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a) The Concept of Quality and Quantity

p As we noted in the preceding chapter, each thing (object or process) constitutes a totality of the general and the particular, i.e. that which indicates its similarity with other things and that which distinguishes it from them. But that which distinguishes one thing from another or indicates its similarity to another is property. A thing is tjiigrpfVvQ r-Viararftpfinn^ *»y i infmit n’lm^pr *?f different properties some of them showing what it is, otners indicating its dimensions or magnitude.

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p Thus, some properties of chlorine, such as the fact that it is a gas under normal conditions, that it is yellowish-green in colour, poisonous, chemically active and combines directly with most metals and non-metals, indicate what it is. Its other properties, such as the fact that it is 2.5 times heavier than air, that at normal pressure it weighs 3.214 g at 0°C, that 17 protons make up the charge of its atom’s nucleus, and that 17 electrons rotate around its nucleus, characterise its quantity. nf prnpp.rHp.K that make a particular thing what it is, is called its quality. The totality of properties indicating a thing’s dimensions or magnitude is called its quantity.

p The basic qualities of the thing under study must be distinguished from its non-basic qualities. Since the interconnection of each thing with other real phenomena varies, at one time and in one relation the thing in question manifests certain of its properties, while at another time and in other relations it reveals others. For this reason, under certain conditions a thing will show one concrete non-basic quality, but under other conditions another quality. The totality of the properties that the thing revealed under the given conditions and relations will constitute a concrete quality in every particular case. For example, by performing certain labour operations, a man reveals properties indicating what he is as a labourer, and constituting his quality as a labourer under the given conditions. In this case he may be a manual labourer, a fitter, an engineer or an office worker. In other relations the man will reveal his other 249 properties, in still others-still other properties, and so on. In each case he will reveal a new concrete quality. A man marries, for example, and thus becomes a husband in this relation; he begets children and becomes a father in relation to them; he is elected to parliament, which reveals his new quality in this relation-he becomes a deputy.

p themselves in certain relations and under certain conditions, only to disappear in others, a thing possesses properties that it has always, in any relation and under any conditions. The totality of these properties constitutes ^Ee basic quality ot the thing! In  contrast to non-basic qualities which characterise a thing only in definite relations, its basic quality characterises the thing in all relations. It is inseparable from the thing, emerges together with it and changes only when the thing changes into another thing.

Man’s basic quality is made up, for instance, of properties, such as his consciousness, ability deliberately to transform his environment and create the material wealth necessary for his vital activities, capacity to live in society only, i.e. together with other people. The fact that water is a substance made un of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen constitutes its basic quality, i*-g non-hagir qualities include, among other things, the fact that it may be either a liquid, a solid body, or a gas, depending on concrete conditions.

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b) The Essence of the Law of the Transition
of Quantitative to Qualitative Changes

p Qualitative changes in a thing are a result of accumulated quantitative changes in it, which, having reached a certain limit, inevitably turn jnto qualitative changes, while the latter exert their jjwn reverse influence on the quantity and, in turn, cause changes in its characteristics.

p Indeed, whatever qualitative difference we take, we shall always find that its emergence is necessarily connected with some quantitative differences. The qualitative differences between oxygen and ozone, for instance, are a direct result of the different quantities of atoms that make up the molecules of the given substances. The molecule of oxygen consists of two atoms, while that of ozone-three. Moreover, two substances such as laughing gas (N₂O) and nitrogen pentoxide (N₂O₅) differ greatly as regards their quality-the former is a gas, whereas the latter is a solid. As to their chemical composition, however, the only difference is that the molecule of nitrogen pentoxide contains five times as much oxygen as that of laughing gas. Or take Mendeleyev’s periodic system of chemical elements. It shows that a purely quantitative difference of protons in an atom’s nucleus causes corresponding changes in the quality of chemical elements.

p Quality and quantity, however, possess relative independence, so a quantitative change does not always entail a qualitative one. The quality of water, for instance, would not change if its quantity were increased or reduced. Water is water 251 whether its quantity is one glassfull or a big basin, or is but one drop. Similarly, a table will remain a table whether we make it smaller or larger.

