Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge

Greek words that may not display correctly in all browsers are transliterated in the text using popups like this: βιβλος . Position your mouse over the line to see the transliteration. Click on the page number to see an image of the page. ESSAYS TOWARDS A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE Rosalind: I pray you, what is't o'clock? Orlando: You should ask me, what time o' day; there's no clock in the forest. As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 2. ESSAYS TOWARDS A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE BY ALEXANDER PHILIP F.R.S.E LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED New York : E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1915 ἡ γὰρ ἀχρώματός τε καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος καὶ ἀναφὴς οὐσία ὄντως οὖσα ψυχῆς κυβερνήτη μονῳ θεατῂ νῶ, ρεπὶ ἧν τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπιστήμης γένος, τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τόπον .— Phædrus. PREFACE Two years ago, in the preface to another essay, the present writer ventured to affirm that "Civilisation moves rather towards a chaos than towards a cosmos." But he could not foretell that the descensus Averni would be so alarmingly rapid. When we find Science, which has done so much and promised so much for the happiness of mankind, devoting so large a proportion of its resources to the destruction of human life, we are prone to ask despairingly—Is this the end? If not; how are we to discover and assure for stricken Humanity the vision and the possession of a Better Land? Not certainly by the ostentatious building of peace-palaces nor even by the actual accomplishment of successful war. Only by the discovery of true first principles of Thought and Action can Humanity be redeemed. Undeterred by the confused tumult of to-day we must still seek a true understanding of what knowledge is—what are its powers and what also are its limitations. Nor may we forget that other principle of life—with which it is so quaintly contrasted in Lord Bacon's translation of the Pauline aphorism— Knowledge bloweth up, Charity buildeth up. January 1915. CONTENTS PAGE I Time and Periodicity 11 II The Origin of Physical Concepts 17 III The Two Typical Theories of Knowledge 36 IV The Doctrine of Energy 81 ESSAYS TOWARDS A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE I TIME AND PERIODICITY We can measure Time in one way only—by counting repeated motions. Apart from the operation of the physical Law of Periodicity we should have no natural measures of Time. If that statement be true it…