File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9709, message 37


Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 00:23:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: Siddharth Chatterjee <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu>
Subject: M-I: Dialectical Laws - Ollman



[From "Dialectical Investigations" by Bertell Ollman, Routledge,1993,
pp. 64-65.]

What are called the "laws of the dialectic" are those movements that
can be found in one or another recognizable form on every level of
generality, that is, in the relations between qualities that fall on
each of these levels, including that of inanimate nature. The
transformation of quantity to quality and development through
contradiction, which were discussed above, are such dialectical laws.
Two other dialectical laws that play important roles in Marx's work are
the interpenetration of polar opposites (the process by which a radical
change in the conditions surrounding two or more temporarily abstracted
elements or in the conditions of the person viewing them produces a
striking alteration, even a complete turnabout, in their relations), and
the negation of the negation (the process by which the most recent phase
in a development that has gone through at least three phases will
display important similarities in what existed in the phase before
last).

Naturally, the particular form taken by a dialectical law will vary
considerably, depending on its subject and on the level of generality
on which this subject falls. The mutually supporting and undermining
movements that lie at the core of contradiction, for example, appear
very different when applied to forces of inanimate nature than they do
when applied to specifically capitalist phenomena. *Striking differences
such as these have led a growing band of critics and some followers of
Marx to restrict the laws of the dialectic to social phenomena and to
reject as "un-Marxist" what they label "Engles' dialectics of nature".*
(emphasis, SC). Their error, however, is to confuse a particular
statement of these laws, usually one appropriate to levels of generality
where human consciousness is present, for all possible statements. This
error is abetted by the widespread practice - one I also have adopted
for the purposes of simplification and brevity - of allowing the most
general statement of these laws to stand in for the others. Quantity/
quality changes, contradictions, etc., that occur among the unique
qualities of our existence (level one), or in the qualities we possess
as workers and capitalists (levels two and three), or in those we possess
as human beings (level five), however, are not simply illustrations for
and the working out of still more general natural laws. To be adequately
apprehended, the movements of quantity/quality change, contradiction,
etc., on each level of generality must be seen as an expression of a
law that is specific to that level as well. Most of the work of drafting
such multilevel statements of the laws of dialectics remains to be done.

The importance of the laws of the dialectic for grasping the pressures
at work on different levels of generality will also vary. We have just
seen Marx claim that capitalism in particular is full of contradictions.
Thus, viewing conditions and events in terms of contradictions is far
more important for understanding their capitalist character than it is
for understanding their qualities as human, or natural, or unique 
conditions and events. Given Marx's goal to explain the double move-
ment of the capitalist mode of production, no other dialectical law
receives the attention given to the law of development through contra-
diction. Together with the relatively minor role contradiction plays in
the changes that occur in nature (level seven), this may also help account
for the mistaken belief that dialectical laws are found only in society.

What stands out from the above is that the laws of the dialectic do not
in themselves explain, or prove, or predict anything, or cause anything
to happen. Rather, they are ways of organizing the most common forms
of change and interaction that exist on any level of generality for
purposes of study and intervention into the world of which they are part.
With their help, Marx was able to uncover many other tendencies and
patterns, also often referred to as laws, that are peculiar to the
levels of generality with which he was concerned. Such laws have no
more force than what comes out of the processes from which they are
derived, balanced by whatever countertendencies there are within the
system. And like all the other movements Marx investigates, the laws
of the dialectic and the level-specific laws they help him uncover are
provided with extensions (one aspect of the process of abstraction -
SC) that are large enough to encompass the relevant interactions
during the entire period of their unfolding. 




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