Man or Matter: Introduction to a Spiritual Understanding of Nature on the Basis of Goethe's Method of Training Observation and ThoughtLehrs, Ernst
Religion
Man or Matter: Introduction to a Spiritual Understanding of Nature on the Basis of Goethe's Method of Training Observation and Thought
Lehrs, Ernst
Anthroposophy; Cosmology; Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832
It is essential to observe that the content of this theorem does not
need the confirmation of any outer experience for its discovery, or to
establish its truth. Even though the recognition of the fact which it
expresses may have first come to men through practical observation, yet
the content of this theorem can be discovered and proved by purely
logical means. In this respect it resembles any purely geometrical
statement such as, that the sum of the angles of a triangle is two
right angles (180°). Even though this too may have first been learnt
through outer observation, yet it remains true that for the discovery
of the fact expressed by it - valid for all plane triangles - no outer
experience is needed. In both cases we find ourselves in the domain of
pure geometric conceptions (length and direction of straight lines,
movement of a point along these), whose reciprocal relationships are
ordered by the laws of pure geometric logic. So in the theorem of the
Parallelogram of Velocities we have a strictly geometrical theorem,
whose content is in the narrowest sense kinematic. In fact, it is the
basic theorem of kinematics.
We now turn to the second theorem which speaks of an outwardly similar
relationship between forces. As is well nown, this states that two
forces of different magnitude and direction, when they apply at the
same point, act together in the manner of a single force whose
magnitude and direction may be represented by the diagonal of a
parallelogram whose sides express in extent and direction the first two
forces. Thus in Fig. 2, R exercises upon P the same effect as F1 and F2
together.
Expressed in another way, a force of this magnitude working in the
reverse direction (R') will establish an equilibrium with the other two
forces. In technical practice, as is well known, this theorem is used
for countless calculations, in both statics and dynamics, and indeed
more frequently not in the form given here but in the converse manner,
when a single known force is resolved into two component forces.
(Distribution of a pressure along frameworks, of air pressure along
moving surfaces, etc.)
It will now be our task to examine the logical link which is believed
to connect one theorem with the other. This link is found in the
well-known definition of physical force as a product of 'mass' and
'acceleration' - in algebraic symbols F=ma. We will discuss the
implications of this definition in more detail later on. Let us first
see how it is used as a foundation for the above assertion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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