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Often appears with: the passions and the emotions · reason and the intellect · matter, motion, and cause · medicine, disease, and healing · experiment, observation, and evidence · perception and the senses · the nature and attributes of God · species, variation, and descent · logic, method, and demonstration · fate, destiny, and necessity · the fear of death · animals and their habits
Usually: argument (126) · detachment (93) · curiosity (89) · skepticism (36) · reflection (25) · confronting death (23) · commentary or gloss (17) · description (14) · narrative (14) · wonder (11)
“It is due to this fact that, according to the theory of relativity, the “time” x4, enters into natural laws in the same form as the space co ordinates x1, x2, x3.” Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory · insight
“as do also the arteries, because the blood that has entered them has cooled, and the six small valves close, and the five of the hollow vein and of the venous artery open anew and allow a passage to other two drops of blood, which cause the heart and the arteries again to expand as before.” René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's · vivid
“We likewise perceive from this, that the true use of respiration is to bring sufficient fresh air into the lungs, to cause the blood which flows into them from the right ventricle of the heart, where it has been rarefied and, as it were, changed into vapors, to become thick, and to convert it anew into blood, before it flows into the left cavity, without which process it would be unfit for the nourishment of the fire that is there.” René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's · observation
“and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle:” or rather, I should say, like a strong breeze passing through the rigging of a ship.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · vivid
“Where on the face of the earth can we find a spot, on which close investigation will not discover signs of that endless cycle of change, to which this earth has been, is, and will be subjected?” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“Hath not yet experience taught thee to fly from the plague? For a far greater plague is the corruption of the mind, than any certain change and distemper of the common air can be.” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations · observation
“Yet the contrary, I believe, will appear to be the fact; for, on diligent inquiry, I find that strength of mind has, in most cases, been accompanied by superior strength of body, natural soundness of constitution.” Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman · observation
“To give a child an idea of scarlet or orange, of sweet or bitter, I present the objects, or in other words, convey to him these impressions; but proceed not so absurdly, as to endeavour to produce the impressions by exciting the ideas.” David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature · observation
“A rapture is absolutely irresistible; whilst union, inasmuch as we are then on our own ground, may be hindered, though that resistance be painful and violent; it is, however, almost always impossible.” Teresa of Ávila, Saint, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our · observation
“The end of all which was that the lady forgot her lover, and having learned discretion, was thenceforth careful neither to love nor to flout;” Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, Volume II · observation
“the libido is regularly and lawfully of a masculine nature, whether in the man or in the woman; and if we consider its object, this may be either the man or the woman.” Sigmund Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex · insight
“They prove, too, that this is not merely true with one substance, as water, but generally with all electrolytic bodies; and, further, that the results obtained with any one substance do not merely agree amongst themselves, but also with those obtained from other substances, the whole combining together into one series of definite electro-chemical actions.” Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 · insight
Pepys visits Lady Denham’s case again, receives gold from Mr. Stokes, and views the skeleton of Bishop Robert Braybrooke exposed after the Great Fire, while noting further violence and scientific experiments.
such like; but, as Dr. Croone says, may, if it takes, be of mighty use to man's health, for the amending of bad blood by borrowing from a better body. 15th. To Mrs. Pierce's, where I find her as fine as possible, and Mr. Pierce going to the ball at night at Court, it being the Queene's birthday. I also to the ball, and with much ado got up to the loft, where with much trouble I could see very well. Anon the house…
The text reports Pepys’s death on May 26, 1703, quoting John Jackson’s letter to Evelyn about his last hours and unusual autopsy findings: seven kidney stones weighing four and a half ounces.
but, in the conclusion, contended for nearly forty hours (unassisted by any nourishment) with the very agonies of death, some few minutes excepted, before his expiring, which were very calm. "There remains only for me, under this affliction, to beg the consolation and honour of succeeding to your patronage, for my Uncle's sake; and leave to number myself, with the same sincerity he ever did, among you…
Darwin lists many variable anatomical traits in domestic pigeons, noting that these differences can be so great an ornithologist might rank several breeds as well-defined species.
kept expanded, and are carried so erect that in good birds the head and tail touch; the oil-gland is quite aborted. Several other less distinct breeds might have been specified. In the skeletons of the several breeds, the development of the bones of the face in length and breadth and curvature differs enormously. The shape, as well as the breadth and length of the ramus of the lower jaw, varies in a highly remarkabl…
He argues that individual differences within the same species supply raw material for natural selection, noting that even important organs can vary, and that polymorphic groups like Rubus and Rosa complicate species boundaries.
