A Rational Cosmology: The Ubiquitous Quality of Matter

This is Essay XIII of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

Space-as-relationship is not a single relationship. Rather, it is a threefold relationship, describable by three parameters, known as dimensions. This is primarily deduced not from the nature of the relationship "space," but from the nature of all entities as such.

Here we find the need to define several qualities which must be possessed, in some quantity, by any entity. We shall call these the ubiquitous qualities of entities.

Matter- Matter is otherwise known as the constituent quality of entities. Matter is, simply, that, which entities are made of, and without which they cannot have any other qualities.

It is not the province of ontology or cosmology to describe what the fundamental "building blocks of matter" (i.e. the entities that would represent Democritus's concept of "atomos") are. The specific-observational sciences must discover whether such fundamental building blocks exist, how many types of them there are, what they look like, and how they behave. Cosmology has only to point out that matter exists, and exists as a quality of every entity.

It may be asked here, "What, then, are such things as freedom, beauty, and peace, which are not in themselves composed of matter?" But these are not things as such! They are not entities, but rather relationships between entities that are composed of matter.

Freedom cannot exist without the individual who is free, and the individual is a material entity. Beauty, whether it be in a painting or a piece of music, cannot exist without the material canvas that holds the painting, nor without the instruments which emit the music. Peace cannot exist except among material individuals who decide not to relate to each other in a certain aggressive manner.

These are highly abstract and complex relationships, which, for the sake of word economy, men often speak of as having certain "qualities" of their own. However, these qualities do not pertain to the relationships in themselves, but rather to every entity that undertakes these relationships. It might be said, for example, "Freedom has the quality of the non-existence of government economic regulation." In the context of word economy, of course, this is an acceptable expression, provided that one knows what one is truly talking about. The words for which this intellectual shorthand stands are more numerous:

"The existence of individuals who partake in the relationship, 'freedom,' and who simultaneously partake in the relationship, 'government economic regulation,' is impossible."

The quality "matter" can be measured, and the measurement of matter is called mass. It is, of course, self-evident that one entity can have a greater or smaller mass than another. This mass can conceivably be of any nonzero finite magnitude, but must be of some nonzerofinite magnitude.

Read other parts of "A Rational Cosmology" by clicking here.