| This question <39|46> overall <41|45> Michael: <1369|55>. |
| Question 31: 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? |
| [43] Michael: An answer to this question would be an example of a physical entity whose quality (as in: characteristics) depends on its quantity. If I understand Ace [39] correctly, Ace's proposal cannot be an example of this because he (say) argues that water changes qualitatively as different amounts of heat are applied to it. In this case, it is not in different amounts of water that we find different qualities but rather it is the amount of heat that is changing. Do you sense the problem? |
| Consider what Marx says in the first paragraph, section 2, part a: “It is apt to be forgotten that the magnitudes of different things can be compared quantitatively, only when those magnitudes are expressed in the same unit. It is only as expressions of such a unit that they are of the same denomination, and therefore commensurable.” So the problem is this: Suppose that in different amounts of water, water is qualitatively different. Then ask: are we in that case even comparing two different quantities of the same thing (water)? |
| Another issue is whether in this example it is even the quantity of water that is changing (regardless of why). It seems that rather than the quantity of water changing, it is the volume of the space that contains it. After all, the number of H2O molecules has not changed, they are only more densely located in the case of solid water (compared to steam). I hope this is found useful. |
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