Mao Tse-Tung
VII. CONCLUSION
The law of contradiction in things,
that is, the law of the unity of opposites, is the fundamental law of nature
and of society and therefore also the fundamental law of thought [Galileo: "The book of nature and the book of Scripture were written by the same author, and cannot be in conflict"].
It stands opposed to the metaphysical world outlook. It represents a great revolution
in the history of human knowledge. According to dialectical materialism,
contradiction is present in all processes of objectively existing things and
of subjective thought and permeates all these processes from beginning to
end; this is the universality and absoluteness of contradiction. Each
contradiction and each of its aspects have their respective characteristics;
this is the particularity and relativity of contradiction. In given
conditions, opposites possess identity, and consequently can coexist in a
single entity and can transform themselves into each other; this again is
the particularity and relativity of contradiction. But the struggle of
opposites is ceaseless, it goes on both when the opposites are coexisting
and when they are transforming themselves into each other, and becomes
especially conspicuous when they are transforming themselves into one
another; this again is the universality and absoluteness of contradiction.
In studying the particularity and relativity of contradiction, we must give
attention to the distinction between the principal contradiction and the
non-principal contradictions and to the distinction between the principal
aspect and the non-principal aspect of a contradiction; in studying the
universality of contradiction and the struggle of opposites in
contradiction, we must give attention to the distinction between the
different forms of struggle. Otherwise we shall make mistakes. If, through
study, we achieve a real understanding of the essentials explained above, we
shall be able to demolish dogmatist ideas......."
