Abstract

Even inanimate bodies, to be sure, have a certain amount of freedom. Insofar as they are definite things they maintain their integrity against the tendency to be reabsorbed into the Indefinite. Even a gas preserves its mass, a liquid preserves also its volume, and a solid preserves even its shape, in the face of a hostile environment. But the motion of an inanimate body is determined by the outer forces acting on it. This fact is formulated by the classical laws of motion. The law of inertia states that a body left to its own devices will not change its motion. The law of force states that a body not left to its own devices will change its motion in a direction and to an extent determined by the imposed force. The law of reaction states that a body will not kick back any harder than it is kicked.