date

21 Jany. 1816 Chrestom or Language
21 Jany. 1816

Chrestom or Language

1

Ch.9 Thought the basis

'.2 Existence of thought

1

Considered with reference to our senses every particle

of matter perceived or perceptible at the time at which, or with reference to which it is considered, is either in a state of motion or in a state of rest.

A /The/ state of rest is the negation of the state of motion. With reference to the same object, no particle of matter can therefore be in motion and at rest at the same time. To say that it is or can be, would be a self-contradictory proposition, resolvable into a pair of mutually contradictory propositions.

But take any body composed of a number of particles of matter, then so it is that, of and in the same body, while part, i.e. some of those particles, are in a state of motion, other parts may at that time be in a state of rest.

When of any body it is said, that body has been in motion, what is meant is, that, at or in different portions of the field of time, that body has occupied different portions or positions in the field of space.

As atoms or minimum portions may be conceived as having place in the field of space, so may atoms or minimum portions in the field of time.

If, speaking of any body suppose the plaything called a peg-top. I say this body is now in motion; then, if by now I mean no more than a single atom or minimum portion of time, what I thus say cannot be exactly true, since, as above, for motion to have had place, or to have place, two atoms of time at the least are necessary.

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    Description: 21 Jany. 1816

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    But if, speaking as above, what I mean by now is a portion of the field of time, containing any number of atoms greater than one, then the proposition delivered by me in those same words may be true.

    In general the word now when applied to motion is understood as applicable with propriety. Why ? Because in the utterance of the proposition to that effect atoms in great number are employed.

    Here then we have a division of the states of which things i.e. portions of matter are susceptible and that division an exhaustive one; of states of things, and thence and therefore of the objects of thought, in so far as they come within that same denomination, viz. portions of matter.

    States of things when at rest are their positions with reference to one another in the field of space.

    States of things when in motion are motions.

    Considered abstractedly from volition will, a motion is termed an event; a simple motion, a simple event; a complex motion a complex event.

    Considered as the result of volition, a motion is termed an act, an action, an operation.

    143
  • Title: [20 Aug. 1813 Logic 1]
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    Logic

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    Ch. Language

    I. Physical fictitious

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    5. Motion. 6. Rest. 7. Action. 8. Passion.

    At every step the subject of consideration becomes more and more complicated.

    Rest is the absence or negation of motion. Every body is either in motion, or at rest. Here place, i.e. relative space is still the archetype. Motion is a thing an imaginary, an involuntarily imagined substance in which the body is conceived as being placed: rest a like body, at which the real body is considered as being placed.

    In the idea /consideration/ /notion/ of motion that of time is moreover involved; and again that of place, as being that in which the idea of time is, by the like necessity, involved.

    In motion a body cannot have been but it must have been in two different places, at or in two different, which is as much as to say, in two successive portions of time.

    For the space of time in question, i.e. for a portion of time composed of those same portions which were operative in the case of motion, the body has been at rest, in so far as in all that space or length of time it has not changed its place with reference to any others.

    Taken in the aggregate, in so far as can be concluded, either from observation or from analogy in the way of inference, no body whatsoever is, or ever has been, or ever will be, absolutely in a state of rest, i.e. without being in motion with reference to some other body or bodies.

    25
  • Title: [17 Feb. 1815 Didacologia Ch]
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    Didacologia

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    16

    In so far as human observation has been able to apply itself to the subject, absolute motion is at all times among the inherent inseparable properties of every distinct body, and, in so far, of every particle of matter. But of relative motion, motion as between any two bodies or particles of matter considered in relation to one another, examples, real or apparent, may upon the surface of this our globe be found in abundance.

    Of relative motion or its negation relative rest, no idea can, it should seem, be formed, otherwise than by the help of the idea of time. Two distinct bodies, in so far as in the course of a given length of time, the distance that intervenes between them is observed to be, or appears to be, different, are observed to have been one or both in motion with reference to each other - to have been, one or other, or both of them, in a state of relative motion; - in so far as no difference in respect of the amount of the distance between them has been observed, or is supposed to be observable, they are considered /regarded/ as having been in a state of rest.

    22