Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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The Surface One Degree In Every Forty Yards, There Were Data For
Inferring The Past Condition Of Our Globe; The Vast Period It Has Taken
To Cool Down To Its Present State; And The Immense Age Of The Solar
System--A Purely Astronomical Consideration.
Chemistry Having Advanced Sufficiently To Supply The Needful Materials,
And A Physiological Experiment Having Furnished The Requisite Hint,
There Came The Discovery Of Galvanic Electricity. Galvanism Reacting On
Chemistry Disclosed The Metallic Bases Of The Alkalies, And Inaugurated
The Electro-Chemical Theory; In The Hands Of Oersted And Ampère It Led
To The Laws Of Magnetic Action; And By Its Aid Faraday Has Detected
Significant Facts Relative To The Constitution Of Light. Brewster's
Discoveries Respecting Double Refraction And Dipolarisation Proved The
Essential Truth Of The Classification Of Crystalline Forms According To
The Number Of Axes, By Showing That The Molecular Constitution Depends
Upon The Axes. In These And In Numerous Other Cases, The Mutual
Influence Of The Sciences Has Been Quite Independent Of Any Supposed
Hierarchical Order. Often, Too, Their Inter-Actions Are More Complex
Than As Thus Instanced--Involve More Sciences Than Two. One Illustration
Of This Must Suffice. We Quote It In Full From The _History Of The
Inductive Sciences_. In Book Xi., Chap, Ii., On "The Progress Of The
Electrical Theory," Dr. Whewell Writes:--
"Thus At That Period, Mathematics Was Behind Experiment, And A
Problem Was Proposed, In Which Theoretical Results Were Wanted For
Comparison With Observation, But Could Not Be Accurately Obtained;
As Was The Case In Astronomy Also, Till The Time Of The Approximate
Solution Of The Problem Of Three Bodies, And The Consequent
Formation Of The Tables Of The Moon And Planets, On The Theory Of
Universal Gravitation. After Some Time, Electrical Theory Was
Relieved From This Reproach, Mainly In Consequence Of The Progress
Which Astronomy Had Occasioned In Pure Mathematics. About 1801
There Appeared In The _Bulletin Des Sciences_, An Exact Solution Of
The Problem Of The Distribution Of Electric Fluid On A Spheroid,
Obtained By Biot, By The Application Of The Peculiar Methods Which
Laplace Had Invented For The Problem Of The Figure Of The Planets.
And, In 1811, M. Poisson Applied Laplace's Artifices To The Case Of
Two Spheres Acting Upon One Another In Contact, A Case To Which
Many Of Coulomb's Experiments Were Referrible; And The Agreement Of
The Results Of Theory And Observation, Thus Extricated From
Coulomb's Numbers Obtained Above Forty Years Previously, Was Very
Striking And Convincing."
Not Only Do The Sciences Affect Each Other After This Direct Manner, But
They Affect Each Other Indirectly. Where There Is No Dependence, There
Is Yet Analogy--_Equality Of Relations_; And The Discovery Of The
Relations Subsisting Among One Set Of Phenomena, Constantly Suggests A
Search For The Same Relations Among Another Set. Thus The Established
Part 2 Chapter 3 (On The Genesis Of Science) Pg 116Fact That The Force Of Gravitation Varies Inversely As The Square Of The
Distance, Being Recognised As A Necessary Characteristic Of All
Influences Proceeding From A Centre, Raised The Suspicion That Heat And
Light Follow The Same Law; Which Proved To Be The Case--A Suspicion And
A Confirmation Which Were Repeated In Respect To The Electric And
Magnetic Forces. Thus Again The Discovery Of The Polarisation Of Light
Led To Experiments Which Ended In The Discovery Of The Polarisation Of
Heat--A Discovery That Could Never Have Been Made Without The Antecedent
One. Thus, Too, The Known Refrangibility Of Light And Heat Lately
Produced The Inquiry Whether Sound Also Is Not Refrangible; Which On
Trial It Turns Out To Be.
