The Concept of Nature
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The Concept of
NATURE
THE TARNER LECTURES
DELIVERED IN TRINITY COLLEGE
NOVEMBER 1919
Alfred North Whitehead
PREFACE
The contents of this book were originally delivered at Trinity College
in the autumn of 1919 as the inaugural course of Tarner lectures. The
Tarner lectureship is an occasional office founded by the liberality of
Mr Edward Tarner. The duty of each of the successive holders of the post
will be to deliver a course on 'the Philosophy of the Sciences and the
Relations or Want of Relations between the different Departments of
Knowledge.' The present book embodies the endeavour of the first
lecturer of the series to fulfil his task.
The chapters retain their original lecture form and remain as delivered
with the exception of minor changes designed to remove obscurities of
expression. The lecture form has the advantage of suggesting an audience
with a definite mental background which it is the purpose of the lecture
to modify in a specific way. In the presentation of a novel outlook with
wide ramifications a single line of communications from premises to
conclusions is not sufficient for intelligibility. Your audience will
construe whatever you say into conformity with their pre-existing
outlook. For this reason the first two chapters and the last two
chapters are essential for intelligibility though they hardly add to the
formal completeness of the exposition. Their function is to prevent the
reader from bolting up side tracks in pursuit of misunderstandings. The
same reason dictates my avoidance of the existing technical terminology
of philosophy. The modern natural philosophy is shot through and
through with the fallacy of bifurcation which is discussed in the second
chapter of this work. Accordingly all its technical terms in some subtle
way presuppose a misunderstanding of my thesis. It is perhaps as well to
state explicitly that if the reader indulges in the facile vice of
bifurcation not a word of what I have here written will be intelligible.
The last two chapters do not properly belong to the special course.
Chapter VIII is a lecture delivered in the spring of 1920 before the
Chemical Society of the students of the Imperial College of Science and
Technology. It has been appended here as conveniently summing up and
applying the doctrine of the book for an audience with one definite type
of outlook.
This volume on 'the Concept of Nature' forms a companion book to my
previous work _An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Natural
Knowledge_. Either book can be read independently, but they supplement
each other. In part the present book supplies points of view which were
omitted from its predecessor; in part it traverses the same ground with
an alternative exposition. For one thing, mathematical notation has been
carefully avoided, and the results of mathematical deductions are
assumed. Some of the explanations have been improved and others have
been set in a new light. On the other hand important points of the
previous work have been omitted where I have had nothing fresh to say
about them. On the whole, whereas the former work based itself chiefly
on ideas directly drawn from mathematical physics, the present book
keeps closer to certain fields of philosophy and physics to the
exclusion of mathematics. The two works meet in their discussions of
some details of space and time.
I am not conscious that I have in any way altered my views. Some
developments have been made. Those that are capable of a
non-mathematical exposition have been incorporated in the text. The
mathematical developments are alluded to in the last two chapters. They
concern the adaptation of the principles of mathematical physics to the
form of the relativity principle which is here maintained. Einstein's
method of using the theory of tensors is adopted, but the application is
worked out on different lines and from different assumptions. Those of
his results which have been verified by experience are obtained also by
my methods. The divergence chiefly arises from the fact that I do not
accept his theory of non-uniform space or his assumption as to the
peculiar fundamental character of light-signals. I would not however be
misunderstood to be lacking in appreciation of the value of his recent
work on general relativity which has the high merit of first disclosing
the way in which mathematical physics should proceed in the light of the
principle of relativity. But in my judgment he has cramped the
development of his brilliant mathematical method in the narrow bounds of
a very doubtful philosophy.
The object of the present volume and of its predecessor is to lay the
basis of a natural philosophy which is the necessary presupposition of a
reorganised speculative physics. The general assimilation of space and
time which dominates the constructive thought can claim the independent
support of Minkowski from the side of science and also of succeeding
relativists, while on the side of philosophers it was, I believe, one
theme of Prof. Alexander's Gifford lectures delivered some few years ago
but not yet published. He also summarised his conclusions on this
question in a lecture to the Aristotelian Society in the July of 1918.
Since the publication of _An Enquiry concerning the Principles of
Natural Knowledge_ I have had the advantage of reading Mr C. D. Broad's
_Perception, Physics, and Reality_ [Camb. Univ. Press, 1914]. This
valuable book has assisted me in my discussion in Chapter II, though I
am unaware as to how far Mr Broad would assent to any of my arguments as
there stated.
It remains for me to thank the staff of the University Press, its
compositors, its proof-readers, its clerks, and its managing officials,
not only for the technical excellence of their work, but for the way
they have co-operated so as to secure my convenience.
