The Problem of Mass in Hegel

Abstract

The way in which Hegel develops the categories of place and motion leads on to his exposition of matter, which he presents as the existent unity of space and time. In his early work, he also takes these categories to be basic to the reciprocal relation between motion and matter. He argues that a change in position can only be meaningful if it is possible to relate it to a point in space which remains unaffected by it. In his view, the spatio-temporal being determining place constitutes the essential nature of materiality. Matter is therefore mass, and the realization of place is the essence of mass.