"The Concept of Nature." Cambridge, 1920.
Selection from contents: Nature and thought. Time. The method of extensive abstraction. s.p.a.ce and motion. Objects. The ultimate physical concepts.
"Principia Mathematica." By A. N. Whitehead and Bertrand Russell.
Cambridge, 1910-1913.
This monumental work stands alone. "As a work of constructive criticism it has never been surpa.s.sed. To every one and especially to philosophers and men of natural science, it is an amazing revelation of how the familiar terms with which they deal plunge their roots far into the darkness beneath the surface of common sense. It is a n.o.ble monument to the critical spirit of science and to the idealism of our time."
"Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking." C. J. Keyser.
(2) The physicist"s point of view:
POINCARe, HENRI.
"The Foundations of Science." The Science Press, N. Y., 1913.
Selection from contents: Science and hypothesis. Number and magnitude.
s.p.a.ce. Force. Nature. II. The value of science. The mathematical sciences.
The physical sciences. The objective value of science. III. Science and method. Science and the scientist. Mathematical reasoning. The new mechanics. Astronomic science.
(3) The human, civilizing, practical life, point of view:
KEYSER, Ca.s.sIUS J.
"Science and Religion: The Rational and the Super-rational." The Yale University Press.
"The New Infinity and the Old Theology." The Yale University Press.
"The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking." Essays and Addresses. Columbia University Press, 1916.
Selection from contents: The human worth of rigorous thinking. The human significance of mathematics. The walls of the world; or concerning the figure and the dimensions of the Universe of s.p.a.ce. The universe and beyond. The existence of the hypercosmic. The axiom of infinity: A new presupposition of thought. Research in American Universities. Mathematical productivity in the United States.
"Mathematical Philosophy, the Study of Fate and Freedom. Lectures for Educated Laymen." Forthcoming Book.
Selection from contents of general interest: The mathematical obligations of philosophy. Humanistic and industrial education. Logic the muse of thought. Radiant aspects of an over-world.-Verifiers and falsifiers.
Significance and nonsense.-Distinction of logical and psychological. A diamond test of harmony.-Distinction of doctrine and method.-Theoretical and practical doubt.-Mathematical philosophy in the role of critic. A world uncriticised-the garden of the devil. "Supersimian" Wisdom.
Autonomous truth and autonomous falsehood. Other Varieties of truth and untruth. Mathematics as the study of fate and freedom. The prototype of reasoned discourse often disguised as in the Declaration of Independence, the Const.i.tution of the United States, the Origin of Species, the Sermon on the Mount.-Nature of mathematical transformation. No transformation, no thinking. Transformation law essentially psychological, Relation function and transformation as three aspects of one thing. Its study, the common enterprise of science. The static and the dynamic worlds. The problem of time and kindred problems. Importation of time and suppression of time as the cla.s.sic devices of sciences.-The nature of invariance. The ages-old problem of permanence and change. The quest of what abides in a fluctuant world as the binding thread of human history. The tie of comradeship among the enterprises of human spirit.-The concept of a group. The notion simply exemplified in many fields, is "Mind" a group. The philosophy of the cosmic year.-Limits and limit processes omnipresent as ideals and idealization, in all thought and human aspiration. Ideals the flint of reality.-Mathematical infinity, its dynamic and static aspects. Need of history of the Imperious concept. The role of infinity in a mighty poem.-Meaning of dimensionality. Distinction of imagination and conception. Logical existence and sensuous existence. Open avenues to unimaginable worlds.-The theory of logical types. A supreme application of it to definition of man, and the science of human welfare.-The psychology of mathematics and the mathematics of psychology. Both of them in their infancy. Consequent r.e.t.a.r.dation of science. The symmetry of thought. The asymmetry of imagination.-Science and engineering. Science as engineering in preparation. Engineering as science in action. Mathematics the guide of the engineer. Engineering the guide of humanity. Humanity the civilizing or Time-Binding cla.s.s of life. Qualities essential to engineering leadership. The ethics of the art. The engineer as educator, as scientist, as philosopher, as psychologist, as economist, as statesman, as mathematical thinker-as a Man.
Appendix II. Biology And Time-Binding
The life of one man is short, and to very few is it given to achieve much in their lifetime. Extensive achievements are made almost entirely by many men taking up the work done by a discoverer. In such a case, we arrive at a _complete_ "truth," not by the production of one man but by a chain of men, but the initial discovery not only has to be produced but correctly defined before it can be used and that is the important point to be made.
