Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in PhilosophyRussell, Bertrand
Philosophy
Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
Russell, Bertrand
Knowledge, Theory of; Logical atomism
Perspective space is the system of "points of view" of private spaces
(perspectives), or, since "points of view" have not been defined, we may
say it is the system of the private spaces themselves. These private
spaces will each count as one point, or at any rate as one element, in
perspective space. They are ordered by means of their similarities.
Suppose, for example, that we start from one which contains the
appearance of a circular disc, such as would be called a penny, and
suppose this appearance, in the perspective in question, is circular,
not elliptic. We can then form a whole series of perspectives containing
a graduated series of circular aspects of varying sizes: for this
purpose we only have to move (as we say) towards the penny or away from
it. The perspectives in which the penny looks circular will be said to
lie on a straight line in perspective space, and their order on this
line will be that of the sizes of the circular aspects. Moreover--though
this statement must be noticed and subsequently examined--the
perspectives in which the penny looks big will be said to be nearer to
the penny than those in which it looks small. It is to be remarked also
that any other "thing" than our penny might have been chosen to define
the relations of our perspectives in perspective space, and that
experience shows that the same spatial order of perspectives would have
resulted.
In order to explain the correlation of private spaces with perspective
space, we have first to explain what is meant by "the place (in
perspective space) where a thing is." For this purpose, let us again
consider the penny which appears in many perspectives. We formed a
straight line of perspectives in which the penny looked circular, and we
agreed that those in which it looked larger were to be considered as
nearer to the penny. We can form another straight line of perspectives
in which the penny is seen end-on and looks like a straight line of a
certain thickness. These two lines will meet in a certain place in
perspective space, _i.e._ in a certain perspective, which may be defined
as "the place (in perspective space) where the penny is." It is true
that, in order to prolong our lines until they reach this place, we
shall have to make use of other things besides the penny, because, so
far as experience goes, the penny ceases to present any appearance after
we have come so near to it that it touches the eye. But this raises no
real difficulty, because the spatial order of perspectives is found
empirically to be independent of the particular "things" chosen for
defining the order. We can, for example, remove our penny and prolong
each of our two straight lines up to their intersection by placing other
pennies further off in such a way that the aspects of the one are
circular where those of our original penny were circular, and the
aspects of the other are straight where those of our original penny were
straight.
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