The law of the unity and struggle of opposites

One of the basic issues of worldview and of general methodology is the question whether the source of the world's motion and development must be sought for outside the world or in the world itself. The scientific worldview finds impulses for the motion and development of the world in the world itself, in the contradictions inherent in reality and generated by the world, which is expressed in the universal law of dialectics, the law of the unity and struggle of op­posites. V. Lenin called this law the nucleus of dialectics. The law is operated through the following categories: identity, difference, opposition, contradiction and conflict.

Identity is the state of having unique identifying characteristics held by no other person or thing. In dialectics identity does not coincide with identity in formal logic, which claims the invariability of objects and phenomena, absolutizes their state and properties. Dialectical identity concentrates on identity in general isolating from the differences in details.

In accordance with that law, objective reality, the process of its cognition, and all forms of human activity develop through the division of oneness into different and opposing elements; the inter­action of the opposing forces, on the one hand, marks a given sys­tem as something integral, and on the other, constitutes the inner impulse of its change and development. All concrete systems go through the test of contradiction in their life.

Difference is a rela­tion of non-identity, of dissimilarity within an object and between objects. Differences have their degrees: they may be either essential or inessential. An extreme expression of an essential difference is an opposite

Opposites may be described as mutually conditioned and inter­acting sides of a dialectical contradiction. The dialectical principle of contradic­tion reflects a dual relationship within the whole: a unity of oppo­sites and their struggle.

This law permits the identification of the sources, the real causes and forms of motion, and of the types of development of all being: there is no progress outside contradictions.

Contradiction is a definite type of interaction between different and opposing sides, properties, and tendencies within a given system or be­tween systems, a process of confrontation between opposing tenden­cies and forces. The extreme case of contradiction is conflict.

The ultimate cause of the development of any system is interaction in the form of contra­diction between different aspects both within an object and among objects. There are no absolutely identical things: they are different both within themselves and among themselves.

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