[ To Contents ]

Igor I. Kondrashin

Dialectics of Matter

I. Structural-Functional Synthesis
of Evolving Systems

 

"The target of any science, like natural science or psychology, is the concordance of our feelings and unification them into a logical system."

A. Einstein
German scientist-physicist

"Each scientific theory should be based on the facts, which it should explain and between these limits it can be considered fair; with the appearance of new facts, which do not correspond to the said theory, this theory earlier or later should be changed by a new one, more generalised."

A.M. Butlerov
Russian scientist-chemist

"With every epoch-making discovery, even in spheres of natural sciences, materialism should change its form."

F. Engels

Matter, Motion and Evolution

     "The universe always contains the same quantity of motion." - R. Descartes.
     "The motion is the only way of existence of matter. There was nowhere and never and there is no matter without motion... Matter without motion is as inconceivable as motion without matter. Therefore the motion is as increatable and undestroyable as matter itself - ... : the quantity of existing motion in the universe is always the same." - F. Engels.
     "There is nothing in the universe except matter in motion." - V.I. Lenin.
     These three postulating quotations put the corner-stones to our cognition of the general theory of evolution of the universe.
     So Matter is the objective reality, the nature of which are different forms of motion, being itself her attribute. Hence there is nothing in the universe except motion, all existing construction material is motion. Matter is woven with motion. Any particle of any substance is a regulated motion of micro motions; any event is a determinated motion of elements of the system of motions. It is possible to resolve mentally any phenomena, events or substance into different forms of motion as well as out of different forms of motion in conformity with certain Laws it is possible to synthesize any phenomena, event or substance of Matter. Therefore in order to know how it happens it is necessary to learn the Laws, that regulate different forms of motion of Matter.
     Until now the motion of Matter is associated on the whole only with her motion in space and in time while the attention of researchers was drawn mainly to technical problems of calculating and measuring distances in space and intervals in time, disregarding fundamental problems of the space and of the time.
     However, as it is well known, the first rather clear positive ideas about what Space and Time are were expressed by the Greek thinkers of the classical period (the geometry of Apollony, Euclid, Archimedes, the ideas about time of Aristotle and Lucretius). Since the epoch of Galileo and especially since the epoch of Newton, space and time became integral components of the world and of the scientific view of the Universe. Moreover, the physical space started to be treated with the backing of the geometry of Euclid and time - to be interpreted by analogy with geometrical coordinate. The object of the Science became the description and explanation of things and their alterations in space and time. Space and time were mutually independent and were forming the objective, precisely determined and given to us primordial background. Everything could change except the spatial-temporal system of coordinates itself. This system seemed to be so invariable, that Kant considered it as a priori and moreover as a product of the intellectual intuition.
     The comprehension of relativity of motion was realised only at the time of Descartes, because all equations of motion and their solutions were made in determinate systems of coordinates, and a system of coordinates is a conceptional but not a physical object. Consequently, though motion was relativised in a system of coordinates, the latter was considered as attached to the absolute space.
     And only about a hundred years ago the idea was mentioned for the first time that any motion should be attributed to some system of counting off. Though what was offered in fact was a model of a physical system of counting off made with the help of a geometrical coordinates' system, and accordingly that could not entail any transformations in mathematics as it was only semantic alteration, but it was enough to make the concept of the absolute space depart. After that one could already suppose that if in the universe though one body was existing it could not move as motion is possible only relatively to some material system of counting off. That is why quite irrespective of acting forces the concept of motion started to be meant for the system having at least two bodies. And if the Universe was quite empty then there was neither space nor time. The physical space exists only in the case that there are physical systems (bodies, fields, quantum-mechanical substances, etc.). So the time exists only due to the fact that these systems are changeable in this or that way. The static universe would possess spatial features but would have no time.
     Thus the reasonable philosophy of space and time in contradistinction to the purely mathematical theory of space and time started to proceed from the assumption that space is a system of concrete relations between physical objects and time is some function of modifications which are going on in these objects. In other words it became a relative but not an absolute theory of space and time.
     The next phase in the progress of the theory of motion became the Special theory of relativity developed by A. Einstein in 1905 which revealed:
     a) that space and time are not mutually independent, one from the other, but represent themselves as components of some unity of higher order named the space-time which disintegrates into space and time relatively a certain system of counting off;
     b) that length and duration are not absolute, that is not independent from a system of counting off but become shorter or longer exactly due to the motion of a system of counting off;
     c) that there are no more purely spatial vector magnitudes and mere scalars: three-dimensional vectors become spatial components of four-dimensional vectors, which temporal components are likewise to scalars of the past. Meanwhile the fourth coordinate has quite another meaning than the other three coordinates and temporal component of a spatial-temporal interval has its own symbol contrary to a symbol of spatial components. Due to these and other reasons, time in the special theory of relativity is not equivalent to space though it is tightly linked with it.
     The Special theory of relativity practically added very little to render concrete the concept of motion, since space and time are not more important in it than it was in the till-relativist physics; this theory says really nothing about what the space-time means except as a description of its metrical characteristic. Philosophical aspect of space and time was not broached in it.
     The theory of gravitation or the General theory of relativity developed by A. Einstein in 1915 did its bit in the cognition of physical characteristics of spatial-temporal motion. According to this theory, space and time are not only relativist (but not absolute) and relative (that is relevant to a system of counting off) but they also depend on everything that the world contains. So the metrical characteristics of space-time (that is a spatial-temporal interval and tensor of curvature) should be considered now as dependent on allocation of substance and field in the Universe: the more density of substance and field, the more space is curvatured, the more trajectories of rays and particle are curvatured, the faster clocks are going. According to the General theory of relativity a body or a beam of light generates gravitational fields and the latter are reacting to the former. The interaction is telling on the structure of the space-time. If all substances, fields, quantum-mechanical systems disappear, then according to basic equations of the General theory of relativity the space-time would not only continue to exist but also would retain its rimmanov structure. But it would not be physical space-time. What would remain would be a mathematical system of counting off and have no physical meaning. As a whole the General theory of relativity has not yet received the proper philosophical generalisation due to the fact that its mathematical apparatus is extremely difficult to understand.
     One can say nearly the same about physical researches studying processes that are going on in the whole Universe. During the last decades cosmology stopped being a separate autonomous science and became the highest applied field of physics - megaphysics, studying the problems of the space-time in all the volume: cosmic space and eternity as a whole. But to imagine the evolution of the whole Universe during several temporal eras and give preference to one of many defending hypotheses of its formation on the basis of the astrophysical argumentation is still not enough. That can be done only with the help of serious philosophical research ruling out various antiscientific imaginations.
     Hence nowadays the human cognition has reached such a level when our ideas regarding space and time stop being purely natural scientific and transform more and more into philosophical problems, the solution of which at last would give the possibility to reply to such fundamental questions: what is space and time, how they are linked with existence and coming-to-be, what part they are taking in the evolution of material forms in general.

