies to consciousness. ignoring or lack of awareness of the problems of modern times. natural science, which is full of dialectical facts. contradictions in nature, which, according to Engels, is “the touchstone of dialectics.”

Dialectical-materialistic the doctrine of contradiction as a universal form and driving force of development, based on the experience of all history, the results of the development of science about society and nature, is a great scientific weapon. research and practical-political. activities, successful struggle for communism.

Lit.: Marx K. and Engels F., Manifesto of the Communist Party, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 4; Marx K., The Poverty of Philosophy, ibid.; him, Capital, vol. 1–3, M., 1955; Engels F., Dialectics of Nature, M., 1955; his, Anti-Dühring, M., 1957; Lenin V.I., Materialism and, Works, 4th ed., vol. 14; him, Karl Marx, ibid., vol. 21; his, Imperialism as the highest of capitalism, ibid., vol. 23; his, State and, ibid., vol. 25; his, Philosophical Notebooks, ibid., vol. 38; Plekhanov G.V., On the question of the development of a monistic view of history, Izbr. Philosopher proizv., vol. 1, M., 1956; him, Basic Questions of Marxism, ibid., vol. 3, M., 1957; Program of the CPSU, M., 1961; Khrushchev N. S., On the CPSU Program, M., 1961; Heraclitus of Ephesus, Fragments. - Parmenides on nature. Poem, trans. [from Greek] A. Dynnik, M., ; Aristotle, Metaphysics, trans. [from Greek], M.–L., 1934; Kuzansky N., Izbr. Philosopher soch., M., 1937; Bruno J., About the reason, the beginning and the one, M., 1934; Diderot D., Collection. soch., vol. 1–2, M., 1935; Hegel, Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences, Works, vol. 1, M.–L., 1929, part 1 - Logic; Belinsky V. G., Izbr. Philosopher soch., vol. 1–2, [M.–L.], 1948; Chernyshevsky N. G., Izbr. Philosopher soch., vol. 1–3, L., 1950–51; Deborin A. M., Hegel and, in the book: Hegel, Works, vol. 1, [M.–L.], 1929; Asmus V.F., Essays on the history of dialectics in new philosophy, 2nd ed., M.–L., 1930; his, Dialectics of Kant, 2nd ed., M., 1930; his, Marx and bourgeois, M.–L., 1933; Dudel S.P., Laws of materialistic dialectics, M., 1958; Problems of development in nature and society. [Sat. articles], M. – L., 1958; Ilyenkov E.V., Dialectics of abstract and concrete in Marx’s “Capital”, M., 1960; Melyukhin S., On the dialectics of the development of inorganic nature, M., 1960.

A. Spirkin. Moscow.

Philosophical Encyclopedia. In 5 volumes - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Edited by F. V. Konstantinov. 1960-1970 .

UNITY AND STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES

UNITY AND STRUGGLE OF OPPOSITES is a way of ontologizing contradictions and opposites. In logic and philosophy, a distinction is made between contradictorial (contradictory) and contralateral opposites. Contradictorial opposites arise as a result of dividing a class of objects into two subclasses based on the presence or absence of a characteristic; This (dichotomous) is the most elementary way to find differences in similarities. Contrary opposites are the product of a more complex logical procedure; they arise as a result of dividing an ordered class of objects into three subclasses (for example, angles - into acute, straight and obtuse; features - into individual, special and universal). The extreme members of this series, which have the greatest and therefore complete difference, are called contraries. Their criterion difference from contradictory ones is the presence of a transitional, intermediate subclass: between acute and obtuse angles - straight, between individual and universal characteristics - special, etc.

The division of opposites into contrarian and contradictory is complete, and there are no dialectical opposites not covered by it. Logic and philosophy study not different types of opposites, but different relationships between them: logic - the laws of contradiction, double negation and excluded middle, philosophy - the identity of opposites, the unity and struggle of opposites, their transition into each other.

The most difficult to analyze is the relation of identity of opposites. Its most radical interpretation, called “Hegel’s thesis,” boils down to the statement that two opposites can be simultaneously, in the same sense, inherent in one object. This asserts that opposites are combined, fused, identified, and represent one and the same thing. The main argument in defense of this point of view back in antiquity were antinomies - conjunctions of contradictory statements obtained from indisputable premises according to generally accepted rules of inference, in particular, that a moving body is both located and not located at a given point. Modern technology has only increased such arguments: logical and semantic paradoxes gave rise to the beginning. 20th century foundations of mathematics, and wave-particle dualism - the crisis of quantum mechanics. The fundamental difference between antinomies and ordinary formal logical contradictions is that they cannot be eliminated without damage to the science in which they arose: types, which eliminates the paradoxes of set theory, excludes along with them completely harmless expressions, and statistical quantum mechanics, which eliminates wave-particle dualism makes this science incomplete. Proponents of the “Hegelian thesis” conclude on this basis that antinomies are not errors, but forms of true reflection of objective contradictions.

