Single Idea 6470

[catalogued under 27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 4. Standard Model / a. Concept of matter]

Full Idea

We offer the following tentative definition: The matter of a given thing is the limit of its appearances as their distance from the thing diminishes.

Gist of Idea

Matter is the limit of appearances as distance from the object diminishes

Source

Bertrand Russell (The Relation of Sense-Data to Physics [1914], §IX)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'Mysticism and Logic' [Unwin 1989], p.158


A Reaction

This strikes me as empiricism gone mad. Russell is famous for being a 'realist', but you would hardly know it at this point. Personally I put emphasis on 'best explanation', which fairly simply delivers most of our commonsense understandings of reality.