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7
OPPOSITION *1
1898
Let us, first of all, come to a clear understanding with regard to the different meanings of the word
opposition. In my work on Universal Opposition I proposed a definition and a classification to
which I may be permitted to refer. Let us sum the matter up briefly from our present point of view.
Opposition is erroneously conceived by the average thinker as the maximum degree of difference. In
reality, it is a very special kind of repetition, namely, of two similar things that are mutually
destructive by virtue of their very similarity. In other words, opposites or contraries always constitute
a couple or duality; they are not opposed to each other as beings or groups of beings, for these are
always dissimilar and, in some respect, sui generis; nor yet as states of a single being or of different
beings, but rather as tendencies or forces. For, if we regard certain forms or certain states, such as
concave and convex, pleasure and pain, heat and cold, as opposites, it is by reason of the real or
assumed contrariety of the forces which produce these states. Thus we see that it is necessary to
eliminate from the start, as so many pseudo-oppositions, all the antitheses of mythology and the
philosophy of history which are based on assumed natural contrarieties; for example, the
contrarieties between two nations, two races, or two forms of government (such as republic and
monarchy, to cite certain Hegelians in this matter); or between occident and orient, two religions
(such as Christianity and Mohammedanism), or two families of languages (such as the Semitic and
Indo-European). These contrasts chance to be partially true, if we take into consideration the manner
in which the things in question deny or affirm the same notion, and desire or reject the same end,
under certain more or less ephemeral circumstances. But if the antipathy of these things for each other
be regarded as essential, absolute, and innate, as many ancient philosophers seemed to believe, they
are wholly chimerical.
Thus, every real opposition implies a relation between two forces, tendencies, or directions. But
the phenomena by means of which these two forces become actualities are of two kinds—qualitative
and quantitative—that is, they may be composed of either heterogeneous or homogeneous parts. A
series made up of heterogeneous factors is a species of evolution that can always be conceived of
(whether rightly or wrongly) as reversible, or capable of going back by following the same road in
precisely the opposite direction. For example, if a chemist, taking a piece of wood and going through
a series of operations, ends by extracting brandy from it, this does not of course imply that it would
be possible to reconstruct the piece of wood by a series of inverse operations; yet if this is not a
possibility, it is at least conceivable. And this was the dream of the ancient philosophers with respect
to the transformations of humanity. A series made up of homogeneous factors is an evolution of a
special sort, known as increase or decrease, wax or wane, rise or fall. Without entering too minutely
into the facts, we must notice how, as social science develops with the advance of civilization,
instances of exact and measurable oppositions of this sort continue to appear and multiply, giving us
fluctuations of the stock market and statistical diagrams on which are registered in wave-like curves
the rise and fall of some particular security, of some particular species of crime, of suicide, the birthrate,
marriage, or thrift as measured by the returns of the savings banks, insurance companies, etc.
The distinction just made is between oppositions of series (evolution and counter-evolution) and
oppositions of degree (increase and diminution). A still more important category to be considered