However, the ontologization of logical contradiction, while eliminating the problem of antinomies, gives rise to no less serious difficulties. They arise when trying to concretely imagine the state of affairs that is given by the “antinomy-truth.” Identity is the relation of an object to itself. Unity and struggle are the relationship of two objects. To attribute these relationships to identical (coinciding, merging) opposites means crossing the line separating dialectics from irrationalism. That is why the “Hegelian thesis” is opposed by the interpretation of antinomies not as truths, but as symptoms of an unsolved problem. Declaring “Hegel’s thesis” to be an intellectual dead end in the study of both logical and ontological contradictions, opponents, however, make its core - the concept of the identity of opposites - the core of their own concept. It plays here approximately the same role as the concept of perpetual motion in thermodynamics: both contraritic and contradictory opposites are, in most cases, material objects, and their fusion and identification is excluded by conservation laws. But the identity of opposites is conceivable; moreover, tendencies towards its occurrence constantly arise in reality itself, for example, in bodies moving towards each other. By identifying opposites, the emergence of an ontologized logical contradiction, the contradiction is resolved only in the imagination, in a logically contradictory judgment. In real spacetime it is eliminated by other means, and the struggle of opposites is only the most destructive of them. In specific sciences, these methods have been studied in detail. The methodology for resolving social contradictions is especially rich, showing, in particular, that the real struggle of opposites can be avoided by modeling it in dialogue, which allows, as K. Popper put it, theories to perish, and not their supporters.

Contradiction rarely exists in its pure form. Usually it is paired with a relation of correspondence (harmony, agreement). If contradiction is the source of the struggle of opposites, then conformity is the driving force of their unity. The ambiguous term “unity” here denotes such an interaction of opposites, which is aimed at the mutual maintenance of their existence, and not at mutual destruction.

Attempts to construct a world from opposites and explain by their interaction all the changes occurring in the world were made in ancient times. Modern epistemological studies of religious myths have shown that this idea is sometimes expressed there quite clearly. For example, in Indonesian myths, from the original undivided cosmic whole, two polar divine principles arise, which, opposing each other and at the same time complementing each other, ultimately unite into the highest. “In the history of pre-systematic thinking,” notes M. Eliade, “rarely does one encounter a formula that is more strikingly reminiscent of Hegelian dialectics than Indonesian cosmologies and symbolism” (Eliade M. Cosmos and History. M., 1987, p. 238). This coincidence of the mythological picture of the world with the philosophical one is explainable: the concept of opposites contains a deductive force that predetermines almost all further steps of the researcher, just as the concept of a natural number determines all further steps. Philosophy only clearly expresses what is vaguely realized in myth. Thus, the Pythagoreans give the following classification of opposites: limit and infinite, even and odd, one and many, right and left, male and female, resting and moving, straight and crooked, light and dark, good and bad, square and oblong. In Heraclitus, the concept of opposites is not only used for the static structuring of the world, but the Enmity of opposites is postulated, which explains the changes occurring in the world. Empedocles complements Enmity with Love. Aristotle uses the relationships between opposites to structure not only the objective world, but also thinking, in particular to formulate basic logical laws. Hegel seeks to show that the development of the world and knowledge is carried out through bifurcation into mutually exclusive and complementary opposites, unity and struggle between them. In dialectical materialism, this position of Hegel is considered the law of dialectics, its core. See art. Dialectics and lit. To her.

Encyclopedia of epistemology and philosophy of science - the universal law of natural and social historical reality, which also acts as the law of its knowledge, expressing the essence, the “core” of dialectics. This law occupies a central place in materialist dialectics, has a universal... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

This article is about philosophical and religious concepts. Wikipedia also has an article about Unity (meanings) Unity (ancient Greek μονάς, lat. Unitas) is such an interconnection of certain objects, processes, which forms an integral system... ... Wikipedia

Dialectical logic in a broad sense is a philosophical science, a systematically developed presentation of dialectics, understood as logic (the science of thinking) and the theory of knowledge of the objective world. In a narrow sense, the logical discipline of forms... ... Wikipedia

- (from the Greek dialektike (techne) the art of conversation, argument) philosopher. a theory that affirms the internal inconsistency of everything existing and conceivable and considers this inconsistency to be the main or even the only source of any movement and... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM. Contents: I. The subject of dialectical materialism 479 II. The emergence of dialectical materialism.... 480 III. Lenin's stage in the development of dialectical materialism 481 IV. Matter and consciousness 483 V.… … Philosophical Encyclopedia

See Art. Dialectics. Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983. DIALECTICAL LOGIC... Philosophical Encyclopedia Read more eBook

The law of unity and struggle of opposites reveals the source of development and connections of all natural, social and spiritual objects, is revealed through the categories: “opposite”, “contradiction”, “unity”, “struggle of opposites”, “identity”, “difference”.

