Sang Hun Lee

One critique Dr. Lee made of dialectical materialism involves the example of a chicken's egg. According to communists, the embryo (thesis) is oppressed by the shell (antithesis) and must overcome and destroy the shell to reach the next stage of being a chick (synthesis).

The error here, Lee argues, lies in misunderstanding the purpose and role of the eggshell. While the embryo is unformed or weak, the shell remains tough and hard to protect it. When the embroyo has developed into a chick and is ready to enter the world, the shell becomes thin and brittle. If a chick were removed from the shell by an outside force, its ability to survive would be diminished.

So the shell is not an oppressor to the embryo but serves it (as an object partner) as long as its service is needed.

See: dialectical materialism, Unification Thought

Links

• short obituary (http://www.uts.edu/drlee)
• Unification Thought (http://www.messagesfromspiritworld.info/UTW/Unification%20ThoughtTOC) -- entire text of 1992 edition