Dialectics

Nature is viewed as a whole, and the things, phenomena constituting it are not isolated and
independent of but interconnected, interrelated with one another. Any phenomenon is
determined by its surrounding phenomena.

Nature is in a state on constant motion and change, of renewal and development, where
something is always arising and developing, and something always disintegrating and dying
away.

Contradiction is inherent in Nature.

in the feudal system, property relations were incompatible with already developed productive
forces.

capitalist society, as they arise from the inherent conflicts between the productive forces and th
e social relations of production.

The development of capitalism is followed by the epidemic of over-production. Why? The

capitalists, in order to earn more and more profit, produce more and more. On the contrary, the
society is not well-equipped for the consumption.

“But if Modern Industry, by its very nature, therefore, necessitates variations of labour, fluency
of function, universal mobility of labourer, on the other hand, in its capitalistic form, it
reproduces the old division of labour with its ossified particularisations. This contradiction
between the technical necessities of Modern Industry and the social character inherent in its
capitalistic form dispels all fixity and security in the situation of the labourer.”

capitalism creates manifold fetters for the workers, particularly the fetter of division of labour.
Because of this fetter the labourers do not get adequate opportunities to develop their
aptitude.

contradiction between the social character of production or social production and private
ownership of the means of production.

production is social and ownership of the sources of production is individual.

“The growing accumulation of capital implies its growing concentration. Thus grows the power
of capital, the alienation of conditions of social production personified in the capitalist from the
real producers, capital comes more and to the fore as a social power, whose agent is the
capitalist. This social power no longer stands in any possible relation to that which the labour of
a single individual can create. It becomes an alienated, independent, social power, which stands
exposed to the society as an object, and as an object, that is, capitalists source of power. The
contradiction between the general social power into which capital develops, on the one hand,
and private power of the individual capitalists over these social conditions of production, on the
other, becomes ever more irreconcilable”.

the collapse of capitalism it is necessary that contradictions must arrive at the stage of maturity
which requires sufficient time and other favourable situation.

“By maturing the material conditions, and the combination on a social scale of the processes
of production, it matures the contradictions and antagonisms of the capitalist form of
production and thereby provides, along with the elements for the formation of a new society,
the forces for exploding the old one.”

The capitalist cannot exist without constantly developing his mode of production, intensifying
domination and exploiting the workers. When all these reach an apex stage the contradictions
get maturity.

Within the capitalist system all means for the development of production transform themselves
into a means of domination over the producers. They mutilate the labourer into a fragment of
man; degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine. It follows that in proportion as
capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse.”

The maturity of contradictions is, therefore, essential for hastening the dissolution of capitalism.
The working class cannot create contradictions or impose them upon the society or the
capitalist mode of production.
Negation is not something introduced into an object or phenomenon from outside, but is the
result of the object’s or phenomenon’s own, internal development. Objects and phenomena
develop on the basis of their own inherent, internal contradictions: they themselves create the
conditions for their destruction, for the change into a new, higher quality Negation is the
overcoming of the old through internal contradictions, a result of self-development, self-
movement of objects and phenomena. In Marxian words, socialism will take over capitalism
because it will offer a resolution of the internal contradictions of the capitalist system.

Dialectical negation, therefore, consists of the fact that something of a stage which is negated is
lost, something becomes part of the new, negating stages (although in a modified form), and
something entirely new is added. Thus, recognition of continuity, the connection of the new and
the old in development is a feature of the Marxist understanding of negation. However, no stage
is ever completely repeated, some features of earlier stages necessarily recur, although in a
different form, at later stages.

Quantity to Quality

Object.

an object. It may be a thing, a phenomenon, an event, a mental condition, a thought, a feeling,

an intention and so on.

Its limits may be spatial, temporal, quantitative or qualitative.

Quality

Quality determines the kind of existence of an object.

category of quality is an integral definition of the functional unity of an object’s essential

properties, its internal and external definiteness, its relative stability, its distinction from and
resemblance to other objects.

expression of the stable unity of an object’s elements and structure.

