Quality

The inherent determination of a thing to become itself, different from other things, corresponding to “quantity”. The quality of a thing is determined by the internal contradictions of the thing. A specific quality is the being itself of a specific thing; quality is immediately identical with the being of a thing. What makes something exist, what makes it itself, and what distinguishes it from other things, is that it has its own qualitative determination. Engels said: “Qualities do not exist but only things with qualities and indeed with infinitely many qualities.”

The immediate identity of a quality and a thing has two aspects of meaning: firstly, things are always things with a certain quality, and things without a certain quality do not exist at all; secondly, quality is always the quality of a certain thing, and a quality apart from a certain thing does not exist at all. Since quality is immediately identical with the thing, it is the intrinsic determination of the thing. This intrinsic determination can only present itself through the relation of this thing to other things, through the differences between things. The relation between a thing and other things is complex, so that the quality of a thing often manifests itself as a variety of attributes or properties. The quality of a thing is manifested and known through its properties, but quality is not equivalent to properties. The properties of things are diverse, both essential and non-essential. Different properties have different roles to play in defining the quality of things. Quality and quantity are always combined. In the real world, there is no such thing as quality without quantity or quantity without quality, there is no quality without quantity or quantity without quality.