Editing Maoism (section)

=== Contradiction ===
Mao drew from the writings of Karl Marx, [[Friedrich Engels]], and [[Vladimir Lenin]] in elaborating his theory. Philosophically, his most important reflections emerge on the concept of "contradiction" (''maodun''). In two major essays, ''[[On Contradiction]]'' and ''[[On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People]]'', he adopts the idea that contradiction is present in matter itself and thus also in the ideas of the brain. Matter always develops through a dialectical contradiction: "The interdependence of the contradictory aspects present in all things and the struggle between these aspects determine the life of things and push their development forward. There is nothing that does not contain contradiction; without contradiction nothing would exist".<ref>Mao Tse Tung, [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_17.htm "On contradiction"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124172339/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_17.htm |date=2021-01-24 }}, Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tse-Tung, Foreign Language Press, Peking, 1967, p. 75.</ref>

Mao held that contradictions were the essential feature of society, and a wide range of contradictions dominates society, this calls for various strategies. Revolution is necessary to resolve the fully antagonistic contradictions between labour and capital. Contradictions within the revolutionary movement call for an ideological correction to prevent them from becoming antagonistic. Furthermore, each contradiction (including [[class struggle]], the contradiction holding between relations of production and the concrete development of forces of production) expresses itself in a series of other contradictions, some dominant, others not. "There are many contradictions in the process of development of a complex thing, and one of them is necessarily the principal contradiction whose existence and development determine or influence the existence and development of the other contradictions".<ref>Mao Tse-Tung, "[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_17.htm On contradiction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124172339/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_17.htm |date=2021-01-24 }}", Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tse-Tung, op. cit., p. 89.</ref>

The principal contradiction should be tackled with priority when trying to make the fundamental contradiction "solidify". Mao elaborates on this theme in the essay ''[[On Practice]]'', "on the relation between knowledge and practice, between knowing and doing". Here, ''Practice'' connects "contradiction" with "class struggle" in the following way, claiming that inside a mode of production, there are three realms where practice functions: economic production, scientific experimentation (which also takes place in economic production and should not be radically disconnected from the former) and finally class struggle. These are the proper objects of economy, scientific knowledge, and politics.<ref>Cfr. Mao Tse-Tung, [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_16.htm "On practice. On the relation between knowledge and practice, between knowing and doing"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211062705/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_16.htm |date=2021-02-11 }}, Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tse-Tung, op.cit., p. 55: "Man's social practice is not confined to activity in production, but takes many forms&mdash;class struggle, political life, scientific and artistic pursuits; in short, as a social being, man participates in all spheres of the practical life of society. Thus man, in varying degrees, comes to know the different relations between man and man, not only through his material life but also though his political and cultural life (both of which are intimately bound up with material life)".</ref>

These three spheres deal with matter in its various forms, socially mediated. As a result, they are the only realms where knowledge may arise (since truth and knowledge only make sense in relation to matter, according to Marxist epistemology). Mao emphasises&mdash;like Marx in trying to confront the "bourgeois idealism" of his time&mdash;that knowledge must be based on empirical evidence. Knowledge results from hypotheses verified in the contrast with a real object; this real object, despite being mediated by the subject's theoretical frame, retains its materiality and will offer resistance to those ideas that do not conform to its truth. Thus, in each of these realms (economic, scientific, and political practice), contradictions (principle and secondary) must be identified, explored, and put to function to achieve the communist goal. This involves the need to know "scientifically" how the masses produce (how they live, think and work), to obtain knowledge of how class struggle (the central contradiction that articulates a mode of production in its various realms) expresses itself.

[[File:Mao Zedong in Red.svg|thumb|Mao Zedong Thought is described as being Marxism–Leninism adapted to Chinese conditions, whereas its variant [[Marxism–Leninism–Maoism]] is considered universally applicable]]