"Dialectics is the science of universal interconnectedness" (Engels).
"Nothing exists except in relation to its opposite" (Paul Twitchell).
"The space where the dialectic between philosophy and science can be well understood is language" (Wittgenstein).
The Union of Opposites
We perceive and conceive the world structured in pairs of opposites such as: light-dark, hot-cold, dry-humid, high-low, rich-poor, and so on. Our language also reflects these opposing concepts.
In nature, these opposites are governed by a force, energy or power that transcends them, harmonizes them and makes them complementary to each other. For many cultures, contacting or tuning in to that higher power that transcends duality means attaining wisdom.
The ancient Greeks called this power "Logos", which not only harmonized the opposites, but was also the generator of them. The Logos manifests itself as the universal pattern of opposites.
At the superficial level, the opposites appear separate and unrelated to each other. At the deep level, the opposites are connected. Consciousness connects the opposites and the union of the opposites produces consciousness.
The union of the opposites is symbolized by the Ouroboros, the mythical serpent that bites its own tail. It symbolizes consciousness, with its properties of circularity, feedback and self-reflection.
Ouroboros
Features of the union of opposites.
Law of polarity.
All things manifest in pairs of opposites. Each thing drags with it its opposite. The two are complementary and inseparable. Nothing can exist except in relation to its opposite. Without mountains there can be no valleys, without light there can be no shadow, etc.
Activity.
Pairs of opposites are always active. Human experience is the experience of the tension of opposites, the interplay of dualities in opposition. The human being is a great network of dual forces. We are "victims" of the pairs of opposites.
Consciousness.
It is consciousness that acts as the link or bond between opposites. In the union of opposites arises consciousness, and with it comes power, energy, strength, freedom, wisdom, creativity, harmony and peace.
Number 3.
The number 3 is the symbol of the union of opposites. The number 1 symbolizes unity, simplicity, undifferentiated and peace. The number 2 symbolizes duality, complexity, differentiation and confrontation. The number 3 symbolizes harmony and the synthesis of opposites. Number 3 is the symbol of consciousness. Number 3 also symbolizes strength, power and at the same time harmony and love. God is often represented as a triangle with an eye in its center.
Modes of consciousness.
The opposites manifest in the human being as the two types of consciousness associated with the two cerebral hemispheres: the right (HD) and the left (HI). The HD mode is synthetic and intuitive. The HI mode is analytical and rational. Rational and intuitive thinking are two extreme aspects of consciousness: superficial and deep, respectively. The play of consciousness manifests as a struggle and harmonization between these two poles.
Intuitive thought increasingly particularized becomes rational thought. Rational thought, more and more abstract becomes ultimately intuitive thought. A concrete thought does not arise by itself, but is the result of an internal process that has its origin in the deep.
Paradoxes.
Sometimes the union of opposites presents itself as paradox. But paradox should not be considered an obstacle or problem. By accepting the two conflicting poles, awareness and creativity emerge.
History of the union of opposites.
Religion.
In Eden there was a unified consciousness. Original sin brought about differentiation and the appearance of opposites, represented by the archetypal good-evil dichotomy. In the Western tradition, religion is a re-ligare, a re-uniting of man with divinity.
In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas it is said, "When you are able to make two things one, and to configure the inner with the outer, and the outer with the inner, and the above with the below, and to reduce to unity the male and the female, so that the male ceases to be male and the female female; when you make eyes of one eye and a hand instead of a hand and a foot instead of a foot and an image instead of an image, then you may enter into the Kingdom."
Ancient Greece.
In the West, Heraclitus was the first to discover the extraordinary importance of the union of opposites:
All natural processes involve opposites (hot-cold, wet-dry, etc.). Without their opposite, it would be impossible for one of them to exist.
The maintenance of all things and all beings in the universe is due to the tension between opposites in struggle and the unity that envelops and harmonizes them.
The unity of opposites is the primordial substance: fire, the subtlest and least corporeal matter.
Fire, which is unstable and changeable, is the symbol of becoming, of the Logos.
The unity of the opposites in struggle, the primordial substance (fire) is the one supreme law, the universal reason or wisdom, the Logos, the hidden harmony that sustains the world.
