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An Alternative Scheme to that of Sir James Jeans
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2009
In the January number of the quarterly journal published by The British Institute of Philosophy, called Philosophy, Sir James Jeans with extraordinary ability has represented the view of the universe which may be held now in the twentieth century by a mathematician, and concludes that this representation contributes to and upholds an idealistic philosophy. Now with the contention that an idealistic philosophy is superior to any other, that is to say nearer the truth, we may be allowed to sympathize. Several physicists, even in the nineteenth century, were inclined to sustain the essence of Berkeley's view, or to consider that metaphysical truth must lie somewhere in that direction. G. F. FitzGerald, for instance, was notably of that opinion. But he was not prepared on that account to abandon the physical view of existence, and to take refuge in mere mathematical abstractions.
page 143 note 1 Economics can decide whether the purchase was justified: a transfer may be gratuitous, without adequate service rendered to anybody, as in gambling. So it can be also in physics; water can fall without achieving anything useful, and then there is waste, or increase of entropy. Energy which was tractable and therefore available, when possessed (as we call it) by high-level water, has been degraded into the unorganized and uncontrollable molecular motions of low-temperature heat.
page 143 note 2 A little further elaboration may be necessary for cases of vibration. See Lodge's articles in The Philosophical Magazine for October 1879 and June 1881.
page 147 note 1 That “the sycamore tree continues to be when there‘s no one about in the quad” must be true both for science and for metaphysics: hence I insertthe word “potentially.”