POL 315
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MARXISM
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Law of Unity and Conflict of Opposites
This law deals with contradictions. Do contradictory aspects and trends
exist in things and phenomena? Thinking of the structure of atom; it
possesses both positively and negatively charged particles. The ideas of
contradictions have occupied the minds of scientists for a longtime. The
example of atoms shows that opposing aspects do exist in things, in
nature. Let us look at man and the animals; two opposite processes are
going on within our bodies at the same time: cells are both growing and
dying away and if one of these processes ceases the living organism
dies. These types of contradictions are common in society and in nature.
These are dialectical contradictions.
Opposites are mutually exclusive phenomena or aspects of the
phenomena-left & right, north & south; good &bad etc. In reality,
opposites in nature and life are not separated from one another by a
Chinese wall. Each can be comprehended only in its relation to the
other. There is always some relationship between connected opposites.
A contradiction can be defined as a relationship between two opposites,
and the opposites appear as two sides of the contradiction. Opposites are
linked tightly (indissoluble), such that each opposite is unable to exist
alone; we call this the unity of opposites. The opposites do not simply
exist side by side, but are in unity to one another. The unity of opposites
consists in their indissoluble connection. Together they comprise a
single contradictory process. Opposites determine one another’s
existence; that is, the one exists only because the other does.
The law of unity and conflict of opposites states that opposite forces will
attract or unite; and the same forces will repel each other- just like that
between male and female, assimilation and excretion, day and night,
motion and rest, and the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. For example,
somebody cannot keep consuming food or fluid without going to the
toilet to excrete some waste, otherwise the person will die.
Though the process of assimilation and excretion are opposite processes,
however they lead to development or growth. A person must eat to
survive, but the same person must also excrete faeces and urine in order
to survive otherwise his/her stomach will bulge and result in death. A
car can only move on a resting plain, a car cannot move on a moving
plain, if it does, there will be no friction, and hence, no movement. The
same thing holds with the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat- as the bourgeoisie cannot make profit or even own industry
without the proletariat; but the relationship between both of them
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