What we do not realize is the tremendous amount of mental work that is lost by an incorrect use of words.
Human thought-that unique, subtle and yet most energetic phenomenon of nature-is in the main wantonly wasted, because we do not use, or take pains to use, suitable language; at the same time, false definitions lead to consequences not merely wasteful but positively harmful. When ideas and facts are falsely defined, they tend to bring us to false conclusions, and false conclusions lead us in wrong directions, and life and knowledge greatly suffer in consequence. Our progress is not a well ordered pursuit after truth, as pure chance plays too large a part in it.
Until lately, logic was supposed to be the science of correct thinking, but modern thought has progressed so far that the old logic is not able to handle the great acc.u.mulated volume-the great complicated ma.s.s of existing ideas and facts-and so we are forced to look for another instrument much more expedient and powerful. There is no need to establish a new science to replace logic; we simply have to look closer into the sciences at hand and realize the fact, which was with us all the time, namely, that mathematics and mathematical reasoning is nothing else than the true logic of nature-nature"s universal tongue-the one means of expression that is the same for all peoples. This is not a play on words, it is a fact which, after investigation, everybody must admit. Everybody who wants to think logically must think mathematically or give up any pretense of correct thinking-there is no escape and all who refuse to investigate the justice of this statement put themselves outside the pale of logically thinking people. The application of rigorous thinking to life will even revolutionize scientific methods by the introduction of right definitions, correct cla.s.sifications, just language, and so will lead to trustworthy results. Very probably all our doctrines and creeds will have to be revised; some rejected, some rectified, some broadened; bringing about unanimity of all sciences and thus greatly increasing their effectiveness in the pursuit of truth. This application of mathematics to life will even revolutionize mathematics itself. In App. I it is suggested tentatively how this may be accomplished.
As the seemingly ultimate and highest experimentally known energy is the human time-binding energy, this new concept may lead to a change in our present concepts of matter, s.p.a.ce and time, in much the same way as the discovery of radium has affected them. This problem can be solved only by _scientific_ experiments with the _time_-binding energy.
In many, even in most, of the cases, the a.n.a.lysis of these phenomena presents great technical difficulty, but why confuse our minds by being afraid of, or being a slave of words? If instead of calling wine _wine_, we called it by its chemical formula, would this, in any way, change the quality of wine? Of course not. All the "qualities" will remain because they are facts, and cannot be altered by words.
A most pathetic picture of the havoc and chaos which wrong use of words brings into life and science is exhibited in all fields of thought by the endless and bitter fighting over words not well defined. Mathematics has been able to make its most stupendous achievements because of its method of exact a.n.a.lysis of the continuum, dimensions, cla.s.ses, relations, functions, transfinite numbers, etc., and also of s.p.a.ce and time.
Hitherto, not all of these conceptions in their sharply defined form have had direct application to our daily life or to our world conception. The thoughts expressed in App. I may suggest this "missing link"-connecting mathematics more intimately with life.
Modern science knows that all energies can be somehow transformed from one kind to another and that all of them represent one type of energetic phenomena, no matter what is the origin of each. For example, a galvanic or chemical battery produces the same kind of electricity as the mechanical process of friction or the interaction of cosmic laws as in the dynamo. In some instances, when our systems are suitably adjusted, the transformations are reversible, that is, the energy results in a chemical process-an acc.u.mulator; the chemical process results in electricity-the galvanic battery; motion results in electricity-the dynamo; electricity results in motion-the electric motor; etc. We know all energies are somehow related to each other, in that their transformation is possible.
The effects produced by the same type of energy are absolutely the same-no matter what its origin. The marvel of an electric lamp is the same marvel, whether the origin of the electricity be chemical, mechanical or cosmic as in the dynamo. The experiments in scientific biology have proved this to be true in living organisms and just this is the tremendous importance of the discoveries in scientific biology. Light and other energies react on organisms in the same way as the chemical reactions and these phenomena are reversible. More than that, living complex organisms have been produced which grew to maturity through a chemical or mechanical treatment of the egg, and this has been accomplished in the infancy of scientific biology! (See _The Organisms as a Whole_, by Jacques Loeb.)
