QUALITY’S FREEDOM                                           QUANTITY’S POWER

PROTOZOA (bacterium) ..............................................................365,000,000,000 per year

MOLLUSKS (oyster).................................................................................1,000,000 per year

AMPHIBIANS (bullfrog)...................................................................................20,000 per year

INTELLIGENT MAMMALS (wild dog).....................................................................16 per year

APES (chimpanzee) ...........................................................................................1 in 3 years

Quality

This chart begins with the unicellular organisms and ends with apes.The left column refers to the qualitative evolution, the evolution that lifted life from primordial ooze to the level of very high intelligence. The term “lifted” is justified here because it refers to the direction toward freedom of Quality.  Intelligence implies the possibility of knowledge, and knowledge is freedom. Freedom of Quality is the only thing that makes humans superior to animals.

           This evolutionary scale is much condensed, but its brevity makes the point clearer. Also, this scale omits the human being because, within our species, quantity has gained a power not seen among the intelligent species in nature, and it needs to be treated separately.  So, this chart only describes what happens in nature.

         Quantity

         The numbers in the chart include all organisms brought to life, not only the surviving offspring.  These numbers show the full impact of the power of quantity, because they include the descendants that die before reaching maturity. This is important, as we will see at the end of this article.  Unicellular organisms are the lowest on the evolution scale because their dependence on the power of quantity is the highest, and so, they reproduce the most in the shortest time. The E. coli reproduces by the millions a day. On the other extreme of the scale are the most intelligent animals, the apes; they give birth to one infant every three years or so. 

         The above chart illustrates that, as Quality goes up on the scale, the power of quantity meets resistance; it cannot go above a certain number. Oysters cannot possibly multiply at the same rate as E. coli.  Similarly, an ape cannot reproduce as much as a wolf can.  The higher the species is in the evolution scale, the less it can reproduce within a period of time. The chart shows that as intelligence increases, the maximum power of quantity in a species decreases.

         Opposites  

         The chart demonstrates that Quality and quantity are not the same; they act differently.  Most significantly, it illustrates that Quality and the maximum power of quantity exist in inverse proportion to each other. The maximum power of quantity will show the bound within which quantity can expand within a genus or a species, and still be compatible with a particular level of qualitative development. 

                                 Low (Not free) Quality................High power of quantity

                        High (Free) Quality.....................Low power of quantity 

If one assumes that two complementing things that exist in an inverse proportion to each other are opposites, then Quality and quantity are opposite to each other.

         Quantity is a Means

         Quantity opposes freedom of Quality, but, since its movements have to obey logic (FO), it also serves as a means that preserves Quality in time and space. A high reproduction rate creates large groups, and these groups are a powerful means of defense and attack. A large quantity of ants can send elephants running.   

         Qualitative evolution happens when quantity gradually becomes a better means to liberate Quality.  In addition to the number of individuals of a group that Quality needs to survive, there is the individual’s own body made of cells.  They, as a quantity, are the means that allows Quality, the self, to manifest as an individual.  The difference between a group of individuals and a group of body cells is that the latter are physiologically organized as a unit.

         The individual as a unit is like a complete deductive argument. In logic, the truths in the many premises are synthesized by quantitative means (Boolean algebra) into one truth, the conclusion. Similarly, the body of an individual is a logical “argument.” It is a means that preserves the Quality in each cell, and synthesizes into one unique conclusion that is the living individual.  

         It seems that not all means, not all quantitative structures in nature have the same priority.  The genetic blueprints of individuals are a quantity organized by the FO as a means to preserve Quality. When a species becomes extinct, this blueprint is lost, and all the improvements in the “argument” in favor of Quality that were gained during evolution are also lost. If the goal of the FO is to preserve Quality through generations and liberate it, it should facilitate its continuation.  And it does. These blueprints are described by Dawkins as the “selfish genes.”  The genes cannot be “selfish” as a person can be, but they can be very closely guarded by the FO.

         Body Size

         Some may say that Quality is not the only thing that consistently lowers the birth rate. Large body size does the same thing.

         It is true that large animals generally reproduce less.  However, there are exceptions. A big animal such as a whale shark can also have a high rate of reproduction; it gives birth to 50 or more pups.^[2]  Also, the loggerhead turtle is a large animal, weighing from 200 up to 1000 pounds,^[3] yet it reproduces at a high rate also. On the other hand, in the case of high Quality, there are no exceptions.  No intelligent animals can reproduce at the rate that lower forms of life can. No ape can have 50 babies a year. Large bodies are just another means of survival, like spines, camouflage, or venom.

         Low rate

         The FO protects Quality and fosters its freedom.  Since quantity is a very expensive means because its price is freedom of Quality - other means that help survival are used in nature. Therefore, there are many lower animals with large bodies, spines, poisons, etc., who reproduce much less than their “champions.”

          In conclusion, nature supports the assumption that there is a FO that favors Quality and that quantity is the opposite of Quality.

Compassion in Nature

At the beginning of this article I mentioned that the numbers in the chart include all organisms brought to life, not only the surviving offspring.  Since the earth is not totally covered with E. coli, oysters, or frogs, one can infer that the majority of them die (suffer?) before reproducing. For the lowest form of life, even living is a lucky event, comparable to that of winning the big prize in a lottery.  On the other hand, among intelligent animals, the growing individual has a much better chance to survive to maturity.  The numbers in the chart point to a direction in nature that reduces the number of suffering and premature deaths. It points toward what we call compassion.