However, disputation in the new dialectic or the new disputation is no longer a method of discussion and a certain manner of exchanging opinions. Instead, it has become a method of explaining reality and a general law of the universe applicable to the various realities and kinds of existence. Thus, contradiction does not only lie between opinions and points of view. Rather, it is fixed in the heart of every reality and truth. Therefore, there is no proposition that does not involve in itself its own contradiction and negation. (p. 222)

Hegel was the first to establish a complete logic on the basis of this [notion of dialectics]. Thus, the dialectical contradiction was the central point in his logic and the main principle on which a new understanding of the world is based and by means of which a new theory about the world is constructed - a theory that is completely different from the classical theory that mankind had adopted ever since they were made to know and to think.

Hegel was not the first to formulate the principles of the dialectic. These principles are deeply rooted in a number of ideas that had appeared intermittently on the stage of human thought. However, these principles were not formulated in light of a complete logic which is clear in its explanation and view, and which is determined in its designs and rules, except at the hand of Hegel who constructed his whole idealistic philosophy on the basis of this kind of dialectic. He considered it a sufficient explanation of society, history, the nation and all aspects of life. After him, Marx adopted this dialectic and cast his materialistic philosophy in a purely dialectical form.

According to the claims of the dialecticians, the new dialectic is a law of thought and reality alike. That is why it is a method of thought as well as a principle on which the existence and development of reality is based.

We are told the following by Lenin:

If there are some contradictions among people's ideas, it is because the reality that our minds reflect involves contradictions. The dialectic of things produces the dialectic of ideas, and not vice versa. [1] (p. 223)

Marx also says:

The movement of thought is nothing but a reflection of the movement of reality, transmitted to, and transformed in the human mind. [2]

Hegelian logic, with the dialectic and contradiction on which it rests, is considered at the exact opposite end of the classical logic or the general human logic. This is because general logic accepts the principle of noncontradiction, and considers it a primary principle on the basis of which every knowledge must be based, and a necessary principle by which everything in the realm of existence abides, and without which no truth can be proved.

Hegelian logic, on the ocher hand, completely rejects the principle of noncontradiction. Further, it is not satisfied with emphasizing the possibility of contradiction. Rather, it views contradiction, instead of its opposite, as the primary principle for all true knowledge of the world, and the general law that explains the whole universe by means of a group of contradictions. Every proposition concerning the world is considered as an affirmation; while at the same time, it forms its own negation. Affirmation and negation are synthesized in a new affirmation. Thus, the contradictory method of dialectics or disputation that governs the world involves three stages, called the thesis, the antithesis, and the synthesis - that is, the affirmation, the negation and the negation of the negation. In accordance with the requirements of this method of disputation, everything unites with its contradictory. It is at the same time affirmed and denied, existent and nonexistent.

Hegelian logic claims that, by the disputation it attributes to existence, it has abolished the main points of classical logic. According to Hegelian logic, these points are the following. (p. 224) The first is the principle of noncontradiction, which asserts that a thing cannot be simultaneously qualified by a certain attribute and by its contradictory. The second is the principle of identity. This is the principle that states that every quiddity is what it is by necessity; that is, a thing cannot be stripped of itself. The third is the principle of rest and frozenness in nature. This principle asserts the negativity and fixedness of nature, and denies that the realm of matter is dynamic.

In the new logic, there is no room for the first principle, since everything pertaining to the reality of this logic is based on contradiction. If contradiction prevails as a general law, it is then also natural to drop the other principle of classical logic, the principle of non-contradiction. Everything loses its identity exactly at the moment of the affirmation, since it is in a continuous becoming. As long as contradiction is the main foundation, it will not be surprising that truth always means two contradictory things. Since this kind of contradiction, which lies at the heart of every reality, produces a continuous conflict in all things, and [since] 'conflict' means movement and progression, therefore nature is continuously active and developing, constantly moving forward and becoming. These are the blows that dialectical logic claims to have directed against general human logic and the familiar notion of the world, on which metaphysics rested for thousands of years.

The new method of understanding existence can be summed up in the assumption of a primary proposition that it views as a fundamental. Later, this fundamental converts to its contradictory by virtue of the conflict among the contradictories of the internal content. After that, the two contradictories are synthesized in a unity. This unity, in turn, becomes a fundamental and a new point of departure. Thus, this tri-progression is repeated (p. 225) endlessly and without limit. It moves with existence and extends as far as the phenomena and events of existence extend.

Hegel began with the general notions and categories, applying the dialectic to them, and inferring them in a disputational method based on the contradiction represented in the thesis, antithesis and synthesis. His bestknown and first triad in this area is that which begins from the simplest and most primary of chose notions: the notion of existence. Thus, existence is. This is the affirmation or thesis. However, it is not a thing, because it can be everything. The circle, for example, is. The same is true of the square, the white, the black, the plant, and the stone. Existence, therefore, is nothing determined. Consequently, it is not. This is the antithesis which the thesis produces. It is in this way that contradiction occurs in the notion of existence. This contradiction is resolved in the synthesis of existence and non-existence which produces an existent that does not fully exist, that is, becoming and movement. Hence, the conclusion to be drawn is that real existence is becoming.

We gave this example in order to show how the master of modern disputation moves in inferring the general notions from the more general to the more particular and from the more empty and weaker to the richer and closer to the external reality.

According to him, this kind of dialectic in inferring notions is nothing other than a reflection of the dialectic of actual things in themselves. Thus, if a certain idea causes an idea which is its opposite, that would be because the reality that the former idea represents requires an opposite reality.

A short glance at the thesis, the antithesis and the synthesis in the issue of existence, which is the best-known Hegelian triad, indicates clearly that Hegel did not really understand the principle of non-contradiction when he cancelled it and replaced it by the principle of contradiction. Further, I do not know (p. 226) how Hegel can explain to us contradiction, or negation and affirmation that unite in the notion of existence. No doubt, the notion of existence is a general notion. That is why it can be everything - it can be a plant or an inorganic thing, a white thing or a black thing, a circle or a square. But does this mean that these contradictories and opposite things unite in the notion of existence, such that it becomes the meeting point for contradictories and opposites? Of course not. The union of opposite things in one subject is one thing, while the possibility of the applicability of one notion to these things is something else. Existence is a notion that does not involve anything black or white, plant-like or inorganic. Rather, it can be either this or that. But it is not this and that at the same time. [3]

The basic points are four: the movement of development, the contradictions of development, the leaps of development, and the assertion of general linkage. (p. 227)

The Movement of Development

Stalin declares that

Contrary to metaphysics, the dialectic does not consider nature as a state of rest, frozenness, stagnation, and stability. Rather, it considers it as a state of constant motion, change, and uninterrupted renewal and development. In nature, there is always something generating and developing, and something disintegrating and perishing. That is why we wish [to establish] the dialectical method, so that one would not be satisfied with viewing events from the perspective of their relations to one another and from the perspective of their mutual adaptation to one another, but also from the perspective of their motion, change, development, appearance, and disappearance. [4]

Further, Engels says:

We must not view the world as if is were composed of complete things. Rather, we must view it as if it were composed in our minds. This passage (to the mental composition) indicates a continuous change of becoming and disintegration, where at last the light of progressive growth shines, in spite of all the apparent coincidence and temporary relapses. [5]

Thus, everything is subject to the laws of development and becoming. There is no limit at which this development or becoming ceases. (p. 228) For motion is the unlimited preoccupation of the whole existence.

The dialecticians claim that they alone consider nature in a constant state of motion and change. Further, they reproach metaphysical logic, or the traditional method of thinking for its procedure of studying and comprehending things, as this logic or method supposes nature in a state of absolute rest and frozenness. Therefore, it does not reflect nature in its moving and progressive reality. Thus, according to the dialecticians, the difference between the dialectical logic, which attributes to nature a constant motion and a continuous progression, and the formal logic is like the difference between two persons each of whom wishes to explore the innermost structure of a living being in its various roles. Each of them carries out his experiments on this being. Then one of them stops to observe the continuous development and motion of this being and to study this being in light of its whole development; whereas the other is satisfied with the first experiment, thinking that this being is static in its structure and stable in its identity and reality. Nature as a whole is similar to this living being, [whether as] a plant or as an animal, in development and growth. Thus, the mind does not accompany nature except if is resembles nature in its motion and development.