All phenomena _in nature_ are _natural_ and should be approached as _such_. The human mind is at least an energy which can direct other energies; it is incorrect and misleading to call it _super_natural. It is of course true that we do not fully understand the nature of the human mind and we shall learn to understand it when and only when we acquire sense enough to recognize it as _natural_. If we persist in saying and believing that the "spiritual evidences cannot be explained on a material base," this statement should be equally applicable to electricity or radium. If this statement is false for these phenomena, it is equally false for the mind or the so-called spiritual and will powers. The scientific understanding of these phenomena will not "degrade" these phenomena, _because that cannot be done. Facts remain facts and no scientific explanation of a phenomenon can lower or degrade that which is a fact._ Electricity is electricity and nothing else, no matter what its origin; human time-binding energies (embracing all faculties) are the highest of the known energies-equally magnificent and astonishing-no matter what the base; and the scientific understanding of them will only _add_ to our respect for them and for ourselves; it will unmistakably help us to develop them indefinitely by mathematical a.n.a.lysis. The _base_ is not the phenomenon-sulphuric acid and zinc _are not_ electricity; time-binding energies _are not_ a pound of beefsteak, although a pound of beefsteak may help to save life and be therefore _instrumental_ in the production of a poem or of a sonata; but by no means can a beefsteak be taken for either of them.
I have attempted, with some measure of success I trust, to solve these problems in science and life; the results are astonishing, as they lead us to a much higher and more embracing ethics than society has ever had. By this a.n.a.lysis I prove that the understanding of this most stupendous but NATURAL phenomenon of human life brings us to the scientifical source of ethics and I prove that the so-called "highest ideals of humanity" have nothing of "sentimentalism" or of the "_super_natural" in them, but are exclusively the _fulfilment_ of the _natural laws_ for the _human cla.s.s of life_. The recognition of the fact that the phenomena of the human mind are natural and as such conform to natural law has the further advantage over the "supernatural" att.i.tude in that we can no more evade a law of human nature than the law of gravity; in other words, human ethics will have the validity of natural law. With the supernatural att.i.tude, it was simple enough to avoid the issues of life, by a simple statement-"I do not believe"-and that was enough to break all bonds and be free from the "supernatural morale"-but to get away from the "natural morale" and _remain_ HUMAN is IMPOSSIBLE. Whereas, with an artificially formulated morale it was easy enough to break away by a simple mental speculation, and feel perfectly satisfied as long as one escaped the jail; with a morale made clear that it is a NATURAL LAW for the human cla.s.s of life, the curtain of sophistry and speculation is removed and everyone who breaks away from the NATURAL LAWS FOR HUMANS, WILL KNOW BY HIMSELF, THAT HE IS OUTSIDE THE LAW-FOR HUMANS.
Engineers are not metaphysicians, their field is not one of clever argument but one of proved facts; their work is not to befog the air with cloudy expressions or sophistry, but to create; their method is scientific and their tool is mathematics. It is known that in remote antiquity, in some temples electrical phenomena were known and were used to keep the ignorant ma.s.ses in awe and obedience. Shall we follow the methods used by those magicians or shall we squarely face facts? Shall we look upon life, and the usually so-called mental, spiritual phenomena, etc., as _super_natural, simply because we do not understand them? It seems evident that everything which _exists in nature, is natural_, no matter how simple or complicated a phenomenon it is; and on no occasion can the so-called "_super_natural" be anything else than a completely natural law, though it may, at the moment, be above or beyond our present understanding. The att.i.tude of mind which admits the _super_natural blinds and frustrates any a.n.a.lysis or any attempt at a.n.a.lysis. The unprejudiced a.n.a.lysis of the so-called "supernatural" does not _alter_ any part of the strange and high functions of it. The phenomena of the human time-binding energy are and will remain the most precious, subtle and highest of known functions, no matter what the origin. _Facts_ may not be _denied_ or _falsified_ if a.n.a.lysis is to arrive at correct conclusions. The high dimensionality of the human mind, the so-called spiritual and will powers, _are facts_ and must be _accepted_ as such. It is about time to establish an exact science to deal with them. The problems of animal life were approached without prejudice, no supernatural "spark" was bothering us in our a.n.a.lysis-an animal was an animal and nothing else-we did not intermix dimensions, therefore we see that the "social structure" of the animals on a farm never breaks down as they are managed on a scientific base with an understanding of _their_ proper standards. Animals to-day live more happily than man. We don"t allow animals to practice the "survival of the fittest," or "compet.i.tion," which is far too destructive. Our present social system imposes these disastrous methods upon man alone, and the result is that the hideous proverb "h.o.m.o homini lupus" has become true.
