The Doctrine of Contradiction and the Political Philosophy of Mao Zedong

Abstract

The present research explores the connection between Mao's philosophy and his political ideas. Taking as the point of departure the innate contradiction implicit in the founding process of the People's Republic of China and its state system, I argue that in addition to the unity of the discourse on people and on class in Mao's political thinking there is also an opposition, and that this opposition can be traced back to his philosophy. After reaching a number of conclusions of significance for Mao's doctrine of class, conclusions that relate to the very approach involved in his ideas of contradiction, we set out to enrich and develop these ideas, with the final goal of providing a new philosophical fulcrum for explaining and regulating the polity of the post-Mao era.

Keywords:

• people
• class
• class struggle in itself and for itself
• a superior unity
• superior contradiction

Acknowledgements

This article was written to mark the 120th anniversary of Mao's birth. Two papers by the same author are also of relevance to the present research: “Philosophical Merging of Confucianism and Marxism” (Ding 2011) and “Virtue, Class and Polity” (Ding 2012). Thanks to Zhou Sicheng at the Central Compilation & Translation Bureau for his excellent translation of this article.

Notes on Contributor

Ding Yun, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Fudan University, Director of the Center for the Study of Intellectual History, and Member of the Association of the Professional Committee of Phenomenology in China. He published his Chinese translation of Martin Heidegger's Die Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie in 2008. He presides over a number of curricula in German philosophy and ancient Greek philosophy with his research interests focusing on metaphysics, comparative philosophy, political philosophy and the history of ideas. His publications include Confucianism and Enlightenment (2011); “The Perspective of a New Chapter of Philosophy in the Chinese Tradition of Thought” (Social Sciences in China, 2013).