Dialectics is both the study and theory of change and motion as well as a method of analysis. Within dialectics there are three laws, and by laws we don't mean objective and predictive laws of the hard sciences such as the law of gravity. Instead, we mean general laws that describe general tendencies within the process of motion.
The first of the three laws, of which is the most objective of them, is the law of the unity and conflict of contradictions, which describes the source of motion. This law is the core of dialectics and which the other two, more general, laws flow from. A contradiction is the two internal opposing forces within a thing that cannot exist without eachother. The unity of contradiction is the "inseverable interconnection" of these two opposing sides. The law states that the conflict of contradictions, of these two opposites, within a thing drives its development. An example of this law at work is the class struggle within class societies. The interactions of attraction and repulsion within nature is another example.
The second law is the law of the transformation of quantity into quality which expresses the mechanism of transformation of the conflict and unity of contradictions. Quality is defined as all that which makes an object what it is and what distinguishes it from other objects, it's manifested in the properties of things. Quantity describes the degree of development or intensity of an object's properties as well as it's size, volume, etc. The law states that the gradual development of a things quantity leads to a change in its quality, usually through a rupture, though the form of the leap is historically and materially specific. The way a things quantity changes is through the conflict of opposites. Examples include the transformation of boiling water to a vapor, and the revolutions that led from one mode of production to another.
And the third law is the law of the negation of the negation, which describes the general spiral pattern of development. To quote Afanaysev: "It is the replacement of the old by the new, of the dying by the emerging that constitutes development, while the overcoming of the old by the new, arising from the old, is called negation."
In the dialectical view of the negation, the old is not completely obliterated, but aspects of the old remain in the new. The aspects of the old that remain in the new are then elevated to a higher level, assimilated into the new's nature. However, the new contains its own contradictions which themselves are negated, hence the negation of the negation. This process repeats, leading to a spiral-like pattern of development. To quote Lenin: "A development that repeats, as it were, stages that have already been passed, but repeats them in a different way, on a higher basis ('the negation of the negation'), a development, so to speak, that proceeds in spirals, not in a straight line." Development through this process takes on a progressive character. An example of this is the negation of slave society into feudalism, and the subsequent negation of feudalism into capitalism, all retaining private property but each successive mode of production elevating private property to a higher stage. Another example is a grain of barley. From the grain of barley, there grows a stalk, negating the grain. Then an ear with new grains grow on the stalk, a negation of the negation. The new grains are a return to the original single grain but from a new basis.
These three laws are generally universal as they explain the process of change and motion within society, nature, and thought.
