Dialectical Thinking

Process of thinking that reveals the essence of things in forms thinking such as concepts, judgments, reasoning as well as hypotheses and the evolution of theoretical systems. Dialectical thinking is the reflection of the dialectical motion of the objective world in the human thinking. It reflects the whole of things by revealing the inner contradictory movement of things.

Dialectical thinking reflects not only the distinction of things from each another, but also their interconnection; it reflects not only the relative rest of things, but also the absolute motion of things; it acknowledges the identity of things, and at the same time confirms that this identity exists within differences and opposites. Dialectical logic takes dialectical thinking as its object of inquiry and reveals the forms, laws, and methods of dialectical thinking. Dialectical logic examines thinking from the practical process of development of thinking, studies thinking in terms of the unity of content and form, makes a logical summation of the history of human knowledge, and focuses on revealing the dialectical content of each form of thinking and the dialectical relation between all forms of thinking. Dialectical logic must be followed in order to know and change the world scientifically. Lenin elaborated the basic requirements of dialectical logic for dialectical thinking: “Firstly, if we are to have a true knowledge of an object we must look at and examine all its facets, its connections and ‘mediations’. That is something we cannot ever hope to achieve completely, but the rule of comprehensiveness is a safeguard against mistakes and rigidity. Secondly, dialectical logic requires that an object should be taken in development, in change, in ‘self-movement’ (as Hegel sometimes puts it). This is not immediately obvious in respect of such an object as a tumbler, but it, too, is in flux, and this holds especially true for its purpose, use and connection with the surrounding world. Thirdly, a full ‘definition’ of an object must include the whole of human experience, both as a criterion of truth and a practical indicator of its connection with human wants. Fourthly, dialectical logic holds that ‘truth is always concrete, never abstract’.” The basic method of dialectical thinking is the basic method for revealing the dialectical development of concepts and their contradictory movement, is a method for people to correctly perform rational thinking, and includes chiefly induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, rising from the abstract to the concrete, the coincidence of logic and history, and other methods.