a) Narrow Metaphysical Concepts of Motion.
The Marxist Concept of Motion

p The concept of motion emerged together with philosophy. Initially, it was thought to be the appearance of one and the disappearance of another. This view of motion was held by the first Greek philosophers, such as Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander.

p The first Greek philosophers stressed motion and change, neglecting, however, stability. Other thinkers, particularly Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zenon of the Eleatic school, saw the importance of stability. As distinct from the first philosophers, they made stability their point of departure and, having absolutised it, arrived at the negation of motion. Empedocles reinstated the teaching of motion and attempted to coordinate it with the recognition of stability. He held that the four “roots”-water, air, fire, and earth-made 103 up all things and were eternal and unchangeable. Motion, he believed, was the movement of the above unchangeable “roots”, their integration and division, rather than the destruction of one and the appearance of another.

p Aristotle developed the teaching of motion. He revived the view that motion was the inception of one thing and destruction of another. But he also included in his doctrine-though in a sublimated form-the views of motion held by other philosophers, particularly Empedocles. Aristotle thought of motion not only as destruction and inception, but also as growth, decrease, qualitative changes, as well as the movement of bodies in space.

p The tendency to absolutise the mechanistic form of motion appeared during the subsequent development of materialist philosophy. It predominated in the 17th and 18th centuries, when motion was believed to be the movement of bodies in space. Specifically, this view was shared by Descartes and Holbach. “Motion,” Holbach wrote, “is a force helping a body to change or to seek to change its position.”  [103•1 

p The view of motion as the movement of bodies in space is narrow. It does not embrace the entire multitude of changes inherent in matter. For instance, changes occurring in an atomic nucleus, in a living organism, or in society are not simple movements.

p Only the founders of dialectical materialism 104 gave the first consistently scientific definition of motion. Engels, for instance, wrote: “Motion, as applied to matter, is change in general.”  [104•1  It “ comprehends all changes and processes occurring in the universe, from mere change of place right up to thinking".  [104•2 

To sum up, motion is a philosophical concept denoting all changes occurring in objective reality.

b) Basic Forms of the Motion of Matter

p There is an infinite multitude of various forms of the motion of matter. The basic ones are: the physical form which includes the movement of elementary particles and fields, the movement of nuclear particles and molecules; the chemical form related to the movement of atoms: the biological form connected with the functioning and development of living organisms; the social form embracing changes occurring in society; and the mechanical form of motion, which is the movement of bodies in space.

p The basic forms of the motion of matter are always interconnected and interdependent. One form of motion is a prerequisite for the appearance of another form. The movement of elementary particles, for example, is a prerequisite for the emergence of atoms and their motion. The latter is the basis for the formation of molecules and their movement. Under certain conditions, this in 105 turn leads to the emergence of life and thus to the organic form of the motion of matter, which creates prerequisites for the appearance of the social form of the motion of matter.

All the basic forms of motion are stages in the development of matter; they are related to the corresponding types of matter and correlate to each other as lower to higher forms. A lower form is present, in its sublated shape, in a higher form. The physical form of motion is present, though transformed, in the chemical form, the latter-in the biological form, and this-in the social form. A lower form, while being present in a higher form, is not decisive and occupies a subordinate place in it. A higher form of motion plays a decisive role and determines the essence of phenomena representing the given form of the motion of matter.

c) The Inherent Connection
Between Motion and Matter

p Motion is an attribute of matter, its fundamental property. There has never been nor can there be motion without matter or matter without motion.

p The law of the correspondence of mass and energy testifies to the inalienable link between matter and motion. According to this law, an absolutely definite amount of energy corresponds to a definite amount of mass. Any change in the mass engenders a corresponding change in the energy, and vice versa.

p Some bourgeois philosophers and physicists do not recognise the inherent link between motion and matter and are trying to prove that matter can be reduced to motion. On this basis, they declare energy to be primary, determining, while matter, they say, is but a form of energy. To prove their point, they refer to cases of matter changing into light, such as the conversion of an electron and a positron into a pair or a trinity of photons, regarding this as the transformation of matter into pure energy.

p The American scientist Roy Marshall writes, for example: “One form of energy is matter. The conversion of matter to pure energy or of pure energy to matter is possible, under certain circumstances.”  [106•1 

p The exponents of this point of view proceed from the metaphysical notion of matter as chemical substance and, by this token, distort the actual situation. The conversion of electrons and_ positrons into photons-particles of light-is not^the conversion of matter into energy (pnrp rrinHpriV but rather the conversion of one type of matter into another, tor the entire objective reality is matter. It includes not only substance, but also light and an infinite nuTlhpr other known and yet unknown forms of being.

