Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation: A selection of material from the essays submitted in the competition for the Eugene Higgins prize of $5,000 — John Shaqi
Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation: A selection of material from the essays submitted in the competition for the Eugene Higgins prize of $5,000Bird, J. Malcolm (James Malcolm)
Philosophy
Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation: A selection of material from the essays submitted in the competition for the Eugene Higgins prize of $5,000
Bird, J. Malcolm (James Malcolm)
Relativity (Physics)
[The test of one of these laws is that it can be shown to include
all the related phenomena hitherto known and that it enables us to
predict new phenomena which can then be verified. If new facts are
discovered that are not in agreement with one of these generalized
statements, the assumptions on which the latter is based are examined,
those which are not in accordance with the new facts are given up,
and the statement is modified so as to include the new facts.]10
[And if one remembers that the laws of physics were formerly based
on a range of observations much narrower than at present available,
it seems natural that in the light of this widening knowledge one law
or another may be seen to be narrow and insufficient. New theories
and laws do not necessarily disprove old ones, but explain certain
discrepancies in them and penetrate more deeply into their underlying
principles, thereby broadening our ideas of the universe. To follow the
new reasoning we must rid ourselves of the prejudice behind the old,
not because it is wrong but because it is insufficient. The universe
will not be distorted to fit our rules, but will teach us the rules
of existence.]125
[Always, however, we must guard against the too easy error of
attributing to these rules anything like absolute truth.]* [The
modern scientist has attained a very business-like point of view
toward his "laws of nature." To him a law is fundamentally nothing
but a short-hand way of expressing the results of a large number of
experiments in a single statement. And it is important to remember that
this mere shortening of the description of a lot of diverse occurrences
is by no means any real explanation of how and why they happened. In
other words, the aim of science is not ultimately to explain but only
to discover the relations that hold good among physical quantities and
to embody all these relations in as few and as simple physical laws
as possible.]221 [This is inherently the method of relativism.]*
[Under it a set of phenomena is observed. There are two or many
observers, and they write down their several findings. These are
reviewed by a final observer or judge, who strains out the bias due
to the different viewpoints of the original observers. He then writes
down, not any absolute law of nature governing the observed phenomena,
but a law as general as possible expressing their interrelations.]121
[And through this procedure modern science and philosophy reveal
with increasing emphasis that we superimpose our human qualities
on external nature to such an extent that]106 [we have at once the
strongest practical justification, in addition to the arguments
of reason, for our insistence that the contact between objective
and subjective represented by the observation is the only thing
which we shall ever be able to recognize as real. We may indulge in
abstract metaphysical speculation to our heart's content, if we be
metaphysically inclined; we may not attempt to impose the dicta of
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