Essays Towards a Theory of KnowledgePhilip, Alexander
Philosophy
Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge
Philip, Alexander
Cycles; Force and energy; Knowledge, Theory of
To the concepts reached by such palpation with the hand, M. Villey gives
the name of Manual Space. In this connection he thinks it necessary to
distinguish between synthetic touch and analytic touch--the former
resulting from the simultaneous application of different parts of the
hand on the surface of a body, the latter that which we owe to the
movements of our fingers when having only one point of contact with the
object the fingers follow its contour. Various examples of the delicacy
of the information thus obtainable are given. Following two straight
lines with the thumb and index respectively, a blind man can acquire by
practice a sensibility so complete as to enable him to detect the
slightest divergence from parallelism.
The analysis passes on from the data of Space manual to those of Space
brachial; then to the information derived from walking and other
movements of the lower limbs, and then to the co-ordination of the
information derived from the sensations of hearing, which is necessarily
very important to the blind.
The conclusion of the whole matter is that our principal spatial ideas
are common alike to the blind and the vident. Both can be taught and are
taught the same geometry. Both understand one another in the
description of spatial conditions. The common element cannot possibly be
supplied either by the data of visual sensation which the blind do not
possess, or by the data of passive tactual sensation which the vident
hardly ever employ. _Une étendue commune se retrouverait à la fois dans
les données de la vue et dans celles du toucher._ The common element is
furnished by the common laws and forms of our exertional Activity by
means of which and in terms of which we all construct our conceptions of
the dynamic world of our environment.
* * * * *
It is from our dynamic Activity also that we derive our conception of
Force. Force, though it is studied scientifically in the measurement of
the great natural forces which operate constantly, is originally known
to us in the stress or pressure to which muscular exertion in contact
with a material body gives rise. Such a force if it could be correctly
measured, would record the rate at which Energy was undergoing
transmutation, and it is from such experience of pressure that our idea
of Force is originally derived.
The mass of bodies is usually measured by their weight, _i.e._ by
gravity. Its absolute measurement must be in terms of momentum. The true
estimate of the Energy of a body moving under the impulse of a constant
Force is stated in the formula 1/2MV{2}. To ascertain M, therefore, we
must have given F and V, and these are both conceptions the original
idea of which is derived from our exertional activity.
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