p As noted, a law is a general, stable and necessary connection or relation within a phenomenon or among phenomena.

p Each object has many different general, stable and necessary connections (relations) and is subject to different laws. Not all of these general, stable and necessary connections, however, play one and the same role. Some of them are of major importance, exerting an influence on all the other laws and aspects of a phenomenon, and determine to a greater or lesser degree the functioning and development of this phenomenon as a whole; others are of secondary importance and determine the functioning and development of a few particular aspects of a phenomenon. The first group constitutes basic laws, while the second-non-basic laws.

p The division of laws into basic and non-basic is characteristic of both special sciences and philosophy. Philosophical laws, the laws of dialectics in particular, are not of equal value either. Some of them influence all laws and characterise the process of development as a whole, whereas others play a subordinate role and characterise only separate aspects of this process. The first group 247 makes up the basic laws of dialectics, while the second-the non-basic laws.

p The basic laws of dialectics include that of the transition of quantitative into qualitative changes, that of the unity and “struggle” of opposites and that of the negation of negation.

p The non-basic laws of dialectics include the law of causality, the law of form being determined by content and of form’s active influence upon content, the law of the existence or manifestation of the necessary through the accidental, of the interconnection between the general and the particular, between a part and the whole, etc.

Many non-basic laws have been covered in our analysis of the basic categories of dialectics. The basic laws of dialectics will be discussed below.