Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Space, Quantum, Repulsion

As has been previously argued here, the fundamental quantum of Space is Volume, rather than Point, as is prevalently held, or even Whitehead's Region.  However, it does not follow that Space is essentially quantized, as Kant shows, perhaps unwittingly.  For, in one place he asserts that "matter fills its space by the repulsive forces of all its parts" (Metaphysical Foundations of the Natural Sciences, ch. 2, prop. 2), while he elsewhere observes that "if no other moving force counteracted this repulsive one, would be held within no limits of extension, i. e. would disperse itself to infinity" (MFNS, ch. 2, prop. 5, proof).  In other words, Repulsion, when not counteracted, exceeds any quantum, entailing a more fundamental Spatiality--a process of indefinite extending, the sole 'dimension' of which is, therefore, 'outside of'.  Thus, it is only as a product of the counteracting of Repulsion that Space first becomes quantized.

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