In fact, the law of dialectical development, which modern disputation considers one of its own basic features, is not something new in human thought. Rather, what is new is its dialectical character of which it must be stripped, as we will know later. In its proper limits, this law is in agreement with the general logic and has no relation to dialectics, nor was it discovered by dialectics. Thus, in order for us to accept this law and to know that metaphysics realized is before [the dialectic], we need only to strip this law of the form of contradiction and the ground of disputation on which the dialectic bases it.

According to the claims of the dialectician, the metaphysician believes that nature is frozen, characterized by rest, and fixed, stable and unchanging in all its aspects. It is as if (p. 229) the poor metaphysician were deprived of any kinds of knowledge and stripped of both consciousness and sensation. Thus, he became unperceptive and unaware of the kinds of changes and transformations in the realm of nature, of which all human beings, including children, are aware.

It is clear to everyone chat the acceptance of the presence of change in the realm of nature is a matter that does not require prior scientific study, and is not the subject of controversy or dispute. Rather, what is worthy of study is the nature of this change and the extent of its profundity and generality. For change is of two kinds: one of them is pure succession, and the other motion. The history of philosophy relates a sharp struggle, not with regard to change in general, but with regard to its essence and its precise philosophical explanation. The struggle centers on the answer to the following questions.

Is the change that occurs to a body, when that body traverses a certain distance, nothing but numerous poses that quickly follow one another in numerous places, thus forming in the mind the idea of motion? Or, can this change be attributed to a single gradual advance in which there is neither pose nor rest? Further, does the change that occurs to water, when the water's temperature is doubled and intensified, mean an assembly of successive temperatures that follow one another? Or is it one temperature that becomes more complete, and that alters and becomes of a higher degree? We face these questions with regard to every kind of change that requires a philosophical explanation in one of the two ways offered by these questions.

Greek history relates that some philosophical schools denied motion and adopted the other explanation of change - that which attributes change to the succession of motionless things. One of the proponents of such schools is Zeno, [57] who asserted that the motion of a traveler from the farthest point on earth to the farthest opposite point is nothing but a series of successive rests. (p. 230) Zeno did not see the gradual (motion) and process of completion of existence. Rather, he believed that every phenomenon is static, and that change occurs by the succession of static things, and not by the development and gradual [motion] of one thing. With this, the motion of a human being over a certain distance becomes an expression of his rest at the first point of the distance, then at the second point and after that at the third point, and so on.

If we see two individuals, one of whom is standing at a certain point, while the other is walking in a specific direction, both individuals, according to Zeno's view, are standing at rest. The first, however, is constantly at rest in a specific point; while the other has as many rests as the points he covers. At every moment, he is in a specific space, but at no moment does he differ at all from the first individual who stands at a specific point. Both individuals are at rest, even though the rest of the first is continuous, while the rest of the second quickly changes to another rest at another point of the distance. Hence, the difference between the two rests is the difference between a short rest and a long rest.

This is what Zeno as well as some ocher Greek philosophers attempted [to show]. He demonstrated his point of view by his four well-known proofs that did not meet with progress and success in the field of philosophy. This is because the Aristotelian school, the greatest philosophical school in the Greek age, accepted motion. It rejected and falsified those proofs and demonstrated the presence of motion and development in the neural phenomena and attributes. This means that a natural phenomenon may not fully exist at one moment. Rather, it exists gradually, and exhausts its possibilities step by step. This results in the occurrence of development and the completion of existence. When the temperature of water is doubled, this does not mean that at every moment water receives a specific degree of temperature that fully exists, then perishes, and then another degree of temperature is freshly produced. Rather, the essence of this doubling (p. 231) consists in that one temperature had existed in the water yet not fully, in the sense that it did not exhaust in its first moment all its powers and possibilities. Due to this, it began to exhaust its possibilities gradually, and to advance and develop later on. In philosophical terminology, it is a continuous progressive motion. It is clear that the process of completion or the developmental motion cannot be understood except in this sense. As for the succession of numerous phenomena- of which each one exists after the previous one and, by its own perishing, opens the way for a new phenomenon - it is not growth and completion. Consequently, it is not a motion, but a kind of general change.

Motion, therefore, is the gradual advance of existence and the development of a thing to the level permitted by its possibilities. That is why the philosophical notion of motion is defined as the gradual actualization of the potentiality of a thing. [6]

This definition rests on the idea of motion presented earlier. Motion, as we have already learned, is not the absolute perishing of a thing and the existence of another new thing. Rather, it is the progression of a thing in the order of existence. Therefore, from the time it begins to the time it ceases, every motion must contain one continuous existence. It is this-existence that moves, in the sense that [it progresses] step by step and continuously becomes more enriched. Every step is one of the stages of this one existence. These stages exist only by virtue of motion. Thus, a thing that moves or an existence that develops does not possess these stages before its motion; otherwise, there would not be any motion. [58] Rather, at the starting point, that thing or existence is represented to us as potentialities and possibilities. It is by motion that those possibilities are exhausted. Ac every step of the motion, possibility is substituted by reality and potentiality by actuality. Thus, before water is placed on the fire, it possesses nothing of the perceptible temperature other than (p. 232) its possibility. Further, this possibility that it possesses is not the possibility of a certain degree of temperature, but includes all the degrees of temperature that, in the last analysis, lead to the vapor state. When water begins to be acted upon and influenced by the heat of fire, its temperature begins to change and develop. This means that the potentialities and possibilities that water enjoyed changed into a reality. Ac every stage of the motion, water proceeds from possibility to actuality. For this reason, potentiality and actuality are tied together in all the stages of the motion. At the point at which all possibilities are exhausted, motion ceases. Motion, therefore, is of two kinds at every stage. In one respect, it is actual and real. This is because the step registered by a stage exists in a real and an actual manner. In another respect, it is a possibility and a potentiality of the other progressive steps that motion is expected to register in its new stages. Thus, if we observe the water in our example at a specific point of motion, we find that it is actually hot at 80 degrees (centigrade), for instance. However, at the same time, it involves the possibility of exceeding this degree and the potentiality of advancing to a higher degree. Hence, the actuality of every step in its specific stage is linked to the potentiality for its perishing.

Let us take a more profound example of motion. This is the living being that develops by a gradual motion. It is (at first) an ovum, then a zygote, then a fetus, then an infant, then an adolescent, and finally an adult. Indeed, at a specific stage of its motion, this being is an actual sperm. However, at the same time, it is something else opposite the sperm and superior to it. That is, it is potentially an infant. This means that motion in this being is such that both actuality and potentiality are combined in it. If this living being does not have potentiality and possibility for a new stage, it will not have any motion. Further, if it is nothing in actuality, it will be pure non-existence; and hence, it will not have any motion. Development, therefore, always consists of something actual and something potential. Thus, motion continues as long as a thing combines both actuality and potentiality, existence and possibility. If possibility is exhausted, and no capacity for a new stage remains in the tiring, the life of motion ends. (p. 233)

This is the meaning of the gradual actualization of the potentiality of a thing, or the entanglement or union of potentiality and actuality in motion. This is also the precise philosophical sense that metaphysics gives to motion. Dialectical materialism has adopted this sense without understanding it and knowing it as it is. Thus, it claimed that motion is not completed except through the continuous contradiction at the heart of things, as we will soon learn.