Objects of existence represent a certain integrity with their opposites. Already in ancient times, it was argued that everything that exists in the world is the result of a collision of opposing forces: good and evil principles (in the Egyptian myth about the struggle between Osiris and Horus); Yin and Yang (in Chinese mythology) - the interactions of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, man and woman, sun and moon, heaven and earth, pleasure and suffering, etc.

The presence of opposites in objects and their reflection in consciousness is expressed in aporias and antinomies. Aristotle characterized aporia as the equivalence of opposing conclusions. Antinomies, according to Kant, are oppositions that can be argued with the same degree of logical evidence. These are: 1) the world has a beginning in time and space; the world is limitless; 2) everything in the world consists of simple things; nothing is simple, everything is complex; 3) there is freedom in the world; there is no freedom, everything is done according to the laws of nature; 4) God is necessity, the first cause of the world; There is no God in the world. An example of a casuistic question in Kant was also the following: suicide is immoral; the suicide of a warrior who does not want to be captured is justified. Examples of transforming antinomies into dialectical conclusions can be Socrates’ aphorism “I know that I know nothing,” Hegel’s conclusion that a moving body is and is not in the same place at the same time, Marx’s conclusion characterizing the emergence of capital (in circulation and at the same time not in circulation).

Fixing the opposite features of existence at the level of everyday consciousness (white - black, right - left, up - down, beautiful - ugly, etc.) does not yet allow us to comprehend the essence of the dialectical inconsistency of the world and its fragments. In the scientific knowledge of the world and man, key opposites are identified (main aspects, trends, forces of an object, phenomenon, process), the interaction of which expresses the deep essence of objects and is a source of development. In inorganic nature, this is the relationship between matter and field, particles and antiparticles, positive and negative charges, attraction and repulsion, action and reaction, connection and dissociation of atoms, etc. In living nature, assimilation and dissimilation, heredity and variability, excitation and inhibition in physiological processes, etc. In society, contradictions are expressed between productive forces and production relations, base and superstructure, goal-setting and spontaneity, etc. In mathematics, which reflects the world from the quantitative side, the opposites are plus and minus, exponentiation and root extraction, differentiation and integration. In cognition, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, feelings and thinking interact. This or that natural, social or spiritual object or process represents not only the relationship of two opposites, but an integral system with its inherent range of interconnected opposites.

Often the original reality bifurcates into itself and its own opposite. Thus, nature, as an unconsciously ongoing process, at a certain stage gave birth to its opposite - society, i.e. the sphere of human activity carried out with the participation of consciousness.

Often opposites are mutually immersed in each other. This is manifested in the contradictions that arise when searching for the optimal combination of individual freedom and the needs of society, material and cultural-moral incentives for work, vital and creative motives for activity, competition and collectivist solidarity, social equality and differences in income, etc.

The moving relationship between opposites is a dialectical contradiction. Contradiction in its original sense means a discrepancy in speech, statements about a certain subject of a pair of judgments, of which one denies the other, which is the result of vagueness and illogicality. Many philosophers accepted contradictions as a phenomenon of thinking arising from a violation of the requirements of formal logic, rejecting the inconsistency of being. Contradictions, due to the universality of development, are inherent not only in cognition, but also in all forms of existence of the world.

Social contradictions have a subject-subject character (between people, their various communities) and a subject-object character (regarding such objects as technology, property, power, etc.). Dialectics requires thinking and acting on the basis of values ​​(evaluations), resolving contradictions, in accordance with the universal laws of material and spiritual existence.

The contradictory relationship between opposite sides, tendencies, taken in motion, is a struggle of opposites, their “mutual negation.” In relation to society, the struggle can be in the literal sense (of social, political forces for their interests). In general, the word “struggle” is used metaphorically.

The initial stage of the development of interaction between opposite sides of a single entity is designated by the category “identity”. Relative identity develops into discrepancy, incompatibility and, finally, into the mutual exclusion of opposites. Hegel defined the following stages of interaction between the sides of the whole - identity, difference, opposition and contradiction itself. K. Marx, using the example of the development of a value relationship, additionally placed the stage of double existence. The transitional state of an object is its dual existence.

