upon all formulations of laws of Nature which assume these
classifications as firm starting points. A problem arises. Phi-
losophy is the search for its solution.

For example, we can conceive Nature as composed of per-
manent things--namely, bits of matter, moving about in
space which otherwise is empty. This way of thinking about
Nature has an obvious consonance with common-sense ob-
servation. There are chairs, tables, bits of rock, oceans, ani-
mal bodies, vegetable bodies, planets, and suns. The endur-
ing self-identity of a house, of a farm, of an animal body, is a
presupposition of social intercourse. It is assumed in legal
theory. It lies at the base of all literature. A bit of matter is
thus conceived as a passive fact, an individual reality which
is the same at an instant, or throughout a second, an hour, or
a year. Such a material, individual reality supports its vari-
ous qualifications such as shape, locomotion, color, or smell,
etc. The occurrences of Nature consist in the changes in these
qualifications, and more particularly in the changes of mo-
tion. The connection between such bits of matter consists
purely of spatial relations. Thus, the importance of motion
arises from its change of the sole mode of interconnection of
material things. Mankind then proceeds to discuss these spa-
tial relations and discovers geometry. The geometrical char-
acter of space is conceived as the one way in which Nature
imposes determinate relations upon all bits of matter which
are the sole occupants of space. In itself, space is conceived
as unchanging from eternity to eternity, and as homogeneous
from infinity to infinity. Thus, we compose a straightforward
characterization of Nature, which is consonant to common
sense, and can be verified at each moment of our existence.

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