A. N. W.
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY.
_April_, 1920.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I NATURE AND THOUGHT 1
II THEORIES OF THE BIFURCATION OF NATURE 26
III TIME 49
IV THE METHOD OF EXTENSIVE ABSTRACTION 74
V SPACE AND MOTION 99
VI CONGRUENCE 120
VII OBJECTS 143
VIII SUMMARY 164
IX THE ULTIMATE PHYSICAL CONCEPTS 185
NOTE: ON THE GREEK CONCEPT OF A POINT 197
NOTE: ON SIGNIFICANCE AND INFINITE EVENTS 197
INDEX 199
THE CONCEPT OF NATURE
CHAPTER I
NATURE AND THOUGHT
The subject-matter of the Tarner lectures is defined by the founder to
be 'the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Relations or Want of
Relations between the different Departments of Knowledge.' It is fitting
at the first lecture of this new foundation to dwell for a few moments
on the intentions of the donor as expressed in this definition; and I do
so the more willingly as I shall thereby be enabled to introduce the
topics to which the present course is to be devoted.
We are justified, I think, in taking the second clause of the definition
as in part explanatory of the earlier clause. What is the philosophy of
the sciences? It is not a bad answer to say that it is the study of the
relations between the different departments of knowledge. Then with
admirable solicitude for the freedom of learning there is inserted in
the definition after the word 'relations' the phrase 'or want of
relations.' A disproof of relations between sciences would in itself
constitute a philosophy of the sciences. But we could not dispense
either with the earlier or the later clause. It is not every relation
between sciences which enters into their philosophy. For example biology
and physics are connected by the use of the microscope. Still, I may
safely assert that a technical description of the uses of the microscope
in biology is not part of the philosophy of the sciences. Again, you
cannot abandon the later clause of the definition; namely that
referring to the relations between the sciences, without abandoning the
explicit reference to an ideal in the absence of which philosophy must
languish from lack of intrinsic interest. That ideal is the attainment
of some unifying concept which will set in assigned relationships within
itself all that there is for knowledge, for feeling, and for emotion.
That far off ideal is the motive power of philosophic research; and
claims allegiance even as you expel it. The philosophic pluralist is a
strict logician; the Hegelian thrives on contradictions by the help of
his absolute; the Mohammedan divine bows before the creative will of
Allah; and the pragmatist will swallow anything so long as it 'works.'
The mention of these vast systems and of the age-long controversies from
which they spring, warns us to concentrate. Our task is the simpler one
of the philosophy of the sciences. Now a science has already a certain
unity which is the very reason why that body of knowledge has been
instinctively recognised as forming a science. The philosophy of a
science is the endeavour to express explicitly those unifying
characteristics which pervade that complex of thoughts and make it to be
a science. The philosophy of the sciences--conceived as one subject--is
the endeavour to exhibit all sciences as one science, or--in case of
defeat--the disproof of such a possibility.
Again I will make a further simplification, and confine attention to the
natural sciences, that is, to the sciences whose subject-matter is
nature. By postulating a common subject-matter for this group of
sciences a unifying philosophy of natural science has been thereby
presupposed.
What do we mean by nature? We have to discuss the philosophy of natural
science. Natural science is the science of nature. But--What is nature?
Nature is that which we observe in perception through the senses. In
this sense-perception we are aware of something which is not thought and
which is self-contained for thought. This property of being
self-contained for thought lies at the base of natural science. It means
that nature can be thought of as a closed system whose mutual relations
do not require the expression of the fact that they are thought about.
Thus in a sense nature is independent of thought. By this statement no
metaphysical pronouncement is intended. What I mean is that we can think
about nature without thinking about thought. I shall say that then we
are thinking 'homogeneously' about nature.
Of course it is possible to think of nature in conjunction with thought
about the fact that nature is thought about. In such a case I shall say
that we are thinking 'heterogeneously' about nature. In fact during the
last few minutes we have been thinking heterogeneously about nature.
Natural science is exclusively concerned with homogeneous thoughts about
nature.
But sense-perception has in it an element which is not thought. It is a
difficult psychological question whether sense-perception involves
thought; and if it does involve thought, what is the kind of thought
which it necessarily involves. Note that it has been stated above that
sense-perception is an awareness of something which is not thought.
Namely, nature is not thought. But this is a different question, namely
that the fact of sense-perception has a factor which is not thought. I
call this factor 'sense-awareness.' Accordingly the doctrine that
natural science is exclusively concerned with homogeneous thoughts about
nature does not immediately carry with it the conclusion that natural
science is not concerned with sense-awareness.
