ABSTRACT
Galilee and Newton simply assumes absolute motion without being clear in their own minds or being conscious of the fact that this presupposition involves the existence of an absolute and fixed point of reference. That this condition is necessarily involved was first clearly brought out by Neumann, though there is a definite reference to this matter in Descartes. It is for that reason that Neumann sets up as the first principle of the Galileo-Newton theory the proposition that all conceivable motions existing in the world are to be referred to one and the same absolutely fixed body, whose configuration, position and dimensions are unalterable for all time. Neumann deserves the credit for having first demonstrated that Galileo and Newton formulated their laws in such a fashion that an absolute motion was assumed. Galileo's law of inertia cannot, according to Neumann, possibly remain as a starting point for mathematical deductions.
