| This question <2|6> overall <2|4> Hans: <742|7>. |
| Question 29: Can you think of an example in which the quantity of something affects its quality, for instance some physical matter two litres of which are qualitatively different from one litre of it? |
| [3] Hans: Hi Dr. Kervorkian. Bresid opens our discussion with an interesting example. In a certain dosage, Isoflurane is a general anesthesic, and in a higher dosage it is an euthanasia agent (i.e., a means to administer a “good death,” for instance when your pet has become too old to enjoy and benefit from life). Bresid brings this as an example of a substance whose quantity affects its quality. The substance he brings as example has two quite different qualities depending on its quantity. Bresid strengthens his argument by observing that the use of the substance in the wrong quantity (overdose during a surgery) can have disastrous effects. |
| I'd like to discuss two issues here. (1) What do you mean, euthanasia? (2) Is this really a different quality of the substance, or is it the same quality having different effects? |
| Let me first get (1) out of the way so that we can concentrate on the more important (2). It is somewhat puzzling that Bresid is talking about euthanasia agents with respect to human patients -- in a social environment in which it is illegal for doctors to help their patients to a gentle death (other than refraining from giving life-prolonging treatment). Bresid should have anticipated that this raises questions or puzzlement for his audience and explained himself better. |
| (2) Marx is a realist. He believes that there are many different causal agents in the world, at all levels. And that it is important to know which agent does what, where the source of an observed effect really lies. Do the evils of capitalism come from people having a wrong attitude towards money, or are there systemic flaws in our social structure itself? Marx thinks the latter. In other words, if one wants to change capitalism, one should not begin with people's attitudes towards money, but one must strip money itself of its social power -- a power which cannot be reduced to people's attitudes but which is anchored in the way production is organized in capitalist society. |
| It is called voluntarism to think that in society everything can be reduced to individual attitudes. It is called anthropocentrism to think that the qualities of a thing are defined by its effects on humans. In Marx's view (which I share), both voluntarism and anthropocentrism are wrong. |
| Regarding Isoflurane, I would say that its chemical composition causes it to be a depressant of the nervous system. This same mechanism may lead to anesthesia or death depending on the circumstances. This difference does not originate in Isoflurane itself, but it comes from the environment in which Isoflurane operates. In other words, Bresid was talking about one and the same quality of Isoflurane, not two. |
| Now one word about grading. Bresid gave me permisson to publicize his grades, but marked this particular submission as ungraded. Would it have been graded, it would have been an A- with 50% weight. The weight is something new this year: in aggregation with other grades, this grade would have had a lower weight, and if graded, this submission would only have counted as half a homework, not a full homework, towards the goal of 6 graded homeworks overall during the Semester. |
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