In Some Cases, Indeed, It Is Only By The Aid Of Conceptions Derived From
One Class Of Phenomena That Hypotheses Respecting Other Classes Can Be
Formed. The Theory, At One Time Favoured, That Evaporation Is A Solution
Of Water In Air, Was An Assumption That The Relation Between Water And
Air Is _Like_ The Relation Between Salt And Water; And Could Never Have
Been Conceived If The Relation Between Salt And Water Had Not Been
Previously Known. Similarly The Received Theory Of Evaporation--That It
Is A Diffusion Of The Particles Of The Evaporating Fluid In Virtue Of
Their Atomic Repulsion--Could Not Have Been Entertained Without A
Foregoing Experience Of Magnetic And Electric Repulsions. So Complete In
Recent Days Has Become This _Consensus_ Among The Sciences, Caused
Either By The Natural Entanglement Of Their Phenomena, Or By Analogies
In The Relations Of Their Phenomena, That Scarcely Any Considerable
Discovery Concerning One Order Of Facts Now Takes Place, Without Very
Shortly Leading To Discoveries Concerning Other Orders.
To Produce A Tolerably Complete Conception Of This Process Of
Scientific Evolution, It Would Be Needful To Go Back To The Beginning,
And Trace In Detail The Growth Of Classifications And Nomenclatures; And
To Show How, As Subsidiary To Science, They Have Acted Upon It, And It
Has Reacted Upon Them. We Can Only Now Remark That, On The One Hand,
Classifications And Nomenclatures Have Aided Science By Continually
Subdividing The Subject-Matter Of Research, And Giving Fixity And
Diffusion To The Truths Disclosed; And That On The Other Hand, They Have
Caught From It That Increasing Quantitativeness, And That Progress From
Considerations Touching Single Phenomena To Considerations Touching The
Relations Among Many Phenomena, Which We Have Been Describing.
Of This Last Influence A Few Illustrations Must Be Given. In Chemistry
It Is Seen In The Facts, That The Dividing Of Matter Into The Four
Elements Was Ostensibly Based Upon The Single Property Of Weight; That
The First Truly Chemical Division Into Acid And Alkaline Bodies, Grouped
Together Bodies Which Had Not Simply One Property In Common, But In
Which One Property Was Constantly Related To Many Others; And That The
Classification Now Current, Places Together In Groups _Supporters Of
Combustion_, _Metallic And Non-Metallic Bases_, _Acids_, _Salts_, Etc.,
Bodies Which Are Often Quite Unlike In Sensible Qualities, But Which Are
Like In The Majority Of Their _Relations_ To Other Bodies. In Mineralogy
Again, The First Classifications Were Based Upon Differences In Aspect,
Texture, And Other Physical Attributes. Berzelius Made Two Attempts At A
Classification Based Solely On Chemical Constitution. That Now Current,
Recognises As Far As Possible The _Relations_ Between Physical And
Chemical Characters. In Botany The Earliest Classes Formed Were _Trees_,
_Shrubs_, And _Herbs_: Magnitude Being The Basis Of Distinction.
Dioscorides Divided Vegetables Into _Aromatic_, _Alimentary_,
_Medicinal_, And _Vinous_: A Division Of Chemical Character. Cæsalpinus
Classified Them By The Seeds, And Seed-Vessels, Which He Preferred
Because Of The _Relations_ Found To Subsist Between The Character Of The
Fructification And The General Character Of The Other Parts.
While The "Natural System" Since Developed, Carrying Out The Doctrine Of
Linnæus, That "Natural Orders Must Be Formed By Attention Not To One Or
Two, But To _All_ The Parts Of Plants," Bases Its Divisions On Like
Peculiarities Which Are Found To Be _Constantly Related_ To The Greatest
Number Of Other Like Peculiarities. And Similarly In Zoology, The
Successive Classifications, From Having Been Originally Determined By
External And Often Subordinate Characters Not Indicative Of The
Essential Nature, Have Been Gradually More And More Determined By Those
Internal And Fundamental Differences, Which Have Uniform _Relations_ To
The Greatest Number Of Other Differences. Nor Shall We Be Surprised At
This Analogy Between The Modes Of Progress Of Positive Science And
Classification, When We Bear In Mind That Both Proceed By Making
Generalisations; That Both Enable Us To Make Previsions Differing Only
In Their Precision; And That While The One Deals With Equal Properties
And Relations, The Other Deals With Properties And Relations That
Approximate Towards Equality In Variable Degrees.
