Negation of the Negation in Logical and Historical Analysis

The law of negation of the negation as it appears in the economic writings of Marx in general, and in Capital in particular, has repeatedly been treated in our philosophical literature in one way or another. (1) To this day, however, as judged from the literature, attention has not been directed to the principle of negation of the negation as it is manifested not only in Marx's historical but also in his logical analysis. Negation of the negation has been examined primarily as a form of expression of historical analysis (the spiral form of motion of capital in the course of extended reproduction, the development of forms of property in the implements and means of production, the dialectics of the contradictory unity of industry and agriculture, and of mental and physical labor). In the present article the emphasis is upon negation of the negation in logical analysis, upon the function of this principle considered as form of motion dealt with by historical analysis. All the examples of negation of the negation in historical analysis that have already been treated in the literature (particularly in the book by M. M. Rosental') are omitted quite consciously, to avoid repetition. Nor is anything said about the structure of Capital as a "dialectically subdivided whole" (Marx) in connection with negation of the negation, as that question has been splendidly handled in the book by L. A. Man'kovskii referred to in the footnote.