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
You will have noticed that by the aid of the assumption of alternative
time-systems, we are arriving at an explanation of the character of
space. In natural science 'to explain' means merely to discover
'interconnexions.' For example, in one sense there is no explanation of
the red which you see. It is red, and there is nothing else to be said
about it. Either it is posited before you in sense-awareness or you are
ignorant of the entity red. But science has explained red. Namely it has
discovered interconnexions between red as a factor in nature and other
factors in nature, for example waves of light which are waves of
electromagnetic disturbances. There are also various pathological
states of the body which lead to the seeing of red without the
occurrence of light waves. Thus connexions have been discovered between
red as posited in sense-awareness and various other factors in nature.
The discovery of these connexions constitutes the scientific explanation
of our vision of colour. In like manner the dependence of the character
of space on the character of time constitutes an explanation in the
sense in which science seeks to explain. The systematising intellect
abhors bare facts. The character of space has hitherto been presented as
a collection of bare facts, ultimate and disconnected. The theory which
I am expounding sweeps away this disconnexion of the facts of space.
CHAPTER V
SPACE AND MOTION
The topic for this lecture is the continuation of the task of explaining
the construction of spaces as abstracts from the facts of nature. It was
noted at the close of the previous lecture that the question of
congruence had not been considered, nor had the construction of a
timeless space which should correlate the successive momentary spaces of
a given time-system. Furthermore it was also noted that there were many
spatial abstractive elements which we had not yet defined. We will first
consider the definition of some of these abstractive elements, namely
the definitions of solids, of areas, and of routes. By a 'route' I mean
a linear segment, whether straight or curved. The exposition of these
definitions and the preliminary explanations necessary will, I hope,
serve as a general explanation of the function of event-particles in the
analysis of nature.
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