THE NATURE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD (Timeless Wisdom Collection Book 716)

THE NATURE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD (Timeless Wisdom Collection Book 716)

V 09-2015.<br />Sir Arthur Eddington was born at Kendal in 1882. By education he is a mathematician of the highest possible distinction - he was senior wrangler of his year in 1904. By profession he is an astronomer, and thus his mature thought and research have been diverted from the realm of pure mathematics into the stream of natural science; but his mathematical equipment remains with him and has colored all his writings. Now, if he must be labelled at all, he would probably accept the name "experimental philosopher", because his present philosophical standpoint owes much to his practical work among the stars. <br /><br />It is no exaggeration to say that this book is of testamental importance in the recent emancipation of thought from the shackles of classical science. The new ideas have become so rapidly diffused that to the present generation it may seem difficult to realize the materialistic stranglehold which natural science, owing to its sensational practical successes during the nineteenth century, had gained on the throat of philosophy. Classical science was a mighty power - with its record of electrical progress (the dynamo, telephony, wireless, radio-activity), and its conquests in other fields (vitamins, artificial manures, air transport), how could it be otherwise than mighty? - and at the same time a depressing one to the spirit of man. Perhaps it led directly to the Great War and to the rigid forms of government which have succeeded the War. Just when it seemed to be all-powerful, all-pervading, Einstein and Eddington and others, by examining the function of the observer in scientific observations, exposed its limitations and solved the nightmare. This replacement of the observer, of subjectivity, into the objective world of science is the starting-point of Eddington's treatise. It is because observations are ultimately largely visual that the velocity of light plays such a significant part in this book, and it is because of the importance restored to the observer that the difficult discussion of the nature and behavior of rods (for measuring space) and clocks (for measuring time), at rest, in motion, and at a distance, occupies the opening chapters.