- ■ - Lieber 



endowed with aspects of evolution. This proposition embraces the laws of clas- 

 sical mechanics, a general stability law, historical thrust and commitment, and 

 information relevant to the formulation of a theory conditioning strongly non- 

 equilibrium thermodynamical processes. The stability law so obtained bears 

 the same kind of relation to stability, envisaged here as a general aspect of the 

 performance of classical mechanical systems, as do the laws of classical me- 

 chanics to another equally general aspect of their performance —equilibrium. 



The conception of the general proposition which embraces this stability law 

 is inextricably linked with a conception of the nature of force. By this concep- 

 tion, force is the universal and most fundamental global aspect of nonuniformity 

 posited in nature to sense perception and sense awareness, and from which all 

 sensation, experience, information, and consequently knowledge ultimately origi- 

 nate. In the particular case of classical mechanics, force is here conceived of 

 as the universal manifestation in sensation of global nonuniformity in nature, 

 i.e., as the resultant of all nonuniform connections that exist between an inertial 

 body instantaneously situated at a particular location and the universe in which 

 it is contained. From these considerations it follows that the dynamical aspect 

 of classical mechanics (more specifically, the kinematical aspect), which is 

 based on a conception and description of processes ascribed to immutable bodies 

 in motion, is significantly more restricted and consequejitly less fundamental 

 than is the aspect of nature symbolically designated by F in Newton's proposi- 

 tions. I use the word designated, rather than represented in order to emphasize 

 that this symbol, as it is used in classical mechanics, is not brought into corre- 

 spondence with the anatomy and structure of nature's space -time manifold. 



A critical examination of Newton's formulation and use of the known laws of 

 classical mechanics does in fact suggest that he may have also tacitly conceived 

 of force as an ultimate and global aspect of nature, and of his law of motion as a 

 relationship between this ultimate aspect of nature and the motion of a body en- 

 dowed with inertia. This point of view differs essentially from that taken by 

 most of his followers as well as from a consensus among contemporary scien- 

 tists who choose to interpret his law of motion as a definition of force. Accord- 

 ing to the ideas of this paper, force as designated by the symbol F in Newton's 

 propositions, in fact dominates the established laws of classical mechanics 

 which are here understood to express only some and consequently not all of its 

 fundamental aspects in nature. According to this view F assumes the funda- 

 mental and dominant role in Newton's propositions. It dominates the dynamical 

 term appearing in Newton's law of motion, which expresses only one of its par- 

 ticular manifestations within the domain of classical mechanics, and conse- 

 quently does not define it. Indeed, by this symbol, Newton implicitly designated 

 the resultant and thus total connection between a body endowed with inertia and 

 the universe in which it exists. In so doing he implicitly assumed that this con- 

 nection is independent of the frame of reference in which the motion of the body 

 is described and calculated. This is tantamount to postulating by implication 

 that the global aspect of nature symbolically designated by F, and the connection 

 it represents between a body and the universe, is covariant under all coordinate 

 transformations. By treating force in this way Newton evidently displayed hu- 

 mility and wisdom. Humility, because he instinctively realized that the nature 

 of the global connection between a body and the universe in which it exists is the 

 most fundamental and least understood aspect of mechanics; and wisdom, by 



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