However, I do assert this further statement; namely, that though natural
science is concerned with nature which is the terminus of
sense-perception, it is not concerned with the sense-awareness itself.
I repeat the main line of this argument, and expand it in certain
directions.
Thought about nature is different from the sense-perception of nature.
Hence the fact of sense-perception has an ingredient or factor which is
not thought. I call this ingredient sense-awareness. It is indifferent
to my argument whether sense-perception has or has not thought as
another ingredient. If sense-perception does not involve thought, then
sense-awareness and sense-perception are identical. But the something
perceived is perceived as an entity which is the terminus of the
sense-awareness, something which for thought is beyond the fact of that
sense-awareness. Also the something perceived certainly does not contain
other sense-awarenesses which are different from the sense-awareness
which is an ingredient in that perception. Accordingly nature as
disclosed in sense-perception is self-contained as against
sense-awareness, in addition to being self-contained as against thought.
I will also express this self-containedness of nature by saying that
nature is closed to mind.
This closure of nature does not carry with it any metaphysical doctrine
of the disjunction of nature and mind. It means that in sense-perception
nature is disclosed as a complex of entities whose mutual relations are
expressible in thought without reference to mind, that is, without
reference either to sense-awareness or to thought. Furthermore, I do not
wish to be understood as implying that sense-awareness and thought are
the only activities which are to be ascribed to mind. Also I am not
denying that there are relations of natural entities to mind or minds
other than being the termini of the sense-awarenesses of minds.
Accordingly I will extend the meaning of the terms 'homogeneous
thoughts' and 'heterogeneous thoughts' which have already been
introduced. We are thinking 'homogeneously' about nature when we are
thinking about it without thinking about thought or about
sense-awareness, and we are thinking 'heterogeneously' about nature when
we are thinking about it in conjunction with thinking either about
thought or about sense-awareness or about both.
I also take the homogeneity of thought about nature as excluding any
reference to moral or aesthetic values whose apprehension is vivid in
proportion to self-conscious activity. The values of nature are perhaps
the key to the metaphysical synthesis of existence. But such a synthesis
is exactly what I am not attempting. I am concerned exclusively with the
generalisations of widest scope which can be effected respecting that
which is known to us as the direct deliverance of sense-awareness.
I have said that nature is disclosed in sense-perception as a complex of
entities. It is worth considering what we mean by an entity in this
connexion. 'Entity' is simply the Latin equivalent for 'thing' unless
some arbitrary distinction is drawn between the words for technical
purposes. All thought has to be about things. We can gain some idea of
this necessity of things for thought by examination of the structure of
a proposition.
Let us suppose that a proposition is being communicated by an expositor
to a recipient. Such a proposition is composed of phrases; some of these
phrases may be demonstrative and others may be descriptive.
By a demonstrative phrase I mean a phrase which makes the recipient
aware of an entity in a way which is independent of the particular
demonstrative phrase. You will understand that I am here using
'demonstration' in the non-logical sense, namely in the sense in which a
lecturer demonstrates by the aid of a frog and a microscope the
circulation of the blood for an elementary class of medical students. I
will call such demonstration 'speculative' demonstration, remembering
Hamlet's use of the word 'speculation' when he says,
There is no speculation in those eyes.
Thus a demonstrative phrase demonstrates an entity speculatively. It may
happen that the expositor has meant some other entity--namely, the
phrase demonstrates to him an entity which is diverse from the entity
which it demonstrates to the recipient. In that case there is confusion;
for there are two diverse propositions, namely the proposition for the
expositor and the proposition for the recipient. I put this possibility
aside as irrelevant for our discussion, though in practice it may be
difficult for two persons to concur in the consideration of exactly the
same proposition, or even for one person to have determined exactly the
proposition which he is considering.
Again the demonstrative phrase may fail to demonstrate any entity. In
that case there is no proposition for the recipient. I think that we
may assume (perhaps rashly) that the expositor knows what he means.
A demonstrative phrase is a gesture. It is not itself a constituent of
the proposition, but the entity which it demonstrates is such a
constituent. You may quarrel with a demonstrative phrase as in some way
obnoxious to you; but if it demonstrates the right entity, the
proposition is unaffected though your taste may be offended. This
suggestiveness of the phraseology is part of the literary quality of the
sentence which conveys the proposition. This is because a sentence
directly conveys one proposition, while in its phraseology it suggests a
penumbra of other propositions charged with emotional value. We are now
talking of the one proposition directly conveyed in any phraseology.
