QUANTITY AND QUALITY

We often make a distinction between quantity and quality. In chemistry it is sometimes sufficient to know that something is present or not. What is in the water? At other times it is important to know the exact amount of something. Exactly how much mercury is in the water? However, there are times when both are important, and we fool ourselves when we ask the wrong questions.

For example, we often ask ourselves, “should I do something, or not”. This would seem like a qualitative question like, “is something there or not?” But the truth is that we are going to do “some thing”. Maybe we will only sit and stare in indecision, but that is doing something. We are never going to do “or not” (unless we die). Likewise, there is always going to be something anywhere we look. We can’t look carefully at water and not find something there, even if it is only water.

Deciding to do something still doesn’t tell us how much of it to do. One can decide to go to a movie, but that doesn’t mean they must do nothing else all day. One needs to acquire money, but that doesn’t always mean we should do nothing but acquire money. Could there be a time when one has enough?

So while the concepts of quantity and quality may be useful in certain narrow areas of study, they are not of much use in day to day living. This is because there is always a quantity involved. The big question is “how much”. And the question of “how much” is a value question which humans are very poor at answering. It is a rare human who voluntarily says, “I have enough”.