Logic is a simple and at the same time difficult subject to understand. It is easy for someone, someone gets stuck in ordinary tasks. This largely depends on the characteristics of thinking. One of the clearest examples of simplicity and complexity at the same time is the law of double negation. In classical logic, it seems very simple, but as soon as it comes to dialectics, the situation changes dramatically. For a better understanding, consider the base: the laws of affirmation and negation.
Statement
Man is constantly faced with statements in everyday life. This, in fact, is simply a message of some information, and the truth of the message is assumed. For example, we say: "A bird can fly." We report on the properties of the object, insisting on their veracity.
Negation
Denial is found no less than affirmation and is its complete opposite. And if affirmation presupposes truthfulness, then negation means an accusation of falsity. For example: "A bird cannot fly." That is, there is no desire to prove anything or communicate, the main goal is to disagree with the statement.
Thus, the conclusion suggests itself: in order to deny, an assertion is necessary. That is, simply denying anything is illogical. For example, we are trying to explain something to a bewildered person. He says: “Don't chew everything like that! I'm not stupid.” We will answer: "I did not say that you are stupid." In terms of logic, we are right. The interlocutor expresses denial, but since there was no statement, there is nothing to deny. It turns out that in this situation, denial does not make sense.
Twice no
In logic, the law of double negation is formulated quite simply. If the negation is false, then the statement itself is true. Or a double repetition of denial gives a statement. An example of the law of double negation: "If it is not true that a bird cannot fly, then it can."
Take the previous laws and make up the big picture. A statement is made: "The bird can fly." Someone tells us about their beliefs. Another interlocutor denies the veracity of the statement, saying: "The bird cannot fly." In this case, we want not so much to support the statement of the first as to refute the denial of the second. That is, we work only with negation. We say: "It is not true that a bird cannot fly." In fact, this is a rephrased statement, but it is precisely the disagreement with the denial that is emphasized. In this way a double negation is formed, which proves the truth of the original statement. Or minus minus gives a plus.
Double negation in philosophy
The law of double negation in philosophy is in its separate discipline - dialectics. Dialectics describes the world as a development based on conflicting relationships. The topic is very extensive and needs a deeper consideration, but we will focus on its separate part - the law of negation of negation.
In the dialect, double negation is interpreted as an inevitable development pattern: the new destroys the old and thereby transforms and develops. Well, that's just how it relates to denial? The thing is that the new, as it were, negates the old. But there is a couple of important details.
First, in dialectics, denial is incomplete. It rejects negative, superfluous and useless properties. The useful ones are preserved and evolve in the shell of the object.
Secondly, the developmental movement along dialectical teachings takes place within a spiral. That is, the first form - a statement that has been denied - is converted into a second form, the opposite of the first (because it denies it). After a third form arises, which denies the second and, therefore, twice denies the first. That is, the third form is a double negation of the first, which means it affirms it, but since the movement goes in a spiral, the third form is transformed on the basis of the first, and does not repeat it (otherwise it would be a circle, not a spiral). It eliminates all the "harmful" properties of the first two forms, being a qualitative transformation of the initial product.
It is in this way that development is realized through double negation. The initial form meets its opposite and enters into confrontation with it. From this struggle, a new form is born, which is an improved prototype of the first. Such a process is endless and, according to dialectics, reflects the development of the whole world and being as a whole.
Double negation in Marxism
Denial in Marxism had a broader concept than it seems to us now. It was not understood as something negative, causing doubt and degradation. Quite the contrary, denial was considered the only step towards proper development. To a greater extent, it was precisely the dialectic and denial of negation in particular that influenced it. Proponents of Marxism believed that the new can only be built on the ashes of the old and outdated. For this, it is necessary to resort to negation - to reject the bored and harmful, to build new and beautiful.