The harmony and unity of opposites, the Logos, is manifested in the perpetual flow of all things. "Everything changes, nothing remains." Movement, change, is constitutive of Being.
Every thing, being constantly subject to change, is different at every moment it is considered. "It is not possible to bathe twice in the same river".
We must listen to the Logos, which teaches us that all things are one. The Logos is the principle of order, harmony and knowledge.
The supreme wisdom consists in discovering and knowing the Logos which governs all things and which manifests itself as becoming. The Logos is the universal reason or wisdom.
True religion consists in merging with the Logos, in the union of individual thought with universal wisdom.
Heraclitus called "enantiodromia" (from the Greek, enantios, contrary, opposite, and dromos, race: to run in the opposite direction) the play of opposites in becoming, that is, the notion that everything produces its opposite. From life comes death, from death comes life, from wakefulness sleep and from sleep wakefulness, etc. He also called "synapsis" the necessary unity of opposites, a term now adopted by histology.
Opposite to Heraclitus' conception, Parmenides, who held that Being is immutable, is usually placed. But both were right: Being is immutable, and its manifestation is the Logos, which is the universal pattern, the pattern that connects everything, in all aspects.
Taoism.
For ancient Chinese wisdom, there are universal, yet complementary opposites: yin (the feminine principle) and yang (the masculine principle). The Tao is the power that sustains and harmonizes these opposite principles, the primary and creative energy that guides the development of nature. The opposites combine eternally in various levels of interrelationship and in infinite series of alternating polarities.
In the I Ching (The Book of Changes), the two types of opposites (yin and yang) are respectively represented as a split line and a continuous line, and are grouped into 8 types of trigrams, which when facing each other produce 64 hexagrams. These 64 configurations represent universal archetypes [see Appendix - I Ching].
The yin-yang symbol and the 8 trigrams.
Wu Wei −literally, "effortlessness" or "non-action"− is an essential doctrine of Taoist philosophy. It refers to the union of two opposites: action and non-action, to effortless action, to outward action from inner repose and harmony.
Eastern doctrines.
Eastern doctrines hold that through a calm mind one attains a tracendent, simple, pure, essential state beyond duality. In Buddhism, this state of inner peace is described as "the center in the midst of conditions". In Chinese Taoism it is called "yellow middle". In Hinduism it is called "nirvandva" (meaning "free from opposites").
Maharishi, in his work "The Science of Being and the Art of Living" states that it is possible to unite the values of absolute consciousness (pure consciousness) and relative consciousness (field of activity) and live daily life without losing the connection with the Absolute. It is this connection that allows the unfolding of creative intelligence. "The art of living lies in the mind cultivating within itself the eternal state of the Absolute Self" [Maharishi, 1981].
Alchemy.
The ancient alchemists expressed the unity of opposites with the image of the hermaphroditic Rebis, the symbol of the androgynous. With their practices, the ancient alchemists sought supreme consciousness by attempting to unite the inner and the outer.
Paracelsus −with whom Jung−so closely identified; was a strong advocate of combining the opposites of science and spirituality into an operative unity of a higher order.
For Nicholas of Cusa, duality is resolved into unity by the conjunction of opposites. He attempted to apply this principle to all levels, including the human (politics) and the cosmic.
Analytical psychology.
According to Jung, there is a dance of opposites, a polarity inherent in everything manifested, both internally and externally. Energy is the consequence of the tension of opposites. Opposites struggle to achieve a mutual balance and coexist in harmony, for both need each other. If this conflict were not resolved, if there were one-sidedness (by the victory of one over the other) in the manifested world, there would be imbalance, with loss or stagnation of energy. "It is our mission to reconcile and unite the opposites (Conjuntio Oppositorum): the conscious and the unconscious" [Jung, 2007].
Jung, in "Seven Sermons to the Dead" [Hoeller, 2005], aligned himself with ancient Gnostic wisdom by advocating the principle of individuation, a process of union of the opposites between the Ego (conscious, the superficial, external "I") and the Self (unconscious, the deep, internal "I"). One must integrate the shadow (the lower unconscious aspect of the personality) with the conscious through the anthropomorphic archetypes of the Anima (the unconscious feminine part in man) or the Animus (the unconscious male part in woman). Jung is considered the pioneer of the new gnosis.
