p Very many laws operate in the objective world. There are laws of inorganic nature and the organic world, of society and thought. But laws in any sphere of reality have certain features in common which are covered by the philosophical concept of law. What are these features?

p To begin with, a law is a relation or connection between developing objects or aspects of these objects. A law, however, is not any connection, but only a stable, recurrent connection, inherent not in one object or a small group of objects, but in a vast mass of objects and phenomena. For example, the periodic law, discovered by Dmitri Mendeleyev (1834-1907), indicates the dependence of the properties of all chemical elements on the magnitude of the positive charge of the nucleus. A law, thus, is not a single, but a general connection between phenomena.

p Another important feature of a law is that it does not represent all recurrent connections, but only those which are necessary and essential. The biological law of the interconnection of an organism and the environment fixes the necessary,’ important connection of the organism with the conditions of its existence.

p Being necessary, essential in phenomena, a law operates only if there are the appropriate conditions which bring about not any, but a basically definite course of events. Strict definiteness in the operation of laws is of great practical importance: a knowledge of the laws and direction of development helps people to foresee the future. For instance, an understanding of the laws of social development and the conditions in which they operate enables people to control social processes and foresee the course of historical events.

p Thus, a law is an essential and necessary, general and recurrent connection among phenomena of the material world, which brings about a definite course of events.

p A struggle over the question of the character of laws has been in progress between materialism and idealism for a long time now. Idealists hold that laws are made either by man or by a mythical “absolute idea”, “a universal spirit”. In the final analysis, this standpoint leads to recognition of the divine origin of laws and to the assertion that every law of nature is a law of God, every power in nature is a deed of God.

p In contrast to idealism, dialectical materialism proceeds from recognition of the objective character of laws. This means that man is unable to make or change laws at will, he can only cognise, reflect them. The world is matter moving in conformity to law, Lenin wrote, and our consciousness, being the highest product of nature, is in a position only to reflect this conformity to law.

p The objectivity of laws also implies that they operate independently of the will and desires of man and therefore any attempt to act contrary to laws is foredoomed. For example, it is impossible to ignore the law of gravitation and to go into outer space without overcoming the Earth’s gravity. Nor is it possible to ignore the laws of social development. This, for example, is attested to by the futility of the desperate attempts made by the imperialists to halt the 78 inexorable process of the mankind’s development from capitalism to socialism.

p Dialectical materialism, attacking the idealist conception of laws, also rejects fatalism (from Latin fatalis, meaning decreed by destiny), i.e., blind worship of laws, disbelief in the power of human reason and the ability of people to cognise laws and make use of them. Man cannot abolish or create laws, but he is able to cognise them and utilise them in his practical activity. Knowledge of nature’s laws enables man not only to control the destructive action of water, wind and other natural elements, but also to make them serve his needs. Drawing on the laws of social development, people transform social life.

The most favourable conditions for learning and applying laws are provided by the socialist system where the operation of the laws governing social development coincides with the interests of all the people, where the dominance of socialist property enables society to use the natural resources in a planned way and purposefully to improve social relations. Let us take, for example, the law of planned, proportionate development of the economy under socialism. Knowledge and application of this law are necessary, inasmuch as socialist production cannot be developed without a plan. At the same time this law fully corresponds to the interests of the working people, because socialist production is developed for the purpose of satisfying ever more fully their constantly growing material and cultural requirements. That is why the working people are interested in cognising this law and placing it at their service. One of the main tasks facing the national democratic revolutions in socialist-oriented countries is that of organising centralised national planning based on socialist principles.