The stages of interaction between the parties of the whole cause a state of harmony, disharmony and conflict of opposites.

In a state of harmony, each party contributes to a more complete disclosure of the capabilities of the other party and the system as a whole. The ductility and reliability of the system increases. Disharmony is associated with the loosening of general structures, with the development of one side at the expense of the other. It is characterized by the emergence, deepening and aggravation of relationships between opposites, the predominance of multidirectionality and mutual negation. Conflict (in a broad sense, a clash, confrontation between parties) as the highest level of contradiction indicates the incompatibility of opposites within the framework of a particular object or process and leads to the withering away of the old and the emergence of a new object or process, to the synthesis of positive elements of old and new qualities.

In the history of philosophy, the importance of either unity or the struggle of opposites is often exaggerated. The absoluteization of the struggle of opposites is expressed in the formula of Heraclitus: “War is the father of all things.” The exaggeration of the unity of opposites is visible in the positivist theory of equilibrium (19th century), in structural-functional analysis (20th century), where society is presented as a stable system striving to self-maintain a state of social order and harmony.

The point of view that pays attention to the unity of opposites comes from the principle of complementarity. D. Bruno wrote: “One opposite is the beginning of another... Destruction is nothing other than emergence, and emergence is nothing other than annihilation: love is hatred; hate is love." In the bosom of Russian philosophy and culture of the 19th - early 20th centuries. the concept of all-human unity, the unification of the peoples of the world into an undivided whole was substantiated (P.Ya. Chaadaev, F.M. Dostoevsky, V.S. Solovyov, N.A. Berdyaev, etc.). On the basis of the spiritual unity of people, the commonality of their ideals and values, the idea of ​​conciliarity developed (A.S. Khomyakov, E.N. and S.N. Trubetskoy), which emphasized the importance of human collectivism. This idea is supported by solid experience of the veche people's assembly, community self-government, the Cossack circle, and the zemstvo.

One of the manifestations of the principle of complementarity is the promotion of opposites. For example, as a result of the law of universal gravitation, the planets of the solar system are attracted by the Sun. At the same time, the rotation of the planets occurs due to the action of centrifugal forces. The interaction (assistance, complementarity) of centripetal and centrifugal forces creates a certain balance. Or, a living organism preserves itself as long as it is within the limits of measure, where assimilation and dissimilation are balanced and complement each other.

Science of the 20th century discovered that elementary particles are also waves. They express a combination (complementarity) of concentration at a point (particle) and extension in space (wave). In society, the principle of complementarity is expressed through consensus, consolidation, compromise, convergence, which aims at finding mutual balance, a certain balance of opposing forces.

At the same time, it is unacceptable to exaggerate the unity of opposites (as well as their struggle). In addition to the line of achieving a “symphony” (consensus) of opposites, the tendency of their cacophony has not disappeared at all, and in a number of moments the differentiation of interests (for markets, resources of the Earth) strengthens the antagonism of regions, states, and peoples. Integration processes raise the importance of the unity of opposites (interdependence in a single holistic world increases), and the remaining differentiation impulses - the struggle of opposites. So, along with the principle of complementarity, there is the principle of opposition, which coexist.

Classical dialectics says that the struggle of opposites is absolute, and unity is relative. Meanwhile, in the struggle of opposites, the incentive to change the system is expressed, and in unity lies the basis of its stability. The variability and stability of being and its fragments are equally objective and significant. Therefore, as the previous analysis showed, it is wrong to sharply separate the moments of “unity” and “struggle” of opposites.

Within the framework of synergetics, the law of unity and struggle of opposites in one aspect is manifested in the interaction of competition and cooperation. The internal interaction between the elements of the system is a collision of causes, some of which are in a state of competition (activities in different, even opposite directions), and the other - cooperation (activities in the same direction). The final result of development (selection) is determined by the resultant of all interacting causes.

The result of development (selection) has the properties of integration (unification) and branching (differentiation, diversity). If in biological selection there is a struggle for adaptation, the existence of organisms in the environment, then in social selection with its objective and subjective (generally valid desires of people) components - for the transformation, transformation of man and society. In social selection there are natural (natural) and social (social) sides, which, intertwined and interacting, determine the development and connections of society. Two opposing trends are emerging in society:

1) the desire of social systems for sustainability;

2) the desire for variability (disturbance of balance).

In general, the law of the interpenetration of opposites reveals an impulse, a driving force in development, indicates that the basis of change is the struggle of opposites, and the basis of relative stability is the unity of the parties, tendencies of a particular process or phenomenon.