p The material world is not only a developing, but also a connected, integral whole. All its objects and phenomena develop not of themselves, not in isolation, but in 75 inseverable connection or unity with other objects and phenomena. Each of them acts on other objects and phenomena and itself is subjected to reciprocal influence.

p Science provides extensive data proving the interconnection and interdependence of phenomena and objects. Some elementary particles, for example, interacting with each other, form atoms. But atoms too are not isolated; entering into connections, they form molecules and the latter, in turn, form macroscopic bodies. The interaction of macrobodies is proved by the law of gravitation. According to this law, the Earth is connected with the Sun and other planets of the solar system and the latter is connected with still larger cosmic formations.

p Living organisms are bound by an intricate chain of interaction: separate plants and also animals form species, species are united in genera, classes, etc. Organisms are connected not only among themselves, but also with the environment from which they get their necessary nutrition and energy.

p The Russian scientist Kliment Timiryazev (1843-1920) discovered the connection of plants with the life-giving energy of the Sun. He showed that under the influence of solar energy carbon dioxide is decomposed in the chlorophyll of the green leaves of plants. The carbon is assimilated by the plant, while the oxygen, indispensable to man’s respiration, is released into the air. The resultant organic substances accumulate solar energy in the form of chemical energy, which is then utilised by man when he uses plants either as food or fuel. “The green leaf, or more exactly, the microscopic green granule of chlorophyll,” Timiryazev wrote, “is the focus, the point in world space to which solar energy flows at one end, while all manifestations of life on Earth take their source at the other end. The plant is the connecting link between heaven and Earth. It is truly the Prometheus who stole fire from heaven. The stolen sun ray shines both in the tiny flame of a burning splinter and in the dazzling spark of electricity. The sun ray is the source of energy for the monstrous fly-wheel of a gigantic steam engine, of the artist’s brush and the poet’s pen.”

p Man is connected with nature through material production. This connection is effected through labour, an indispensable condition of man’s existence. Thanks to labour 76 man wins from nature his means of subsistence. In the process of labour the economic, production relations of people take shape and give rise to other connections, including political, legal and moral.

p Thus, universal connection and interdependence of objects and phenomena are an essential distinctive feature of the material world. Therefore, as Lenin pointed out, in order to gain real knowledge of an object it is necessary to study all its aspects and connections. The study of the world as an integral connected whole, examination of the universal connections of things is an important task of materialist dialectics.

p Since objects and phenomena of the material world are diverse, their interconnection, interaction are also diverse. Marxist dialectics studies not all, but only the most general connections, i.e., those which exist in all spheres of the material and spiritual world.

p The laws and categories of materialist dialectics are a reflection of these connections in man’s consciousness.

Knowledge of connections is of tremendous importance because, by revealing them, people discover the laws of the objective world. Knowledge of these laws is an indispensable requisite for the practical activity of people. It is the task of science to disclose these laws and place them at the disposal of man. Let us give a more detailed explanation of law.