Difference (redirected from making a difference)

difference

1. Maths

a. the result of the subtraction of one number, quantity, etc., from another

b. the single number that when added to the subtrahend gives the minuend; remainder

2. Logic another name for differentia

3. Maths of two sets

a. the set of members of the first that are not members of the second.

b. symmetric difference the set of members of one but not both of the given sets.

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difference [′dif·rəns]

(mathematics)

The result of subtracting one number from another.

The difference between two setsAandBis the set consisting of all elements ofAwhich do not belong toB;denotedA-B.

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Difference 

a comparative description of objects, based on the fact that properties present in some objects are lacking in others. In materialist dialectics, “difference” is understood as a necessary moment in every thing, phenomenon, and process, characterizing its inner contradictoriness and development.

The category of difference is inseparable from the category of identity. The closest connection and mutual interpenetration of difference and identity occurs in the course of the reflection of the movement and development of objects, when difference exists within identity, and identity within difference. The objective basis for the unity of difference and identity is the unity between the stability and the changeability of things. In this unity, stability is manifested as the identity of the changing object with itself, and changeability, as a violation of this identity, or as difference within identity.