An essay on the foundations of geometryRussell, Bertrand
Philosophy
An essay on the foundations of geometry
Russell, Bertrand
Geometry -- Foundations
=149.= There remain, however, a few objections and difficulties to be
discussed. First, how do we obtain equality in solids, and in Kant's
cases of right and left hands, or of right and left-handed screws,
where actual superposition is impossible? Secondly, how can we take
congruence as the only possible basis of spatial measurement, when we
have before us the case of time, where no such thing as congruence
is conceivable? Thirdly, it might be urged that we can immediately
estimate spatial equality by the eye, with more or less accuracy,
and thus have a measure independent of congruence. Fourthly, how is
metrical Geometry possible on non-congruent surfaces, if congruence
be the basis of spatial measurement? I will discuss these objections
successively.
=150.= (1) How do we measure the equality of solids? These could only
be brought into actual congruence if we had a fourth dimension to
operate in[157], and from what I have said before of the absolute
necessity of this test, it might seem as though we should be left
here in utter ignorance. Euclid is silent on the subject, and in
all works on Geometry it is assumed as self-evident that two cubes
of equal side are equal. This assumption suggests that we are not
so badly off as we should have been without congruence, as a test
of equality in one or two dimensions; for now we can at least be
sure that two cubes have all their sides and all their faces equal.
Two such cubes differ, then, in no sensible spatial quality save
position, for volume, in this case at any rate, is not a sensible
quality. They are, therefore, as far as such qualities are concerned,
indiscernible. If their places were interchanged, we might know the
change by their colour, or by some other non-geometrical property;
but so far as any property of which Geometry can take cognisance is
concerned, everything would seem as before. To suppose a difference
of volume, then, would be to ascribe an effect to mere position,
which we saw to be inadmissible while discussing Free Mobility.
Except as regards position, they are geometrically indiscernible, and
we may call to our aid the Identity of Indiscernibles to establish
their agreement in the one remaining geometrical property of volume.
This may seem rather a strange principle to use in Mathematics,
and for Geometry their equality is, perhaps, best regarded as
a definition; but if we demand a philosophical ground for this
definition, it is, I believe, only to be found in the Identity of
Indiscernibles. We can, without error, make our _definition_ of
three-dimensional equality rest on two-dimensional congruence. For
since direct comparison as to volume is impossible, we are at liberty
to _define_ two volumes as equal, when all their various lines,
surfaces, angles and solid angles are congruent, since there remains,
in such a case, no _measurable_ difference between the figures
composing the two volumes. Of course, as soon as we have established
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