Since matter is the objective reality existing outside and independently of human 107 consciousness, neither the whole nor a part of matter can disappear or turn into something immaterial. Matter exists eternally and continually changes from one qualitative state or type into another. The same holds true for motion. Being inherently linked with matter, motion cannot disappear nor change into something else. Its quantity always remains the same. Engels stressed that matter and motion are eternal and inherently linked. He wrote: “Matter without motion is just as inconceivable as motion without matter. Motion is therefore as uncreatable and indestructible as matter itself. . . .” And later: “... the quantity of motion existing in the world is always the same.”  [107•1 

d) Motion and Rest

p The assertion that matter is inherently linked with motion and that the latter is a mode of its existence may give rise to the opinion that there is no stability or constancy in the world. This view was advanced, for instance, by the Greek philosopher Kratylos. But this is far from the truth. Stability or rest is another property of matter, apart from motion.

p As distinct from motion which is a continuous change, rest signifies stability, constancy. Though the opposite of motion, rest is not isolated from motion. It is inherently linked with motion, being an aspect and particular case of it. Rest is a 108 relatively stable system ot motion-balanced motion. The solar system, for example, viewed as a material formation at rest, is made up of the planets moving in strict cycles-it is balanced motion. Any body, such as a material entity in inanimate nature, a living organism, or human society, is a relatively stable system of motion. Once you do away with the changes inherent in these bodies, they disappear as given, relatively stable (resting) material entities.

Besides balanced motion, every material entity includes an infinite multitude of other changes which, for the time being, are inherent in the given relatively stable system of motion and do not upset the equilibrium of its constituent parts. Having reached a definite level, however, these changes destroy the given relatively stable system of motion and lead to the formation of a new stable system. The latter, after existing for a certain time, is also destroyed by changes occurring within it and gives rise to yet other relatively stable (resting) systems, which in turn engender still other systems, and so on. This eternal process of matter changing from one stable system into another clearly shows that motion is absolute. It exists always-at the inception of a relatively stable system (since any new system emerges as a result of changes occurring within the previous systems); through a relatively stable system (since it constitutes balanced motion); within such a system, and at the moment of its destruction and the emergence of a new relatively stable system. As for rest, it is relative. It emerges together with a 109 relatively stable system and disappears when the system is destroyed. Then it re-emerges and, having lasted for a certain time, disappears, this process going on ad infinitum.

e) Motion and Development

p We have noted that matter is in constant motion and change and eternally passes from one stable state to another, destroying some material entities and creating others. But what is the trend in such transformations? What replaces the destroyed material entities?

p Some philosophers believe that the motion of matter is circular, that it eternally repeats the same cycles. Others maintain that, in the course of continuous changes in matter, there occurs a movement from higher to lower stages, i.e. regression. Yet others think that all the changes observed in the universe are movement from lower to higher stages.

p In reality the first, second, and third take place together, yet the dominant trend is the movement from the lower to the higher.

p The movement horn the lower to the higher, horn the simple to the complex is called development.

p Examples of development are the formation of atoms from “elementary” particles and molecules from atoms; the emergence of living organisms from inanimate substances; the conversion of the simplest, non-cellular organisms into single-cell and then to multi-cell organisms; transition from 110 organisms capable of reflecting the environment through irritability to organisms possessing sensations and a psyche; the conversion of an ape herd into human society; the transition of society from the primitive-communal system to the slaveowning system, feudalism, capitalism, and socialism.

While development is the dominant trend in the universe, not every specific form of the existence of matter undergoes development. Besides material entities that undergo changes from the lower to the higher, there are also those that are either in a state of circular movement or undergoing regressive changes. What is most significant and universal in development is the fact that all material entities possess the ability to become more complex and to pass from the lower to the higher, rather than to develop in general. This ability, inherent in all matter and in every material entity, manifests itself, like any other property, only under relevant conditions. Wherever such conditions exist, a change from the lower to the higher, from the simple to the complex, will invariably occur. If such conditions are absent, a circular movement or regressive changes take place. Those material entities that are involved in a circular movement or undergo regressive changes do not lose their ability to pass from the lower to the higher. This ability is preserved whatever the changes or transformations; it manifests itself as soon as propitious conditions begin to emerge.