Quantitative and Qualitative Change

Two states and forms assumed by the interconnection and development of things. Quantitative change and qualitative change are both caused by the contradictory motion of things.

Quantitative change, i.e., change of the quantitative determination of a thing, is an insignificant change within the scope of measure based on its original nature, including the increase or decrease of quantity, the change of place, the change of the arrangement order of component elements and the variation in the functions of the thing. What is generally seen as unity, stalemate, equilibrium and rest are all images of things presented in the process of quantitative change. The forms of quantitative change can basically be divided into two categories: those caused by an increase or decrease in quantity, and those caused by a change in the spatial relation, i.e., the arrangement order and structural form, of the components that constitute a thing.

Qualitative change is the fundamental change of the nature of things, the transformation of a thing from one qualitative state to another. Qualitative change manifests itself as a fundamental, significant change, a mutation, a break with the original measure, a break in the continuity and gradual progress of things. The dissolution of a unified thing, the destruction of a stalemate, of an equilibrium, and of a rest, etc. are images presented in the process of quantitative change.

Whether a change of things exceeds the measure or not is the fundamental hallmark of the distinction between quantitative and qualitative change. Quantitative and qualitative change are interconnected and transform into each other under certain conditions. First, quantitative change is the necessary preparation for qualitative change. The change of anything has a process of accumulation of quantitative change. Without the accumulation of quantitative change, qualitative change will not occur. Second, qualitative change is the necessary result of quantitative change. A purely quantitative change cannot last forever, and a certain degree of quantitative change will inevitably bring about a qualitative change. Third, quantitative change and qualitative changes are interpenetrating. On the one hand, in the process of a total quantitative change, there are stages and partial qualitative changes; on the other hand, in the process of qualitative change, there is also a contraction in quantity of the old quality and an expansion in quantity of the new quality.

The dialectical relation between quantitative change and qualitative change shows that the development of things always first begins with quantitative change. When the quantitative change reaches a critical point beyond the measure, it leads to a qualitative change, which is the process from quantitative change to qualitative change; qualitative changes bring about a new quantitative change, which is a process from qualitative change to quantitative change. The development of things is an infinite cycle repeating itself from quantitative change to qualitative change, and from qualitative change to a new quantitative change, an evolutionary process from the lower to the higher, from simple to complex.