The Dialectic
.
The Concept
Two antagonistic yet complementary terms are called the "dialogical principle". Although they are opposed, they are inseparable; one cannot exist without the other.
Dialectics −literally, "technique of conversation"− is a philosophical doctrine that studies the confrontation, struggle or contradiction between opposites and how to overcome, harmonize, resolve or transcend them from a higher perspective to try to reach the truth. The confrontation and overcoming is usually presented as the triad thesis-antithesis-synthesis, where thesis and antithesis are the opposites and the synthesis is the harmonization or overcoming of the previous two, which is situated at a higher level.
The opposites (or contraries) arise when defining one thing (since implicitly one is defining its opposite) and when affirming something (since implicitly one is also denying the opposite). Dialectics would be the natural tendency of the human mind to generalize, transcend, integrate or unify opposites in order to achieve a higher consciousness or understanding.
Dialectics has also been considered throughout history in different ways, including:
The art of dialogue and discussion, confronting opposing points of view, in order to arrive at the truth.
The upward movement of consciousness from the sensible (the certainty of the senses) to the intelligible through the development of concepts of greater degree of generality.
The art of ordering concepts into genera and species.
The strategy of evolution or development of nature itself (dialectics of nature) based on the continuous tension of opposing forces.
The struggle of opposites by which the process of history arises.
A universal scientific method or science (or meta-science).
The science of the general laws of motion of nature and thought.
A part of logic or a new logic.
A worldview: the science of the most general laws of the phenomena of reality (nature, society and human thought).
A brief history of dialectics.
Heraclitus is considered the precursor of dialectics by stating that everything is formed by opposites that are always in a state of dynamic tension, so that reality is the result of the balance between opposing forces.
Zenon of Elea was, according to Aristotle, the creator of dialectics, by introducing into philosophy the idea of rational refutation of certain apparently rational theories, showing that they lead to paradoxes and contradictions.
For Socrates, dialectic is equivalent to inductive dialogue, i.e., a series of questions and answers that progressively bring one closer to the truth. In Plato's Dialogues, Socrates appears as a somewhat special user of dialectic, since he refuted by means of dialogical reasoning the assertion of an interlocutor, who ended up accepting a statement contrary to the one initially put forward.
Plato turned dialectic into a scientific method:
He considers dialectic to be the supreme philosophical method, the scientific method ("the way of the sciences"), the method for ascending from mere opinion to true knowledge, knowledge that consists in the direct, immediate and intuitive contemplation of ideas, beyond reason. In some of his Dialogues, Plato identifies dialectic with philosophy.
He offers in his Dialogues one of the first examples of the application of the dialectical method, where he uses the procedure of asking incisive and radical questions to test his own theories (specifically, the metaphysical theory of forms), thus becoming the first philosopher to practice self-criticism. Plato tries to show that he is more interested in the search for truth than in the defense of his particular positions.
He distinguished two modes of dialectic: ascending (or generalizing from particular facts) and descending (or particularizing from general principles).
He also included in dialectic, in addition to the confrontation of different ideas, the relations that ideas maintain with each other, that is, their structure and communication.
Aristotle denies the scientific character to dialectic, considering it only as "the art of the probable", the doctrine of possible judgments and conclusions, but elevates it to the highest rank by qualifying it as "first philosophy", and retaining the term "logic" to purely formal logic. He distinguished between:
Inductive reasoning (or ascending dialectic). It starts from possible premises (premises whose truth had not been previously proven), has an inductive character and uses dialectical syllogisms.
Demonstrative reasoning (or descending dialectic). It starts from true premises, has a deductive character and uses demonstrative syllogisms. This type of reasoning is the one that leads to true knowledge.
The Neoplatonists reinforced Plato's conception. Plotinus defended the ascending dialectic and Proclus the descending one.
For the Stoics, logic is divided into dialectic and rhetoric. Dialectic ("only the wise man is dialectic") is the science of rightly dialoguing about judgments by means of questions and answers, and is also the science of the true, the false, and the neutral.
