Development

The forward und upward process of things from quantitative to qualitative change, from the lower to the higher. Development is a concept that is connected with and different from motion and change. Motion comprehends all changes and processes occurring in the universe, from mere change of place right up to thinking. Development has a richer and deeper connotation than motion. It represents the gradually progressing, containing the becoming of a new qualitative state, and spiral-like upward motion and change of things, embodying the positive results of motion and change, and reflects the irresistible law of the supersession of the old by the new.

Whether to see the world from the point of view of development or rest is one of the fundamental differences between dialectics and metaphysics. Upholding the point of view of development is a fundamental feature of materialist dialectics. Lenin said: materialist dialectics is “the doctrine of development in its fuller, deeper form, free from one-sidedness”. Engels said that for materialist dialectics, “nothing is final, absolute, sacred. It reveals the transitory character of everything and in everything; nothing can endure before it except the uninterrupted process of becoming and of passing away, of endless ascendancy from the lower to the higher. And dialectical philosophy itself is nothing more than the mere reflection of this process in the thinking brain.” Materialist dialectics studies the development of things from within, from the relation of one thing to other things, and holds that development is an internal and necessary self-movement of a thing, while each thing in its movement is interrelated with and interacts on the things around it. Lenin spoke of “development as a unity of opposites (the division of a unity into mutually exclusive opposites and their reciprocal relation).” Mao Zedong pointed out that “the fundamental cause of the development of a thing is not external but internal; it lies in the contradictoriness within the thing.” The two aspects of a contradiction of things rely on and struggle with each other, thus bringing about a change in the power contrast and status of the two contradictory aspects and pushing forward the motion, change and development of things. Metaphysics regards things as isolated from one another and immutable. Such change as there is can only be an increase or decrease in quantity or a change of place. Moreover, the cause of such an increase or decrease or change of place is not inside things but outside them, that is, the motive force is external. Metaphysics denies that development arises from the contradictions inside a thing. Thus, it can interpret neither the qualitative diversity of things, nor the phenomenon that one quality changes into another, and essentially denies real development.

The essence of development is the birth of the new and the passing away of the old. The new thing is bred and raised within the “womb” of the old thing. It negates the negative and obsolete factors in the old thing, inherits and fosters the reasonable factors in the old thing, adds factors that the old thing cannot accommodate, and has a new structure and function, adapting to the changed environment and conditions, thus inevitably growing and replacing the old thing. The new in social development is something that is in fundamental harmony with the fundamental interests and demands of the masses, is supported by the masses, conforms to the forward direction of history, and has far-reaching prospects, and is therefore bound to defeat the old, form a metabolism between the old and the new, and push forward the development of society.

The development of things is a process of unity of progress and twists and turns. Development rises in spirals and a progresses in waves. The general trend of development is forward and upward, but the process is tortuous. Because of the complexity of internal contradictions and external conditions, development is achieved in the mutual struggle of various trends, in the zigzag movement of things changing forward or backward, rather than being completed at once and moving straight ahead. In the process of change, despite all apparent accidents and despite all temporary retrogressions, forward development will eventually be achieved.