from far northwards, would not in some cases be inherited for at least some few generations? and in this case I presume that the form would be called a variety. Again, we have many slight differences which may be called individual differences, such as are known frequently to appear in the offspring from the same parents, or which may be presumed to have thus arisen, from being frequently observed in the individuals …
He continues that competition is often strongest among species in the same genus, then states a key idea: organisms’ structures are related to competitors, prey, and escape, as shown by teeth, claws, and seed dispersal.
up for half a dozen generations, if they were allowed to struggle together, like beings in a state of nature, and if the seed or young were not annually sorted. As species of the same genus have usually, though by no means invariably, some similarity in habits and constitution, and always in structure, the struggle will generally be more severe between species of the same genus, when they come into competition with …
Darwin discusses heredity of modifications from use and disuse, using cases like flightless birds and reduced dung-beetle tarsi to argue that reduced use can produce inherited structural changes.
in affecting the reproductive system, and in thus inducing variability; and natural selection will then accumulate all profitable variations, however slight, until they become plainly developed and appreciable by us. *Effects of Use and Disuse*.—From the facts alluded to in the first chapter, I think there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals strengthens and enlarges certain parts, and disuse diminis…
He discusses examples of correlated traits in plants and animals, including links between outer and inner florets and seed forms in Compositous and Umbelliferous plants, arguing some differences may have no obvious usefulness.
orders of mammalia which are most abnormal in their dermal coverings, viz. Cetacea (whales) and Edentata (armadilloes, scaly ant-eaters, etc.), that these are likewise the most abnormal in their teeth. I know of no case better adapted to show the importance of the laws of correlation in modifying important structures, independently of utility and, therefore, of natural selection, than that of the difference between …
Darwin expands on organ transitions using cirripedes to explain respiratory structures evolving from egg-retaining folds, then discusses major remaining problems like neuter insects and electric organs.
animals: hence there seems to me to be no great difficulty in believing that natural selection has actually converted a swimbladder into a lung, or organ used exclusively for respiration. I can, indeed, hardly doubt that all vertebrate animals having true lungs have descended by ordinary generation from an ancient prototype, of which we know nothing, furnished with a floating apparatus or swimbladder. We can thus, a…
He introduces rudimentary and aborted organs, listing examples in mammals, birds, snakes, whales, calves, and insects, and explains their persistence via natural selection acting on multi-purpose structures.
period. Embryology rises greatly in interest, when we thus look at the embryo as a picture, more or less obscured, of the common parent-form of each great class of animals. *Rudimentary, atrophied, or aborted organs*.—Organs or parts in this strange condition, bearing the stamp of inutility, are extremely common throughout nature. For instance, rudimentary mammæ are very general in the males of mammals: I presume th…
Darwin explains that rudimentary organs can vary in degree, sometimes appear as aborted or vestigial structures, and occur in embryos before disappearing, supporting their value for tracing homologies.
the swim-bladder seems to be rudimentary for its proper function of giving buoyancy, but has become converted into a nascent breathing organ or lung. Other similar instances could be given. Rudimentary organs in the individuals of the same species are very liable to vary in degree of development and in other respects. Moreover, in closely allied species, the degree to which the same organ has been rendered rudimenta…
Darwin links variation within species and across species, arguing that related structures, reversions, and similar instincts across conditions are best explained by descent from common ancestors rather than independent creation.
we believe that these species have descended from a striped progenitor, in the same manner as the several domestic breeds of pigeon have descended from the blue and barred rock-pigeon! On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, why should the specific characters, or those by which the species of the same genus differ from each other, be more variable than the generic characters in which …
From thirty to fifty years old, the Cahathite Levites are counted for war-capable service in the most holy place, and detailed instructions are given for covering and transporting sanctuary objects without touching them.
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, and bade them take the sum of the children of Cahath from among the sons of Levi, in their kindreds and houses of their fathers from thirty years and above until fifty, all that were able to war, for to do the work in the tabernacle of witness: even in the most holy place. {[This shall be the office of the Kahath in the tabernacle of witness which is most holy.]} And when the …
The narrator offers observations: servants bring infection from shops and markets; London’s single pest-house was inadequate compared to multiple pest-houses; leaving the sick person and sending servants away could save families.
still to conceal their circumstances, or perhaps not knowing it themselves, gave the distemper to others, and spread the infection in a dreadful manner, as I shall explain further hereafter. And here I may be able to make an observation or two of my own, which may be of use hereafter to those into whose hands these may come, if they should ever see the like dreadful visitation. (1) The infection ge…
Kant presents twofold reason as grounded in phenomena’s form (space and time) and matter (sensation-content), calling the first mathematical via construction and the second philosophical via concepts under empirical rules.
employ the construction of conceptions, because the conception is merely a rule for the synthesis of perceptions, which are not pure intuitions, and which, therefore, cannot be given à priori. There is thus a twofold exercise of reason. Both modes have the properties of universality and an à priori origin in common, but are, in their procedure, of widely different character. The reason of this is that in the world o…
Sancho presses Don Quixote on whether he has any desire to relieve himself, and Don Quixote agrees that he feels such needs, implying his imprisonment is not enchanted.
