The Analysis of Matter The Analysis of Matter. By Bertrand
Russell. (Kegan Paul. -21s.) Ma. Russrmes singularly acute mind is known to excel in the critical discussion of the philosophic and logical basis of scientific thought and method. His best work bears somewhat the same relation to experimental science as the sounder type of Shakespearean criticism does to constructive literature. Nobody—except perhaps the critics—supposes that Shakespeare regarded his own plays as the critics regard them, that his mind consciously worked according to the canons which they have discovered, or that anybody can learn to write like Shakespeare by reading the analysis of his method. Mr. Russell would probably be the last to suggest that any consideration of the theory of perception, of the laws of causality or of the meaning of substance were involved in the work of the man whose labours have led to the conception of the electron and the proton, which form the ultimate basis of the present-day theory of matter. That does not, however, lessen the interest of an attempt to discover a comprehensive philosophical scheme which shall justify physics, or, at any rate, make clear what are the wider implications of the methods of that science, and, in particular, of the striking results of the physical investigations of the present century. We have a vast body of physical knowledge : what are its essentials, considered as a coherent mental structure ;. how have we derived it, in view of the logical difficulties of establishing any of the conceptions used in its description ; and what does it mean considered as a part of a general philosophical plan--what is the metaphysical status of physics ? These are-roughly the questions which Mr. Russell sets out to answer, for he divides his book into three parts, which he calls " The Logical Analysis of Physics," " Physics and Perception," and " The Structure of the Physical:World.', In the first he expounds in some detail the ,i special and the general theory of relativity, and the important developments which have sprung from the latter, sack as Weyl's theory and Eddington's metrical schenie. He also discusses the structure of the atom, basing, apparently, his whole treatment on Sommerfeld's book, which means that Bohr's own views are left somewhat in the background. Although there is a chapter headed " Electrons and Protons," very little is said about these entities, which clearly interest Mr. Russell much less than the problems of space and time. This is a pity, for Mr. Russell speaks of the surfaces of these particles, of bringing them into contact, of the boundary between matter and empty space and so on, which implies a definiteness of size and shape for which, some might argue, there is no physical justification. At any rate, the point is worth examining. It must be said that the discussion of relativity and the related subjects of tensors, invariants and geodetics, excellent as it is; makes very stiff reading for the man of ordinary non-professional mathematical attainments. It would be a reader of singular acuteness who, without previous knowledge of tensor calculus, should properly understand these parts of the book. In the second part of the book, the epistemological part, everyone seriously interested in the problems of science will find much to stimulate and satisfy. The first two chapters, " From Primitive Perception to Common Sense " and " From Common Sense to Physics," lead the reader gently into the subject, although, to select one of a few very minor points noted, it might be better, in discussing the sensitiveness of the eye, to give the rate at which light energy must enter the eye in order to be perceived, rather than to speak of quanta per cubic metre. The whole of this discussion on physics and perception shows Mr. Bertrand Russell at his best ; his style is flowing, his illustrations fresh and pertinent, and he triumphantly main- tains lucidity in dealing with the many difficulties inherent in perception. The third part contains the most original features of Mr. Russell's treatise. Here, after discussing the very intricate problems of order in space time, of the Einsteinian " interval " andthe related question ofeausal laws, he proceeds to divide physical occurrences into three types, of his own devising,- which he calls steady events, rhythms, and transac- tions. The possibility of such a division, for the significance of which the book should be consulted, is entirely the outcome of modern physics : -it is scarcely conceivable that it could have been put forward thirty years ago. As Mr. Russell . himself points out, there is no reason why a sufficiently logical mind should not have deduced the special theory of relativity as soon as it was realized that light had a definite velocity, but the difficulties of wave theory and quantum theory and atomic structure are children of recent experiment. This indicates what seems to be a weakness of the book : that it is partly concerned with devising a philosophy to square with present-clay atomic physics, but present-day physics is changing so rapidly that many may feel inclined to doubt the permanence of some of the conceptions which have influenced quite con- siderably the trend of the author's thought. If the book had been written even three years ago some limited parts of it would perforce have been quite different : may we not con- jecture without undue carping that in ten years much of it may have to be completely revised ? One likes to think of philo- sophical schemes as being less dependent on what are, roughly speaking, physical fashions. To read this book through with even moderate ease the reader requires to be a pure mathematician, an applied mathe- matician, a physicist, a logician, and a philosopher with psychological leanings—the physiology, though present, is not very profound. Any reviewer must feel diffident about criticism of details, and must rather wonder at the courage of a man who sets out on a task requiring such powers, yet where the conclusions and rewards are bound, by the very nature of the problem, to be somewhat indefinite. Mr. Russell, however, revels in difficulties, and either he solves them or else he leaves one with the feeling that at the present time they are insoluble.
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