An enquiry concerning the principles of natural knowledgeWhitehead, Alfred North
Philosophy
An enquiry concerning the principles of natural knowledge
Whitehead, Alfred North
Knowledge, Theory of; Science -- Philosophy; Space and time
Physical objects and scientific objects are causal characters which are
discussed in Chapter XVI. Also sense-objects and
perceptual objects are the apparent characters discussed in that
chapter. But the separation between the apparent and the causal must not
be over stressed: it is relative to a deliberately limited point of
view.
The whole of 23 would be made clearer by the
use of the term 'ingression' for the complex relation of a sense-object
to the other factors of nature which make up a social entity in process
of realisation. The over-simplification involved in the Aristotelian
concept of 'quality-subject' has obscured the analysis of ingression.
Also 24 is confused by a wavering between
the 'class-theory' of perceptual objects and the 'control-theory' of
physical objects, and by the confusion between perceptual and physical
objects. I do not hold the class-theory now in any form, and was
endeavouring in this book to get away from it. In
Chapter XVI the 'causal character' is identical with
the perceptual object so far as immediate perception is concerned, with
the physical object so far as further discrimination of the significance
of immediate appearance is concerned, and with scientific objects so far
as more detailed analysis is concerned.
Note IV. The attempt in 33 to define
a duration merely by means of its unlimitedness is a failure. In a note
to the Concept of Nature, I point out that there is an analogous
unlimitedness through time, corresponding to the spatial unlimitedness
of a duration. Both unlimitednesses arise from the uniform significance
of spatial extension for one, and of temporal extension for the other.
Thus there is a temporal unlimitedness arising from a stationary event
[cf. 41] in a definite space-time system. A
point-track is the outcome of such an unlimitedness deprived of all
spatial extension. But of course a point-track is a mere limit arrived
at by the method of extensive abstraction. But I still hold to
35.4.
Note V. In 47 the concept of
normality is explained with unnecessary elaboration. Let
and be two intersecting moments belonging to diverse
space-time systems and . Thus intersection of
and is an instantaneous plane
which lies in the instantaneous three-dimensional
moments and .
Let be an event-particle [i.e. an instantaneous point] in it
. Then there is a point-track
through , belonging to the space-time system , and an
analogous point-track belonging to .
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