如何理解“质是事物的内部规定性”——评一种流行的质的定义

How to Understand "Quality Is the Internal Stipulations"——Review of a popular definition of quality

国内马克思主义哲学教科书普遍把质界定为"事物内部固有的规定性",进而把属性看作是质的"外在表现",并区分出所谓"本质属性"与"非本质属性"。这种质的定义很容易混淆质与本质的界限,把质与属性的关系,跟本质与现象的关系混淆起来了,并且无法理清本质与"本质属性"的关系。要解决这个问题,人们须要明白"事物内部固有的规定性"这一说法具有歧义:它既可以指事物本身所固有的意思,也可以指同现象相对的本质的意思。为了避免产生歧义和导致各种逻辑上的混淆,人们最好把质定义为"事物本身所固有的规定性",去掉"内部"这个限定语,并防止把属性视为质的"外在表现"。

Marxist philosophical textbooks in China general define quality as ＂the inherent internal stipulation of things＂, and thus the nature is considered as the ＂external manifestation＂, and in turn the nature is classified into essential nature and non-essential nature. This kind of definition can easily lead to erasing quality and essence, confusing the relationship （between quality and nature） and the relationship （between essence and phenomenon） and lead to the difficulty in editing the relationship between essence and ＂essential nature＂. To solve this problem, one should know the ambiguity of the representation ＂the inherent internal stipulation of things＂： it can refer to what the thing inherits and essence, the counterpart of phenomenon as well. To avoid the ambiguity and logical confusion, quality should be defined as ＂the inherent stipulation of thing itself＂ getting rid of the infinitive word ＂internal＂, and prevent the view of regarding nature as the ＂external manifestation＂ of quality.