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
24.8 The essential unity of the object amid the spatial parts of
its situation is more difficult to grasp. The derivation of space and
time by the method of extensive analysis, as explained in
Part III of this enquiry, exhibits the essential
identity of extension in time and extension in space. Thus the reasons
for denying temporal parts of an object are also reasons for denying to
it spatial parts. Again, it is true that the leg of a chair occupies
part of the space which is occupied by the chair. But in appealing to
space we are appealing to relations between events. What we are saying
is, that the situation of the leg of the chair is part of the situation
of the chair. This fact only makes the leg to be part of the chair in a
mediate derivative sense, by way of their relations to their situations.
But the leg is one object with a recognisable permanence of association,
and the chair is another, with recognisable permanence of association
distinct from that of the leg, and their situations in all circumstances
have certain definite relations to each other expressible
[5]
in temporal and spatial terms.
24.9 The second reason for the vagueness of physical objects is
the impossibility of submitting the group of associations, forming the
object, to any process of determination with a progressive approximation
to precision. A physical object is one of those entities of ordinary
experience which refuse to be pressed into the service of science by way
of a progressive exactness of determination. Consider for example a
definite object such as a certain woollen sock. It wears thin, but it
remains the same object; it is darned, and remains the same object;
finally after successive repairs no part of the original wool is left,
but it is the same sock. The truth is that each time we affirm the
self-identity of this object we are construing the group of
associations, which we recognise, in a more and more attenuated sense.
The object which is both the sock at the end and the sock at the
beginning is a very attenuated complex type of permanence, which would
not be what we meant by the sock merely at the beginning of its career
or as perceived merely at the end of its career. By insisting on the
continued identity of the sock, we are in fact continually juggling with
what we mean by the sock, always retaining the most complete
associations which we can trace through the whole continuous series of
events forming the successive situations of the sock. The physical
object 'works' perfectly for the ordinary usage of life, and is thus
fully justified for that purpose in the eyes of the pragmatic
philosopher.
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