“I do not understand ‘going anywhere,’” said Don Quixote; “explain thyself more clearly, Sancho, if thou wouldst have me give an answer to the point.” “Is it possible,” said Sancho, “that your worship does not understand ‘going anywhere’? Why, the schoolboys know that from the time they were babes. Well then, you must know I mean have you had any desire to do what cannot be avoided?” “Ah! now I understand thee, San…
She claims that declining bodily strength is a mistaken cultural ideal, and argues that genius typically coincides with strong bodies, while women are taught false “delicacy” that undermines health and replaces knowledge with inherited gender limits.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. Bodily strength from being the distinction of heroes is now sunk into such unmerited contempt, that men as well as women, seem to think it unnecessary: the latter, as it takes from their feminine graces, and from that lovely weakness, the source of their undue power; and the former, because it appears inimical with the character of a gentleman. That they have both by departing from one …
Wollstonecraft refutes claims that women mature earlier than men by appealing to examples from men’s early social exposure, then argues polygamy is a physical degradation and proposes alternative views about sex differences in maturity.
of swaggering apes of men whose understandings are narrowed by being brought into the society of men when they ought to have been spinning a top or twirling a hoop. It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men do not attain their full growth and strength till thirty; but that women arrive at maturity by twenty. I apprehend that they reason on false ground, led astray by the male prejudice, which deems b…
Freud argues against popular ideas that sexual impulse appears at puberty and aims only at heterosexual union, proposing instead that the sexual impulse (libido) varies in object and aim and must be studied scientifically.
one another. In the most extreme cases it can regularly be assumed that the inversion has existed at all times and that the person feels contented with his peculiar state. Many authors will hesitate to gather into a unit all the cases enumerated here and will prefer to emphasize the differences rather than the common characters of these groups, a view which corresponds with their preferred judgment of inversions. Bu…
Freud introduces inversion (same-sex attraction) and distinguishes absolute, amphigenous, and occasional inversions, then argues inversion is not simply congenital or degenerative and can show varied timing across life.
abandonment of the general conception of inversion. Accordingly in a number of cases the inversion would be of a congenital character, while in others it might originate from other causes. In contradistinction to this conception is that which assumes inversion to be an *acquired* character of the sexual impulse. It is based on the following facts. (1) In many inverts (even absolute ones) an early affective sexual im…
Freud discusses theories linking inversion to bisexuality and hermaphroditism, but argues psychic and somatic hermaphroditism do not closely track inversion and that the sexual object varies in mixed ways.
the normal. The inverted man, like the woman, succumbs to the charms emanating from manly qualities of body and mind; he feels himself like a woman and seeks a man. But however true this may be for a great number of inverts, it by no means indicates the general character of inversion. There is no doubt that a great part of the male inverted have retained the psychic character of virility, that proportionately they s…
He explains how oral and anal uses treat mouth and anus as genitals-like erogenous zones in hysteria, while other neuroses can shift sexual aim-making to more distant psychic apparatus regions like the eye in exhibitionism.
mucous membrane proceeding from them, become the seat of new sensations and innervating changes in a manner similar to the real genitals when under the excitement of normal sexual processes. The significance of the erogenous zones in the psychoneuroses, as additional apparatus and substitutes for the genitals, appears to be most prominent in hysteria though that does not signify that it is of lesser validity in the …
Freud lists sources of infantile sexual excitement—including temperature sensitivity, mechanical rocking, muscular fighting, fear and horror, and intellectual work—and concludes that sexual excitement follows both sensory stimulation and internal processes.
to very distinct erogenous action. Among these we will above all mention the temperature sensitiveness; this will perhaps prepare us for the understanding of the therapeutic effects of warm baths. *Mechanical Excitation.*--We must, moreover, describe here the production of sexual excitation by means of rhythmic mechanical shaking of the body. There are three kinds of exciting influences: those acting on the sensory …
Freud uses an anatomical analogy: uterine size in newborns may be larger, while Halban’s idea that sexual organs involute after birth for only a few weeks is discussed as unverified or limited.
by pleasure; even in the preparatory changes of the genitals there is a distinct feeling of satisfaction. What relation is there between this unpleasant tension and this feeling of pleasure? Everything relating to the problem of pleasure and pain touches one of the weakest spots of present-day psychology. We shall try if possible to learn something from the determinations of the case in question and to avoid encroac…
Freud argues that male–female differentiation is shaped at puberty: libido is fundamentally masculine in both sexes, while the girl’s clitoris leading zone becomes repressed and later transfers to the vagina through puberty changes and repression-driven sexual anesthesia.
DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN It is known that the sharp differentiation of the male and female character originates at puberty, and it is the resulting difference which, more than any other factor, decisively influences the later development of personality. To be sure, the male and female dispositions are easily recognizable even in infantile life; thus the development of sexual inhibitions (shame, loathing…
Durkheim claims primitive spirits are not analogous to the human soul’s residence within the body, since spirits of nature (as described for Melanesia) are more like ghosts haunting places and acting upon travellers, challenging the animist origin story.
But he is so little deceived by his own fiction that he would be the first to be surprised if it suddenly became a reality, and his toy bit him![129] Let us therefore leave these doubtful analogies to one side. To find out if men were primitively inclined to the confusions imputed to them, we should not study animals or children of to-day, but the primitive beliefs themselves. If the spirits and gods of nature were …
He describes the soul’s variable form and substance—sometimes like sand grains, sometimes animal-like—its invisibility, quasi-physical needs, and its leaving the body in sleep and death.
been carried on for centuries, though men have had no clear consciousness of it. Yet from this come the most essential, though frequently contradictory, characteristics by which it is defined. In some cases they tell us that it has the external appearance of the body.[743] But sometimes it is also represented as having the size of a grain of sand; its dimensions are so reduced that it can pass through the smallest c…
Gibbon turns to evidence about Rome’s population, criticizing Elagabalus’s joke about spider webs, and instead citing wall measurements, building practices, and rent to estimate inhabitants.
of hiring a great room, and reading his play to the company, whom he invited for that purpose. (See Dialog. de Oratoribus, c. 9, 11, and Plin. Epistol. vii. 17.)] 64 (return) [ See the dialogue of Lucian, entitled the Saltatione, tom. ii. p. 265-317, edit. Reitz. The pantomimes obtained the honorable name; and it was required, that they should be conversant with almost every art and science. Burett…
Darwin discusses the confused chemistry of metallic oxide coatings on rocks, then describes the pufferfish Diodon antennatus inflating by swallowing air and water, ejecting it through gills, and secreting a lasting carmine-red substance.
these coatings of metallic oxides, which seem as if cemented to the rocks, is not understood; and no reason, I believe, can be assigned for their thickness remaining the same. One day I was amused by watching the habits of the Diodon antennatus, which was caught swimming near the shore. This fish, with its flabby skin, is well known to possess the singular power of distending itself into a nearly spherical form. A…
On October 15th Darwin observes the scissor-beak (Rhynchops nigra) fishing at night or near twilight, describing its beak structure, flocking behavior, and how it ploughs the water to seize fish, alongside notes on other common birds.
very troublesome. I exposed my hand for five minutes, and it was soon black with them; I do not suppose there could have been less than fifty, all busy sucking. October 15th.--We got under way and passed Punta Gorda, where there is a colony of tame Indians from the province of Missiones. We sailed rapidly down the current, but before sunset, from a silly fear of bad weather, we brought-to in a narrow arm of the riv…
Darwin describes Tierra del Fuego birds like the flightless steamer duck that paddles with wings, then discusses coralline zoophytes whose cells bear vulture-like heads that move and seize objects independently of the polypi.
Tierra del Fuego, the snow-white gander, invariably accompanied by his darker consort, and standing close by each other on some distant rocky point, is a common feature in the landscape. In these islands a great loggerheaded duck or goose (Anas brachyptera), which sometimes weighs twenty-two pounds, is very abundant. These birds were in former days called, from their extraordinary manner of paddling and splashing u…
He argues that the vulture-head and bristle organs in corallines are not for egg or gemmule production, but likely relate to the branch axis, and he reports synchronized motion plus green phosphorescence traveling upward.
five seconds each turn, others moved rapidly and by starts. When touched with a needle, the beak generally seized the point so firmly, that the whole branch might be shaken. These bodies have no relation whatever with the production of the eggs or gemmules, as they are formed before the young polypi appear in the cells at the end of the growing branches; as they move independently of the polypi, and do not appear to…
Darwin describes traveling from Luxan across the Pampas and encountering a massive, fast-moving locust swarm, then recounts being attacked at night by benchuca “black bugs” that suck blood.
