RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 



PHILOSOPHY. By Hugh Elliot. 



We have on various occasions pointed out that Philosophy is 

 a general name covering a great variety of subjects, concerning 

 which our knowledge is in a very primitive condition. As 

 soon as we begin to acquire a certain amount of definite know- 

 ledge about any of these subjects, it usually ceases to be called 

 Philosophy, and is incorporated into one of the special sciences, 

 or may itself become the subject of a new special science. 

 During the last few months, a striking illustration of this 

 transition has been furnished by the Principle of Relativity. 

 Theories of space and time have always been regarded as 

 favourite subjects of controversy among metaphysicians. By 

 Science, on the other hand, space and time have been accepted 

 as postulates, and the question of their absolute validity roused 

 little interest, so long as they afforded a framework sufficiently 

 solid to support the edifice of scientific hypotheses. But as 

 that edifice continued to grow, it became here and there too 

 large for its old framework. Adjustments had to be made ; 

 and it has been found very much simpler to modify the frame- 

 work than to modify the building itself. And hence for the 

 first time the attention of men of science has been directed 

 towards scrutinising those fundamental postulates, which had 

 previously been accepted just because they were found to 

 work. But when they were no longer found to work, they had 

 to be altered ; and the character of the alteration to be made 

 was determined by the usual scientific methods of observation 

 and experiment — by predictions which would either verify or 

 falsify the new hypothesis. And thus at length, space and 

 time have been incorporated into the science of Physics, and 

 removed from the quagmire of philosophy, where they had 

 been left behind when Physics itself was emancipated by 

 Newton more than two hundred years ago. Such titles as 

 Natural Philosophy," The Philosophical Transactions, still 

 indicate the parentage of the science of Physics. The emanci- 

 pation, however, was not complete ; Newton still left some 

 work for Einstein to perform. 



It is true that certain parts of the doctrine of Relativity 

 had been anticipated in the discussions of philosophers. It 



35 533 



