The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919Whitehead, Alfred North
Philosophy
The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
Whitehead, Alfred North
Knowledge, Theory of; Nature; Science -- Philosophy
On the other hand the ingression of every electron into nature modifies
to some extent the character of every event. Thus the character of the
stream of events which we are considering bears marks of the existence
of every other electron throughout the universe. If we like to think of
the electrons as being merely what I call their charges, then the
charges act at a distance. But this action consists in the modification
of the situation of the other electron under consideration. This
conception of a charge acting at a distance is a wholly artificial one.
The conception which most fully expresses the character of nature is
that of each event as modified by the ingression of each electron into
nature. The ether is the expression of this systematic modification of
events throughout space and throughout time. The best expression of the
character of this modification is for physicists to find out. My theory
has nothing to do with that and is ready to accept any outcome of
physical research.
The connexion of objects with space requires elucidation. Objects are
situated in events. The relation of situation is a different relation
for each type of object, and in the case of sense-objects it cannot be
expressed as a two-termed relation. It would perhaps be better to use a
different word for these different types of the relation of situation.
It has not however been necessary to do so for our purposes in these
lectures. It must be understood however that, when situation is spoken
of, some one definite type is under discussion, and it may happen that
the argument may not apply to situation of another type. In all cases
however I use situation to express a relation between objects and events
and not between objects and abstractive elements. There is a derivative
relation between objects and spatial elements which I call the relation
of location; and when this relation holds, I say that the object is
located in the abstractive element. In this sense, an object may be
located in a moment of time, in a volume of space, an area, a line, or a
point. There will be a peculiar type of location corresponding to each
type of situation; and location is in each case derivative from the
corresponding relation of situation in a way which I will proceed to
explain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account