After this, Islamic philosophy played its role at the hands of the great Muslim philosopher, Saar ad-Din ash-Shirazi. [59] He posited the theory of general motion, and demonstrated philosophically that motion, in the precise meaning that has been presented above, does not only touch the phenomena of nature and its accidental surface, but the motion of such phenomena is just an aspect of the development that discloses a deeper aspect: that is, the development at the heart of nature and the substantial motion of nature. This is. so, because since the outermost motion of the phenomena means renewal and perishing, its direct cause must be a renewable thing whose essence is also unfixed. For the cause of what is fixed is fixed, and the cause of what is alterable and renewable is alterable and renewable. Thus, the direct cause of motion cannot be a fixed thing; otherwise, the parts of motion would not perish, but would become stagnation and rest. [7] (p. 234)

The philosopher ash-Shirazi did not only demonstrate substantial motion, but also showed clearly that the principle of motion in nature is one of the necessary philosophical principles (p. 235) of metaphysics. In light of this principle, he explained the connection of the new with the old, [8] as well as a number of other philosophical problems, such as the problem of time, [9] the issue of the separability of matter, and the relation of the soul to the body. [10]

After all this, can one accuse theology and metaphysics of asserting the frozenness and rest of nature? Actually, there is no reason for this accusation other than the fact that dialectical materialism does not understand motion in the proper philosophical sense. What then is the difference between motion and its general law in our philosophy and the theory of dialectical motion in dialectical materialism? The difference between the two kinds of motion is summed up in two basic points.

The first point is that motion in the dialectical sense is based on (p. 236) the contradiction and strife among contradictories. Such contradiction and strife are the internal power that causes motion and produces development. In our philosophical view of motion, the reverse of this is true. According to our view, motion is considered as a progression from one step to an opposite step, without the union of those opposite steps in one of the stages of motion. For the purpose of clarifying this point, we must distinguish between potentiality and actuality and analyze the Marxist fallacy which rests on the consideration of potentiality and actuality as contradictory units.

Motion is composed of potentiality and actuality. Potentiality and actuality are tied up together in the various stages of motion. It is impossible for the nature of motion to exist without either of these two elements. Thus, existence in every stage of its progression toward completion involves a specific actual rank and a higher rank than that in' potentiality. At the moment at which it adapts itself to the [specific actual] rank, it progresses in an ascending fashion and supersedes its present rank.

Marxism has imagined chat this is a kind of contradiction, that the progressive existence involves the thing and its contradictory, and that the contradiction between the two contradictories is what produces the motion. We quote from Engels:

The situation would be completely different if we see the existents while in the state of their motion, change, and mutual influences on one another; for at the beginning of such a site, we find ourselves immersed in contradictions. Motion contradicts the fact that the simplest mechanical change in place cannot, in the last analysis, occur except by means of the presence of a certain body in a certain place at a certain moment, and in (p. 287) another place at that same moment. In other words, its being and nonbeing are simultaneously in one place. The continuous succession of this contradiction and the temporary reconciliation of this contradiction with this succession is what is called motion. [11]

Reflect on how nonsensical the idea of motion is in dialectical materialism! Engels explains this idea on the basis of contradiction, not knowing that if two ranks of motion actually existed in a specific stage of the motion, development would not be possible; and consequently, motion would be frozen. The reason for this is that motion is a transposition of the existent from one rank to another rank and from one limit to another limit. Thus, if all limits and points were actually united, there would not be any motion. Therefore, it is necessary not to explain motion except in light of the principle of non-contradiction; otherwise, if contradiction were permissible, then it would be appropriate for us to ask whether or not motion involves a change in the ranks of the progressive thing, and a substitution of the limits and quality of that thing. If motion does not involve any change or renewal, then it is not motion. Rather, it is frozenness and fixedness. If Marxism admits the renewal and change of motion, [then the question is] this: for what purpose is this renewal if all contradictions are actually present and have no opposition among themselves? The simplest analysis of motion shows us that motion is one of the phenomena that prevent and make impossible the union of contradictories and opposites, something that imposes on the progressive existent a continuous change in its rank and limit. The alleged contradiction or dialectic in motion is only due to the confusion between potentiality and actuality.

Hence, at no stage does motion involve two ranks or two actual contradictories. Rather, it involves a specific rank in actuality and another rank in potentiality. For this reason, (p. 288) motion is a gradual actualization of potentiality. However, incomplete philosophical awareness was the cause of the falsification of the idea of motion.

This makes it clear that the law of contradicting non-contradiction (naqd an-naqd) and the explanation of motion in terms of this law, as well as all the confusion and clamor surrounding this law, and the displeasure with, and ridicule of the metaphysical notions that adopt the principle of non-contradiction are attributed to the philosophical idea of motion that we have already presented and that Marxism misunderstood. Thus, Marxism considered the entanglement of actuality with potentiality or their union in all the stages of motion as a union of actual opposite things, a continuous contradiction and a strife among the contradictories. For this reason, Marxism rejected the principle of non-contradiction and put down the whole general logic. This Marxist attempt is not the first of its kind. Some metaphysicians in the history of ancient philosophy had also attempted something similar, but with one difference between the two: Marxism wished to justify contradiction by this attempt; whereas those ancient metaphysicians had attempted to demonstrate the negation of the possibility of motion because motion involves contradiction.

AI-Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi [60] had also made a similar attempt in which he mentioned that motion is a gradual progression - that is, a gradual existence of a thing. He claimed that the gradual progression of existence is unlikely, since it leads to a kind of contradiction. Scholars of philosophy have shown that [this idea of motion] was the product of misunderstanding the meaning of gradual progression and gradual existence.

Since we now know with clarity that motion is not a strife among actual things that are always in contradiction, but an entanglement of potentiality with actuality, and the gradual departure of a thing from one of these two states to the other, we can know that it is impossible for motion to be selfsufficient or without an [external] cause, that the progressive existence does not depart from (p. 239) actuality except due to an external cause, and that strife among contradictories is not the internal cause of that departure, since motion does not involve a union of contradictories or opposites from whose strife it can result. As long as at the beginning of the motion, the progressive existence is empty of ranks or kinds, which it acquires throughout the stages of the motion, and as long as it does not internally involve anything except the possibility of those ranks and the readiness for them, there must be a cause for bringing that existence from potentiality to actuality, in order that its possibility which is fixed in its innermost being be converted into a reality.

We learn from this that the general law of motion in nature proves by itself the necessity of the existence of a principle external to the material limits of nature. The reason is that motion, according to this law, is the manner in which nature exists. Thus, the existence of nature is another form of the motion and gradual progression of nature, as well as its continuous departure from potentiality toactuality. The theory of the self-sufficiency of motion due to its internal contradictions whose strife among each other produces motion, according to the claim of the Marxists, has already collapsed, since there is no contradiction and no strife. Therefore, there must be causation, and causation must be by something external to the limits of nature. For everything existing in nature is such that its existence is motion and gradual progression, since there is no fixedness in the realm of nature according to the law of general motion. Hence, in searching for the [primary] cause, we cannot stop at something natural.

The second point is that motion, according to the Marxist view, does not stop at the limits of the objective reality of nature. Rather, it is also common to human truths and ideas. As the external reality of matter develops and grows, so also do the truths and mental perceptions submit to the same laws of development and growth that apply to the realm of nature. On the basis of this, there are no absolute truths according to the Marxist view of ideas. (p. 240)

We are told by Lenin: 'Therefore, the dialectic, in the view of Marx, is the science of the general laws of motion, whether in the external world or in the human mind.' [12]

According to our opinion, however, the law of general motion is the opposite of this. It is a natural law common to the realm of matter and does not extend to the realm of thought and knowledge. Truth and knowledge do not involve and cannot involve development in the precise philosophical sense, as we pointed out with clarity in the first investigation (the theory of knowledge). Our present purpose of studying the alleged dialectical motion of knowledge and truth is to present the main attempts that Marxism adopted for demonstrating the dialectic and the movement of thought. These attempts are summed up as three. The first attempt is that thought and knowledge are reflections of the objective reality. In order for them to correspond to this reality, they must reflect its laws, its development and its movement. Nature develops and changes continuously in accordance with the law of motion. Truth could not portray nature in the human mind if truth were frozen and at rest. Rather, truth exists in our thoughts, only if these thoughts are such that they grow and develop dialectically, so that our thoughts of things match the things themselves.

