Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge

Towards a Theory of Knowledge,
by Alexander Philip

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Title: Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge
Author: Alexander Philip
Release Date: November 9, 2007 [EBook #23422]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's Note: Words in Greek in the original are transliterated and
placed between +plus signs+. Words italicized in the original are
surrounded by underscores. Characters superscripted in the original are
inclosed in {} brackets.

ESSAYS TOWARDS A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Rosalind: I pray you, what is't o'clock?
Orlando: You should ask me, what time o' day; there's no clock in the
forest.
As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 2.

ESSAYS TOWARDS A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
BY
ALEXANDER PHILIP F.R.S.E
[Illustration]
LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED NEW YORK:
E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1915

+hê gar achrômatos te kai aschêmatistos kai anaphês ousia ontôs ousa
psychês kybernêtê monôi theatêi nô, peri hên to tês alêthous epistêmês
genos, touton echei ton topon.+--PHÆDRUS.

PREFACE
Two years ago, in the preface to another essay, the present writer
ventured to affirm that "Civilisation moves rather towards a chaos than
towards a cosmos." But he could not foretell that the descensus Averni
would be so alarmingly rapid.
When we find Science, which has done so much and promised so much
for the happiness of mankind, devoting so large a proportion of its

resources to the destruction of human life, we are prone to ask
despairingly--Is this the end? If not; how are we to discover and assure
for stricken Humanity the vision and the possession of a Better Land?
Not certainly by the ostentatious building of peace-palaces nor even by
the actual accomplishment of successful war. Only by the discovery of
true first principles of Thought and Action can Humanity be redeemed.
Undeterred by the confused tumult of to-day we must still seek a true
understanding of what knowledge is--what are its powers and what also
are its limitations. Nor may we forget that other principle of life--with
which it is so quaintly contrasted in Lord Bacon's translation of the
Pauline aphorism--Knowledge bloweth up, Charity buildeth up.
January 1915.

CONTENTS
PAGE I
TIME AND PERIODICITY 11
II
THE ORIGIN OF PHYSICAL CONCEPTS 17
III
THE TWO TYPICAL THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE 36
IV
THE DOCTRINE OF ENERGY 81

ESSAYS TOWARDS A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

I
TIME AND PERIODICITY
We can measure Time in one way only--by counting repeated motions.
Apart from the operation of the physical Law of Periodicity we should
have no natural measures of Time. If that statement be true it follows
that apart from the operation of this law we could not attain to any
knowledge of Time.[11:1] Perhaps this latter proposition may not at
first be readily granted. Few, probably, would hesitate to admit that in a
condition in which our experience was a complete blank we should be
unable to acquire any knowledge of Time; but it may not be quite so
evident that in a condition in which experience consisted of a
multifarious but never repeated succession of impressions the
Knowledge of Time would be equally awanting.[12:1] Yet so it is. The
operation of the Law of Periodicity is necessary to the measurement of
Time. It is by means, and only by means, of periodic pulsative
movements that we ever do or can measure Time. Now, apart from
some sort of measurement Time would be unknowable. A time which
was neither long nor short would be meaningless. The idea of
unquantified Time cannot be conceived or apprehended. Time to be
known must be measured.
Periodicity, therefore, is essential to our Knowledge of Time. But
Nature amply supplies us with this necessary instrument. The Law of
Periodicity prevails widely throughout Nature. It absolutely dominates
Life.
The centre of animal vitality is to be found in the beating heart and
breathing lungs. Pulsation qualifies not merely the nutrient life but the
musculo-motor activity as well. Eating, Walking,--all our most
elementary movements are pulsatory. We wake and sleep, we grow
weary and rest. We are born and we die, we are young and grow old.
All animal life is determined by this Law.
Periodicity--generally at a longer interval of pulsation--equally affects
the vegetal forms of life. The plant is sown, grows, flowers, and fades.

Periodicity is to us less obvious in the inanimate