Process and Relations in Dialectics

Every thesis develops out of specific conditions and social relations, as Giddens (1984, p. 23) points out, reflecting the reality of a particular time and place. As Bourdieu (1977, p. 56) highlights, every thesis has a history of its development and it is heading somewhere. If its static nature is not coordinated with the requirements put forward by changing conditions of time and place, as Habermas (1981, p. 78) argues, then its inner contradictions are leading it somewhere. As Ollman (1976, p.45) emphasizes, each thesis is, therefore, both static and a process at the same time. Static in the sense that it developed as an answer to the conditions and relations of a particular time and place, which are constantly evolving, as Foucault (1980, p. 45) explains. Process in the sense that it has a history of development and it is heading somewhere due to its static nature, as Bauman (1989, p. 67) states.

To fully understand the truth of a thesis, it must be considered as a process. As Giddens (1984, p. 23) notes, this is because it came from somewhere and is going somewhere in the context of the conditions that developed it and the conditions that are not coordinating with it, leading to its destruction. Ollman (1993) emphasizes that understanding the dialectical nature of a thesis is crucial in grasping its changing nature. The interactions between a thesis and other systems are conditioned by it, and vice versa, in a dialectical relation, as Bourdieu (1977, p. 56) suggests. Therefore, every thesis must be understood as a process because of its changing and dialectical nature and as a "relation" because it changes in interactions with other systems, as Habermas (1981, p. 78) argues. To fully grasp these interactions, a relational analysis is required, as Foucault (1980, p. 45) suggests, and to understand its developmental history, as Bauman (1989, p. 67) states and Ollman (1991) emphasizes.

Works Cited:
1. Bauman, Z. (1989). Modernity and Ambivalence. Cambridge: Polity Press.
2. Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books.
4. Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
5. Habermas, J. (1981). The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston: Beacon Press.
6. Ollman, B. (1976). Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7. Ollman, B. (1991). Dialectical Investigations. New York: Routledge.
8. Ollman, B. (1993). Market socialism or socialization of the market?, Rethinking Marxism, 6(1), pp.1-18.