Is the Struggle Aspect of Contradictions Absolute?

This time’s entrance exam for the recommendation-for-exemption process was a complete disaster—of course, I had already expected to bomb it, but I thought I’d have to take the hit on English; I never expected the two Chinese-language questions to be even more disastrous……

Especially the second question, which was also worth 25 points, and of all things turned out to be a “Marxist philosophy” question. I nearly handed in a blank sheet on that one; in the end I managed to write a few lines, though I have no idea how many points I got……

Analyze: “The antagonistic aspect of contradictions is absolute.”

My answer was roughly like this:

First, this assertion looks like an analytic judgment—that is, something like “the bachelorhood of a bachelor is absolute.” If the term “contradiction” already includes “antagonism” in its connotation, then saying that it is “absolute” is reasonable.

Second, any assertion, any set of concepts, needs to be understood in its context. This sentence is so out of the blue that it is, frankly, utterly empty. What is meant by antagonism? What is meant by absolute? They are really vague and indistinct. We can elaborate on a maxim and spin many arguments out of it, but as for the maxim itself, it is hard to say whether it is right or wrong.

Finally, I pointed out that one should note that “antagonism” is different from “struggle.” Just as saying wood has “flammability” does not mean that it is always or inevitably burning, but only that it has the potential to burn. A piece of wood may never be in a burning state until it rots away and is gone, yet we still say that it is flammable. Therefore, if we say that contradiction has “antagonism,” that does not mean contradiction is in a state of struggle at every moment.

Done.

……How many points could I get for answering like this?

October 11, 2007

Latest Comments

• Yi Wu

  2007-10-11 20:36:47 

  If I were the Marxist philosophy teacher, I’d give you 10 points for sentiment。。。haha

• Suiyuan

  2007-10-12 11:26:12 Anonymous 124.17.16.94 

  Hahaha, from the perspective of a Western philosophy teacher, this is actually quite a tasteful answer! It even suddenly reminds me of “The Two Dogmas of Empiricism”。。。
  But the score definitely wouldn’t be high. I strongly look down on Marxist philosophy questions; ideally, from now on, Marxist philosophy should be forbidden in recommendation-for-exemption and direct-PhD exams. Sigh, unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, that’s impossible.

• Gu Chu

  2007-10-12 17:09:50 

  Actually, this recommendation-for-exemption exam seems to have been the first time they’ve set a Marxist philosophy question…… In the previous two years it seems there were only English translation and commentary questions; of course, even earlier than that, the recommendation-for-exemption exam didn’t require a written test at all……

Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.