[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
ing their phenomena. In chemistry, experiment is commonly sup posed
to be more complete than in any other department: but I think it is of a
higher order in physics, for the reason that in chemistry the circum-
stances are always artificially arranged, while in physics we have the
choice of natural or artificial circumstances; and the philosophical char-
acter of experimentation consists in choosing the freest possible case
that will show us what we want. We have a wider range, and a choice of
simpler cases, in physics than in chemistry; and in physics, therefore, is
experiment supreme.
The next great virtue of physics is its allowing the application of
mathematical analysis, which enters into this science, and at present
goes no further; not yet, with real efficacy, into chemistry. It is less
perfect in physics than in astronomy; but there is still enough of simplic-
ity and fixedness in physical phenomena to allow of its extended use. Its
employment may be direct or indirect: direct when we can seize the
fundamental numerical law of phenomena, so as to make it the basis of
a series of analytical deductions; as when Fourier founded his theory of
the distribution of heat on the principle of thermological action between
two bodies being proportionate to the difference of their temperatures:
and indirect, when the phenomena have been referred to some geometri-
cal or mechanical laws; when, however, it is not properly to physics that
the analysis is applied, but to geometry or mechanics. Such are the cases
of reflection or refraction in the geometrical relation; and in the me-
chanical, the investigation of weight, or of a part of acoustics. In either
case extreme care is requisite in the first application, and the further
development should be vigilantly regulated by the spirit of physical re-
search. The domain of physics is no proper field for mathematical pas-
times. The best security would be in giving a geometrical training to
physicists, who need not then have recourse to mathematicians, whose
tendency it is to despise experimental science. By this method will that
union between the abstract and the concrete be effected which will per-
fect the uses of mathematical, while extending the positive value of physi-
cal science. Meantime, the uses of analysis in physics are clear enough.
Without it we should have no precision, and no co-ordination; and what
account could we give of our study of heat, weight, light, etc.? We should
have merely series of unconnected facts, in which we could foresee noth-
ing but by constant recourse to experiment; whereas, they now have a
character of rationality which fits them for purposes of prevision. From
Positive Philosophy/221
the complexity of physical phenomena, however, the difficulty of the
mathematical application is great. In some, a part of the essential condi-
tions of the problem must be thrown out, to admit of its transformation
into a mathematical question; and hence the necessity for reserve in the
employment of analysis. The art of combining analysis and experiment,
without subordinating the one to the other, is still almost unknown. It
constitutes the last advance of the true method of physical study, and it
will be developed when physicists, and not geometers, conduct the ana-
lytical process, and not till then.
Having seen what is the object of Physics, and what the means of
investigation, we have next to fix its position in the scientific hierarchy.
The phenomena of Physics are more complicated than those of As-
tronomy; and Astronomy is the scientific basis and model of Physics,
which cannot be effectually studied otherwise than through the study of
the more simple and general science. In this, we individually follow the
course of our race. It was by Astronomy that the positive spirit was
introduced into natural philosophy, after it had been sufficiently devel-
oped by purely mathematical investigations. Our individual education
is in analogy with this: for we have learned from astronomy what is the
real meaning of the explanation of a phenomenon, without any imprac-
ticable inquiry about its cause, first or final, or its mode of production.
Physics should, more than the other natural sciences, follow closely
upon astronomy, because, after astronomy its phenomena are less com-
plex than any.
Besides these reasons belonging to Method, there is the grand con-
sideration that the theories of astronomy afford the only data for the
study of terrestrial physics. Our position In the solar system, and the
motions, form, size, and equilibrium of the mass of our world among
the other planets, must be known before we can understand the phenom-
ena going on at its surface. What could we make of weight, for instance,
or of the tides, without the data afforded by astronomical science? These
phenomena indeed make the transition from astronomy to physics al-
most insensible. In this way Physics is indirectly connected with Math-
ematics. There is also a direct connection, as some physical phenomena
have a geometrical and mechanical character, as much as those of
astronomy, though under a great com plication of the circumstances.
The abstract laws of space and motion must prevail as much in the one
science as in the other. If the relation is thus unquestionable in the doc-
trine, it is not less so in the spirit and method which we must bring to the
222/Auguste Comte
study of physics. It must be ever remembered that the true positive spirit
first came forth from the pure sources of mathematical science; and it is
only the mind that has imbibed it there, and which has been face to face
with the lucid truths of geometry and mechanics, that can bring into full
action its natural positivity, and apply it in bringing the most complex
studies into the reality of demonstration. No other discipline can fitly
prepare the intellectual organ. We might further say that, as geometrical
ideas are more clear and fundamental than mechanical ideas, the former
are more necessary, in an educational sense, to physicists than the latter,
though the use of mechanical ideas is the more immediate and extended
in physical science. Thus we see how we must conclude that the educa-
tion of physicists must be more complicated than that of astronomers.
Both have need of the same mathematical basis, and physicists must
also have studied astronomy, at least in a general way. And this, again,
assigns the position of their science.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]