The Principle of Relativity with Applications to Physical Science |
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The Principle of Relativity: With Applications to Physical Science A. N. Whitehead Limited preview - 2011 |
The Principle of Relativity with Applications to Physical Science Alfred North Whitehead Limited preview - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
2nd order Accordingly adjectival particle analogous apparent world array awareness B₁ Cartesian Cartesian tensor causal future Chapter cogitation cognisance by adjective cognisance by relatedness components congruence consciousness consider contravariant tensor coordinate-system coordinates covariant and contravariant covariant tensor derivative tensors differential form Einstein's electromagnetic entity equality equations event-particles expressed factor formula Galilean derivative Galilean group Galilean invariant Galilean tensor gravitational field Hence historical route instantaneous invariant kinematic element mass-particle mean mixed tensor molecule motion nature objects observed P₁ permanent space pervasive adjective physical character physical field plane qualifying class r₁ region relations second order space-time spatial route spatio-temporal spectral lines stretches symmetric system x tensor property theory time-system u₁ velocity vibration x-space x₁ Y₁ αβ βγ με μν ρσ ΣΣ ΣΣΣ ΣΤ ди диа див дих дим дх дха ут მა მამა
Popular passages
Page 35 - Things which are equal to the same thing are also equal to one another. 2. If equals be added to equals, the wholes are equal. 3. If equals be subtracted from equals, the remainders are equal. 4. Things which coincide with one another are equal to one another.
Page 46 - ... might also be a welltrained accurate observer. But in his measurement the distance from York to Edinburgh might come out at exactly one yard. But no one, who is not otherwise known to be a lunatic, is apt to make such a foolish mistake. The conclusion is that when we cease to think of mere abstract mathematics and proceed to measure in the realm of nature, we choose our qualifying class y for some reason in addition to the mere fact that the various characters included in y are sorted among stretches...
Page 61 - Also 1 need not recall to your minds the reasons, based upon refined observations, for assuming the existence in nature of alternative time-systems entailing alternative systems of stratification. I think that no one can study the evidence in its detail without becoming convinced that we are in the presence of one of the most profound reorganisations of scientific and philosophic thought.
Page xi - The philosophy of science is the endeavour to formulate the most general characters of things observed. These sought-for characters are to be no fancy characters of a fairy tale enacted behind the scenes. They must be observed characters of things observed.
Page 52 - I cannot understand what meaning can be assigned to the distance of the sun from Sirius if the very nature of space depends upon casual intervening objects which we know nothing about. Unless we start with some knowledge of a systematically related structure of space-time we are dependent upon the contingent relations of bodies which we have not examined and cannot prejudge.
Page 15 - event' to a spatio-temporal happening. An event does not in any way imply rapid change; the endurance of a block of marble is an event. Nature presents itself to us as essentially a becoming, and any limited portion of nature which preserves most completely such concreteness as attaches to nature itself is also a becoming and is what I call an event.
Page 56 - less than." Whitehead has pointed out that "we must entirely separate psychological time, space, external perception, and bodily feeling from the scientific world of molecular interaction. This strange world of science dwells apart like the gods of Epicurus, except that it has the peculiar property of inducing our minds to play upon us the familiar antics of the senses
Page xii - ... chance philosophy,' as AN Whitehead puts it. This great contemporary metaphysician with a solid scientific background assures us that for a scientist deliberately to neglect philosophy 'is to assume the correctness of the chance philosophic prejudices imbibed from a nurse or a schoolmaster or current modes of expression.
Page 82 - XX' and PP' of the tracks of M and m respectively. The inertial physical field modifies this abstract measure of process into the more concrete potential impetus VdJ2, and full concreteness, so far as it is ascribable to nature, is obtained in the realised impetus M\/dJ2. Rotation. In conclusion I will for one moment draw your attention to rotation. The effects of rotation are among the most widespread phenomena of the apparent world, exemplified in the most gigantic nebulae and in the minutest molecules....
Page 9 - ... particular, upon the Relatedness of Nature. I feel some natural diffidence in speaking upon this theme in the capital of British metaphysics, haunted by the shade of Hume. This great thinker made short work of the theory of the relatedness of nature as it existed in the current philosophy of his time. It is hardly too much to say that the course of subsequent philosophy, including even Hume's own later writings and the British Empirical School, but still more in the stream which descends through...