In modern science facts are not wanting, we have first but to know them.
If we take, for example, sulphuric acid and zinc and make what we call a galvanic battery, we see that from two chemical substances a third-a salt-is made in addition to which we have a peculiar energy produced called electricity. Who does not know the marvelous properties of this phenomenon?
Scientific biology has made tremendous progress lately; engineers cannot afford to ignore the facts established in laboratory researches. The problem of "life" and of other energies, hitherto considered "_super_natural," is well in hand, and proves to be none the less astonishing though entirely natural. A number of scientists all over the world are working at this problem and the scientific facts which they have established, and which cannot now be denied, belong to-day to the realm of practical life. Engineers, of course, have to know these facts; mathematicians have to establish correct dimensions in the study of all the sciences and people will have to study mathematical philosophy; only then can the process of integration in any phase of thought be made without mistakes. There is no escape from that, if _truth_ is what we really want. But here one objection may be raised, an objection which for some is a serious one indeed; namely, what will take the place of the old philosophy, law and ethics, if human life is nothing else than a physico-chemical process? To quote Doctor Jacques Loeb from his _Mechanistic Conception of Life_: "If on the basis of a serious survey, this question (_that all life phenomena can be unequivocally explained in physico-chemical terms_-Author) can be answered in the affirmative, our social and ethical life will have to be put on a scientific basis and our rules of conduct must be brought into harmony with the results of scientific biology. Not only is the mechanistic conception of life compatible with ethics, it seems the only conception of life which can lead to an understanding of the source of ethics."
I hope to have proved in this book that _scientific_ ethics is based on natural laws for the human cla.s.s of life; that it is based on the experimentally proved fact that Man is a Time-binder, naturally active as such in time; and that this concept or definition of Man is rigorously scientific and accounts for the highest functions of man-the highest of the mental and spiritual perfections-without the need of any "_super_natural" hypothesis.
Scientific biology proves the fact that life and all of its phenomena are the results of some special physico-chemical processes, which manifest themselves in some peculiar energies, of which the human mind is the highest known form. These processes are known to be reversible, in that some of these peculiar energies cause physico-chemical changes in their own base; the process involved I propose to call biolysis, as I propose to call biolyte the substances produced. These phenomena have a parallel a.n.a.logy in inorganic chemistry-in electricity-the difference being only in the scale or dimension. When an electric current is pa.s.sed through a special battery called an acc.u.mulator or reversible battery, chemical changes occur, in that new compounds are formed which possess a reversible capacity; namely, in reproducing the former materials-that is, electricity is generated. This process of forming chemical substances by the pa.s.sing of an electrical current is called electrolysis and the product so produced is called electrolyte. At the same time it is a known fact that organic chemistry is infinitely more complicated and variable than inorganic chemistry. The energy produced by the reactions of some organic chemical groups are, therefore, of a more complicated character and of another dimension. One of these energies of organic chemistry which lately has come into the scope of scientific a.n.a.lysis is called life-its physico-chemical base is the protoplasm, which _result_ I call the "time-linking" capacity or energy. This name is important for the consequences it will bring about later on. The time-binding capacity or energy of man (no matter what time is-if it is), which is unique to man, is a most subtle complex; it is the highest known energy and probably has many subdivisions. Ears are sensitive to the vibration of the air. Eyes are sensitive to the more subtle vibrations of light; in a similar way, the time-binding apparatus is sensitive to the most subtle energies; besides which it has the capacity to register not only all of our sensations but also the time-binding energies of other people; and it apparently has the capacity to register the energies of the universe.
Here again we see the same continuity of phenomena; the protoplasm as a complex organic physico-chemical unit which has the peculiarity to "live,"
to grow and multiply "autonomously" and this same autonomous peculiarity _applies_ to the _time-binding energy_; it grows and multiplies "autonomously" in its own dimension. The time-binding energy is a complex radiating energy somewhat like the emanations of radium and it probably also has many different subdivisions. _Note that the transformation of the atom_ or the transformation of _radio-active substances after pa.s.sing different stages, is not complete but probably ends in lead, whereas the transformation which occurs in the production of the time-binding energy probably is complete or nearly complete and is that which I call the time-binding energy. (See _App. I_.)_ All the higher characteristics of man which it is customary to call the "mental, spiritual and will powers,"
etc., are embraced in this exact definition of energy-in the capacity of time-binding. A diagram will better explain the continuity, evolution and mechanism of this time-binding energy.
