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[introduction.]

p The passing away of the old which has outlived its age and the rise of the new and advanced proceeds constantly in every sphere of reality. It is the replacement of the old by the new, of the dying by the emerging that constitutes development, while the overcoming of the old by the new, arising from the old, is called negation.

p The term “negation” was introduced in philosophy by Hegel, but he invested it with an idealist meaning. From his point of view, negation was present in the development of the idea, of thought.

p Marx and Engels preserved the term “negation” but interpreted it in a materialist way. They demonstrated that negation is an integral part of development of reality itself. “In no sphere can one undergo a development without negating one’s previous mode of existence,”  [109•*  Marx wrote.

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p The development of the Earth’s crust, for example, has passed through a number of geological eras, each new era, arising on the basis of the preceding one, represents a certain negation of the old. In the organic world, too, each new species of plant or animal, arising on the basis of the old, at the same time represents its negation. The history of society also consists of a chain of negations of the old social order by the new: primitive-communal by slave-owning society; slave-owning society by feudalism; feudalism by capitalism; capitalism by socialism. Negation is also inherent in the development of knowledge and science. Each new, improved scientific theory negates the old, less developed.

p Negation is not something introduced into an object or phenomenon from outside, but is the result of the object’s or phenomenon’s own, internal development. Objects and phenomena are contradictory and develop on the basis of their internal opposites; they themselves create the conditions for their destruction, for the passage into a new, higher quality. Negation is the overcoming of the old through internal contradictions, a result of self-development, self-movement of objects and phenomena. Thus, socialism comes to take the place of capitalism because it resolves the internal, intrinsic contradictions of the capitalist system. As they grow deeper and more acute, these contradictions find their solution in a socialist revolution.

National democratic revolutions in socialist-oriented states are also a negation—negation of the monarchy, of the semi-capitalist society.

Dialectical and Metaphysical Understanding
of Negation

p Dialectics and metaphysics differ in their understanding of the essence of negation. Misinterpreting the process of the development of the material reality, metaphysics regards negation as the casting aside, the absolute destruction of the old. Lenin called such an understanding of negation “empty” and “futile”, because it precludes any possibility of further development.

p That is how negation was understood by supporters of petty-bourgeois trends which existed in the early years of Soviet power. They advocated the view that the culture that had arisen under the bourgeois system should be discarded 111 and a new, proletarian culture should be created from scratch. Such conception of negation, far from promoting development, did irreparable harm. That is why, in criticising such views, the Communist Party and Lenin pointed to the need for making use of the cultural heritage of the past, maintaining that only by critically assimilating this heritage was it possible to create a genuinely proletarian, socialist culture.

p Marxist dialectics reveals the true essence of dialectical negation. What is characteristic of Marxist dialectics, is not “empty”, “futile” negation, but negation as a moment of connection, as a moment of development, retaining the positive.

p In its interpretation of negation dialectics proceeds from the premise that the new does not completely obliterate the old, but retains the best in it; in fact it not only retains it, but assimilates it and raises it to a new, higher level. Thus, when higher organisms negate the lower ones on whose basis they arose, they preserve the intrinsic cellular structure of the lower organisms, their selective nature of reflection and other features. A new social system, negating the old, preserves its productive forces, achievements of science, technology and culture. The connection of the new and the old likewise exists in knowledge, in science.

p Thus, recognition of continuity, the connection of the new and the old in development, is a feature of the Marxist understanding of negation. But we must bear in mind that the new never takes over the old completely, as it is. It takes from the old only certain elements or aspects; moreover, it does not absorb them mechanically, but assimilates and transforms them in conformity with its own nature. Marxist dialectics calls for a critical attitude to the past experience of mankind, creative application of this experience and the strict account of the changed conditions and the new tasks of revolutionary practice. Marxist philosophy, for example, did not simply accept the progressive ideas of previous philosophies, but critically reworked and enriched them with the new achievements of science and practice, and raised philosophy as a science to a qualitatively new, higher stage.

The working class with its Marxist party is the most careful custodian of the finest achievements of the past. 112 Upon coming to power the proletariat not only cleverly draws on all the achievements of the past epochs, but makes great progress in all areas of the economy, science and culture as it builds a new society.