      Motion in space.    So for dialectical understanding of the structure and the Evolution of Matter one should underline the following: the motion in space is tightly linked with the motion in time - motion in space cannot be without motion in time. The motion in space has a dual characteristic. First of all it includes the motion of a material spot, or a system relatively another spot, or a system of counting off that is relative spatial motion. It can take place only in more space in comparison with elements of motion size of space and is typical only for those material spots and subsystems which are set in motion within this space. Meanwhile their own spatial size of elements of motion themselves remains constant and they only consecutively occupy the volume necessary for them inside a hyperspace, leaving free exactly the same volume behind them. Models of a relative type of motion in the space-time can be relative displacements of an individual photon, molecule, car or planet.
     But the motion of these material spots and bodies, being considered apart from the whole system of similar units, is a particular case of motion of elements of this system in a hyperspace. In other words, if a molecule of gas substance in motion occupies successively one and the same volume of space S (while and the occupied volume itself , that is constant and equal to a theoretical figure) then a system of molecules - theoretical gas flying away to different destinations in the open space occupies more and more volume (while during each temporal interval and velocity of diffusing in space equal to ). Such spatial motion should be considered as absolute and it characterises a spatial field occupied by a material system of linked similar units. Models of such motion can be a diffusion of gases and liquids, a flying away of photons of light from its source, etc. If in natural scientific researches mainly the first relative type of motion in space is studied then for philosophical understanding of Dialectics of Matter its second absolute type is more important that is combined spatial displacements of all similar elements linked in a system.
     Finishing a short excursus into 'space' let us define more precisely its relative commensurability for systematic formations. In everyday practice to measure space one can use the ordinary 'metre'. But the distance to one of the visible distant galaxies comes to 1025 m, while the diameter of a proton is equal to 10-15 m. Therefore there are grounds to agree with a logical conclusion that all the lengths surrounding us of space can be expressed with any magnitude from 10-n to 10n metres where n can take any significance from 0 to .
     This is an exegesis of universality of space and other forms of existence of Matter as well: from infinity into the depths till infinity into hypersphere.
     In everyday practice people usually use magnitudes from 10-4 m (the thickness of a sheet of paper) to 106 m. But because of our inability to measure distances less 10-30 and more 1030 metres it would be wrong to consider that forms of motion of Matter do not exist in spatial intervals with .
     Directions of motion in space have a purely formal meaning in a philosophical research due to the isotropy of space.

