*cont’d from my previous post*
3 Materialist Dialectical Universal Laws of Change (/motion/development):
*for the sake of brevity, I will provide a condensed and simplified overview here, more detailed notes and applications of these laws to come in the future)*
1. the Law of Transformation Between
Quantity and Quality (law of quantity and quality)
2. the Law of Unity and Contradiction of Opposites (law of contradiction)
3. the Law Negation of Negation (law of negation)
These laws above apply to all matter, all things, phenomena, ideas, people, processes, relationships, and systems in the material world, and thus are universal due to being consequences of the fact that matter is universally composed of relationships and these relationships are perpetually changing/developing, just like the aforementioned philosophical dialectical category pairs
(everything, from a cheeseburger to a fight between parent and child, obey and exhibit change and development in accordance to these universal materialist dialectical laws)
1. the law of quantity and quality state that all, for any phenomenon, changes in quality* are first preceded by changes in quantity** that have reached a certain threshold (the quantity threshold, in Vietnamese Materialist Dialectics), and once quality changes occur, this will also cause/induce/affect changes in quantity (dialectical relationship between the quality and quantity of a given phenomenon)
The dialectical materialist understanding of the categories of Quantity and Quality:
*Quality: the characteristics, aspects, properties of a phenomenon that make it differentiated from every thing in the material world around it that are not it (wetness, the color, the softness, the different parts that comprise it, the shape and ingredients of the thing, its ability to burn you, its ability to resist pressure/torsion, etc)
**Quantity: the countable, measurable, quantifiable aspects of a phenomenon (temperature, speed, mass, weight, height, spatial dimensions, number of structural components, number of years in age, number of tasks, amount of wage, etc)
this law, to me, basically reminds us to be both patient (recognize that a quality shift, if desirable, cannot occur prior to the sufficient accumulation of the needed quantity shifts; ie you cannot hope to solve the food needs of the population without housing in your city without first solving the food needs of the population without housing on your block, in your district, etc); as well as to not be un dialectically resistant to change (recognize that a quality shift, desirable or otherwise, is inevitably going to occur if enough quantities have accumulated, regardless of efforts or thoughts otherwise)
2. the law of contradictions state that all things and processes are defined by contradictions (specifically internal contradictions determine, whereas external contradictions shape/condition/impact), the motion/movement/change/development of all things is also driven by contradictions (this bleeds into the Principle of Development); as well as that contradictions are temporary unities of opposing forces/sides. Contradictions are a permanently built in feature of matter, the material universe, and of every thing and process within and arising from matter and the material world (including consciousness, money, economies, human thought, human societal constructs, human political and cultural and semiotic and psychological phenomena, and all things arising from human consciousness); contradictions are constantly being created, resolved (ended, or materialist dialectical terms, negated), and re created/re emerging
The phase of time in which any two given opposing sides are unified with each other only lasts as long as the opposition which binds them/brings them together in opposition with one another and thus is temporary; however, once the contradiction ends or is negated, a new one will always emerge (this is a fundamental property of matter, of the motion of matter and all things made from matter, and of contradictions themselves, more on this a little further down), and thus is permanent/infinite/absolute (this is what Marxist Materialist Dialecticians mean when it is said that *unity is relative, struggle is absolute, there is unity in struggle and struggle in unity*; it means that contradiction as a universal process in General is ongoing, but Particular contradictions are only ever temporary (no matter how long they last) and will always eventually be resolved, and their unity defining that particular pair, dissolved)
Both these aspects of contradictions are two opposite sides of the same yin yang coin, my friend.
In addition, there are also a variety of forms and classifications of contradictions in Materialist Dialectics (primary, secondary, fundamental, non fundamental, antagonistic, non antagonistic, etc) as well as resolution methods (19 at least, in my own Materialist Dialectics studies), but I will save this for a future time and place. For now, just understand, in addition to the above:
Any thing or process always contains multiple contradictions, but there is always one contradiction which defines the development of that thing for that particular phase of its development (all things and processes develop uniquely, even if they share aspects in common with the development of other things, each process must be understood and studied in its own development, on its own developmental terms), this is the primary contradiction. This primary contradiction, once identified, can allow for insight, analysis, and eventually action and influence on the process of the development of that particular process at that particular stage of its development. Also, because materialist dialectics requires us to be fluid and dynamic with our understanding of matter and its categorical abstractions, we must understand that which contradiction of a given thing is the primary contradiction will vary throughout the time (what phase of development it is currently in) and space (what other systems or relationships it is around and/or dialectically being mutually impacted by).
to be continued in part 3