MARXISM AND THE SPECIAL THjEORY OF RELATIVITY 57 hou&e is between the hill and the lake, though both bill and lake are subject to change. With the help of regular and recurring changes we orient ourselves in time. The rising of (the svin, or the coming of the rains, are changes which give us the notion of time. But there is a sense in which space and time are differently abstracted. While sp^ce is abstracted from iftech^ni^al motions of displacement, time is abstracted from a wider form of motion. Time is abstracted from process itself. Process includes mechanical motions which arc reversible as well as development which is irreversible. Changes which arise from inner contradictions, like the growth of a seed into a plant or the evolution of a star or the transformation of capitalist society into socialist society, arc irreversible. It is this irreversibility of the basic process of nature that is reflected in the arrow of time. The problem of the arrow of time has its root in the inability of mechanistic materialism to grasp the dialectical nature of the universe and all its processes. 1 Arthur Koestler, The Roots of Coincidence, Hutchinson, London, 1972. 9 AS Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World, Coiling Clear Type Press. 3 B Russell, ABC of Relativity, George Alien & Unwin Ltd., p 136. 4 Philipp Frank, ("Einstein, Mach and Logical Positivism", in Einstein, Philosopher Scientist (ed) P A Schilpp. ^ Max Born, Quoted in A B C of Dialectical Materialism by B M Boguslavsky ct al, Progress Publishers, Moscow. 6 VI Lenin Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder, Moscow. 7 VI Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, Progress Publishers, Moscow. 8 J B S Haldane, The Marxist Philosophy and the Physical Sciences, George Alien Unwin. 9 VI Lenin, Materialism and Empiric-Criticism, op cit. 10 VI Lenin, Ibid. 11 F Engels. Dialectics of Mature, Progress Publishers, Moscow. i» F Engels, Ibid. ls David Bohm, The Special Theory of Relativity, W A Benjamin, 1965, pp 115-118. 14 David Bohm, Ibid. 15 VI Lenin, Materialism and Empiric-Criticism, op cit. 16 J D Bcrnal, Science in History, Watts and Co, London 1954, p 385. 17 F Engels, Ibid. 18 Max Born, quoted in A B C of Dialectical Materialism, op cit. 19 VI Lenin, "Conspectus on Religion", in Philosophical Notebook, collected works Vol 38, Progress Publishers, Moscow. 20 VI Lenin, Materialism and Empiric-Criticism, op. cit. 21 A Einstein, The Meaning of Relativity, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., 1968, p 107 aa VI Lenin, Materialism and Empiric-Criticism, op cit. ^ VI Lenin, Ibid. s4 A E Milne, "Gravitation without Relativity", in Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist, PA Schilpp (cd). ^° A Einstein, "Autobiographical Notes", in Einstien, Philosopher Scientist, Ibid. 56 K K Thcckcdath, "Marxism and Quantum Mechanics'*, Social Scientist, August 1974,p34.