Quality is at the same time the limits of an object within which it exists as that object and no
other. This means that quality is inseparable from the object. In losing its quality any object
ceases to exist as such.
Property

The quality of the object is revealed in the sum-total of its properties. The unity of properties is,
in fact, quality.

The nature of a thing is revealed in its properties, which constitute the mode of the object’s
relationship with other things.

A property is the way in which a certain aspect of the quality of an object manifests itself in
relation to other objects with which it interacts.

doctor, lawyer, writer, sociologist, anatomist or psychiatrist. The properties of an object are
conditioned by its structure, the internal and external interactions of its elements.

Every property is relative. In relation to wood steel is hard, but it is soft in relation to

Properties may be universal or specific, essential or inessential, necessary or accidental, internal

or external, natural or artificial, and so on.

Quantity

any quantity is a set if it can be counted, or a dimension if it can be measured.

Quantity expresses the external, formal relation of objects, their parts, their properties, their
connections, number, dimension, set, element (unit), individual, class, degree of manifestation
of this or that property.

In order to establish the quantitative aspect of an object we compare its constituent elements—
spatial measurements, rate of change, degree of development, using a certain standard as a
unit of computation or measurement.
The more complex the phenomenon, the more difficult it is to study it by quantitative methods.
For example, it is not so simple to count or measure phenomena in the sphere of morality,
politics, aesthetic perception of the world, religion and so on. So it is no accident that the
process of getting to know the real world both historically and logically takes place in such a way
that knowledge of quality precedes knowledge of quantitative relations. Knowledge of the
quantitative aspect of a system is a step towards deepening our knowledge of this system.
Before a person can count, for instance, he must know what he is counting. Science proceeds
from general qualitative estimates and descriptions of phenomena to exact mathematical laws
of quantity.

The basis of quantitative thinking is the objective discreteness (individually separate and
distinct) of things and processes.

Quantity is expressed by number, which has two main meanings:

the measure of generality of the elements when put together;

the divisibility (real or putative) of an object, its properties and relations, into homogeneous
elements relatively independent of its quality.

Any number is a relatively independent, integral assembly of a certain set or a divisible unity of
quantity.

quantity is not identical with number.

quantity as a dimension—length,
may be expressed in different scales of measurement (metres, centimetres) and therefore in
different numbers.

Besides discreteness, which serves as the real premise for the concepts of quantity and number,
it is important for an understanding of the objective basis of mathematics to realise that
discrete things, their properties and relations, are united in sets.

Measure

Measure is the quantitative limit of a given quality.

Quality cannot be more or less than that limit.

Measure is thought of as a perfect whole, a unity of quantity and quality.

as a unit of measurement, volume, as proportion of the parts to the whole, as the limit of the
permissible, the legitimate, as law, as unity of quantity and quality, as their perfect wholeness,
integration (a molecule of ordinary water must have two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen),
and as a self-developing system.

Measure is also a certain stage in the historical development of something.

Measure expresses unity of quality and quantity.

the atoms of various chemical elements are only distinguished from each other by the fact that
their nuclei contain various quantities of protons. If we change the number of protons in the
nucleus, we change that element into another.

It may embrace certain normative features: in morality a knowledge of measure in everything,

moderation, modesty; in aesthetics, symmetry, proportion. Gracefulness, for example, is freely
organised harmony, proportion in motion. Rhythm, melody and harmony in music are based on
the strict observation of measure. Measure is the zone in whose limits a given quality may be
modified or varied by virtue of changes in the quantity of certain inessential properties while
retaining its essential ones.

transformation of quantity into quality and vice versa

Quantitative changes show themselves in various ways: as changes in the number of elements
of an object, the order of their connection, their spatial dimensions, their velocity, degree of
development, and so on.

any change in quantity amounts to a change in the elements of a system.

water is heated (increase in the speed of its molecules)

critical boiling point. The agitated water molecules start bubbling to the surface and leave it in
the form of steam.