p But all this applies within certain limits. Quality is not immune to quantitative changes. Sooner or later an increase or decrease in a certain quantitative aspect will inevitably cause a qualitative change. Thus, we cannot change the quantity of water ad infinitum-a drop of water can be reduced up to a certain limit below which its quality instantly changes. For common water, the weight of one of its molecules constitutes this limit below which water becomes qualitatively different substances-hydrogen and oxygen. Moreover, we^ cannot keep on making the table infinitely smaller or larger and retain its quality-should we make the table considerably larger or smaller, in one case it will become a shed or a support, while in the other it will turn into a toy or a model.

p To sum up, quantitative changes do not entail qualitative ones only up to a certain limit. The limit within which quantitative changes do not entail qualitative changes is called measure.

p Thus, qualitative changes occur only when quantitative changes go beyond the limit of a certain measure. This being so, if qualitative changes do not occur always, but only when quantitative changes reach a certain limit, beyond the confines of the relevant measure, it becomes evident that qualitative changes are the result nf quantitative ones, that qualitative characteristics are caused by quantitative ones, and, differences’ by quantitative ones.

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p Qualitative differences that emerge as a result of certain quantitative changes are not passive in relation to them. They exert a reverse influence and cause corresponding changes in the quantitative characteristics. Socialism (as a new quality) has replaced capitalism (as an old quality) and has given rise to new quantitative characteristics, such as different production growth rates, a different degree to which the material and cultural needs of the working people are satisfied.

This law-governed interconnection and interdependence of quality and quantity, of qualitative and quantitative changes constitutes the essence of the law of the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, and vice versa.

c) A Critique of Metaphysical Views
of the Interconnection Between Quantity and Quality

p Although the above proposition is obvious, metaphysicists reject it, maintaining that quality and quantity are not interconnected and cannot pass into one another. The contemporary US philosopher Sydney Hook, for instance, declares it to be absurd. He writes: ”. . .Although quantities may vary and qualities may vary and the relationship between the variations of both may be described by continuous or discontinuous functions ... it is absurd to say that quantity ever becomes quality or that quality becomes quantity.”  [252•1  According to him, quantity cannot become 253 quality because the latter “is logically prior to quantity" and can, in general, exist without it.

p The statement that quality is logically prior to quantity is true. In cognising the world, man proceeded historically from cognising quality to comprehending (revealing) quantity. This in no way means, however, that qualitative changes are not the result of quantitative ones. In knowledge, we are sometimes compelled to go in the direction opposite to the actual one. What we observe in the process of cognition, however, cannot serve as sufficient grounds for drawing conclusions as regards reality. The objective world should be judged on the basis of the laws governing reality itself, not the laws of knowledge.

p James Feibleman. a contemporary British philo’sopKerTalso rejects the interconnection between quality and quantity. He says that quality and quantity cannot be interconnected, for one of them (quality) is revealed through sensation, while the other (quantity)-through the thinking process. This is far from true-both quality and quantity are cognised not only through sensations, but also through thought. If this were true, however, it would not follow at all that quantity and quality are isolated, since that which we sometimes isolate in the process of cognition would not necessarily exist separately or isolate itself in objective reality.

In contrast to metaphysicists, dialectical materialists, proceeding from the data provided by the natural sciences, recognise the interconnection between quality and quantity, between 254 qualitative and quantitative changes. Moreover, they consider this to be a major law governing the motion and development of matter.

d) A Leap as a Universal Form of Transition
from One Quality Into Another

p While they are interconnected and interdependent, quantitative and qualitative changes are fundamentally different from one another. Quantitative changes occur slowly, latently, gradually, continuously, while qualitative changes occur abruptly, openly, in a leap-like manner, as a break jnjcpntinuity.

p A leap is the vrocess bv which the quality ot a thing is transformed, a transition from one state into another.

p As a break in the continuous quantitative changes of a thing, a leap is dependent on the latter’s nature, on its specific essence. Phenomena that differ by their nature involve different forms jpt leaps. fror example, in one torm an electron and a positron change into a pair or a threesome of photons, in another a substance changes from a Jliquid into a gaseous state, in yet another Ime species of animal changes into another. The nature and form ot me leap also depend on the concrete conditions under which it occurs. Phenomena that are similar in nature will make the transformation into a new qualitative state in different ways under different concrete conditions. In the USSR, for example, where land was nationalised immediately following the triumph of the Great October Socialist Revolution, it became 255 possible in the course of the socialist transformation of agriculture largely to bypass the lowest and medium forms of cooperative production society, and introduce its higher form at once, i.e. the collective farm, which combines collective labour on publicly owned land with social ownership of the basic means of production and distribution of produce according to the quality and quantity of labour contributed by the collective farmer. In the other socialist countries this process develops in a different way. Here the socialist transformation of small-commodity farm production was carried through under conditions of private ownership of land. This had an effect on the form of the transformation. It was due to this, in particular, that various semi-socialist forms of production were widely applied in these countries, combining socialist ownership of some means of production with private ownership of land. Moreover, distribution based on the quality and quantity of labour inputs co-existed with that based on the quality and quantity of the land and other means of labour given over to the social economy. For all their various forms, leaps can be sub-

