344 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



and from empirical force to mass. These routes have already 

 been examined. They involve the attempt to replace the 

 crude and complex qualities of empirical data by the more re- 

 fined and simpler quantities of science. The result is the defini- 

 tion of " particle" which was given in the preceding section. 



But it should be noted that there is an alternative defini- 

 tion of the concept of particle which claims to be more 

 empirical. Instead of defining it as that which possesses these 

 measured values, one may define it merely as the complex of 

 these measured values, together with the functional relations 

 connecting them. If empirical matter is to be defined in 

 terms of the totality of its qualitative manifestations, 

 scientific matter should be defined in terms of the totality 

 of its quantitative manifestations. Now the difficulty with 

 the former conception of particle is that it retains the un- 

 justifiable empirical notion of a substratum as that in which 

 the qualities inhere; a particle is defined as that which pos- 

 sesses the measured values rather than as the mere collection 

 6f the measured values. But if there is no evidence at the 

 empirical level for this underlying substance, there can be 

 no evidence at the scientific level. Hence the alternative defi- 

 nition claims to be more empirical. Matter should be defined 

 merely as it can be made known to the scientist, viz., as a 

 cluster of measured values having a certain constancy as a 

 group and having a certain functional interdependence 

 among themselves. Scientific matter, as empirical matter, 

 is the class of its manifestations; but for science these 

 manifestations occur in the form of numbers on recording 

 devices, not in the form of qualitative data. Hence a particle 

 should be defined not as something which possesses certain 

 measurable properties but as the complex of laws stating the 

 interrelations of certain measured values. 



An examination of actual scientific treatises, however, 

 reveals the fact that the more empirical definition of sci- 

 entific matter has not been achieved in fact. It is clear that 

 the closer empirical reference is retained only at a great 

 cost to simplicity. The scientist finds it much more con- 