        Motion in time.    As it is well known any motion in space is tightly linked with the other form of motion of Matter - the motion in time. Any combination of these two motions creates an event.
     The motion in time has the same dual characteristic as motion of material forms in space. Let us look up at a second hand of a watch turning around its axis. Every moment of time it occupies a certain location corresponding to a temporal locality on the coordinate of time. In the next moment it leaves this location, occupying the next one. Together with the tip of a second hand we are steadily moving from one temporal point to another, leaving the former and getting into the next one while the temporal intervals themselves selected by us are equal. Such motion in time should be considered as relative, for temporal intervals successively alternate each other. Their magnitude can be different. For contrasting it is enough to compare the speed of displacement of a point of counting off associated with the end of an hour hand with the speed of a point of counting off associated with the end of a plane's turning propeller. The difference of temporal intervals related to a unit of angular or spatial displacement is obvious.
     As our first example we took an event with duration of one second. But if we take an event with duration of one hour then it is possible to divide its temporal interval into 60 minutes or 3600 seconds. Seconds can be counted starting from the first one into an accumulating total. Although we shall feel ourselves only in the interval of the most recent second the total duration of the event in fact will continue as a sum of all second's intervals starting from the first one. Such summary increase of time during the process of the duration of an event should be related to as absolute motion in time. Consequently after the completion of any event or in its absence, and no absolute motion in time occurs. Due to this fact it is possible to declare that motion in time or growth of time exists only for events combined also with other changes, but for an onlooker always situated in the actual point of count off, the growth of time practically does not happen and it remains constantly as t0. As for the motion in time, an onlooker, i.e. you and me, can judge only by indirect indications, revealing by that his capacity for abstract thinking.
     At present events with different temporal intervals are known: from 10-22 sec. (the duration of one vibration of a proton in a nucleus) to 1018 seconds (a supposed period of existence of the Sun in the form of a star). In everyday practice people use temporal intervals from 10-8 sec. (the time of crossing a room by light) to 109 seconds (the continuance of life of a human being).
     But also as in case with 'space' we can assume that duration of events' intervals can be of any magnitude from 10-n sec. to 10n seconds where n takes any significance from 0 to .
     When speaking about the direction of time's progress and its reversibility we can note the following: if a point of count off of spatial coordinates can be joined with any spot in space and transferred arbitrarily to another spot (following the principle of their equivalent relativity), and any such transference can have a positive symbol, then a point of counting off of the temporal coordinate makes its forward motion only strictly in one direction, measuring off temporal intervals of the development of this or that system or event. Due to this the temporal point of counting off is as if it eats intervals lying ahead of it, changing the symbol of the absolute Time from + to - or vice versa. Hence if we agree the sum of temporal intervals remained till some event to consider with the positive symbol then a point of counting off after a time interval will convert a portion of positive intervals into negative ones. And vice versa, if we agree to consider the duration of development of some process as a sum of positive temporal intervals then intervals not yet added further along the line of the temporal coordinate will be considered as negative and the instantaneous point of count off moving along the coordinate will change the symbol of intervals from - to +. As in our practice we meet this phenomenon constantly we should have clear knowledge about it.

