One Divides into Two
The One Divides into Two (一分为二) controversy was an ideological debate about the nature of contradiction that took place in China in 1964.[1] The concept originated in Lenin's Philosophical Notebooks. The philosopher Yang Xianzhen originated the idea of "Two Unites into One", which he said was the primary law of dialectics. The Maoists interpreted this to mean that capitalism could be united with socialism. Ai Siqi wrote the original attack on Yang, and was joined by Mao himself. Wang Ruoshui also contributed to the attack. After 1976, Yang was officially rehabilitated, along with the concept of two uniting into one.[2]
The chengyu phrase "一分为二" arose in the Taisu version of the Huangdi Neijing.
This phrase is derived from the formulation given by Vladimir Lenin in his Philosophical Notebooks; "The splitting of a single whole and the cognition of its contradictory parts ... is the essence ... of dialectics."[3]
Richard Baum has put the controversy in terms of modern game theory as a debate between zero sum and non-zero sum competition.[citation needed]
Alain Badiou, during his Maoist phase, would use the principle of One Divides into Two to criticize the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze.[4][additional citation(s) needed]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Weston, Tom. "The "One Divides into Two" Controversy (一分为二), 1964-1980". Retrieved 22 January 2017.
- ^ MacFarquhar, Roderick (1997). The Origins of the Cultural Revolution- 3. The Coming of the Cataclysm 1961-1966. pp. 391–396.
- ^ Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (2003) [1915]. "On the Question of Dialectics". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
- ^ Bosteels, Bruno (2005). "Post-Maoism: Badiou and Politics". positions: east asia cultures critique. 13 (3). Duke University Press: 575–634. ISSN 1527-8271 – via Project MUSE.
From the Jinggang Mountains to the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong's thought is formulated against the current, as the work of division," Badiou summarizes in his Théorie de la contradiction (1975), before identifying Mao's logic of scission as a prime example of dialectical thinking: "Rebel thinking if there ever was one, revolted thinking of the revolt: dialectical thinking.
External links
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