I wrote, for about the twentieth time over the past four years, in response to by dear friend and Comrade CB:
>>It is not accurate to say that quantity or quantitative change turns into qualitative change and quality turns into quantity because this expresses only a perceptual understanding of the approach and method of Marx and Engels. Change is not a simple shift in the balance of forces or the simple increase or decrease of the old. While contradiction is the basis for growth and development, antagonism is the basis for destruction and the rise of something new in society. More of the same thing or a quantitative increase in the dimensions of however the material factors or production are organized will never lead to a qualitative change in the productive forces. A quantitative increase in industrial application can never lead to a qualitative leap or a new quality of productive forces different from industrial implements. Quantity does not simply pass over to quality on its own in society - never. The quantitative introduction of a new quality (a quality antagonistic to the process of production, as it had existed) begins the leap or transition to a new qualitative state of development of production. The new quality develops quantitatively and, through a step-by-step process, disrupts and destroys whatever previously held the process of production together, as a system of reproduction. <<< Quantitative differences pass into qualitative change. Still one has to explain or explore the emergence of that which is the different quantitative addition or difference. I do not clim this is the last word in Marxism or even a fact or right for that matter. I do asert that what I have written - again, makes more common sense that repeating a thousand times "quantitative change turns into qualitative change." By common sense I mean the sense that is more than less common to our society as it begins its passage from the industrial epoch and industrial modes of logic. Waistline _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
