quantity into quality

[Dodo]

Can someone explain to me what Marxists mean by this? Been reading dialectical materialism a lot and greatly turned it into way I perceive life. Mostly thanks to how large this "dialectics" is.

But what does this phare mean? Quantity into quality?

[Czy]

A central law in dialectics is this transformation of “quantity into quality”—that a change of the amount (quantity) will eventually bring about a material change in the whole make-up of something (quality).

Think of water. Gradual decreases in the temperature (quantity) eventually leads to the point of freezing. At that point, the water has changed to ice—from liquid to a solid state. This is a qualitative change.

In society, social change occurs in the conflict between opposing classes—in capitalist society, between the working class and the capitalist class. The conflict breaks out on a day-to-day basis—protests, strikes, pickets and so forth. But when these protests come together in a united political movement against the capitalist class, a quantity of struggles can bring about a qualitative change—a revolution.

This is the basis of the Marxist worldview.

[G4b3n]

As capitalism developed, the bourgeoisie appropriated the new advanced mode of production, causing a quantitative shift in the size of classes such as the peasantry, leading to a qualitative shift in the makeup of class society and the new forms of class struggle.

The most interesting examples of dialectics can be found in the natural sciences, especially in Darwin.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

A bunch of bad shit into some good shit?

[Dodo]

Oi, I get it now. Thanks lads.

[reb]

Dialectics is about change. From one thing to the other. The classic example is adding a black liquid to a white liquid drop by drop until it goes from white to black. From a quantitative difference to a qualitative one. That's a little abstract but I'm sure that most people can remember their high school chemistry experiments when they were adding a clear liquid to another one drop by drop until there was a complete change in color with the last drop. That's pretty much quantity into quality.

[Dodo]

I knew that there was a great emphasis on constant change and motion, its just I did not exactly know what this phrase meant.

[ckaihatsu]

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Quantity and Quality

The law of the transformation of quantity into quality has an extremely wide range of applications, from the smallest particles of matter at the subatomic level to the largest phenomena known to man. It can be seen in all kinds of manifestations, and at many levels. Yet this very important law has yet to receive the recognition which it deserves. This dialectical law forces itself to our attention at every turn. The transformation of quantity into quality was already known to the Megaran Greeks, who used it to demonstrate certain paradoxes, sometimes in the form of jokes. For example, the "bald head" and the "heap of grain"—does one hair less mean a bald head, or one grain of corn a heap? The answer is no. Nor one more? The answer is still no. The question is then repeated until there is a heap of corn and a bald head. We are faced with the contradiction that the individual small changes, which are powerless to effect a qualitative change, at a certain point do exactly that: quantity changes into quality.

The idea that, under certain conditions, even small things can cause big changes finds its expression in all kinds of sayings and proverbs. For instance: "The straw that broke the camel’s back," "many hands make light work," "constant dripping wears away the stone," and so on. In many ways, the law of the transformation of quantity into quality has penetrated the popular consciousness, as Trotsky wittily pointed out:

"Every individual is a dialectician to some extent or other, in most cases, unconsciously. A housewife knows that a certain amount of salt flavours soup agreeably, but that added salt makes the soup unpalatable. Consequently, an illiterate peasant woman guides herself in cooking soup by the Hegelian law of the transformation of quantity into quality. Similar examples from daily life could be cited without end. Even animals arrive at their practical conclusions not only on the basis of the Aristotelian syllogism but also on the basis of the Hegelian dialectic. Thus a fox is aware that quadrupeds and birds are nutritious and tasty. On sighting a hare, a rabbit, or a hen, a fox concludes: this particular creature belongs to the tasty and nutritive type, and—chases after the prey. We have here a complete syllogism, although the fox, we may suppose, never read Aristotle. When the same fox, however, encounters the first animal which exceeds it in size, for example, a wolf, it quickly concludes that quantity passes into quality, and turns to flee. Clearly, the legs of a fox are equipped with Hegelian tendencies, even if not fully conscious ones.




http://www.marxist.com/science-old/dialecticalmaterialism.html#Quantity and Quality

[RedMaterialist]

Can someone explain to me what Marxists mean by this? Been reading dialectical materialism a lot and greatly turned it into way I perceive life. Mostly thanks to how large this "dialectics" is.

But what does this phare mean? Quantity into quality?

I think this is a good example:

A hydrogen atom is one electron, one proton and one neutron (at least hydrogen 2.) The next element, helium, is two electrons, two protons, two neutrons (excluding isotopes.) All additional elements are, essentially, an addition of an electron, a proton and a neutron.

So, the difference between a hydrogen atom and a gold atom is only a matter of quantity, yet there is a qualitative difference between hydrogen and gold.
You can't identify a hydrogen or gold proton or electron.

Also, from chemistry:

An electron can move from one "level" to another either from the addition or removal of energy. But the change in the quantity of energy results in the immediate change in the level of the electron, the change in quantity results in the change in the quality of the atom, from one isotope to another. There is no gradual change in the quality, the change is immediate.

Maybe another one:

The difference between two stars can determine whether one star dies out slowly, like the Sun, and whether another one becomes a black hole, clearly a difference in quality. Yet the only difference is the quantity of mass of the star.

Here is a personal one:

Anyone who has ever practiced a sport knows that you can practice the same action over and over again, with no apparent advance in ability. Then, suddenly, almost without noticing it, you move to a higher level.

These are only some ideas off the top of my head. Not meant to be scientific.

[RedMaterialist]

A bunch of bad shit into some good shit?

I think that assumes one pile of shit is better or can be better than another. That, however, would not be a change in quality, but rather a change in appearance.

On the other hand, if you had a pile of marijuana which was one-half stems and another pile which had no stems then I guess the second pile would be qualitatively different than the first.

If you had a microscopic amount of shit on your sandwich, I guess that would be qualitatively different than having a dog crap on your sandwich.