The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.
John Maynard Keynes
In the 19th Century, a significant shift in European Philosophy was inaugurated by Georg William Friedrich Hegel and the subsequent influence of his ideas upon German Idealism and then the wider world. Like many ideas of the past, he influences people regularly without their awareness that their thoughts owe part of their architecture to his ideas.
The significant contribution Hegel has provided is an approach to understanding thought referred to as a dialectic approach formed by the triad of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. A proposition is presented as a thesis. A reaction to this thesis via conflict or negation occurs as the antithesis. Finally, integrating the thesis and antithesis into a new understanding emerges as the synthesis. This relatively simple concept seems obvious to us who live in its wake. Still, Hegel’s articulation caught minds like a fever.
Perhaps no thinker was more influenced by conflict and synthesis than Fredrick Engels. Engles drew inspiration from the Scholastic Laws of Thought and reacted to them by proposing what have become known as his Laws of Dialectics. These are:
The Law of the Unity and Conflict of Opposites or Conflict
Engels saw the world as fundamentally materialistic; however, this unity produces change through the polarization of forces and conflict between them. As Engels was a Socialist, a good way of understanding this would be by looking at the conflict between the laborers at a factory and its management. If either side had purely their way, chances are the unity of the factory would cease to function. The factory can stay productive and adaptive only through its continued conflict and adjusting to its changes. The same could be said for a herd species and its primary predators. As long as the two forces stay in conflict, each has the mutual benefit of continued survival and adaptation. If either group comprehensively defeated the other, it would lead to an ecological crisis and the ultimate death of the “victors” due to scarcity of resources. A herd without predators will multiply and consume the ecology’s resources. A predator that killed all of a herd would quickly find it without food. It is only through their conflict that the greater unity of life continues.
The Laws of the the Passage of Quantitative Chance into Qualitative Change Transformation
Simply put, as items increase, some means of change in their qualities will appear. The usual example of this from nature is in the phase transition of matter, with water being the most straightforward example. If the quantity of temperature increases, it will change the qualities of matter: solids will become liquids, liquids will become gases, and gases will become plasma. Lower temperatures and the same sequence of qualities will change in reverse.
The Law of Negation of the Negation or Negation
To continue a material change, all things will, in time, negate themselves. Individual organisms taking actions to ensure their survival will eventually take actions that lead to their death. In a sense, this Law suggests that eventually, any individual or system will result in its undoing simply by its continued operation as it is.
With judicious and selective uses, these ideas can be reasonably powerful in analyzing systems and interactions within a system. It is perhaps one of the great ironies that the field in which Conflict, Transformation, and Negation have the most considerable influence, usually unstated, is in the realm of Business. However, purely Dialectic thinking can lead to significant issues as well.
Because of its emphasis on conflict, Dialectic approaches can make it seem like antagonism is inevitable and inherently valuable. It can also provide grounds for the belief that conflict is inevitable and the only productive way to create change. Correlative to this, the notion that using force is the primary means of solving problems can become fixed. Due to the lack of any temporal restraint on these Laws, it becomes easy for Dialecticians to think there are limitless resources and time for actions to lead to their idealized outcomes. It also can lead to an obsession with quantity, as if mere acquisition alone would be all that was needed to create change.
Chances are you have not actively studied the Laws of Dialectics. However, patterns of thought created by it are likely in your experience. How often do you immediately say, “I disagree,” whenever you hear someone state their opinion? How often do you find yourself repeating the same thing again and again, expecting a new outcome? How often do you find yourself taking actions that ultimately undermine your purposes?
Seeing the roots of specific patterns and taking steps to use them consciously can help to ensure that the specters of history do not haunt your mind.
Setemheb 