[ A series of circles, connected by lines, the leftmost circle being C1, then next C2, and so on to C7. The first is connected to the second by line T1, the second to the third by T2, etc. Each circle after the first has within it an energy indication, E1, E2, etc. ]
Biology and Time-Binding.
_C__1_ is the physico-chemical base (for simplicity I represent the whole complex as one base) of the human time-binding energy. _T__1_ is the thought produced by a physico-chemical process (corresponding, for ill.u.s.tration"s sake only, to electricity produced by a galvanic battery).
The thought _T__1_ in turn produces a physico-chemical effect _E__1_ on the base _C__1_ (corresponding for the same reason to electrolysis and electrolyte in electricity). _C__1_ and _E__1_ combined, or _C__2_ produces _T__2_ which again in turn affects the base and produces a physico-chemical effect _E__2_, this new combination produces the energy _T__3_, and so on ... theoretically without limits, as long as there is _any source_ of energy upon which this special energy can draw. This theory which I call the "spiral theory" represents a suggestive working mechanism of the time-binding energy and is in accord with the latest scientific discoveries. It explains the processes of all the mental and so-called spiritual energies which have been such a puzzle to humanity, and it also explains other phenomena which, until now, have had no scientific explanation whatever.
The animals are _not_ time-binding, they have _not_ the capacity of the "spiral"; therefore, they have not autonomous progress. At the same time, it will be obvious that if we teach humans false ideas, we affect their time-binding capacities and energies very seriously, by affecting in a wrong way the physico-chemical base. This energy is so peculiar that it embraces, if I may use the old expression, the highest ideals (when the time-binding energy is un.o.bstructed and is allowed to work normally), and also the most criminal ideas (when the time-binding energy is obstructed by false teachings and in consequence works abnormally). We cannot make animals moral or immoral because they have not this time-binding capacity.
Whereas human progress can be very seriously affected by false ideas; in other words, the biolyte of false teachings in the animal dimension must be very different from the biolyte of true ideas in the human dimension.
Nature or nature"s laws happily cannot be completely deviated from or violated-the time-binding energy cannot be completely suppressed in the time-binding cla.s.s of life. The false teachings that we are animals and essentially brutal and selfish can, of course, degrade human nature not only down to the animal level but lower still. Happily now science can explain and prove how fundamentally fiendish in effect are these teachings in the life and progress of human beings. It will be a shock to those who teach, preach and practice animal standards and in the same breath contradict themselves in any talking about "immortality" and "salvation"; a little thought makes it perfectly clear that "animal standards" and "salvation" or "immortality" simply exclude each other. With the natural law of time-binding realized, the way is open to entering scientifically upon the problem of immortality. The time-binding energies as well as "life" follow the same type of exponential function. "The constant synthesis then of specific material from simple compounds of a non-specific character is the chief feature by which living matter differs from non-living matter.... This problem of synthesis leads to the a.s.sumption of immortality of the living cell, since there is no _a priori_ reason why this synthesis should ever come to a standstill of its own accord as long as enough food is available and the proper outside physical conditions are guaranteed.... The idea that the body cells are naturally immortal and die only if exposed to extreme injuries such as prolonged lack of oxygen or too high a temperature helps to make one problem more intelligible. The medical student, who for the first time realizes that life depends upon that one organ, the heart, doing its duty incessantly for the seventy years or so allotted to man, is amazed at the precariousness of our existence. It seems indeed uncanny that so delicate a mechanism should function so regularly for so many years. The mysticism connected with this and other phenomena of adaptation would disappear if we would be certain that all cells are really immortal and that the fact which demands an explanation is not the continued activity but the cessation of activity in death. Thus we see that the idea of the immortality of the body cell if it can be generalized may be destined to become one of the main supports for a complete physico-chemical a.n.a.lysis of life phenomena since it makes the durability of organisms intelligible...." (_The Organism as a Whole_, by Jacques Loeb.)