Kant entitled "transcendental dialectic" to a section of his work "Critique of Pure Reason", a section devoted to three metaphysical ideas (three totalities): soul, world and God (world understood as totality of physical phenomena). According to Kant, these ideas are beyond human experience of phenomena, and trying to cross the barrier of experience in search of the unconditioned and absolute leads to contradictions, since one thing can be demonstrated (thesis) and its opposite (antithesis). Therefore a science of metaphysics is not possible. The phenomenon (the conditioned) is knowable, but the noun (the thing in itself, the unconditioned) is unknowable.
For Hegel, dialectics is the essence of reality, of human reason and of nature. Reality is dialectical.
Opposites always coexist, they cannot occur one without the other, and together they constitute a higher reality. All things are contradictory in themselves. Contradiction is the root and principle of evolution. Only that which contains a contradiction moves, evolves. Reality is in process of transformation or development and its motor is contradiction. Dialectics expresses the contradiction existing in the world and the need to overcome that situation in order to achieve total realization.
Cause and effect are moments of universal reciprocal dependence: the same thing presents itself first as cause and then as effect. It is necessary to become aware of intercausality, of the laws of objective universal connection, of the struggle and unity of opposites in the processes of nature and society.
He identifies (like Plato) dialectic with philosophy, but with certain differences. For Plato, the principle of non-contradiction must be sacrificed in order to conceive of the unity of opposites. For Hegel, contradiction is an objective structure that reason cannot reject when pairs of opposites are present in the mind and in nature. Reasoning may be contradictory but nature is not contradictory.
The dialectical character of every entity has two aspects: 1) with the totality of the real; 2) in relation to other entities.
The ultimate reality, which he calls "Geist" (which we can translate as Absolute, Logos, Universal Mind or Spirit) is the force or power that operates through history and society. Spirit is not the opposite of matter, but the most powerful, profound and real of the existent. "Only the spiritual is the real." History progresses towards the self-realization of the Geist, to his self-consciousness and freedom. This process has a dialectical structure, i.e., one concept confronts its opposite and as a result of this conflict, a third, the synthesis, rises, which is a higher level of truth. This higher level is also of a more real character. Truth, reality, freedom and consciousness go together. At the higher level, the synthesis becomes a new thesis, which has its corresponding antithesis, which are resolved in a new synthesis of still higher level, and so on until the ultimate reality is reached: the Absolute, the ultimate synthesis in which there is no conflict because it has no antithesis, no dualities. History is the expression of this flow of ideas in conflict and resolution moving toward the Absolute.
Human activity unites two opposites: the subjective (reason) and the objective (reality). "All that is real is rational."
Nature and history form a unity, which is reality. The rational is the real. Society and its evolution (history) is a process adjusted to reason. History must be interpreted from rationality. The rational governs the world. History is the process of evolution towards totality, truth and freedom.
Knowledge has a dialectical structure because reality is dialectical. Total and absolute knowledge is achieved by the complete identity of subject and object. Dialectical knowledge is absolute knowledge. Dialectics is not only the structure of reality, it is also a method of knowledge.
Each particular entity (preserving its relative independence and singularity) refers to the totality of the real, and only in the totality can it be understood. In totality resides truth, true knowledge. "The true is the whole." Reality and knowledge are not fragmented.
Dialectics has two aspects: ontological (the dynamic reality produced by the tension of opposites) and logical (based on the principle of contradiction, which transcends and harmonizes opposites).
Dialectical logic is a new logic that overcomes contradiction and opens the way to new forms of knowledge, beyond its formal aspects, to penetrate more and more into the true essence of reality. The goal of dialectics is truth, with all its wealth of relations.
Karl Marx proposes, as opposed to Hegel's idealist dialectic, an opposite dialectic of a materialist, practical and revolutionary type, a dialectic applied to economic processes: dialectical materialism:
All human history is the history of class struggle, and the confrontation between classes is the engine of social change.
Matter is the foundation of all objective reality. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it is infinite and eternal.
The world is matter in motion. The world is the diversity of forms of the motion of matter.