In this respect, we should pay attention to the following texts: (p. 241)

Reality grows, and the knowledge chat results from this reality reflects it, grows as it grows, and becomes an effective element of its growth. Thought does not produce its subject. Rather, it reflects and portrays objective reality by disclosing the laws of the growth of this reality. [13]

The difference between formal logic and dialectical logic is confined to the fact that both of them face in different ways the basic issue of logic, i.e. the issue of truth. From the point of view of dialectical logic, truth is not something given once and for all. It is not something complete, determined, frozen, and at rest. Rather, it is the opposite of this. Truth is a process of the growth of a human being's knowledge of the objective world. [14]

The Marxist dialectical logic treats the thing that it studies from a historical point of view inasmuch as that thing is a process of growth and development. It agrees with the general history of knowledge and the history of science. [15]

There is no doubt that thought and knowledge portray objective reality in some form. But this does not mean that the motion of objective reality is reflected in them and, therefore, that they grow and move in accordance with its [growth and motion]. The reason is this.

1. The realm of nature - that is, the realm of change, renewal and motion necessarily involves fixed general laws. No logic can deny this, except if it denies itself. For a logic cannot be a logic, unless it establishes (p. 242) its method of thinking and its understanding of the world on fixed, specific laws. Even the dialectic itself asserts that a number of laws are in control of nature and always govern it. One of these laws is that of motion. Therefore, the realm of nature -whether subject to the general human law or to the law of dialectics or disputation - involves fixed laws chat reflect fixed truths in the realm of thought and the area of human knowledge. With regard to this objection, the dialecticians have to choose between the following two considerations. They either consider the law of motion as fixed and constant, thus there would be constant truth; or that the same law is re-evaluated. This would mean that motion is not constant, that it may be transformed into rest, and that truths become fixed after they had been moveable. In either case, the dialectic would be forced to admit the presence of a third truth.
2. Thought, knowledge and truth do not reflect the actual properties of nature. We have already pointed out in 'the theory of knowledge' that the human mind comprehends the notions and natures of objective things. The notions of those things that are reflected in the mind are different from the external realities in existence and properties. Thus, the scientist is able to form a precise scientific idea about the microbe, its composition, its specific activity and its interaction with the human body. However, no matter how precise and detailed an idea may be, it does not involve the properties of the external microbe and cannot play the same role played by its own objective reality. The physicist may acquire a precise scientific notion of the radium atom and may determine its atomic weight, the number of electrons it carries, its negative and positive charges, the quantity of radiation it emits, and the exact scientific proportion of this radiation to the radiation emitted by the uranium atom, as well as other information and details. However, (p. 243) regardless of the depth of this notion or its profound disclosure of the mysteries of the radium element, it will not acquire the properties of objective reality - namely, the properties of the radium - nor will it emit the radiation emitted by the atoms of this element. Consequently, our notion of the atom will not develop into radiation, as do some atoms in the external world.

Thus, it becomes clear that the laws and properties of objective reality are not present in the idea itself. Motion is one of those laws and properties. Thus, even though it is a general property of matter and one of its fixed laws, the truth in our minds or the idea that reflects nature does not involve this property. A true idea need not reflect objective reality in its properties and various kinds of activities; otherwise, none of our ideas would be true.

In spite of the fact that metaphysics considers nature as a realm of continuous motion and development, yet it differs from the dialectic in rejecting the application of the law of motion to mental notions, for such notions do not involve all the properties of objective reality. This does not mean that if the metaphysicians form a notion about nature in one of its stages, therefore, they freeze their ideas, stop their research, and consider this notion sufficient for disclosing the innermost secrets of nature in all its stages. We do not know any reasonable person who would be satisfied, for example, with the scientific notion that he forms about the ovum, thus discontinuing the progression of the living being in its second stage, and contenting himself with the scientific notion that he had formed about it in that specific stage.

Thus, we .believe that nature develops, and we find it necessary to study it in every stage of its growth and motion, and to form a notion about it. This is not something restricted to the dialectic. What metaphysics rejects is (p. 244) the existence of a natural dynamic motion in every mental notion. Therefore, metaphysics calls for a distinction between the ovum and our scientific notion of the ovum. The ovum develops and grows naturally. It becomes a zygote and then a fetus. But our notion of it is fixed. It cannot under any circumstance become a sperm. Rather, for knowing what a sperm is we must form another notion in light of observing the ovum in a new stage. Thought about the development of the ovum is like a movie film that takes a number of successive pictures. The first picture in the film is not the one that develops and moves. Rather, it is the succession among the pictures that constitutes the movie film.

On the basis of this, human knowledge would not reflect reality, except inasmuch as the movie film reflects the kinds of motion and activity that it includes. Thus, knowledge does not develop or grow in a dialectical manner, in accordance with the reflected reality. Rather, it is necessary to form a fixed knowledge of every stage of reality.

Let us take as another example the element of uranium that exhibits the alpha wave, the beta wave and the gamma wave, and gradually changes to another element lighter than it in its atomic weight - this is the radium element that, in turn, gradually changes to an element lighter than it, and passes through [various] stages, until is becomes lead. This is an objective reality explained by science. In light of it, we form our specific notion about it. What then does Marxism mean by the dialectical development of the mental notion or truth in accordance with the development of reality? If it means by this that our very scientific notion about uranium develops dialectically and naturally in accordance with the development of the uranium - thus emitting the specific waves of uranium and transforming, in the last analysis, into lead - this will be closer to a charming, humorous chat than to a reasonable philosophical discourse. If, on the other hand, Marxism intends [by this] that human beings must not view uranium as a frozen, motionless element, (p. 245) but as something that continues its progression, and about every stage of which human beings form a notion, this will close the discussion; [for] it does not mean a dialectical motion in truths and notions. Every notion we form about a specific stage of the development of uranium is fixed and does not develop dialectically to another notion. Rather, a new notion is added to it. At the end of this process, we possess a number of fixed notions and truths, every one of which portrays a specific level of the objective reality. Where then is the disputation or dialectic of thought? Also, where is the notion that develops naturally in accordance with the external development? This is all that relates to the first Marxist attempt and its refutation.

The second attempt made by Marxism to demonstrate the dialectic and development of thought is that thought or knowledge is one of the natural phenomena and a superior product of matter. Consequently, it is part of nature. Therefore, it is governed by the same laws that administer nature. It alters and grows dialectically, as do all the phenomena of nature.

We must warn that this demonstration is different from the abovementioned demonstration. In the previous demonstration, Marxism attempted to show that motion is present in thought due to the thought's character as a reflection of the moving reality. The reflection is not complete if the moving reality is not reflected in thought in its motion and growth. In the present attempt, however, Marxism endeavors to show that the dialectical motion of thought is due to the thought's character as a part of nature. Thus, the laws of the dialectic apply to both matter and knowledge, and extend to reality and thought alike, since each of them is an aspect of nature. Thought or truth develops and grows, not only because it reflects a reality that develops and grows, (p. 246) but also because it itself is a part of the realm that develops in accordance with the laws of the dialectic. As the dialectic dictates the existence of dynamic motion, which is grounded on the basis of internal contradiction in the innermost being of every objective phenomenon of nature, it also dictates the existence of dynamic motion in all the phenomena of thought and knowledge.

Let us go over what is related to this subject in the following texts:

Being is the motion of matter which is subject to laws. Since our knowledge is nothing but a superior product of nature, it cannot but reflect these laws. [16]

If we inquire about the nature of thought, the nature of awareness, and their source, we will find that human beings are themselves the product of nature. They grow in a certain community and with the growth of that community. At this point, it becomes evident that the products of the human mind which are also, in the last analysis, products of nature, are not in contradiction, but in agreement with the rest of the interconnected nature. [17]

The basic point on which this demonstration rests is the adoption of the purely materialistic explanation of knowledge that imposes on knowledge a sharing with all the laws and decrees of nature, including the law of motion. We will analyze this basic point in an independent chapter of this investigation. At the present, however, we are attempting to inquire from the Marxists whether the materialistic explanation of thought or knowledge is reserved for the thoughts of the dialecticians in particular. Or does it also pervade the thoughts of others who (p. 247) do not accept the dialectic? If it pervades all thoughts - as the materialistic philosophy necessitates - then all thoughts must be subject to the laws of the general development of matter. But because of this, it becomes curiously contradictory for Marxism to accuse other thoughts of frozenness and stationariness, and to consider its thought as the only one that develops and grows due to the fact that it is a part of the progressive nature, even though all human thoughts, according to the materialistic notion, are nothing but a product of nature. All that there is to this matter is that the proponents of the general or formal logic, as they claim, do not accept the dialectical development of thought, as the Marxists do. However, when was the acceptance of a natural law a condition for the existence of that law? Do not the body of Pasteur, [61] the discoverer of the microbe, and the body of Ibn Send, who did not know anything about the microbe, both share reaction to germs, in accordance with the specific natural laws governing germs? The same holds true for every natural law. Thus, if the dialectic is a natural law common to both thought and matter, then it must apply to [all] human thoughts alike. If there is anything to its discovery, it is only the speed of the developmental motion.

