Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative; Vol. 2 of 3: Library Edition (1891), Containing Seven Essays not before Republished, and Various other Additions.Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy
Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative; Vol. 2 of 3: Library Edition (1891), Containing Seven Essays not before Republished, and Various other Additions.
Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy; Political science; Science
I am indebted to Mr. Hayward for giving this instance. It conveniently
serves two purposes. It serves to exemplify the connexion between the
crude preconceptions unconsciously formed by earlier experiences, and
the conceptions consciously evolved out of them by the help of later
experiences, when the requisite powers of analysis and abstraction
have been reached. And at the same time it serves to show the failure
of my opponents to understand how, in the genesis of intelligence,
the scientific conception of exact proportionality develops from the
crude, vague, and inaccurate preconception. For while the notion of
proportionality acquired by the child in Mr. Hayward’s example, is
not true, it is an approximation towards one which _is_ true, and
one which is reached when its more developed intelligence is brought
critically to bear on the facts. Eventually it is discovered that the
angle is not proportional to the subtending side, but to the subtending
arc; and this is discovered _in the process of disentangling a simple
relation from other relations which complicate and disguise it_.
Between the angle and the arc there is exact proportionality, for
the reason that only one set of directly-connected space-relations
are concerned: the distance of the subtending arc from the subtended
angle, remains constant—there is no change in the relation between the
increasing angle and the increasing arc; and therefore the two vary
together in direct proportion. But it is otherwise with the subtending
side. The parts of this stand in different relations of distance from
the subtended angle; and as the line is lengthened, each added part
differs from the preceding parts in its distance from the angle. That
is to say, one set of simple directly-connected geometrical relations,
is here involved with another set; and the relation between the side
and the angle is such that the law of relative increase involves the
co-operation of two sets of factors. Now the distinguishing the true
proportionality (between the angle and the arc) from the relation
which simulates proportionality (between the angle and the side) is
just that process of final development of exact conceptions, which
I assert to be the finishing step of all the preceding development;
and to be impossible in its absence. And the truth to which my
assailants shut their eyes, is that, just as among these conceptions of
space-relations, the conception of exact proportionality can be reached
only by evolution from the crude notion of proportionality, formed
before reasoning begins; so, among the force-relations, the conception
of proportionality finally reached, when simple causes and their
effects are disentangled by analytical intelligence, can be reached
only by evolution of the crude notion of proportionality, established
as a preconception by early experiences which reinforce ancestral
experiences.
{321}
PROF. GREEN’S EXPLANATIONS.
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