One Divides into Two

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The One Divides into Two controversy (一分为二) 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.

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."[2]

Richard Baum has put the controversy in terms of modern game theory as a debate between zero sum and non-zero sum competition.

Alain Badiou during his Maoist phase would use the principle of One Divides into Two to criticize the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze.

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References[]

  1. ^ Weston, Tom. "The "One Divides into Two" Controversy (一分为二), 1964-1980". Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  2. ^ Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (2003) [1915]. "On the Question of Dialectics". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 3 April 2020.

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