The Domain of Physical Science 2 1 1 



purpose, because if actuality is added at any point it runs through- 

 out the whole cycle. If our potentials are actual, then our matter, 

 clocks, scales, intervals, etc., will all become actual. 



Theoretical physics leaves room for actuality to be added, but 

 it cannot itself tackle the question. It makes no attempt to define 

 actuality. The experimental physicist, for whom actuality is 

 vitally important, has to turn elsewhere, and he turns to conscious- 

 ness. He simply accepts as actual that which the mind recognises 

 as actual. He is alert for criticism of the reliability of his scales 

 and clocks, but he has no misgivings as to their actuality. It is, 

 of course, not necessary to appeal to the mind in each particular 

 instance ; when once actuality has been introduced at any point 

 of the cycle it runs through the whole cycle. But to obtain a start 

 we must be given something certified as actual by the mind. 



If then we consider a world entirely devoid of consciousness 

 (as we not infrequently try to do), there is, so far as we know, no 

 meaning whatever in discriminating between the worlds A and B. 

 The mind is the referee who decides in favour of A against B. 

 We cannot describe the difference without referring to a mind. 

 The actuality of the world is a spiritual value. The physical 

 world at some point (or indeed throughout) impinges on the 

 spiritual world and derives its actuality solely from this contact. 



I think that there is another undoubted fact of experience 

 which is left out in the scheme of theoretical physics ; but in this 

 case I cannot be so sure that the omission is irremediable. In the 

 so-called " four-dimensional " world of the relativity theory the 

 past and future lie, as it were, mapped out along with the near and 

 distant. Each event is there in its proper relation to surrounding 

 events ; but events never seem to undergo what has been described 

 as " the formality of taking place." Here is what Professor Weyl 

 says about it : " It is a four-dimensional continuum which is 

 neither time nor space. Only the consciousness that passes on in 

 one portion of this world experiences the detached piece which 

 comes to meet it and passes behind it as history, that is as a process 

 that goes forward in time and takes place in space." Here you 

 see again the absolute necessity for a reference to consciousness. In 

 a world without consciousness there is no meaning in this flux ; the 

 world is simply spread passively in its four dimensions with the events 

 connected by relations to which we can give numerical measure, 

 but it is by their values for consciousness that we differentiate 



