The Physical Picture of the World

22. (MATTER)
A. THE SUBSTANCE THEORY OF MATTER
B. MATTER AND FIELD. ETHER
C. HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS, IN PARTICULAR WITH THE METAPHYSICAL CONCEPT OF
SUBSTANCE.
D. CONSERVATION THEOREMS
In view of the present state of physics, those who want to retain an aprioristic principle of
conservation are liable to cling to the principle of conservation of energy. According to the
special theory of relativity, energy is one, namely the temporal, component of an invariant
objective entity, a four-vector whose spatial projection is momentum. The conservation theorems
of energy and momentum therefore belong together inseparably.
The momentum of a body moving with the velocity ⃗v had been equaled to m⃗v and, with
Galileo, we had called m the inert mass. The question arises how this inert mass depends on the
velocity of the body if the velocity changes while the internal state - as judged by an
accompanying observer undergoing the same motion - remains the same. The answer can be
obtained from the special relativity principle, but differs according to what the causal structure of
the world is assumed to be. If, in line with the old view, the structure consists in a
stratification t = const., then the mass is independent of velocity. If however, as unquestionably
is the case, it is described by the light cones, then we have