Units of Measuring ‘Amount’

The weight of an elephant is a world apart from that of an ant, but the amount and frequency of the ant’s steps is also a world apart of those of the elephant. Here notions of ‘amount’ are like those of ‘labor’, measured in the density within units of surface, or in even more abstract definitions. Besides the obvious measurements of weight and dimension, what comes to mind is the amount of thought, the amount of accumulated time, ballsiness, and intensity. Weightier than Mount Tai, as light as a feather–all metaphors for amounts, carrying along value orientations. The methods of measuring ‘amounts’ are in the concept, in the eye of the beholder.