The Concept of Nature — the Tarner Lectures, 1920

A quantity can be said to be located in an abstractive element when an abstractive set belonging to the element can be found such that the quantitative expressions of the corresponding characters of its events converge to the measure of the given quantity as a limit when we pass along the abstractive set towards its converging end.

W.N. ^^

i62 THE CONCEPT OF NATURE [ch.

By these definitions location in elements of instantaneous spaces is defined. These elements occupy corresponding elements of timeless spaces. An object located in an element of an instantaneous space will also be said to be located at that moment in the timeless element of the timeless space which is occupied by that instantaneous element.

It is not every object which can be located in a moment. An object which can be located in every moment of some duration will be called a 'uniform' object throughout that duration. Ordinary physical objects appear to us to be uniform objects, and we habitually assume that scientific objects such as electrons are uniform. But some sense-objects certainly are not uniform. A tune is an example of a non-uniform object. We have perceived it as a whole in a certain duration ; but the tune as a tune is not at any moment of that duration though one of the individual notes may be located there.

It is possible therefore that for the existence of certain sorts of objects, e.g. electrons, minimum quanta of time are requisite. Some such postulate is apparently indicated by the modern quantum theory and it is perfectly consistent with the doctrine of objects maintained in these lectures.

Also the instance of the distinction between the electron as the mere quantitative electric charge of its situation and the electron as standing for the ingression of an object throughout nature illustrates the indefinite number of types of objects which exist in nature. We can intellectually distinguish even subtler and subtler types of objects. Here I reckon subtlety as meaning seclusion from the immediate apprehension of senseawareness. Evolution in the complexity of life means an

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increase in the types of objects directly sensed. Delicacy of sense-apprehension means perceptions of objects as distinct entities which are mere subtle ideas to cruder sensibilities. The phrasing of music is a mere abstract subtlety to the unmusical; it is a direct sense-apprehension to the initiated. For example, if we could imagine some lowly type of organic being thinking and aware of our thoughts, it would wonder at the abstract subtleties in which we indulge as we think of stones and bricks and drops of water and plants. It only knows of vague undifferentiated feelings in nature. It would consider us as given over to the play of excessively abstract intellects. But then if it could think, it would anticipate; and if it anticipated, it would soon perceive for itself.

In these lectures we have been scrutinising the foundations of natural philosophy. We are stopping at the very point where a boundless ocean of enquiries opens out for our questioning.

I agree that the view of Nature which I have maintained in these lectures is not a simple one. Nature appears as a complex system whose factors are dimly discerned by us. But, as I ask you. Is not this the very truth ? Should we not distrust the jaunty assurance with which every age prides itself that it at last has hit upon the ultimate concepts in which all that happens can be formulated ? The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest. The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, Seek simplicity and distrust it.

II — 2

CHAPTER VIII
SUMMARY

There is a general agreement that Einstein's investigations have one fundamental merit irrespective of any criticisms which we may feel inclined to pass on them. They have made us think. But when we have admitted so far, we are most of us faced with a distressing perplexity. What is it that we ought to think about? The purport of my lecture this afternoon will be to meet this difficulty and, so far as I am able, to set in a clear light the changes in the background of our scientific thought which are necessitated by any acceptance, however qualified, of Einstein's main positions. I remember that I am lecturing to the members of a chemical society who are not for the most part versed in advanced mathematics. The first point that I would urge upon you is that what immediately concerns you is not so much the detailed deductions of the new theory as this general change in the background of scientific conceptions which will follow from its acceptance. Of course, the detailed deductions are important, because unless our colleagues the astronomers and the physicists find these predictions to be verified we can neglect the theory altogether. But we may now take it as granted that in many striking particulars these deductions have been found to be in agreement with observation. Accordingly the theory has to be taken seriously and we are anxious to know what will be the consequences of its final acceptance. Furthermore during the last few weeksCH. viii] SUMMARY 165 the scientific journals and the lay press have been filled with articles as to the nature of the crucial experiments which have been made and as to some of the more striking expressions of the outcome of the new theory. 'Space caught bending' appeared on the news-sheet of a well-known evening paper. This rendering is a terse but not inapt translation of Einstein's own way of interpreting his results. I should say at once that I am a heretic as to this explanation and that I shall expound to you another explanation based upon some work of my own, an explanation which seems to me to be more in accordance with our scientific ideas and with the whole body of facts which have to be explained. We have to remember that a new theory must take account of the old well-attested facts of science just as much as of the very latest experimental results which have led to its production.