Spirit (mind or consciousness) is the "ultimate reality", but not in an ontological sense, but in an evolutionary, Darwinian sense: mind is the final result of the organization of matter, an emergent property of matter, which evolves until it becomes aware of itself (and of its own consciousness). Consciousness emerges a posteriori. The subjective (the mental) is subordinate to the objective (the material).
The cognizability of the world is grounded in the material, in its objective spatial and temporal existence.
The real historical process advances from the simple, concrete and inferior to the complex, abstract and superior.
It is not a matter of interpreting the world or overcoming opposites, but of transforming it, eliminating the negative and reinforcing the positive in order to build a new society. The thesis (the origin of the problem) is the poor distribution of capital. The proposed antithesis is that the proletarians should own the means of production and achieve an equitable distribution of economic capital. The synthesis (or rather conclusion) is the revolutionary transformation: communism, with the abolition of social classes.
Engels formulated his famous three laws of dialectical materialism:
The law of unity and struggle of opposites.
This law is the essence of dialectics. The opposites are mutually exclusive and, at the same time, not separate, interdependent, and can only be understood in their mutual relation. This mutual relation between opposites constitutes the unity of opposites. Everything in nature is composed of pairs of opposites in continuous tension, which produce the changes in nature and its diversification. The struggle of opposites is the driving force of development and evolution. The character of the struggle of opposites is universal, for it manifests itself in all spheres: in society, in nature and in science.
The law of transformation of quantity into quality and vice versa.
The increase or decrease in the quantity of matter transforms and changes its quality, and vice versa. The change of quantity, within certain limits, does not produce qualitative changes. But if these limits are exceeded, qualitative transformations occur. Qualitative changes always produce quantitative changes. Quantitative changes are continuous, gradual. Qualitative changes are discontinuous, they are produced by jumps. The process of knowledge takes place in such a way that quality precedes that of quantity.
The law of the negation of the negation.
The term "negation" was introduced into philosophy by Hegel, to mean development of idea or thought, i.e., in an idealistic way. Engels interprets it in a materialist way: negation refers to the development of matter, to its renewal, transformation, evolution or replacement of the old by the new. Negation is not only the negation of the old, but also affirmation of the new. Development or evolution manifests itself as a series of successive negations, in a spiral process. It is spiral because in later phases some aspects, traits or positive contents of the previous phases are preserved. There is nothing definitive and absolute. The process of ascent from the inferior to the superior is infinite. On a strictly logical level, the negation of the negation of the negation of x would be equal to x. In dialectics this is not so, for the mechanism of negation always offers a renewal or overcoming.
For Engels, dialectics is the science of universal interconnectedness, the methodological basis of the social and natural sciences. He developed dialectical materialism in his work "The Transformation of the Sciences by Mr. Dühring", better known under the name of "Anti-Dühring" (as it went against the theses advocated by the German anarchist Karl Eugen Dühring),
With Lenin begins the Marxist-Leninist version of dialectical materialism.
The law of the unity and struggle of opposites is the fundamental law of the objective and subjective world. This struggle of opposites is precisely the engine of development.
The opposites form a unity and it is not possible to separate them. They exist in a relationship of mutual interdependence. For example, the particular exists by its linkage with the general, and the general exists only through the particular, it reveals the essence of the particular. The general exists objectively in reality itself, not separate from things, but in the common properties of things. The general is reflected in our consciousness, but is not created by it.
The unity of the world is expressed in its concatenation, that is, in the existing relationship between the different phenomena. The world must be studied as an interrelated whole.
Matter denotes objective reality and exists independently of the mind. Through sensations an image or copy is created at the internal (subjective) level.
There is no difference between the phenomenon and the noúmeno (the thing in itself). The essence (noúmeno) manifests itself in the phenomenon, and the phenomenon reveals the essential.
Truth is the correspondence between idea and object, between the internal and the external, between the knowing subject and the object of knowledge. Absolute truth is that which is true by itself, without any relation to others. Relative truth is that which depends on others.
We must think dialectically, that is, we must not consider knowledge as finished and unalterable. And we must also be aware of the process of how knowledge emerges, from ignorance and inaccuracy to completeness and accuracy.