The third attempt is the exploitation of scientific development and wholeness in the various fields, and the consideration of this as an empirical evidence for the dialectic and development of thought. The history of sciences, according to the Marxist claim, is itself the history of the dialectical movement of the human thought that becomes more complete with the passage of time.

Here is a citation from Kedrov:

The absolute truth which results from relative truths is a historical movement of development. It is the movement of knowledge. It is precisely for this reason that the Marxist dialectical logic treats the thing that it studies from a historical point of view, i.e. from the point of view of that thing's being a process of growth and development. This logic (p. 248) is in agreement with the general history of knowledge and the history of science. By using as examples the natural sciences, economics, politics, and history, Lenin shows that the dialectic derives its conclusions from the history of thought, while at the same time, he asserts that the history of thought in logic must agree, in part and in whole, with the laws of thought. [18]

No two persons disagree on the fact that the history of human knowledge and science is full of advances and completion of knowledge in the various fields and in the different types of life and experience.' Casting one glance on science in its present and past makes us fully believe the extent of the fast development and the remarkable completion that science has attained in its latest races. But this scientific development is not a kind of motion in the philosophical sense intended by Marxism. Indeed, it is nothing more than a decrease in the quantity of errors and an increase in the quantity of truths. Science develops, not in the sense that scientific truth grows and becomes complete, but in the sense that its truths multiply and are increased in number, and its errors are reduced and decreased in number, in accordance with the enlargement of the experimental scope, the deeper plunge into experimentation, and the precision of the means of experimentation. In order to clarify this, it is necessary to give an idea about the procession of the scientific development and the method of gradual progression and completion in the scientific theories and truths, so that we can see clearly the difference between the alleged dialectic of thought, on the one hand, and the historical development of the human sciences, on the other hand.

Scientific truths begin with a theoretical procedure, such as with a research hypothesis that occurs to the natural scientist due to a number of previous pieces of information and scientific or simple observations. A hypothesis is the first stage that the scientific theory crosses in its developmental procession. After that, the scientist begins a scientific investigation and an experimental study (p. 249) of that hypothesis. He performs all kinds of tests by means of precise scientific observations and various experiments in a field related to the hypothesis. If the results of the observations or experiments agree with the hypothesis and are in harmony with its nature and with the nature of its phenomena, the hypothesis acquires a new character: that is, the character of a scientific law. Subsequently, the theory enters the second stage of its scientific procession. But this development that transfers the theory from the level of a hypothesis to that of a law does not mean that the scientific truth has grown and altered. Rather, it means that a specific idea was the subject of doubt, but has attained the level of scientific trust and certitude. Thus, Pasteur's theory concerning microbic living beings, which he posited on an intuitive basis, was then confirmed by careful observations through modern scientific means. Also, the theory of general gravity, the hypothesis for which was evoked in Newton's mind by a simple scene (the scene of the fall of an apple on the ground), made Newton inquire as to why it is that the force that made the apple fall on the ground is not itself the force that preserves the moon's balance and guides its motion? Later, experiments and scientific observations confirmed the applicability of gravity to the celestial bodies, and considered it a general law based on a specific relation.

The same is true of the theory stating that the difference in the speed of the fall of bodies is attributed to the resistance of air, and not to the difference in their mass, which was introduced as an [important] scientific event whose truth was later proved by science through experiments on various bodies in a place void of air - thus demonstrating that all bodies share a certain degree of speed - I say chat such a theory and thousands of other theories, which have all passed through the above-mentioned stage of development by crossing the level of a hypothesis to the level of a law. They do not express by this crossing and development of a growth in the same truth, but a difference in the level of its scientific acceptance. The idea is the same idea, but it has passed scientific examination. (p. 250) Due to this, is became clear as a truth, after is had been the subject of doubt.

When this theory attains its proper position among scientific laws, it plays its role of application, and acquires the property of scientific reference for explaining the phenomena of nature that appear in observation, experimentation or disclosure of new truths and secrets. The more such a theory can discover unknown truths, whose soundness is later confirmed by experiments, the more established and the clearer does it become in the scientific mentality. For this reason, the scientists' discovery of the planet Neptune in light of the law of gravity and its mathematical formula was considered a great victory for the theory of general gravity. The existence of this planet was then confirmed by scientific observations. This, too, is nothing but a kind of strong scientific confidence in the truth and soundness of the theory.

If the theory is constantly accompanied by success in the scientific field, it is then confirmed for good. If, on the other hand, it begins to shift from corresponding to the reality that is scientifically scrutinized, after carefully examining the systems and tools, and after making penetrating observations and tests, the theory begins at that point the stage of adjustment and renewal. In this stage, new observations and experiments may be required to complete the previous scientific theory by means of new notions that are added to the previous theory, so that a unified explanation of the whole experimental reality will be attained. Pieces of scientific evidence may reveal the falsehood of the previous theory. Thus, in light of experiments and observations, this theory collapses and is substituted by another.

In none of this can we understand scientific development in a dialectical fashion or imagine the truth as it is supposed by the dialectic - that is, that it grows and alters in accordance with the contradictions that it involves internally; thus, taking on in every stage a new foot, while in all those forms it is a complete scientific truth. This is quite different from the scientific reality (p. 251) of human thought. Rather, what happens in the area of scientific adjustment is the attainment of new truths that are added to the fixed scientific truth, or the discovery of the falsehood of the previous truth and the truth of another idea for explaining reality.

What occurred to the atomic theory (the theory of atomism) falls in the first category: the attainment of new truths that are added to the fixed scientific truth. This theory was first a hypothesis, and then, in accordance with experiments, it became a scientific law. Later, in light of experiments, physics was able to reach [the conclusion] that the atom is not the primordial unit of matter, but that it itself also consists of parts. This is how the atomic theory was completed by a new scientific notion of the nucleus and the charges of which the atom is composed. The truth did not grow, but the scientific truths were increased in number. However, the quantitative increase is other than the dialectical growth and the philosophical movement of truth.

What occurred to the theory of general gravity (the mechanical explanation of the world in Newton's theories) falls in the second category (the discovery of the falsehood of a previous theory and the truth of another idea). The disagreement of this explanation with a number of electric and magnetic phenomena has been noticed. The same is true of the inappropriateness of this explanation for explaining the manner in which light forms and propagates as well as similar points that were taken by later physicists to constitute an evidence of the falsehood of the Newtonian notion of the world. On the basis of this, Einstein put forth his theory of relativity that he cast in a mathematical explanation of the world that differs completely from that of Newton. Can we then say that Newton's theory for explaining the world and that of Einstein are both true, and that the truth has developed and grown such that it took the form of the relativity theory after it had been in the form of (the theory of) general gravity? Further, is time, space, and mass, [62] the absolute fixed triad in Newton's explanation, the scientific truth that (p. 252) grew and altered in accordance with the law of dialectical movement, and was then transformed into the relativity of time, space and mass? [63] Or has the force of gravity in Newton's theory developed into a curvature in space [time]; thus, the mechanical force by motion is a property of the geometry of the world, [64] by means of which the motion of earth around the sun and other motions are explained, as is the bending of nuclear radiation?

