234 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



every phenomenon in this field as the other "universal concepts. This 

 is so because a certain magnitude, known to us immediately as me- 

 chanical work, may be proved to be a constituent of every physical 

 phenomenon, i. e., of mechanics, physics and chemistry, by virtue of its 

 qualitative transformability, and its quantitative immutability. In 

 other words, it is possible to characterize every physical phenomenon 

 completely by stating what quantities and kinds of energy are present 

 and into what kinds of energy they are transformed. It is, therefore, 

 more rational to term the so-called physical phenomena, energetic. 



That such a conception is possible is now generally acknowledged, 

 but its utility is usually doubted. These doubts are at present justified, 

 inasmuch as a complete exposition of the physical sciences from the 

 point of view of energetics has not been thoroughly carried out. If 

 the above-mentioned criterion of a scientific system, viz., the con- 

 formity of the representing manifoldness to the one depicted, be ap- 

 plied to this question, we shall find unmistakably that all previous sys- 

 tematizations, which in the form of hypotheses have been attempted in 

 these sciences, are faulty in this respect. Hitherto manifoldnesses 

 have been used for the purpose of ' depicting ' experiences the char- 

 acter of which corresponded to the depicted object only in a few main 

 points. No attention was paid to the necessity of exact correspond- 

 ence. There was no concise formulation or investigation of this side 

 of the problem. 



Now the energetic point of view permits as great a certainty in 

 the method of depiction or expression as is necessary or possible for the 

 state of the science at the time. For the manifoldness-character of each 

 department there is a special form of energy. Thus science has long 

 since distinguished between mechanical, electrical, thermal, chemical 

 and other forms of energy. All these different varieties are related 

 through the law of transformation with the conservation of energy. 

 They are therefore organically connected. On the other hand, it has 

 been possible to find the energetic expression for every manifoldness as 

 yet discovered empirically. The future system of energetics in its en- 

 tirety will therefore be a table of all the possible manifoldnesses of 

 which energy is capable. It must be noted, however, that as a conse- 

 quence of the law of the conservation of energy, energy is of necessity 

 a positive magnitude which furthermore is without limit additive. 

 Each special kind of energy must therefore also have this character. 



The very slight degree of manifoldness which these conditions seem 

 to leave us is increased very much by the fact that every form of 

 energy may be resolved into two factors. The latter are subject to 

 but a single limitation, viz., that their product, energy, fulfils the above 

 conditions, while they themselves are far more free. Thus, one of the 

 factors of a form of energy may become negative instead of positive, 

 if the other factor also becomes negative. 



