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Single Idea 6470

[filed under theme 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 Ref

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.

The 20 ideas with the same theme [concept of matter emerging in modern physics]:

15311 Attraction or repulsion are not imparted to matter, but actually constitute it [Priestley]
17402 Mendeleev saw three principles in nature: matter, force and spirit (where the latter seems to be essence) [Mendeleev, by Scerri]
21706 At first matter is basic and known by sense-data; later Russell says matter is constructed [Russell, by Linsky,B]
6470 Matter is the limit of appearances as distance from the object diminishes [Russell]
7547 Matter requires a division into time-corpuscles as well as space-corpuscles [Russell]
7551 Matter is a logical construction [Russell]
17532 An atom's stability after collisions needs explaining (which Newton's mechanics can't do) [Heisenberg]
17537 Position is complementary to velocity or momentum, so the whole system is indeterminate [Heisenberg]
17551 It was formerly assumed that electromagnetic waves could not be a reality in themselves [Heisenberg]
20626 Modern theories of matter are grounded in heat, work and energy [Close]
6551 'Physical' means either figuring in physics descriptions, or just located in space-time [Lycan]
9574 'Gunk' is an individual possessing no parts that are atoms [Chihara]
20654 Only four particles are needed for matter: up and down quark, electron, electron-neutrino [Watson]
14900 In physics, matter is an emergent phenomenon, not part of fundamental ontology [Ladyman/Ross]
14937 That the universe must be 'made of' something is just obsolete physics [Ladyman/Ross]
17411 If all elements are multiples of one (of hydrogen), that suggests once again that matter is unified [Scerri]
17420 The stability of nuclei can be estimated through their binding energy [Scerri]
24161 Thermodynamics sees nature as a continuous flow of energy, as radiation and as substance [Baggott]
20465 Nature has three aspects: granularity, indeterminacy, and relations [Rovelli]
22630 If particles have decay rates, they can't really be elementary, in the sense of indivisible [Ingthorsson]