Sartre, in his "Critique of Dialectical Reason", proposed a phenomenological dialectic based on the existentialism of being and nothingness, a radical and fundamental dialectic. He was a great advocate of the importance of the confrontation of opinions as an essential factor in achieving knowledge.
Dialectics and consciousness.
Dialectics can be considered a science in the opposite direction to logic. Logic is top-down and is based on reason, advancing from the general to the particular. Dialectics is ascending and is based on intuition, advancing from the particular to the general, toward higher consciousness.
The dialectic is the universal mechanism of human consciousness. It has two essential components:
The negation (or the opposite). It is a basic mechanism of consciousness that allows us to move from one concept to its opposite. It is the simplest and most universal mechanism.
Synthesis. It is the natural tendency of the mind to go toward a higher consciousness, so that opposites are seen as particular elements of something higher.
Consciousness is that which realizes the synthesis of opposites, which produces consciousness. Consciousness does not arise from confrontation, but from union, from agreement, from the connection, relationship or collaboration between opposites, always contemplated from a higher point of view.
In our mind the two basic modes of consciousness are connected, the two universal poles, the analytic and synthetic modes, in such a way that understanding arises from the connection of these two modes of consciousness. In our brain there is a permanent dialectic between the two hemispheres: the left (analytical, particularistic) and the right (synthetic, generalistic). Their harmonization, connection or synchronization is the manifestation of consciousness at the physical level.
When Hegel speaks of the Absolute, he is referring to supreme consciousness, truth, reality, freedom, perfection, simplicity, order, power, wisdom and unity, and where all concepts (and their opposites) are connected.
First is the Absolute and then the planes of manifestation. Dialectical materialism is wrong, for it considers matter as the foundation of all that exists. And it is just the opposite: the Spirit, the Absolute, comes first, for it is the source of everything else, of the relative world, the dual world.
The dialectic and the philosophical categories.
There is a very close relationship between dialectics and philosophical categories, for the latter constitute the highest level of abstraction of internal and external reality. In this sense:
Philosophical categories should be the final result of the dialectical process, the limit or boundary with the Absolute.
Philosophical categories should be structured as pairs of opposites or duals.
As there is a multiplicity of pairs of opposites that could establish dialectical relations, it is more appropriate to speak of "multilectics".
Philosophers also considered dialectical categories:
Plato established 5 philosophical categories of dialectical type: Motion, Rest, Difference, Identity and Being. Here appear the pairs of opposites Motion-Rest and Identity-Difference. The category "Being" is the supreme or unified category, the one that sustains and grounds the other categories.
In Aristotle's 10 categories we can identify pairs of opposite categories: Quantity-Quality, Action-Passion and Place-Time.
In Kant's famous 12 categories we can also detect pairs of opposite concepts: Quality-Quality-Quality, Unity-Plurality, Cause-Action, Possibility-Impossibility, Existence-Non-Existence and Necessity-Contingency.
Hegel made a great contribution to the dialectical system of philosophical categories. In establishing the dialectical structure of reality itself, he united dialectics (union and struggle of opposites) with the philosophical categories. His philosophical categories have a clear dialectical structure, with a pair of opposites and a third element of union of the previous two:
Type of categories
Dialectical categories
Union
Being
Quality and Quantity
Measurement
Essence
Existence and Phenomenon
Reality
Concept
Subjective and Objective Knowledge
Idea
Kant saw the dialectical questions of phenomenon and non-numene, absolute and relative, mind and nature as insurmountable. Hegel corrects Kant by asserting that philosophy should be the science of the absolute, of totality, universal knowledge, absolute knowledge. And the dialectical method is the way to absolute knowledge, to discover the essence of things.
Dialectical materialism is a system very rich in dialectical categories, which are considered universal, since they affect all fields of knowledge. They constitute a universal paradigm, a global way of seeing the world. These dialectical categories have the following characteristics:
Each pair of dialectical categories are interrelated or intertwined by means of laws.
They are objective. At the subjective or internal level they are a reflection of the objective.
They are, like all knowledge, subject to dialectics, so they are not absolute, they are mutable.
There is no complete and closed table of dialectical categories. However, reference is made to the following:
Matter.
