On the Philosophy of Discovery, Chapters Historical and Critical

by William Whewell

I reply, that I suppose the Divine Idea of Space and the human Idea of Space to coincide, only so far as the human Idea goes; and that the Divine Idea may easily have so much more luminousness and comprehensiveness as Divine Ideas may be supposed to have compared with human. Further, that this Idea of Space, the first of the Ideas on which human science is founded, is the most luminous and comprehensive of such Ideas; and there are innumerable other Ideas, the foundations of sciences more or less complete, which are extremely obscure and limited in the human mind, but which must be conceived to be perfectly clear and unlimitedly comprehensive in the Divine Mind. And thus, the distance between the human and the Divine Mind, even as to the views which constitute the most complete of the human sciences, is as great in our view as in any other.

12. That the Idea of Space in the human mind, though sufficiently clear and comprehensive to be the source of necessary truths, is far too obscure and limited to be regarded as identical with the Divine Idea, will be plain to us, if we call to mind the perplexities which the human mind falls into when it speculates concerning space infinite. An Intelligence in which all these perplexities should vanish by the light of the Idea itself, would be infinitely elevated in clearness and comprehensiveness of intellectual vision above human intelligence, even though its Idea of Space should coincide with the human Idea as far as the human Idea goes.

I do not shrink from saying, therefore, that the Idea of Space which is a constituent of the human mind existing in the universe is, as far as it goes, identical with the Idea of Space which is a constituent of the universe. And this I give as the answer to the question, How it is that the necessary truths of Geometry universally coincide with the relations of the phenomena of the universe? And this doctrine, it is to be remembered, carries us to the further doctrine, that the Idea of Space in the human mind is, so far as it goes, coincident with the Idea of Space in the Divine Mind.

13. (Idea of Time.)—What I have said of the Idea of Space, may be repeated, for the most part, with regard to the Idea of Time; except that the Idea of Time, as such, does not give rise to a large collection of necessary truths, such as the propositions of Geometry. Some philosophers regard Number as a modification or derivative of the Idea of Time. If we accept this view, we have, in the Science of Arithmetic, a body of necessary truths which flow from the Idea of Time. But this doctrine, whichever way held, does not bear much on the question with which we are now concerned. That which we do hold is, that the Idea of Time in the human mind is, so far as it goes, coincident with the Idea of Time in the Divine Mind: and that this is the reason why the events of the universe, as contemplated by us, conform to necessary laws of succession: while at the same time we must suppose that all the perplexities in the Idea of Time which embarrass the human mind—the perplexities, for instance, which arise from contemplating a past and a future eternity, are, in the Divine Mind, extinguished in the Light of the Idea itself.

Space and Time have, and have generally been regarded as having, peculiar prerogatives in our speculations concerning the constitution of the universe. We see and perceive all things as subject to the laws of Space and Time; or rather (for the term Law does not here satisfy us), as being and happening in space and in time: and probably most persons will have no repugnance to the doctrine that the Divine Mind, as well as the human, so regards them, and has so constituted them and us that they must be so regarded. Space and Time are human Ideas which include all objects and events, and are the foundation of all human Science. And we can conceive that Space and Time are also Divine Ideas which the Divine Mind causes to include all objects and events, and makes to be the foundation of all existence. So far as these Ideas go, our doctrine is not difficult or new.

14. (Ideas of Force and Matter.)—But what are we to say of the Ideas which come next in the survey of the sciences, Force and Matter? These are human Ideas—the foundations of several sciences—of the mechanical sciences in particular. But are they the foundations of necessary truths? Have we necessary truths respecting Force and Matter? We have endeavoured to prove that we have:—that certain fundamental propositions in the Science of Mechanics, although, historically speaking, they were discovered by observation and experience, are yet, philosophically speaking, necessary propositions. And being such, the facts of the universe must needs conform to these propositions; and the reason why they do so, we hold, in this as in the former case, to be, that these Ideas, Force and Matter, are Ideas in the Divine Mind:—Ideas according to which the universe is, by the Divine Cause, constituted and established.

15. That Force and Matter are Ideas existing in the Divine Mind, and coincident with the Idea of Force and Matter in the human mind, as far as these go, is a doctrine which is important in our view of the universe in relation to its Cause and Foundation.

These are very comprehensive and fundamental Ideas, and there are certain universal relations among external things which rest upon these Ideas. The two, Force and Matter, are, in a certain way, the necessary antithesis and opposite condition each of the other. Force (that is Mechanical Force, Pressure or Impulse) cannot act without matter to act upon. Matter (that is Body) cannot exist without Force by which it is kept in its place, by which its parts are held together, and by which it excludes every other body from the place which it occupies. We cannot conceive Force without Matter, or Matter without Force; the two are, as Action and Reaction, necessarily co-ordinate and coexistent. In every part of the universe they must be so. In every part of the universe, if there be material objects, there must be Force; if there be Force, there must be material objects.

Our apprehension of this universal necessity arises from our having the Ideas of Force and Matter which are human Ideas. The actuality of this universal antithesis arises from the Ideas of Force and Matter being Ideas in the Divine Mind;—Ideas realized as a part of the fundamental constitution of the universe.

That Force and Matter are thus among the Ideas in the Divine Mind, and that, with them, the Ideas of Force and Matter in the human mind, regarded in their most general form, agree so far as they go, is another step in the doctrine which I am trying to unfold. That the Ideas of Force and Matter in the Divine Mind are such as to banish by their own light, innumerable contradictions and perplexities which darken these Ideas in the human mind, is to be supposed: and thus the Divine Mind is infinitely luminous and comprehensive compared with the human mind.