An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural KnowledgeConsidered the "high water mark of his philosophical achievement," Whitehead's book is a rigorous inquiry into the data of science and will be enjoyed by students of philosophy and physics alike. English mathematician and philosopher ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD (1861-1947) contributed significantly to 20th-century logic and metaphysics. With Bertrand Russell he cowrote the landmark Principia Mathematica, and also authored The Concept of Nature, The Function of Reason, and Process and Reality. |
Contents
| 2 | |
| 13 | |
| 16 | |
MAXWELLS EQUATIONS 2326 | 23 |
CLERK MAXWELLS EQUATIONS OF | 29 |
MOTION THROUGH THE ETHER 3741 | 37 |
that extension namely extension in time or extension | 45 |
MATHEMATICAL FORMULAE 4750 | 47 |
ARTS | 110 |
36 | 118 |
39 | 126 |
44 | 133 |
NORMALITY AND CONGRUENCE | 139 |
CONGRUENCE | 145 |
50 | 151 |
52 | 157 |
CONGRUENCE AND RECOGNITION 5457 | 54 |
OBJECTS | 66 |
18 | 74 |
OBJECTS | 82 |
PERCEPTUAL OBJECTS | 88 |
DUALITY of NATURE | 98 |
ABSTRACTIVE CLASSES | 104 |
THE THEORY OF OBJECTS | 165 |
MATERIAL OBJECTS | 171 |
EXTENSIVE MAGNITUDE 177181 | 177 |
TRANSITION FROM APPEARANCE TO CAUSE 184189 | 184 |
FIGURES | 190 |
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An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge Alfred North Whitehead No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
a-point a-space absolute antiprime abstractive element active conditioning apparent characters associated B-space called causal characters characters of events co-momental cogredience common complete complete intersection concept conditioning events congruence consentient set covered defined definite duration electromagnetic electron entities essential ether event-particles existence expressed extensive component extensive quantity external fact family of parallel formative condition fundamental instant instantaneous space intersect kinematic knowledge laws M₁ material object matrix Maxwell's equations molecules moments motion mutually normal namely nature Newton's Newtonian group null-tracks o-primes occupied P₁ P₂ pair particles perceived perception perceptual object percipient event physical object point-tracks prime properties punct quantity recognition rect relation of extension relativity route scientific objects sense sense-objects simple abstractive class simultaneity situation spatial specious present station stationary event straight lines temporal theory theory of relativity time-less space time-order time-system tion ultimate velocity volume Xapp αβ βα Ωαβ
Popular passages
Page 3 - The ultimate fact embracing all nature is (in this traditional point of view) a distribution of material throughout all space at a durationless instant of time, and another such ultimate fact will be another distribution of the same material throughout the same space at another durationless instant of time.
Page 6 - P", etc., and that the abstract possibility of this group of relations is what is meant by the point Q. The extremely valuable work on the foundations of geometry produced during the nineteenth century has proceeded from the assumption of points as ultimate given entities. This assumption, for the logical purpose of mathematicians, is entirely justified. Namely the mathematicians ask, What is the logical description of relations between points from which all geometrical theorems respecting such relations...
Page 4 - In biology the concept of an organism cannot be expressed in terms of a material distribution at an instant. The essence of an organism is that it is one thing which functions and is spread through space. Now functioning takes time. Thus a biological organism is a unity with a spatio-temporal extension which is of the essence of its being. This biological conception is obviously incompatible with the traditional ideas. This argument does not in any way depend on the assumption that biological phenomena...
Page 15 - The conception of knowledge as passive contemplation is too inadequate to meet the facts. Nature is ever originating its own development, and the sense of action is the direct knowledge of the percipient event as having its very being in the formation of its natural relations. Knowledge issues from this reciprocal insistence between this event and the rest of nature, namely relations are perceived in the making and because of the making.