The only reasonable [interpretation] is that careful or numerous experiments have led to the manifestation of error [of incompleteness] in the previous theory, the absence of truth (or generality] in it, and the evidence of the presence of truth [or generality] in another explanation. [19]

At last, our assertion becomes clear; namely, that scientific development does not mean that the truth grows and comes into being gradually. Rather, it means the completion of knowledge inasmuch as knowledge is a whole; that is, inasmuch as it is an assembly of theories and laws. Further, its completion means a quantitative increase of its truths and a quantitative decrease of its errors.

Finally, we wish to know what Marxism seeks in the development of the truth. Indeed, Marxism seeks two things in the assertion of the development of the truth and the application of the dialectic to the truth.

First, it seeks a negation of absolute truth. If the truth continuously moves and grows, then there is no fixed and absolute truth. Consequently, the metaphysical fixed truths, for which Marxism condemns theology, will be destroyed. Second, it seeks to deny absolute falsity in the march of scientific development. Scientific development, (p. 253) in the dialectical sense, does not mean that the previous theory is absolutely false, but that it is a relative truth. This means that it is a truth at a specific stage of development and growth. By means of this, Marxism placed the security of truth in the various stages of scientific completion.

These two aims collapse in light of the sound and reasonable explanation of scientific development that we have presented above. In accordance with this explanation, the scientific development is not a growth of a specific truth, but new discoveries of truths not known before, as well as corrections of previous errors. Every corrigible error is an absolute error, and every discoverable truth is an absolute truth.

Add to this that Marxism fell into a basic confusion between truth, in the sense of thought, and truth, in the sense of independent objective reality. Metaphysics asserts the presence of absolute truth in the second sense. It accepts a fixed objective reality beyond the limits of nature. This is not incompatible with the negation of truth in the first sense and the continuous development of truth. Suppose that truth in the human mind is in a constant and a continuous development and movement. What harm would this cause the metaphysical reality admitted by theology, as long as we accept the possibility of an objective reality independent of consciousness and knowledge? Marxism can fulfill its wish if we pursue idealism and say that reality is the truth that exists in our minds only. Thus, if the truth in our minds develops and changes, then there will be no room for belief in an absolute reality. If, on the other hand, we distinguish between thought and reality, and accept the possibility of the existence of a reality independent of consciousness and thought, then there will be no harm to the existence of an absolute reality external to the limits of knowledge, even though there may not be any absolute truth in our minds. (p. 254)

The Contradictions of Development

The following passage is taken from Stalin:

Contrary to metaphysics, the starting point of the dialectic is the view which rests on the fact that all natural events and things involve contradictions, since all of them involve a negative aspect as well as a positive aspect in the past and in the present. Further, they all have elements that disintegrate or develop. Thus, the strife of these opposites lies in the internal content responsible for transferring the quantitative changes to qualitative changes. [20]

Again, Mao Tse-tung says:

The law of contradiction in things, i.e. the law of the union of opposites, is the basic and most important law in dialectical materialism.

Lenin tells us: 'The dialectic, in the precise sense, is a study of the contradiction in the innermost essence of things.'

Lenin often called this law 'the essence of the dialectic', as he called it 'the heart of the dialectic'. [21] (p. 255)

This is the basic law that the dialectic alleges to be capable of explaining nature and the world, as well as justifying linear movement and the developments and leaps that this-movement involves. When Lenin discarded the notion of the first principle from his philosophy, and considered as totally improbable the assumption of a cause external to, and beyond [to nature], he found himself required to provide a justification and an explanation of the continuous march and the constant change, in the realm of matter, in order to show how matter develops and cakes on different forms; that is, in order to determine the source of motion and the primary cause of the phenomena of existence. He assumed that this source is in the internal content of matter; hence, matter contains a continuous replenishment of motion. But how does matter contain this replenishment? This is the main question regarding this issue. Dialectical materialism answers this question by saying that matter is a union of opposites and an assembly of contradictories. If all opposites and contradictories melt in a specific unity, it will be natural then that they struggle among each other for the acquisition of knowledge. Development and change result from this struggle. Consequently, nature attains the stages of its completion by way of this method. On the basis of this, Marxism abandoned the principle of non-contradiction. It considered it a characteristic of metaphysical thought and one of the fundamentals of formal logic chat succumb to the sharp pickax of the dialectic. This is confirmed by Kedrov in the following statement:

By the expression 'formal logic' we understand the logic that rests on nothing other than the four laws of thought: the law of identity, the law of contradiction, the law of conversion, and the law of demonstration. This logic stops at this point. But we consider the dialectical logic, on the other hand, as the science of thought which rests on the Marxist method which is characterized by the following main points: admission of (1) the general linkage, (p. 256) (2) the movement of development, (8) the leaps of development, and (4) the contradiction of development. [22]

Thus, we see that the dialectic discarded from its field most of the intuitive human thoughts. It rejected the principle of non-contradiction; instead, it assumed contradiction as a general law of nature and existence. In this rejection and assumption, the dialectic unconsciously applied the principle of non-contradiction. When the dialectician admits the dialectical contradictions and the dialectical explanation of nature, he finds himself obliged to reject the principle of non-contradiction and its metaphysical explanation. Clearly, this is only due to the fact that human nature cannot reconcile negation and affirmation. Rather, it essentially feels an absolute opposition between the two. If this is not so, then why did Marxism reject the principle of non-contradiction and assert its falsehood? Is it not because it accepted contradiction and could not accept its negation, as long as it had already accepted its affirmation?

Thus, we know that the principle of non-contradiction is the general basic principle of which human thought was never free, even at the point of enthusiasm for disputation and dialectics.

Dialectical contradiction also resulted in the elimination of the principle of identity (a is a) from the dictionary of disputation. A thing was permitted to be other than itself. Indeed, the general dialectical contradiction makes this necessary, for everything involves its contradictory and expresses its own negation at the time of its affirmation. Thus 'a is a' is not so absolutely. Rather, every being is the contradictory and the negation of itself, as it is an affirmation of it. This is so, because its being is essentially contradictory and involves negation and affirmation that are always in conflict and that, by their conflict, erupt (p. 257) in motion.

The Marxists have not attempted to prove the contradiction of things- that is, the law of dialectics and its disputational basis - except by a group of examples and phenomena, by means of which they tried to show the contradiction and disputation of nature. Thus, (to them], contradiction is just one of the laws of dialectical logic, since nature itself is contradictory and dialectical. This is made evident by the kinds of contradiction given by the senses or revealed by science, which destroy the principle of noncontradiction and make it inconsistent with the reality and laws of nature that govern the various fields and areas of nature.

We have alluded earlier to the fact that Marxism did not find a way to the dynamism of nature and to making the forces that are active by motion as the internal content of the same progressive matter, except by starting from contradiction and accepting the union of contradictories in a progressive unity, in accordance with the struggle and strife of these contradictories.

The issue, according to Marxism, is only two sided. First, we either form our idea about the world on the principle that asserts non-contradiction. Thus, there would neither be negation and affirmation at the heart of things, nor would such things involve the strife of contradictories. Consequently, we must search for the source of motion and development in a cause superior to nature and to its developments. Or else, second, we establish our logic on the belief that contradiction penetrates to the heart of things, and that in every being, opposites or negation and affirmation unite. [23] (p. 258) With this, we find the secret of development in the internal contradiction.

Since, according to the claims of Marxism, nature provides in every opportunity and in every field testimony and evidence for the confirmation of contradiction and the union of contradictories and opposites, one must, therefore, adopt the second point of view.