Matter is the fundamental category. The world is matter and nothing exists that is not material. "Matter is a philosophical category serving to designate objective reality, which is given to man in his sensations, which is copied, photographed, reflected by our sensations, existing independently of them" (Lenin). Consciousness is a quality of highly organized matter.
Motion is the essential characteristic of matter, its mode of existence. Matter is inseparable from motion. Motion refers to change in general, to transformation, development or evolution. It also includes consciousness or thought, being qualities of matter.
Space - Time.
The fundamental categories of all matter are space and time. Matter exists in the infinity of space and time. Matter has not been created and will never end.
Difference - Identity.
They are fundamental ways of knowledge and consciousness.
Abstract - Concrete.
Reality advances from the concrete to the abstract, from matter to consciousness.
Simple - Complex.
Reality advances from the simple towards the complex.
Subjective - Objective.
Consciousness is a subjective reflection of objective reality. Consciousness is explained from matter, from nature.
Exterior - Interior.
The exterior is associated with sensation and perception. The inner is that which is hidden from sensation.
Quantity - Quality.
The quantity of an object is interpreted as some physical characteristic: volume, weight, etc. Quality is what makes an object what it is and not something else, and what distinguishes it from other objects. Quality gives an overall idea of an object. Quality manifests itself in qualities, which are specific aspects. Quantity and quality are a single whole because they represent aspects of the same object.
Essence - Phenomenon.
Phenomenon expresses the external aspects of things. The essence is the innermost and most intimate aspect, its raison d'être. The essence determines the phenomenon, and the phenomenon refers to the essence. Essence and phenomenon are a unity. Without essence there is no phenomenon, and without phenomenon there is no essence.
Content - Form.
The content of an object is what it possesses within itself, its internal aspect. Form expresses the external structure of the content. The content determines the form, and the form conditions the content.
Cause - Effect.
Cause is a phenomenon that produces another phenomenon. Effect is the result of the action of cause. Cause and effect are interrelated. All action is interaction. "What now and here is effect, acquires later and there the character of cause and vice versa" (Engels). "Cause and effect are simply moments of universal reciprocal dependence, of (universal) connection, of the concatenation of events, simply links in the chain of the development of matter" (Engels).
Particular - General (or Singularity - Plurality).
The particular expresses what is proper to each object. The general indicates the common properties of objects. The particular is a manifestation of the general. The general reigns over the particular. Every object is the unity of the singular and the universal. The particular and the general exist in an indissoluble unity. "The particular exists only in the relation that leads to the general. The general exists only in the particular, by means of the particular" (Lenin).
Theory - Practice.
Practice is the source and the end of knowledge. Practice is the only evaluative criterion of truth.
Possibility - Reality.
Possibility refers to the different alternatives of development. Reality is the materialization of possibility.
Necessity - Contingency.
Necessity expresses the essential. Contingency expresses the accessory. The necessary is always expressed. The contingent may or may not express itself.
The meta-dialectic.
Beyond dialectics is meta-dialectics (or transcendental dialectics), which is to go beyond dialectics, to transcend dialectics, to ascend to the metaphysical. Beyond dialectics is metaphysics.
In the history of philosophy there has always been a struggle between dialectic and metaphysics. According to Kant, dialectics is limited to the phenomenal, it cannot go beyond it. In general, we can say that the maximum dialectic is reached with the philosophical categories. The meta-dialectic is metaphysics, which we can only intuit (it is the "mystical", as Wittgenstein said).
We must also ask ourselves if dialectics is or is not dialectics, that is, if there is an anti-dialectic and a possible synthesis of both. If Engels' laws of dialectics are invariant (absolute), then dialectics is not debatable and there is no dialectic of a higher order, dialectics is not dialectic, which is a contradiction, since every concept is supposed to be dialectical. Therefore, dialectics should not be subject to any kind of laws limiting it. Dialectics, by its very nature, must be open.
Addenda
Quotes on the union of opposites.
"Harmony arises from the fusion of opposites." "The way up and down is one and the same." "In the circumference, the beginning and the end coincide" (Heraclitus).
"I am, in a certain way, something intermediate between God and nothingness" (Descartes).
"What is man in nature? Nothing with respect to infinity, everything with respect to nothing, an average between nothing and everything" (Blas Pascal).