        ?? Motion in quality.    It appears now to be impossible to describe all the diversity of Matter's forms surrounding us only with the motion in space-time. We for sure feel the lack of something else that would unite all phenomena happening continually in the world into a unified chart of its creation and evolution. Such third kind of motion is the motion of Matter in quality that is not cognised, in fact, until now, not yet recognised formally by anyone and is being ignored unfairly by everybody. The Science, disregarding this type of motion of Matter, is incapable even nowadays to submit distinct, full, objective and definite explanations of causality in most events and phenomena, that are going on around us in the Universe.
     But as far back as more than one hundred years ago Leo N. Tolstoj proclaimed that all these phenomena depend at least on three parameters: "To imagine a person," he wrote in his famous philosophical novel War and the Society, "completely free, not being bound by the law of necessity then we should imagine him quite alone out of space, out of time and out of depending on causes" (underlined by L.N. Tolstoj).
     In his Philosophical Notebooks V.I. Lenin later defined that "functionality ... can be a type of causality". And as is well known a function is an outward display of qualitative characteristics of some object in a given system of relationship.
     But the most precise definition of obligatoriness to consider the organisation of constructing Matter through triple motion was given by F. Engels in Dialectics of Nature. "...There are also many qualitative changes to be taken into account," he wrote, "whose dependence on quantitative change is by no means proven. ... Any motion includes mechanical motion, change of place of the largest or smallest portions of matter; to obtain knowledge of this mechanical motion is the first task of science, but only its first task. But this mechanical motion does not exhaust motion as a whole. Motion is not merely a change of place [that is motion in space-time - I.K.], in fields higher than mechanics it is also change of quality." (my emphasis - I.K.).
     Among opinions on this subject of our contemporaries one should note the definition of the Russian academician A.I. Oparin, who characterised "the process of evolution of matter as the way of genesis of new, not existing before qualities" (my emphasis - I.K.). Thus in order to create a full picture of the formation and evolution of the material World it is necessary to observe the motion of material forming in three equivalent philosophical categories: in space - time - quality.
     And indeed, everyone can be easily persuaded in this actuality while just analysing the simplest examples. Let us imagine some close volume of space (), limited for example by a glass capacity. If we start to fill this volume with some gaseous substance, then the motion of gas inside the volume while it's filling during n time will be observed as an absolute motion (, ) of a substance of one quality (gas) in space, occupied with "pregas" substance of another quality. After a temporal interval , the gas will fill the given volume completely and absolute motion in space-time for the given portion of substance of Matter of the assigned qualitative level will terminate. In other words, after the system condition of the given substance of similar quality in a theoretically closed volume of space is balanced, its further absolute motion in space-time does not exercise any more.
     If that can be possible for some part of Matter during some period of time, then the general Evolution of aggregate Matter does not permit the absence of absolute motion in space-time since it is the principal requirement of its actuality. That is why besides the absolute motion in space-time there is also the motion of material forms in quality.
     What should we understand with this?
     According to an ordinary definition quality is a structurally undivided combination of indications, features of some substance or a thing revealed in a system of relations with other substances or things. Quality is the essential determination of substance due to which it is just this substance but not any other one and it makes certain difference with other substances. Hence each qualitative form of Matter has its own definite composition of peculiarities and signs which it reveals while relating with other forms of Matter. But as it is well known an external revealing of qualitative characteristics of an object in a presumed system of relations is its function. That is why with a change of qualitative characteristics of some substance its functional characteristics are changing as well.
     Hence a change in quality or a motion in quality one should consider as motion in functional heterogeneity of substances realised through systemic organisation of material forms.
     At the same time the motion in quality is as tightly linked with the motion in time as the motion in space. Without motion in time it is impossible to imagine qualitative changes, it is an independent variable of the said interrelation. Therefore the motion in quality one should comprehend only as motion in quality-time.
     Equally as with motion in space or time, the motion in quality can be relative or absolute. Changes of functional characteristics of some material formations by comparison with others are the relative motion in quality. Summary accumulation of functional characteristics by all forms of the aggregate Matter is the absolute motion in quality and it is important precisely for philosophical comprehension of dialectical Evolution.
     Functional features of any material formation can be revealed only in a system of relations with other similar elements. A single, isolated material formation cannot reveal its functional peculiarities and be used for material development. Thus the possession of quality or a functional definition dictates to every element the necessity to be included into some system of relations with other material formations, and in the process of those relations its inherent features are realised. Due to this principle the motion of Matter in quality entails a compulsory systemic composition of material forms being at the same time its main reason. All elements of known systemic formations depending on their functional peculiarities make different spatial-temporal displacements during which their peculiarities are revealing. The said displacements strictly correlated with spatial-temporal intervals of absolute motion in space-time are representing functional algorithms while every algorithm is pre-determined by functional characteristics of this or that material formation in a given system of relations.
     The absolute motion in quality constantly adds these or those features to material formations being in that way the reason of appearance of new functional algorithms which in their turn are leading to the organisation of new systemic structures. So the motion of Matter in quality-time determines the permanency of the process of systemic organisation of material forms in that degree in which the quality itself serves as a determinant of systemness of the Evolution of Matter.