p divided jntD fVl° frJW.ring trirr. fypoo .  \ )

p Baking the form of an explosion; and 2) leaps occurring comparatively slowly, bv wav of gradually accumulating the elements of a new quality and discarding those of the old.

p An explosive-type leap occurs rapidly, abruptly, often as a single blow. The entire quality undergoes changes in the process. In contrast, a leap occurring through the gradual accumulation of the 256 elements of a new quality and the disappearance of those Of the old quality, talcpg plan? plnwly Only certain parts of the quality-not all of itundergo changes. One qualitative characteristic is changed first, then another, then yet another, and so on, until the entire quality is transformed.

p The explosion of dynamite is an example of an explosive-type leap: all the aspects of the initial quality are involved in the abrupt transformation of one substance into another. As applied to society, an explosive-type leap can be exemplified by a social revolution in the form of an armed uprising.

The development of new species of plant and animal is an example of a leap occurring 6y way ot the relatively gradual accumulation ot the elements of a new quality and the disappearance of those of the old quality. The transformation of one species of plant or animal into another under natural conditions occurs, as a rule, through the gradual appearance of one new quality after another that correspond to the changed environment, and through the gradual disappearance of the properties that do not correspond to such changes. A peaceful take-over of political power by the proletariat is an example of this type of leap, as applied to society.

e) Evolution and Revolution

p The nature of a leap and the way it proceeds serve as the basis for subdividing all leaps into leaps that take the form of an explosion and others 257 that occur through the gradual accumulation of the elements of a new quality and the disappearance of those of the old quality.

p Leaps may, however, be classified on the basis of another teature, viz, the nature of qualitative changes, that which changes in a thing, its qualJty. Since a thing has basic and non-basic qualities, changes in the basic quality differ essentially from those in non-basic qualities. Changes in the basic quality of a thing presuppose a change of its essence and its transformation into another thing, whereas changes in non-basic qualities occur within the bounds of one and the same essence and do not entail the transformation of the thing into another thing. Bearing this in mind, leaps can be divided into revolutionary and evolutionary.

p Revolution is a leap bringing about a radical break in the old qualitative basis and a change in the essence of a thing.

p Evolution is a leap entailing transition to a new quality within the given essence of a thing, without a radical break in the existing qualitative basis.

p A transition from one socio-economic system to another, such as that from capitalism to socialism, is an example of revolution. The transition from pre-monopoly to monopoly capitalism and from socialism to communism are examples of evolution.

p In this particular sense the concepts “ revolution” and “evolution” are applicable to all spheres of reality. They take a somewhat different meaning, however, when used to express the laws 258 governing the transition from one qualitative state to another in certain particular fields in the life of society. As applied to society, not every leap accompanied by a radical break of the existing qualitative basis and a change in the essence of the given material entity is a revolution, but only one resulting in the emergence of more developed qualitative states, i.e. a transition from a lower to a higher phase. A transition from a higher to a lower phase is called counter-revolution. The transition of political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat, for instance, which represents the socialist mode of production called upon to replace the historically outdated capitalist mode of production, is revolution. The temporary restoration of power by the bourgeoisie overthrown in the course of revolution, is counter-revolution.

p As regards evolution, if applied to historical development, it is a reform which is a type of transformation presupposing that the qualitative basis of the existing economic and political system, i.e. its essence, is preserved.

Today, the bourgeoisie spares no efforts to prolong the existence of the capitalist social system and frequently resorts to reforms which, though introducing certain insignificant changes in particular spheres of society, leave intact the existing mode of production and the exploitation of man by man engendered by it. Addressing the 25th CPSU Congress, Leonid Brezhnev said: “ Capitalism did its utmost, so to speak, to keep in step with the times, to apply various methods of economic regulation. This made it possible to 259 stimulate economic growth but, as the Communists foresaw, it could not remove the contradictions of capitalism.”  [259•1