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
We are now in possession of a theory of parallels and a theory of
perpendiculars and a theory of motion, and from these theories the
theory of congruence can be constructed. It will be remembered that a
family of parallel levels in any moment is the family of levels in which
that moment is intersected by the family of moments of some other
time-system. Also a family of parallel moments is the family of moments
of some one time-system. Thus we can enlarge our concept of a family of
parallel levels so as to include levels in different moments of one
time-system. With this enlarged concept we say that a complete family of
parallel levels in a time-system α is the complete family of levels in
which the moments of α intersect the moments of β. This complete family
of parallel levels is also evidently a family lying in the moments of
the time-system β. By introducing a third time-system γ, parallel rects
are obtained. Also all the points of any one time-system form a family
of parallel point-tracks. Thus there are three types of parallelograms
in the four-dimensional manifold of event-particles.
In parallelograms of the first type the two pairs of parallel sides are
both of them pairs of rects. In parallelograms of the second type one
pair of parallel sides is a pair of rects and the other pair is a pair
of point-tracks. In parallelograms of the third type the two pairs of
parallel sides are both of them pairs of point-tracks.
The first axiom of congruence is that the opposite sides of any
parallelogram are congruent. This axiom enables us to compare the
lengths of any two segments either respectively on parallel rects or on
the same rect. Also it enables us to compare the lengths of any two
segments either respectively on parallel point-tracks or on the same
point-track. It follows from this axiom that two objects at rest in any
two points of a time-system β are moving with equal velocities in any
other time-system α along parallel lines. Thus we can speak of the
velocity in α due to the time-system β without specifying any particular
point in β. The axiom also enables us to measure time in any
time-system; but does not enable us to compare times in different
time-systems.
The second axiom of congruence concerns parallelograms on congruent
bases and between the same parallels, which have also their other pairs
of sides parallel. The axiom asserts that the rect joining the two
event-particles of intersection of the diagonals is parallel to the rect
on which the bases lie. By the aid of this axiom it easily follows that
the diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other.
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