This doctrine is obscured by the fact that in most cases what is in form
a mere part of the demonstrative gesture is in fact a part of the
proposition which it is desired directly to convey. In such a case we
will call the phraseology of the proposition elliptical. In ordinary
intercourse the phraseology of nearly all propositions is elliptical.
Let us take some examples. Suppose that the expositor is in London, say
in Regent's Park and in Bedford College, the great women's college which
is situated in that park. He is speaking in the college hall and he
says,
'This college building is commodious.'
The phrase 'this college building' is a demonstrative phrase. Now
suppose the recipient answers,
'This is not a college building, it is the lion-house in the Zoo.'
Then, provided that the expositor's original proposition has not been
couched in elliptical phraseology, the expositor sticks to his original
proposition when he replies,
'Anyhow, _it_ is commodious.'
Note that the recipient's answer accepts the speculative demonstration
of the phrase 'This college building.' He does not say, 'What do you
mean?' He accepts the phrase as demonstrating an entity, but declares
that same entity to be the lion-house in the Zoo. In his reply, the
expositor in his turn recognises the success of his original gesture as
a speculative demonstration, and waives the question of the suitability
of its mode of suggestiveness with an 'anyhow.' But he is now in a
position to repeat the original proposition with the aid of a
demonstrative gesture robbed of any suggestiveness, suitable or
unsuitable, by saying,
'_It_ is commodious.'
The '_it_' of this final statement presupposes that thought has seized
on the entity as a bare objective for consideration.
We confine ourselves to entities disclosed in sense-awareness. The
entity is so disclosed as a relatum in the complex which is nature. It
dawns on an observer because of its relations; but it is an objective
for thought in its own bare individuality. Thought cannot proceed
otherwise; namely, it cannot proceed without the ideal bare 'it' which
is speculatively demonstrated. This setting up of the entity as a bare
objective does not ascribe to it an existence apart from the complex in
which it has been found by sense-perception. The 'it' for thought is
essentially a relatum for sense-awareness.
The chances are that the dialogue as to the college building takes
another form. Whatever the expositor originally meant, he almost
certainly now takes his former statement as couched in elliptical
phraseology, and assumes that he was meaning,
'This is a college building and is commodious.'
Here the demonstrative phrase or the gesture, which demonstrates the
'it' which is commodious, has now been reduced to 'this'; and the
attenuated phrase, under the circumstances in which it is uttered, is
sufficient for the purpose of correct demonstration. This brings out the
point that the verbal form is never the whole phraseology of the
proposition; this phraseology also includes the general circumstances of
its production. Thus the aim of a demonstrative phrase is to exhibit a
definite 'it' as a bare objective for thought; but the _modus operandi_
of a demonstrative phrase is to produce an awareness of the entity as a
particular relatum in an auxiliary complex, chosen merely for the sake
of the speculative demonstration and irrelevant to the proposition. For
example, in the above dialogue, colleges and buildings, as related to
the 'it' speculatively demonstrated by the phrase 'this college
building,' set that 'it' in an auxiliary complex which is irrelevant to
the proposition
'It is commodious.'
Of course in language every phrase is invariably highly elliptical.
Accordingly the sentence
'This college building is commodious'
means probably
'This college building is commodious as a college building.'
But it will be found that in the above discussion we can replace
'commodious' by 'commodious as a college building' without altering our
conclusion; though we can guess that the recipient, who thought he was
in the lion-house of the Zoo, would be less likely to assent to.
'Anyhow, it is commodious as a college building.'
A more obvious instance of elliptical phraseology arises if the
expositor should address the recipient with the remark,
'That criminal is your friend.'
The recipient might answer,
'He is my friend and you are insulting.'
Here the recipient assumes that the phrase 'That criminal' is elliptical
and not merely demonstrative. In fact, pure demonstration is impossible
though it is the ideal of thought. This practical impossibility of pure
demonstration is a difficulty which arises in the communication of
thought and in the retention of thought. Namely, a proposition about a
particular factor in nature can neither be expressed to others nor
retained for repeated consideration without the aid of auxiliary
complexes which are irrelevant to it.
I now pass to descriptive phrases. The expositor says,
'A college in Regent's Park is commodious.'
The recipient knows Regent's Park well. The phrase 'A college in
Regent's Park' is descriptive for him. If its phraseology is not
elliptical, which in ordinary life it certainly will be in some way or
other, this proposition simply means,
'There is an entity which is a college building in Regent's Park
and is commodious.'
If the recipient rejoins,
'The lion-house in the Zoo is the only commodious building in
Regent's Park,'