The bridge from a motionless to a dynamic state, in mechanics, as seen with Newton's Cradle, is an external impulse. A hand raises the first ball, loading it with potential energy, which it releases, into the second ball, and so on, until the final ball moves. Mechanical energy is involved in raising the first ball, as human muscle is used to overcome the effect of gravity on the mass of the ball. The potential energy stored in the ball, at its point of apogee, did not come from nowhere, and, when the ball is released, the same mechanical energy is what is transmitted to the final ball, sending it into motion. Engels uses the example of a stone raised and suspended on a rope.
“Even the very simple fact that the stone is hanging up there represents mechanical work, for if it remains hanging long enough, the rope breaks, as soon it is no longer strong enough to bear the weight of the stone as a result of chemical decomposition. But it is to such simple basic forms, to use Herr Dühring's language, that all mechanical processes can be reduced, and the engineer is still to be born who cannot find the bridge from the static to the dynamic, so long as he has a sufficient external impulse at his disposal.” (p 77)
But, motion can take another form, as with an explosion. The movement, then, is not the result of an external impulse, but an internal impulse, though, often, as with, say, gunpowder, this internal impulse requires an external impulse, from a fuse, the striking of a firing pin and so on. Even with nitroglycerine, to explode requires some external impulse such as movement or changes in temperature.
However, if we take a star that explodes in a supernova that is not the result of any external impulse. The star continues to burn because its own gravity is sufficient to pull all its matter towards its centre that is being thrust out from it as a result of continual nuclear reactions that result from that same gravitational force inducing fusion. The star emanates energy in the form of radiation, from those reactions, but this movement of radiation, i.e. of atomic particles, photons etc., derives from an internal rather than external impulse. Over billions of years, as this process depletes the mass of the star, its own gravitational pull is diminished, until it no longer is able to counter the centrifugal force generated by the nuclear explosions, and the star itself explodes, scattering its matter throughout the cosmos.
“To be sure, it is a hard nut and a bitter pill for our metaphysician that motion should find its measure in its opposite, in rest. That is indeed a crying contradiction, and every contradiction, according to Herr Dühring, is contrasense. It is none the less a fact that a suspended stone represents a definite quantity of mechanical motion, which is measurable exactly by the weight of the stone and its distance from the ground, and may be used in various ways at will, for example, by its direct fall, by sliding down an inclined plane, or by turning a shaft.” (p 77)
Dialectics has no problem in expressing motion in its opposite, rest, because it recognises that rest itself is not absolute, but only relative. The mathematical resolution of the problem is provided by calculus, but it, too, requires the acceptance of the existence of a zero in time and space, which, in the real world, cannot exist. This same principle applies in understanding the functioning of the economy, production and exchange, as most clearly seen in the development of marginalist theories. But, the first application of marginalist ideas, was made by Ricardo and Marx, in relation to the theory of differential rent. As Marx, also describes, inputs are, simultaneously, their opposite, outputs, and vice versa. The movement of capital towards those spheres where the rate of profit is highest is what creates an average rate of profit, an equilibrium condition in which there is no longer any impulse driving such a movement, but such an equilibrium is never achieved. The equilibrium, the average rate of profit, exists only as a mathematical abstraction.
“For the dialectical conception the whole antithesis, as we have seen, is only relative; there is no such thing as absolute rest, unconditional equilibrium. Each separate movement strives towards equilibrium, and the total motion again puts an end to the equilibrium. Wherever therefore rest and equilibrium occur they are the result of limited motion, and it is self-evident that this motion is measurable by its result, can be expressed in it, and can be re-established from it in one form or another.” (p 77-8)
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