In fact, the principle of non-contradiction is the most general law and the most common to the various fields of application. No phenomenon of existence or being is an exception to it at all. Any dialectical attempt seeking to reject it or to show nature as contradictory is a primitive attempt that rests on the misunderstanding of the principle of non-contradiction or on some misguidance. Therefore, let us at the outset explain the principle of noncontradiction in its necessary sense, which general logic considers as a main principle of human thought. After that, we will take up the phenomena of the alleged contradiction in nature and existence. It is on these phenomena that Marxism relies for establishing its dialectical logic, and for destroying the principle of non-contradiction and the principle of identity. We will show that those phenomena are harmonious with these two principles, and that chose phenomena are empty [65] of dialectical contradictions. With this, the dialectic loses its support in nature and its material evidence. Consequently, we determine the extent of the dialectic's failure to explain the world and to justify its existence. (p. 259)

The principle of non-contradiction states that contradiction is impossible. Thus, negation and affirmation cannot agree under any circumstance. This is clear; but what is the contradiction that this principle rejects and that the mind cannot accept? Is it any negation and affirmation? The answer is no, for not every negation contradicts every affirmation, and not every affirmation is incompatible with every negation. Rather, an affirmation is contradictory to its own negation, and not to the negation of another affirmation. Thus, the existence of a thing is basically contradictory to the non-existence of that thing, and not to the non-existence of another thing. What is meant by their incompatibility is that it is impossible for both of them to unite or to come together. For example, a square has four sides. This is a fixed geometrical truth. A triangle, on the other hand, does not have four sides. This is also a fixed sound negation. There is no contradiction at all between this negation and that affirmation, for each of them deals with a specific subject that is different from the subject with which the other deals. The four sides are fixed in a square and are negated in a triangle. Hence, we have not negated what we have affirmed, nor affirmed what we have negated. There would be contradiction only if we affirm and also negate that a square has four sides; or if we affirm and at the same time negate that a triangle has four sides.

By virtue of this consideration, the metaphysical logic dictates that contradiction exists only between the negation and the affirmation that agree in circumstances. Thus, if the circumstances of negation differ from the circumstances of affirmation, negation and affirmation will not be contradictory. Let us take a number of examples of negation and affirmation that differ in their circumstances.

1. 'Four is even.' 'Three is not even.' Negation and affirmation in these two propositions are not contradictory due to the fact that each of them is different from the other in the subject with which it deals. Affirmation is related to 'four', and negation is related to 'three'. (p. 260)
2. 'In infancy, a human being is quick to believe.' 'At the stage of youth and maturity, a human being is not quick to believe.' Negation and affirmation in these two propositions are related to 'human beings'. However, each of them has its own time that differs from the time of the ocher. Therefore, there is no contradiction here between the negation and the affirmation.
3. 'An infant does not know in actuality.' 'An infant knows in potentiality; that is, it is possible that he knows.' Here, too, we are confronted with a negation and an affirmation that are not contradictory. This is because in the first proposition, we do not negate the same affirmation involved in the second proposition. The first proposition negates the attribute of knowledge in an infant. The second proposition does not affirm this attribute. Instead, it affirms its possibility - that is, the capacity of the infant and his proper readiness for acquiring it. Therefore, it is the infant's potency for knowledge that the second proposition affirms, and not the infant's actual knowledge.

Thus, we know that contradiction between negation and affirmation is attained only if both share the subject with which each deals, and agree with regard to spatial and temporal conditions and circumstances, and the like. But if negation and affirmation do not agree in all these conditions and circumstances, then there will be no contradiction between them. There is no person or logic that can assert the impossibility of the truth of both in this case.

After having studied the notion of contradiction and the content of the main principle of general logic - the principle of non-contradiction - we must shed some light on the Marxist understanding of this principle and on the justification to which Marxism resorted in its rejection of this principle. It is not difficult for one to realize that Marxism was not able to or did not care to understand this principle in the proper sense. Thus, it rejected it for the sake of attaining its own materialism. (p. 261) It gathered a number of examples chat it claimed are inconsistent with this principle. Consequently, it posited contradiction and strife between contradictories and opposites as a principle of its new logic. It filled the world with noise about this principle and boasted to the general human logic about constructing this principle and discovering contradiction and strife between contradictories and opposites.

In order for us to see the extent of error in which Marxism fell and which led it to reject the principle of non-contradiction and the other principles that are based on it, such as the metaphysical logic, we must distinguish with clarity between two things: the first is strife between external opposites and contradictories; the second is strife between opposites and contradictories that come together in a specific unity. It is the second that contradicts the principle of non-contradiction. As for the first, it has no relation to contradiction at all. This is because it is not concerned with the union of two contradictories or two opposites. Rather, it is referred to the independent existence of each of them. The presence of strife between them leads to a specific result. The shape of the shore, for example, is the result of a mutual action between the waves and currents of water, on the one hand, that collide with the land (thus making the bank recede) and, on the other hand, the steadfastness of the land in the face of the currents and its pushing back those waves to some extent. Further, the shape of a clay bottle is the result of a process that takes place between a quantity of clay and the hand of a potter.

If dialectical materialism intends this kind of strife between external opposites, this would not be at all incompatible with the principle of noncontradiction, and would not call for accepting contradiction which human thought has rejected from the beginning of its existence. The reason is that opposites never come together in a unity. Rather, each of them exists independently in its own sphere. They share in a mutual action by means of which they achieve a certain result. Moreover, this principle does not justify self-sufficiency and the dispensing with an external cause. The shape of the shore or the shape of the bottle is not determined and does not exist through a development based (p. 262) on internal contradictions. Rather, it is the result of an external process achieved by two independent opposites. This kind of strife between external opposites and their shared processes is not something discovered by materialism or the dialectic. Rather, iris something clear and affirmed by every logic and by every philosopher, whether a materialist or a theologian, since the oldest times of materialism and theology, and until today.

For instance, let us take Aristotle, the leader of the school of metaphysics in Greek philosophy. We choose Aristotle in particular, not only because he is a theology philosopher, but also because he has put forth the rules, principles and foundations of general logic which the Marxists call 'formal logic'. Aristotle believes that there is strife between external opposites, even though he erects logic on the basis of the principle of non-contradiction. It did not occur to him that hundreds of years later, somebody will emerge to consider this strife as a proof for the collapse of this necessary principle. Here are some of Aristotle's texts concerning strife among external opposites:

Put briefly, something of the same genus may be actually accepted by something else of the same genus. The reason for this is that all opposites are of the same genus, and opposites act upon one another and accept one another from one another. [24]

It is in accordance with the forth, and hoc in accordance with matter that a certain thing is added to every part in just any manner. In spite of this, the whole becomes greater, for something is added to it. This thing is what is called 'nourishment'. It is also called 'opposite'. However, this thing is nothing but a change in the very kind [of the whole]. For instance, when the damp is added to the dry, (p. 268) it changes by becoming itself dry. In actuality, it is both possible chat that which is similar grows by that to which it is similar, and on the other hand, by that to which it is not similar. [25]

Thus, it becomes clear that the common operations of external opposites do not reveal the dialectic, nor refute the metaphysical logic, nor constitute something new in the philosophical field. Rather, they are truths determined with clarity in all philosophies from the beginning of the history of philosophy. They involve nothing that helps attain the Marxist philosophical aims that Marxism seeks to achieve in light of the dialectic.

But if Marxism intends 'contradiction' in the real sense of the term, which attributes an internal source to motion - something that is rejected by the main principle of our logic - contradiction then will be something that no healthy mind can accept. Marxism does not have any example whatsoever of contradiction in this sense from nature or the phenomena of existence. All the alleged contradictions of nature that Marxism offers us are not related to the dialectic in any way.

Let us present a number of such examples by means of which Marxism intended to prove its dialectical logic, so that we can see the extent of its weakness and failure to demonstrate its own logic.

1. The contradictions of motion. The following is a passage from Georges Lefebvre: [66]

When nothing goes on, then there is no contradiction. Conversely, when there is no contradiction, nothing happens, nothing exists, no appearance of any activity is noticed, and nothing new emerges. (p. 264) Whether the matter is related to a state of stagnation, to a temporary equilibrium, or to a moment of flourishing, the being or thing that is not self-contradictory is temporarily in a state of rest. [26]

Also, we quote from Mao Tse-tung:

A proposition with general contradiction or with the absolute existence of contradiction has a dual meaning. The first is that contradiction exists in the process of the development of all things. The second is that from the beginning to the end of the development of everything, there is a movement of opposites. Engels says that movement itself is contradictory. [27]

These texts make it clear that Marxism upholds the existence of opposition between the law of development and completion and the law of non-contradiction. It believes chat development and completion are not achieved except on the basis of continuous contradiction As long as development and motion are realized in the realm of nature, one must put aside the idea of non-contradiction and take up the dialectic, which will explain to us motion in its various forms and kinds.

