The alleged Absoluteness of Motions of Rotation

Abstract

All motion is relative. This apparently universal statement is a particular statement about the meanings of words. The word “motion” means “relative motion,” or, more precisely, “the motion of a body” means its motion relative to other bodies. We may go further and make the still more fundamental statement that all position is relative, or, in other words, the position of a body means its position relative to other bodies. It is easy for anyone who puts words together without reflecting sufficiently on their meaning to put together the noun “motion” or “position” and the adjective “absolute,” but the expressions “absolute motion” and “absolute position” are nevertheless meaningless, just as much so as “white blackness,” “retrograde progress,” “the action between a rough body and a smooth body at their point of contact,” or “the potential energy of non-conservative forces.”