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Full Idea
The world of particulars is a six-dimensional space, where six co-ordinates will be required to assign the position of any particular, three to assign its position in its own space, and three to assign the position of its space among the other spaces.
Gist of Idea
Six dimensions are needed for a particular, three within its own space, and three to locate that space
Source
Bertrand Russell (The Ultimate Constituents of Matter [1915], p.134)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'Mysticism and Logic' [Unwin 1989], p.134
A Reaction
Not a proposal that has caught on. One might connect the idea with the notion of 'frames of reference' in Einstein's Special Theory. Inside a frame of reference, three co-ordinates are needed; but where is the frame of reference?
| 13180 | Space is the order of coexisting possibles [Leibniz] |
| 17736 | We can't learn of space through experience; experience of space needs its representation [Kant] |
| 5531 | Space is an a priori necessary basic intuition, as we cannot imagine its absence [Kant] |
| 16922 | Space must have three dimensions, because only three lines can meet at right angles [Kant] |
| 24096 | Unlike time, space is subjective. Empty space was assumed, but it doesn't exist [Nietzsche] |
| 6468 | There is 'private space', and there is also the 'space of perspectives' [Russell] |
| 7552 | Six dimensions are needed for a particular, three within its own space, and three to locate that space [Russell] |
| 15321 | Space can't be an individual (in space), but it is present in all places [Harré/Madden] |
| 21112 | Empty space contains a continual flux of brief virtual particles [Krauss] |
| 9922 | If space is really just a force-field, then it is a physical entity [Burgess/Rosen] |
| 10683 | We could ignore space, and just talk of the shape of matter [Hossack] |
| 19947 | Hilbert Space is an abstraction representing all possible states of a quantum system [New Sci.] |