Time, Matter And Values

THE JOHN CALVIN McNAIR LECTURES TIME, MATTER, AND VALUES THE JOHN CALVIN McNAIR LECTURES FRANCIS H. SMITH God Manifest in the Material Universe. FRANCIS LANDEY PATTON Authority and Religion. DAVID STARR JORDAN The Stability of Truth. HENRY VAN DYKE The Poetry of Nature. ARTHUR TWINING HADLEY Some Influences in Modern Philosophic Thought. FRANCIS G. PEABODY Christian Life in the Modern World. GEORGE EDGAR VINCENT The Social Vision. JOHN DEWEY Philosophy and Politics. FREDERICK J. E. WOODBRIDGE The Purpose of History. HUGH BLACK The Great Questions of Life. EDWIN GRANT CONKLIN The Direction of Human Evolution. PAUL SHOREY Platos Relation to the Religious Problem. CHARLES ALLEN DINSMORE Religious Certitude in an Age of Science. ROSCOE POUND Law and Morals. WILLIAM Louis POTEAT Can a Man Be a Christian CHARLES REYNOLDS BROWN A Wording Faith. THORNTON WHALING Science and Religion Today. HARRIS E. KIRK Stars, Atoms, and God. ROBERT ANDREWS MILLIKAN Time, Matter, and Values. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS CHAPEL HILL, N. C. THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY, NEW YORK OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA, TOKYO EDWARD EVANS SONS, LTD., SHANGHAI D. B. CENTENS WETENSCHAPPELIJKE BOEKHANDEL, AMSTERDAM TIME, MATTER, AND VALUES BY ROBERT ANDREWS MILLIKAN, PhD. T CHAPEL HILL THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS 1932 THE McNAIR LECTURES The John Calvin McNair Lectures tuere founded through a bequest made by Rev. John Calvin McNair, of the class of 1849. This bequest became available to the University in 1906. The extract from the will referring to the foundation is as follows As soon as the interest accruing thereon shall by said Trustees be deemed sufficient they shall employ some able Scientific Gentle man to deliver before the students then in at tendance at said University, a course of lectures, the object of which lectures shall be to show the mutual bearing of science and theology upon each other, and to prove the existence and at tributes, as far as may be, of God from nature. The lectures, which must be performed by a member of some one of the Evangelic denomina tions of Christians, must be published within twelve months after delivery, either in pam phlet or boof form. PREFACE following pages represent the au-A thors attempt to give in very brief form some of the most significant changes in fundamental concepts which have re sulted from the extraordinary advances made in recent years in the field of experimental physics. These changes obviously have im portant bearings not only on physics but on the whole outlook of mankind toward na ture, and hence toward life. They show that the great blunder which the physics of the past has made has consisted in extending its generalizations with undue assurance into fields in which they have not been experi mentally tested, that is, in treating these generalizations as fixed, universally ap plicable principles instead of as essentially working hypotheses. This has led in the past to a dogmatism in science which is at bottom indistinguishable from dogmatism in vii PREFACE theology or in any other field for dog matism in any field is merely assertiveness without knowledge. But the physicist has recently, through his blunders and his new experimental findings, learned a lesson of open-mindedness which cannot fail to in fluence other fields of thought. Philosophy and theology, as well as biology and psy chology, are sure to profit from it. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii I. NEW IDEAS ABOUT TIME 3 II. NEW IDEAS ABOUT MATTER 32 III. NEW IDEAS ABOUT VALUES 68 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Probable Egyptian Sun-dial of the Period of Mcrnepthah 8 2. Ancient Egyptian Sun-Clock 10 3. Egyptian Water-Clock of the Period of Amenhotep III about B. C. 1400 12 4. Apparatus for Experiments on The Viscosity of Gases 36 5. The Oil-Drop Experiment 43 6. Youngs Experiment 50 7. The Difference in the Behaviors in a Magnetic Field of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Rays from Radium. . 55 8...