What does dialectical materialism mean by the law of the development of things

Dialectical materialism is about the fact that all matter is constantly moving and changing, and that things are interconnected, interpenetrating, and influencing each other. The law of the unity of opposites (the law of contradiction of things), the law of mutual change of quality, and the law of negation of negation are the three laws of materialist dialectics.

Basic Laws of Materialist Dialectics:

1. The law of unity of opposites.

The law of the unity of opposites is the fundamental law of materialist dialectics, also known as the law of unity of opposites and the law of struggle or the law of contradiction. It reveals that everything in the natural, social and intellectual realms and between things contains contradictions, and that the two sides of the contradictions are unified and struggle to promote the movement, change and development of things. The connotation of the law of the unity of opposites is embodied in:

the identity and struggle of both sides of the contradiction; the universality and particularity of contradictions; The contradictions in the development of things and the imbalance in the development of the two sides of the contradictions.

2. The law of negation of negation.

The law of negation of negation, one of the basic laws of dialectics, is to reveal the trend and path of the development of things and the dialectical essence of the continuous progress of the development of human understanding in twists and turns. It shows that the whole process of the development of things themselves is composed of the negation of affirmation, negation, and negation. Among them, the negation of negation is the core of the process, the result of the contradictory movement of things themselves, and the form of contradiction resolution.

3. The law of mutual change of quality.

The law of mutual change of quality, also known as "the law of quantitative change and qualitative change", and "the law of transformation from quantitative change to qualitative change". One of the basic laws of materialist dialectics. It reveals that the development of things and phenomena caused by internal contradictions is achieved through the mutual transformation of quantitative and qualitative changes.

In China, ancient philosophers once spontaneously recognized that quantitative change will cause qualitative change, such as Lao Tzu in the pre-Qin period: "The wood of the hug is born at the end of the millimeter; The nine-story platform starts from the soil. ”

Basic Categories: There are five pairs of basic categories of materialist dialectics, namely cause and effect, necessity and contingency, reality and possibility, content and form, phenomenon and essence.

1. Dialectical materialism holds that the law of the development of things is the inevitable connection of the inherent nature of things in the process of their movement. The so-called essential and inevitable connection is the unshakable basic order in the process of the movement of things, which determines the development trend and final result of things.

2. Marxist philosophy is dialectical materialism and historical materialism, and dialectical materialism is composed of three parts: dialectical materialism, materialist dialectics, and dialectical materialist epistemology. Dialectical materialism was founded by Marx on the basis of critically inheriting the excellent achievements of human culture, especially on the basis of critically absorbing the "rational kernel" of Hegel's dialectics and the "basic kernel" of Feuerbach's materialism.

First, the basic characteristics.

1. Universal connection, materialist dialectics looks at the world and history from the viewpoint of universal connection, pointing out that the world is an organic whole, and everything in the world is in mutual influence, interaction and mutual constraint, and opposes looking at problems from a one-sided or isolated point of view.

2. Eternal development, materialist dialectics points out: the world is a process, the process is composed of states, and the state is the state in the process; There is no eternal thing in the world, there is life and there is destruction, and there is no life without destruction; When the old dies, it means that something new is born.

Second, the three basic laws.

1. Unity of opposites, materialist dialectics points out that all existing things are composed of a pair of contradictions that are both opposed to each other and unified with each other. The two sides of the contradiction are both opposing and unified, thus driving the development of things.

Therefore, the law of the unity of opposites reveals the source and motive force of the development of things. The idea of the unity of opposites between Marx and Engels comes from Hegel.

2. Materialist dialectics points out that the properties of things have two attributes: quality and quantity. Quantity refers to the quantity or specific form of a certain state in which a thing is measured; Qualitative refers to the intrinsic prescriptiveness of a thing to become itself and distinguish it from another.

Quantitative change is a continuous, gradual, and insignificant change in things, and it is a change in the quantity of things; Qualitative change is a fundamental change in things, a kind of leap, often manifested as a mutation.

3. Dialectical negation, the negation principle of Marx and Engels comes from Hegel's three-stage theory of "positive-negative-combined": due to the development of internal contradictions, "positive" things will transition to the negative side and become the "anti" stage, which is the first negation; The transition from the reverse stage to its opposite is the negation of negation. After the negation of negation, things obviously return to the "positive" state.