In the entire history of scientific development there have been two major tendencies that are constantly operative: One is the tendency of the continuous division of scientific studies into new branches of learning, and the other is the ceaseless synthesizing trend of scientific development. The two, it seems, conflict with each other, but actually they are closely related. Their mutual connection and penetration constitute an important aspect of scientific development. Judging from the entire history of natural science, the dialectical movement (...) of these two contradicting tendencies manifests itself as a process of the negation of negation. (shrink)