Without Further Argument, It Will, We Think, Be Sufficiently Clear That
The Sciences Are None Of Them Separately Evolved--Are None Of Them
Independent Either Logically Or Historically; But That All Of Them Have,
In A Greater Or Less Degree, Required Aid And Reciprocated It. Indeed,
It Needs But To Throw Aside These, And Contemplate The Mixed Character
Of Surrounding Phenomena, To At Once See That These Notions Of Division
And Succession In The Kinds Of Knowledge Are None Of Them Actually True,
But Are Simple Scientific Fictions: Good, If Regarded Merely As Aids To
Study; Bad, If Regarded As Representing Realities In Nature. Consider
Them Critically, And No Facts Whatever Are Presented To Our Senses
Uncombined With Other Facts--No Facts Whatever But Are In Some Degree
Disguised By Accompanying Facts: Disguised In Such A Manner That All
Must Be Partially Understood Before Any One Can Be Understood. If It Be
Said, As By M. Comte, That Gravitating Force Should Be Treated Of Before
Other Forces, Seeing That All Things Are Subject To It, It May On Like
Grounds Be Said That Heat Should Be First Dealt With; Seeing That
Thermal Forces Are Everywhere In Action; That The Ability Of Any Portion
Of Matter To Manifest Visible Gravitative Phenomena Depends On Its State
Of Aggregation, Which Is Determined By Heat; That Only By The Aid Of
Thermology Can We Explain Those Apparent Exceptions To The Gravitating
Tendency Which Are Presented By Steam And Smoke, And So Establish Its
Universality, And That, Indeed, The Very Existence Of The Solar System
In A Solid Form Is Just As Much A Question Of Heat As It Is One Of
Gravitation.
Take Other Cases:--All Phenomena Recognised By The Eyes, Through Which
Only Are The Data Of Exact Science Ascertainable, Are Complicated With
Optical Phenomena; And Cannot Be Exhaustively Known Until Optical
Principles Are Known. The Burning Of A Candle Cannot Be Explained
Without Involving Chemistry, Mechanics, Thermology. Every Wind That
Blows Is Determined By Influences Partly Solar, Partly Lunar, Partly
Hygrometric; And Implies Considerations Of Fluid Equilibrium And
Part 2 Chapter 3 (On The Genesis Of Science) Pg 117Physical Geography. The Direction, Dip, And Variations Of The Magnetic
Needle, Are Facts Half Terrestrial, Half Celestial--Are Caused By
Earthly Forces Which Have Cycles Of Change Corresponding With
Astronomical Periods. The Flowing Of The Gulf-Stream And The Annual
Migration Of Icebergs Towards The Equator, Depending As They Do On The
Balancing Of The Centripetal And Centrifugal Forces Acting On The Ocean,
Involve In Their Explanation The Earth's Rotation And Spheroidal Form,
The Laws Of Hydrostatics, The Relative Densities Of Cold And Warm Water,
And The Doctrines Of Evaporation. It Is No Doubt True, As M. Comte Says,
That "Our Position In The Solar System, And The Motions, Form, Size,
Equilibrium Of The Mass Of Our World Among The Planets, Must Be Known
Before We Can Understand The Phenomena Going On At Its Surface." But,
Fatally For His Hypothesis, It Is Also True That We Must Understand A
Great Part Of The Phenomena Going On At Its Surface Before We Can Know
Its Position, Etc., In The Solar System. It Is Not Simply That, As We
Have Already Shown, Those Geometrical And Mechanical Principles By Which
Celestial Appearances Are Explained, Were First Generalised From
Terrestrial Experiences; But It Is That The Very Obtainment Of Correct
Data, On Which To Base Astronomical Generalisations, Implies Advanced
Terrestrial Physics.
Until After Optics Had Made Considerable Advance, The Copernican System
Remained But A Speculation. A Single Modern Observation On A Star Has To
Undergo A Careful Analysis By The Combined Aid Of Various Sciences--Has
To _Be Digested By The Organism Of The Sciences_; Which Have Severally
To Assimilate Their Respective Parts Of The Observation, Before The
Essential Fact It Contains Is Available For The Further Development Of
Astronomy. It Has To
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