A Rational Cosmology: How Forces Originate

Essay LV

This is Essay LV of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

Some might object to the theory for the interpretation of forces previously explicated by claiming that it explains only what forces result in and what components are involved in their operation.

These objectors would argue that there is insufficient explanation of what causes a given force to arise in the first place. Surely, an entity cannot simply spontaneously "decide" to exert a force on another. The beginning of the answer as to the cause of the force's exertion can be found in Newton's Third Law.

Surely, the greatest merit to Sir Isaac Newton's work has been the ruthless consistency that he maintained between his work as a physicist and philosophical objectivity, such that no absurdity nor any violation of common sense can be found in any of his models and discoveries. Similarly, his Third Law illustrates a cosmological implication that we observe every moment of our lives, yet which few have dared to explicitly phrase.

According to the Third Law, for every force Entity A exerts on Entity B, Entity B will exert an equal and opposite force (i.e., a force in a direction 180 degrees from that of the first force) on Entity A. There is no time gap between these two force exertions; they occur simultaneously with one another, and both forces are initiated at the same time.

This raises the question as to which entity in this pair is the agent of the force, and which entity is the one being acted upon. The answer to both questions is, both of them. A and B are both originators of the force and its recipients. The reason for why the force exists and is exerted needs not be found outside the system of the two entities in question.