      Evolution.    The three forms of motion of Matter examined by us one can consider at the same time as her unified motion in the three equivalent philosophical categories united by the common attribute belonging to Matter. This unified motion itself regulated by strictly definite rules is directed to provide the existence of Matter itself spread along the objective reality.
     Furthermore, the motion of Matter in three categories ensures not only her existence but it is leading as well to the evolution of her structures' organisation. That is why any modification of structural features of Matter happens as a consequence of motion of her forms in space-time-quality through augmentations along three coordinates: qualitative, temporal and spatial (disintegrated into three components). The general resulting line ultimately would be a tensor of the Evolution of Matter. Thus one can interpret the Evolution of Matter in a simplified manner as a regular appearance of new qualitative features , their stretching in space , for which they need certain time . Without motion of Matter through her forms in quality-space-time neither the evolution nor even her existence is possible:
     a) motion in quality () - is realised by means of the modification of functional characteristics of one system of material spots or localities in comparison with another one. This motion originates qualitative heterogeneity of the Evolution and its systemic organisation;
     b) motion in space () - by means of displacement of one material spot or locality (or a system of spots or localities) relatively another one. By this kind of motion the voluminity of the Evolution is being achieved;
     c) motion in time () - fixes duration of events and is passing from the past through now to the future. By this motion the Evolution's irreversibility is secured.
     All the three forms of motion in the aggregate are dictating the direction of the tensor of Matter's evolution which sense formula is the following:

     It is necessary to underline once again that all events of material reality have as their basis an obligatory combination of all three forms of motion. An exclusion from this triune motion of motion in quality () or in space () can be only temporary. In reality there are no events without motion in time. Motion in space can be considered as a derivative from motion in quality which in its turn can be considered as a derivative from motion in time. The motion in time itself is derivative from motion in space as well as from motion in quality. Without both those motions motion in time does not exist.
     An abstraction from one of the forms of motion would give us particular episodes:
     a) in a hypothetically closed space () - "a diagram of evolution ", that is the sequence of qualitative augmentations in time and their duration;
     b) in a hypothetically frizzed time () - "an actual or a historical stop-picture ", that is spatial expansion of qualitative forms at a particular moment of time;
     c) in a hypothetically limited qualitative spectrum () - "the mechanical motion ", that is a displacement of a material spot (or a system of spots) relatively a spot of counting off.
     Any from the above said abstractions can be entirely theoretical or artificial because in the genuine World the motion of Matter is realised in all the three categories generating systemic formations containing two interlinked components as minimum relative each one to the other in space-time. The elements, being united into a unified system and possessing definite functional features, acquire an intrasystemic potential determining the nature of their motion in space-time and regulations of their intrasystemic existence. Any modification of systemic organisation of material formations, its complication and improvement, are real results of the motion in quality-time. Peculiarities of precisely this motion, its driving force and structural mechanics, we shall be examining in the course of our research.

      Energy.    The description of forms of Matter will not be complete if we do not analyse one more very important philosophical category - energy.
     Energy in the general understanding is a measure of motion of Matter. Another definition characterises it as a function of condition of a system.
     The motion of Matter in quality-space-time is going on not capriciously but complying with the severe law of constancy of the sum total of energy. And if for an inertial material spot moving evenly straightforward the magnitude of energy is simple and equals Ek, then for a system of a great number of spots the quantity of energy will be expressed by the formula:

     This formula in a certain way discloses the mechanism and intercausation of all forms of motion of Matter as well as its regulations. Substituting in the formula the expression of value of velocity , we shall receive the regularity of the absolute motion of material forms in space-time. For an uncoordinated multitude of spots the total energy will be:

where mi - a sum of qualitatively similar spots.
     A combination of a number of spots into some stable (that is having a definite temporal interval) system, pre-determining the character of their motion in space-time, originates a kind of a material point of a higher organisational order with its own functional features and with potential energy Epi. Meanwhile Ek of the whole system will decrease and a total energy will be characterized by the detailed formula.
     If the entire sum of a multitude of uncoordinated spots will unite into an integral system constituting a unified material point or a sum of points of a higher order (with obligatory change of their functional characteristics), then a total summary kinetic energy of this multitude of spots of a qualitatively lower order will turn into potential energy of the point-system of a higher organizational order, that is as though the kinetic energy of uncoordinated spots or particles gets completely stuck in a systemic structure they are inserted in, turning into energy of intrasystemic connection.
     And vice versa, during desintegration of a material system of a higher order its potential energy of intrasystemic connection is being transformed into the kinetic energy of a multitude of spots of lower systemic order. As prototypes of described processes can serve reactions of synthesis and desintegration in physics phenomena, association and dissociation - in chemical ones, etc.
     As a whole the energy constant affects most directly both the motion of material forms in space-time and their systemic reorganisation during motion in quality-time. Due to this an isotropic and volumetric space of every preceding systemic organisation of level n appears to be a field of growth of entropy of succeeding qualitative levels of the evolving aggregate Matter in proportion as even temporal intervals are running while a constant sum of energy of the whole Material substance secures a static balance of this Evolution.


[ To Contents ] [ Part II ]

Хостинг от uCoz