"Subject and object are one" (Erwin Schrödinger).
"The exterior is the interior" (Kant).
"There is union between the internal and external world, therefore I am" (Rodolfo Llinás).
"What underlies the new paradigm is a union of opposites" (José Antonio Delgado González).
"If a union is to take place between opposites, such as spirit and matter, consciousness and unconsciousness, light and dark, etc., a third thing will happen, which represents not a compromise but something new" (Jung).
"Contradiction is the safeguard of eternity" (Stéphane Lupasco).
"Nothing exists except in relation to its opposite" (Paul Twitchell).
"Nothing exists except in relation to its opposite" (Paul Twitchell).
"Fear is born of duality" (Bhagavad Gita).
"To generate the whole from nothing the one is enough" (Leibniz).
"The opposite of a correct statement is an incorrect statement, but the opposite of a great truth may be another great truth" (Niels Bohr).
"The primordial heaven-earth separation is what has caused all our misfortune and in their union lies the basis of happiness" (Lévi-Strauss).
"In God is found the coincidence of opposites" (Nicholas of Cusa).
"The dialectical principle is the engine of the progress of scientific knowledge" (Jorge Wagensberg).
"Everything is dual; everything has two poles all its pair of opposites: similar and antagonistic are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes touch; all truths are semi-truths; all paradoxes can be reconciled" (Principle of Polarity. The Kybalion).
God is non-duality: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end".
"God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger: all oppositions are in Him" (Heraclitus).
"Man is crucified between opposites and suffers until the third mediator comes" (Jung).
"It is not necessary to make a decision, but to endure the opposites" (Jung).
"Contraria sunt complementa" (Opposites are complementary). Coat of arms of Niels Bohr.
"The human mind tends to organize thought and culture around binary opposites, and tries to resolve the resulting tension through the creative act" (Levi-Strauss).
"Both myth and science are structured by pairs of logically related opposites" (Lévi-Strauss).
"Reality is not dual; reality is a monadic integration of the immanent within the transcendent" (Ken Wilber).
Bibliography
Cavallé, Mónica. La sabiduría de la no-dualidad. Una reflexión comparada entre Nisargadatta y Heidegger. Kairós, 2008.
Cristóbal-Montes, Ángel. Repensar a Heráclito. Editorial Trotta, 2011.
Engels, Federico. Introducción a “Dialéctica de la Naturaleza” (y otros escriots sobre dialéctica). Fundación de Estudios Socialistas Federico Engels, 2006.
Gadamer, Hans Georg. La dialéctica de Hegel. Cátedra, 1988.
Grompone, Juan. Estudios sobre la lógica dialéctica. La flor del Itapebí, 2003. Disponible en Internet.
Guénon, René. El simbolismo de la cruz. Ediciones Obelisco, 1987.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Fenomenología del Espíritu. Pre-Textos, 2006.
Heidegger, Martin. La fenomenología del espíritu de Hegel. Alianza Editorial, 2008.
Hoeller, Stephan A. Jung gnóstico y los siete sermones a los muertos. Editorial Sirio, 2005.
Jaspers, Karl. Los grandes filósofos. Los metafísicos que pensaron desde el origen: Anaximandro, Heráclito, Parménides .... Editorial Tecnos, 1998.
Jung, Carl Gustav. Mysterium Coniunctionis. Investigación sobre la separación y la unión de los opuestos anímicos en la alquimia. Obra completa, vol. 14. Editorial Trotta, 2007. (La obra alquímica más importante de Jung).
Kant, Immanuel. Crítica de la razón pura. Editorial Tecnos, 2009.
Maharishi Mahes Yogi. La ciencia del Ser y el arte de vivir. Editorial Era de la Iluminación, 1981.
Platón. Diálogos. Espasa Calpe, 2000.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Crítica de la razón dialéctica y cuestión de método. Editorial Magisterio Español, 1987.
Spirkin, A.G. Materialismo dialéctico y lógica dialéctica. Clásicos del marxismo. Grijalbo, 1969.
Walton, Douglas. The New Dialectic. Conversational Contexts of Argument. University of Toronto Press, 1998.