Previously (when we studied the movement of development), we touched upon the fact that development and completion are not at all incompatible with the principle of non-contradiction, and that the idea that asserts incompatibility between the two rests on the confusion between potentiality and actuality. At every stage, motion is an affirmation in actuality and a negation in potentiality. Thus, when the germ of a living being develops in the egg until it becomes a chick, and the chick becomes a chicken, this development does not mean that the egg is not in its first stage an egg in actuality. (p. 265) Indeed, it is an egg in actuality and a chicken in potentiality; that is, it can become a chicken. Therefore, the possibility for a chicken and the character of an egg, and not both the character of the egg and the character of the chicken, unite in the essence of the egg. In fact, we know more than this, namely, that the movement of the development cannot be understood except in light of the principle of non-contradiction. If it were truly possible for contradictories to come together in the essence of a thing, there would be no change, and the thing would not be transformed from one state to another. Consequently, there would be no change and no development.

If Marxism wishes to show us that the process of motion involves contradiction that is truly incompatible with the principle of noncontradiction, let it then provide an example of development that involves and does not involve motion - that is, in which both negation and affirmation are applicable to the development. Is it permissible for Marxism, after it had rejected the principle of non-contradiction, to assert that a thing develops and does not develop at the same time? If this were permissible, let Marxism then show us an instance of it in nature and existence. If, on the other hand, this were not permissible, it would be nothing but an admission of the principle of non-contradiction and of the rules of the metaphysical logic.

2. The contradictions of life or of a living body. [Concerning this,] Georges Lefebvre tells us the following:

In spite of this, it is not clear that life is birth, growth, and development? Still, a living being cannot grow without changing and developing, i.e. without ceasing to be what he was. In order for him to become a man, he must abandon and lose adolescence. Everything that necessarily accompanies rest declines and falls behind . . . Every living being, therefore, struggles against death, for he carries his death within himself. [28] (p. 266)

We also quote the following passage from Engels:

We have seen earlier chat the essence of life is chat a living body is ac every moment itself; while at the same moment, it is not itself, i.e. it is something other than itself. Life, therefore, is a contradiction fixed in the beings and processes themselves. [29]

There is no doubt that a living being undergoes two renewable processes: life and death. As long as these two processes perform their function, life continues. But this does not involve any contradiction. The reason is that if we analyze these two processes, and, to begin with, add them to one living being, we know that the process of death and that of life do not meet in one subject. A living being receives new cells at every stage and leaves behind disintegrated cells. Death and life partition the cells [of that being]. The cell that dies at one moment is other than the cell that exists and lives at that particular moment. This is how the living being at large remains held together; for the process of life replaces in him the dead cells with new cells. Thus, life continues until its possibilities are exhausted and its light is extinguished.

Rather, contradiction obtains if death and life cover all the cells of the living being at a specific moment. But this is not what we know about the nature of life and living beings. A living being does not carry within himself other than the possibility of death, and the possibility of death does not contradict life. Rather, what contradicts life is actual death.

3. The contradiction in people's capacity for knowledge. In his presentation of the principle of contradiction in the dialectic, Engels says: (p. 267)

As we have seen, contradiction, for example, between the genuine and unlimited human capacity for knowledge and the actual realization of this capacity in people who are restricted by their external circumstances and mental receptivity finds its resolution in the indefinite succession of generations in the endless advance, at least with respect to us and, according to the practical point of view. [30]

In this, we find a new example, not of the principle of contradiction, but of the Marxist misunderstanding of the principle of non-contradiction. If it were true that people are capable of full knowledge, and of acquiring such knowledge by themselves, this will not confirm the dialectic, nor will it be a phenomenon that constitutes an exception to the metaphysical logic and to the basic principle of this logic. Instead, it will be similar to our assertion chat the army is capable of defending the country, and that no member of the army has this ability. Is this contradictory, and is this something on whose rejection the metaphysical logic is based? Indeed, no. Contradiction obtains between negation and affirmation if their subject is one. However, if affirmation deals with humanity as a whole, while negation deals with every individual independently - as in the example given by Engels - then there is no incompatibility between negation and affirmation.

4. The contradiction in physics between the positive and the negative charges. [31] This alleged contradiction involves two errors. The first is the consideration of the positive charge and the negative charge as belonging to the categories of existence and non-existence, (p. 268) affirmation and negation [respectively] ; due to the fact that the scientific term for the former is 'positive charge' and for the latter 'negative charge', even though we know that these expressions are just technical physical terms. This does not mean that both are two contradictories, as are non-positiveness and positiveness, or negation and affirmation. Thus, the positive charge is similar to the charge produced in the glass stick that is touched by a piece of silk. The negative charge is similar to the charge produced by the ion that is couched by the cat skin. Each of the two charges is a specific kind of electric charge. Neither of them is the existence of a thing, while the other the non-existence of that thing.

The second error is the consideration of attraction as a kind of union. On the basis of this, the relation of attraction between the positive charge and the negative charge was explained as one of contradiction. This contradiction was considered one of the dialectical phenomena, even though, in fact, the negative and the positive charges are not united in one charge. Rather, they are two independent charges attracting each other, as the two different magnetic poles attract each other, without indicating the existence of one charge that is both positive and negative at the same time, or the existence of one magnetic pole that is both north and south. Thus, attraction between different charges (or repulsion between similar charges] is a kind of interaction among external opposites that are independent in existence from one another. We learned earlier that interaction among external opposites is not at all dialectical and has no relation to the contradiction that is rejected by the metaphysical logic. The issue is one of two powers each influencing the other, and not an issue of a power involving contradiction in its internal content, as the dialectic claims.

5. The contradiction of action and reaction in mechanics. [32] According to Marxism (and to Newton], the mechanical law that asserts that for every action, there is a reaction equal to it in quantity, and opposed to it in direction: [for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction] is one of the phenomena of dialectical contradiction (p. 269)

Once again, we find ourselves in need of emphasizing that this Newtonian law does not in any way justify dialectical contradictions; for action and reaction are two powers that exist in two bodies, and not two contradictories united in one body. Thus, the two rear wheels of a car push against the ground with force; this is the action. The ground, on the other hand, pushes the two car wheels with another force that is quantitatively equal and directionally opposite the first force; this is the reaction. By means of this, the car moves. Hence, the one body does not involve two contradictory forces, nor does its internal content undergo a struggle between negation and affirmation or between one contradictory and another. Rather, the car pushes the ground in one direction, while the ground pushes the car in another direction. The dialectic attempts to explain a thing's growth and movement by two internal repelling forces or two internal contradictories at strife. Each struggles against the other, overcomes it and forms the thing [containing them] in accordance with itself. Is this not different from two external forces of which one produces a specific action and the other a reaction? We all know that the two opposite forces produced by the action and the reaction are present in two bodies, and that it is impossible for them to be present in one body; they oppose and negate one another. This is so, only by virtue of the principle of non-contradiction.

6. The contradictions of war discussed by Mao Tse-tung in the following statement:

Actually, in war, attack and defense, advance and retreat, victory and defeat are all contradictory phenomena. Neither one of the two [in any pair] can be present without the other. These two extremes struggle [against each other], as they unite with each other - thus forming the totality of war, imposing their development, and solving the problems of war. [33] (p. 270)

The truth is that this text is the strangest of all the above-mentioned texts. In it, Mao Tse-tung considers war as a real living being involving the two contradictories, victory and defeat, even though this notion of war is inappropriate except to a primitive mentality that is accustomed to viewing things in a general framework. War, in philosophical analysis, is nothing but a multiplicity of events united in the manner of expression only. Victory is other than defeat, a victorious army is other than a defeated army, and the methods or points of strength that prepare for victory are other than the methods or points of weakness that lead to defeat. The decisive results to which war leads are not due to a dialectical struggle and united contradictories, but to a struggle between two external forces of which one overcomes the other.

7. The contradictions of judgements discussed by Kedrov in what follows: