date

21 Jany. 1816 Chrestom or Language
21 Jany. 1816

Chrestom or Language

Ch.9 Thought the basis

'.2 Existence of thought

3

In the word position we see already the name of one fictitious entity and thereby in so far as it can be said to be visible one fictitious entity. In the word motion we see another.

Taking into consideration any body which we have been considering as having been in a state of motion, we thence take occasion to ascribe to it a quality, viz. mobility; the quality which consists in the capacity of being, or aptitude to be, put into, and thence to be in, a state of motion. Antecedent to our idea of this quality, mobility must have been our idea of the correspondent state, viz. a state of motion.

If then, motion be termed a fictitious entity of the first order, viz. that which is nearest to reality, mobility, and so any other quality, may with reference to it be termed a fictitious entity of the 2d order.

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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: [21 Jany. 1816 Chrestom or Language]
    Description: 21 Jany. 1816

    Chrestom or Language

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    Ch.9 Thought the basis

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    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.

    142
  • Title: [16 Dec r. 1815 Chrestom. Language]
    Description: 16 Dec r. 1815

    Chrestom. Language

    Ch.11 Propositions

    Complex propositions

    A complex proposition is that which has at least two subjects, with a predicate and copula to each of them: two subjects and as many predicates and copulas.

    The general effect of it is to bring to view two entities, each of them real or fictitious, accompanied with an intimation, that by one of them a change is produced in the state or condition of the other.

    {Considered in this point of view a complex proposition may be termed a transition-expressing proposition.}

    Examples.

    1. Eurybeades struck Themistocles.

    2. Themistocles was stricken by Eurybeades.

    In both these instances, the result expressed is one and the same. But in the first instance the verb employed (a verb of the complex kind of which further on) is in what is called the active voice: in the other, in the passive.

    In both instances a change in the state of a certain entity is represented as produced, and a motion is presented as the cause of that change.

    But, in the first instance, the entity brought to view in the first place is the entity in which the motion is represented as having had its commencement: the entity which is represented as having been first in motion, and with that same entity the motion so produced by it: in the other instance, it is the entity in which the motion is represented as having had its termination: Themistocles was struck, viz. by Eurybeades.