p We are surrounded by very many of the most diverse objects and phenomena and all of them are in a state of constant motion or change. Nevertheless, we do not confuse these objects, but differentiate between them and define them. They do not merge into some kind of grey mass; each one differs from the others by certain specific properties of its own.

p Let us take, for example, such a metal as gold. It has a characteristic yellow colour, ductility and malleability, a definite density and heat capacity, melting and boiling points. Gold dissolves neither in alkali nor in many acids; it is not very active chemically and does not oxidise. All this taken together sets gold apart from other metals.

p All that which makes an object what it is, what distinguishes it from innumerable other objects, is its quality.

p All objects and phenomena possess quality. It is this that enables us to define and distinguish them. What, for example, sets living matter apart from non-living matter? The ability to enter into metabolic interchange with the environment, purposively to respond to external influences, to propagate. These and certain other properties make up the quality of living matter.

p Social phenomena, too, differ qualitatively. The dominance of commodity production, the existence of capitalist property, wage labour and other features distinguish capitalism from feudalism. For instance, thousands of peasant associations, each uniting a definite number of peasants, have been set up in some socialist-oriented countries. But such an association is not simply a sum total of its members, but a new quality. It is a peasant union, the beginning of their collective life and new relations between them, relations of mutual assistance and cooperation.

p Quality is manifested in properties. A property characterises a thing from one side only, whereas quality gives the general idea of an object as a whole. Yellow colour, malleability, ductility and other features of gold taken separately are its properties, while taken together they constitute its quality.

p Besides a definite quality all objects possess quantity. As distinct from quality, quantity reflects the degree of 97 development or intensity of an object’s intrinsic properties and also its size, volume, etc. Quantity is usually expressed by a number. Size, weight, volume of objects, the intensity of their intrinsic colours, of the sounds they emit, etc., are expressed numerically.

p Social phenomena also have quantitative characteristics. Each socio-economic system has a corresponding level or degree of development of production. Any country possesses a definite productive capacity, labour, raw material and power resources.

p Quantity and quality are a unity inasmuch as they represent the two sides of one and the same object. But there are also important distinctions between them. A change in quality leads to a change of the object, to its conversion into another object; on the other hand, a change in quantity within certain limits does not bring about a noticeable transformation of the object. If capitalist property, i.e., the most important qualitative feature of capitalism, is abolished and socialist property is substituted for it, a new, qualitatively different system, socialism, will supersede capitalism. But if capitalist property is enlarged, centralised, concentrated in the hands of a small group of monopolists or of the bourgeois state, as is the case in the capitalist world today, capitalism will not cease to be capitalism.

p The unity of quantity and quality is called measure. Measure is a kind of boundary, a framework within which the object remains what it is. A “disturbance” of this measure, of this definite combination of quantitative and qualitative sides, leads to a change in the object, its conversion into another object. For example, the measure for mercury in liquid state is the temperature from—39°C to + 357°C. At -39°C mercury solidifies, while at +357°C it begins to boil and becomes vapourised.

p Suantitative and qualitative definiteness is inherent in phenomena as well.

p Capitalism and socialism, being qualitatively unlike social systems, have their own quantitative distinctions that reflect the dynamics and the level of development, indicators of the state of phenomena and aspects (productive forces, economic growth rates, labour resources, population, education, social maintenance, subsistence minimum, occupational injuries, crime, free time, etc.), correlation, 98 proportions of the economic subdivisions and branches (accumulation and consumption, industrial and agricultural production, etc.). Here it is also necessary to reckon with the fact that a-range of quantitative features are intrinsic either to socialism or to capitalism in view of the contrasting aims of production under these social systems and the specifics of their economies.

p It should also be stressed that a planned and balanced transformation of quantitative and qualitative features of various sides of the life of society is typical of socialism.

In both cognition and practice it is very important to take into account the unity of the quantitative and qualitative sides of phenomena.