Motion, Dualism, and Modern
Physics (part 3)
Grant me the grace, O
merciful God, to desire
ardently all that is pleasing
to Thee, to examine it
prudently, to acknowledge
it truthfully, and to
accomplish it perfectly, for
the praise and glory of Thy
name. Amen.

Regina Cœli Academy
Natural Philosophy – Physics
Lecturer: Mr. Alan Aversa

Prayer of St. Thomas which he was
accustomed to recite everyday before the
image of Jesus Christ.

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The Law of Entropy Attests to
Natures
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Disorder

2 Law of Thermodynamics implies:
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Nature is instable.

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There will be a “heath death” of the universe.
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Energy cannot be transmuted from one form to another
indefinitely.
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Their stability doesn’t result from subatomic particles’
instability

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Why? ∵ 2nd Law determines directionality of time

Why is the universe’s “heat death” not infinitely
fast? If there are no “braking principles,”
wouldn’t it be?

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This is like the 1st and 2nd Laws.
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∵ instability + instability ≠ stability.

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(1) Only can a “nature existing” (a substance)
that is a unity of matter and form be both
conservative and entropic.

Empedocles’s cosmology: law of love and law
of hate
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“Conservative” means here: “able to maintain its being.”

Thermodynamics Confirms Matter
and Form

Bergson claimed that the 2nd Law is “the most
metaphysical of empirical laws.”
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Recall: “Inert” means “[h]aving no inherent power of action,
motion, or resistance; inactive, inanimate; having the property
of inertia.” (OED).

Atoms have more being and nature.

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The Law of Entropy Attests to
Natures
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Atoms less inert, “more stable, more conservative,” more
“capable of acting” than subatomic particles
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nd

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2

The Law of Entropy Attests to
Natures

Entropy “is the measure of the unavailability of
[...] thermal energy for conversion into
mechanical work” (OED).
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“Entropic” means “with allusion to the randomness,
uniformity, and unavailability of energy for work that
entropy measures.” (OED).
The empiriological physicist would reduce one
reality (conservation), which obeys the 1st Law, and
another unrelated reality (entropy), which obeys the
2nd Law, to two distinct principles; but conservation
and entropy are ultimately rooted in one subject.
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Thermodynamics Confirms Matter
and Form
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Thermodynamics Confirms Matter
and Form

(2) Matter-form dualism explains the bifurcated
nature of the atom:
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Matter is the “divisive and destructive” principle.

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Form is the “unitive,” “conservative principle.”

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Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: Δx Δp ≥ ℏ/2
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Cannot measure position x or momentum p
simultaneously to arbitrary precision.

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If x or p were exactly known, the other would be
completely unknown.
Matter → position; form → velocity
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Einstein’s general relativity (GR) theory of
gravity also shows there must be a dualism in
substances (natures existing).

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Is the uncertainly principle due, however, to a
lack in our understanding of the physics?

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Pythagoras: odd and even

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Plato: great and small

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Anaximander: condensation and rarefaction

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GR’s fundamental equation contains symmetrical
and anti-symmetrical parts.

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they all were “groping in the dark” for Aristotle’s
formulation of hylemorphism (matter-form dualism)
and that
even false philosophies can catch a glimpse of truth
“from the light of being.”
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That E = m c2 Does not Refute
Matter-Form

Whitehead’s standard for finding differences between
two natures: Look at how the two operate under the
same external conditions.
Natures come from within, so “Don’t judge a nature
by its appearances, by what’s ‘without’!”
Natures are not due to a “mechanical linkage of their
component elements,” as mechanism holds.
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Aquinas thought that

Space-time continuum must be isotropic, yet for it to
be heterogeneous, it must be discontinuous.

“If the planetary model of the atom is denied as being
a mechanical aggregate, why not make the same
statement about the solar system?” Or what about a
house? How is a house any different than an atom?

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Pre-Aristoteleans cosmologists’ dualisms:

Objections to Matter-Form are
Inadequate
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In other words: Is it an epistemological issue?

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Can you smell, taste, touch, hear, feel atoms?

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Objects on micro-scale have less nature, are more
inert.

Thermodynamics Confirms Matter
and Form

Aquinas: Knowability of something follows its
immateriality, but atoms are grossly inert.

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Error in position and velocity more important on the
micro- than the macro-scale.

Matter-form dualism ⇒ position and velocity
immediately united.

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Thermodynamics Confirms Matter
and Form
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Uncertainty principle

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E is the measure of energy, m is the measure
of mass, and c is the measure of the speed of
light.
Does this mean energy and matter themselves
are equivalent?
In 1939 Hahn and Strassmann bombarded
uranium with neutrons to produce lighter
elements like barium.
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The resultant particles were less massive than the
original uranium atom.
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That E = m c2 Does not Refute
Matter-Form
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Why is there a difference in mass?
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Had matter been annihilated?

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Was the mass difference changed into energy?

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Has matter changed into a property of matter?

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That E = m c2 Does not Refute
Matter-Form
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Can something extended be reduced to something
unextended?

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Solution: “binding energy”

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If mass is substance and energy is an accident,
then a change in energy should change
extension? Doesn’t this refute hylemorphism?

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The fission fragments are less extended.
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Galileo, Newton: substances defined by mass and
weight
Descartes: substances defined by quantity

Aquinas, instead, defines a natural body “in
terms of its mobility and the dualism of principle
which motion discloses.”
Philosophical physics: so-called mass needn’t
be constant; only prime matter constant

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That E = m c2 Does not Refute
Matter-Form
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References

Binding energy concept illustrates hylemorphism.
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Uranium fission does not fit into these two
conceptions:
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Einstein’s equation really about conversion of
energy into different forms.

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It’s the amount of energy required to raise an object 1 ft.

Mass / energy dichotomy artificial

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Empiriological physics cannot make the
distinction; philosophy needed

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A foot-pound is a unit of energy.

That E = m c2 Does not Refute
Matter-Form

Isn’t it a vicious circle to define energy in terms of
mass and mass in terms of energy‽

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Inertia measured by using energy to exert a force.

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That E = m c2 Does not Refute
Matter-Form
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A scale determines the mass of a person based not
on mass directly but on how much energy he exerts
in overcoming the tension of the spring inside the
scale.

Energy is measured by mass.
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A mass on a mountaintop has less weight than a
mass at sea-level. Has it lost mass by going from
sea-level to a mountaintop?

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Mass is measured by energy.

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Are atoms just an aggregate of subatomic particles, as
a mechanist would say?

V. E. Smith’s Philosophical Physics
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Subatomic particles do undergo a substantial change
when they combine to form an atom; ∴, hylemorphism
holds for atoms.

Please finish reading ch. 6 (Motion, Dualism, and
Physics).
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I will post PDF of the reading on the reginacoeli.box.com
page.

But what are matter and energy?
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Empiriological physicist: 2 ways of looking at 1 thing

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Philosophical physicist: mass and energy irrelevant
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He speaks of substantial form and prime matter, or accidental
form and second matter.
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