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The analysis of matter

Chapter 55: FOOTNOTES:
By Bertrand Russell
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About This Book

This work undertakes a philosophical examination of modern physics, analyzing its logical structure and implications for matter, space, and perception. It surveys relativity and quantum ideas, then traces how physical theory grows out of ordinary perception by treating measurement, hypotheses, causality, and the primacy of structural relations over substance. Physical entities are presented as constructions of events and relations in space-time rather than enduring material substrata; points, causal lines, invariants, and geodesics are developed to support this view. The argument culminates in a neutral monist account that aims to place mind and physical description on a common ontological footing and to clarify scientific method.

FOOTNOTES:

[59] In this chapter and the next, I owe much to the criticism and suggestions of Mr M. H. A. Newman of St. John's College, Cambridge, who must not, however, be held responsible for their contents; on me contrary, I am convinced that he could construct a much better theory than that which follows.

[60] Stetige Mengen, Monatshafte für Mathematik u. Physik., XXXI., 1921, pp. 173-204.

[61] Grundzüge der Mengenlehre, Leipzig, 1914.

[62] Ib., p. 211.

[63] Ib., p. 213.

[64] Zum Metrisationsproblem, Math. Annalen 94 (1925), pp. 309-315.

[65] He defines a topological space as "normal" when any two non-overlapping closed manifolds and can be separated by two non-overlapping regions , which respectively contain them and have no boundary-points. Ib., p. 310, and Hausdorff, op. cit., p. 215. A "boundary-point" of a collection is one which has a neighbourhood that is not a sub-class of the collection.