worn smooth and accumulated by the waves of the sea while the Pampas, covered by thistles, clover, and grass, have been formed by the ancient estuary mud of the Plata. After our two days' tedious journey, it was refreshing to see in the distance the rows of poplars and willows growing round the village and river of Luxan. Shortly before we arrived at this place, we observed to the south a ragged cloud of dark reddi…
He introduces fringing reefs: they are narrow where land drops sharply and extend farther where slopes are gentle, and reef growth reaches only to the depth where a coral foundation within 20–30 fathoms exists.
these barrier reefs based? Why, with their wide and deep moat-like channels, do they stand so far from the included land? We shall soon see how easily these difficulties disappear. We come now to our third class of Fringing-reefs, which will require a very short notice. Where the land slopes abruptly under water, these reefs are only a few yards in width, forming a mere ribbon or fringe round the shores: where the …
Darwin ascends Green Hill, notes water management and roads built for a fortress-like island, then explains volcanic bombs and describes Ascension’s Devil’s Riding School layers containing organized infusoria and plant siliceous tissues.
force, by relieving the pressure in the more central parts of the bomb, allowed the heated vapours to expand their cells, thus forming the coarse cellular mass of the centre. A hill, formed of the older series of volcanic rocks, and which has been incorrectly considered as the crater of a volcano, is remarkable from its broad, slightly hollowed, and circular summit having been filled up with many successive layers o…
Einstein describes how distances are measured using a standard rod and how positions are specified relative to a rigid body; he motivates Cartesian coordinates to avoid relying on named points.
imagine the rigid body, to which the place specification is referred, supplemented in such a manner that the object whose position we require is reached by the completed rigid body. (*b*) In locating the position of the object, we make use of a number (here the length of the pole measured with the measuring-rod) instead of designated points of reference. (*c*) We speak of the height of the cloud even when the pole …
Einstein explains that by redefining time as an imaginary coordinate the Lorentz transformation can be characterized as an invariant four-dimensional Euclidean-like equation, making the time coordinate enter natural laws like the three space coordinates.
image047 Thus we have obtained the Lorentz transformation for events on the *x*-axis. It satisfies the condition *x′*2 – *c*2*t′*2 = *x*2 – *c*2*t*2 . . . . . . (8a). The extension of this result, to include events which take place outside the *x*-axis, is obtained by retaining equations (8) and supplementing them by the relations image048 In this way we satisfy the postulate of the constancy of the velocity of …
Engels provides case examples from workhouses (Greenwich, Herne, Leicester, Coventry, and others), alleging children and adults are punished brutally and die or suffer due to neglect and inhumane confinement.
to the contrary are unavailing. In practice, the spirit and not the letter of the law is followed in the treatment of the poor, as in the following few examples: "In the workhouse at Greenwich, in the summer of 1843, a boy five years old was punished by being shut into the dead-room, where he had to sleep upon the lids of the coffins. In the workhouse at Herne, the same punishment was inflicted upon a little girl f…
Continuing his survey of workhouse abuses, he adds allegations about Leicester’s George Robson, Birmingham investigations, Bacton nursing and deaths, London St Pancras conditions, and Bethnal Green imprisonment.
this in the *Illuminated Magazine*, closes his description with the words: "If God punished men for crimes as man punishes man for poverty, then woe to the sons of Adam!" In November, 1843, a man died at Leicester, who had been dismissed two days before from the workhouse at Coventry. The details of the treatment of the poor in this institution are revolting. The man, George Robson, had a wound upon the shoulder, …
He explains that northern houses should be roofed and sheltered while southern ones should be more open to avoid heat, and he links these environmental effects to human bodies and racial traits.
Bear (the pole star P), we shall doubtless see that we have in the heaven a triangular figure like that of the musical instrument which the Greeks call the "sambuca." 6. And so, under the space which is nearest to the pivot at the bottom, off the southern portions of the line of the axis, are found nations that on account of the slight altitude of the heaven above them, have shrill and very high-pitched voices, like…
Vitruvius claims that climate shapes human physiology and even speech—heat parches and dries bodies, cold brings dampness and deeper voices—and he describes northern tallness and southern swarthiness.
are chilled by the change of temperature, and rendered torpid and motionless. It is therefore no wonder that man's intelligence is made keener by warm air and duller by cold. 10. But although southern nations have the keenest wits, and are infinitely clever in forming schemes, yet the moment it comes to displaying valour, they succumb because all manliness of spirit is sucked out of them by the sun. On the other han…
Continuing the argument, Vitruvius says nations under lower southern altitudes speak with shrill voices, mid-latitudes with middle pitch, and the far north with heavier tones due to moisture.
into five parts will produce the right width for the alae. Their lintel beams should be placed high enough to make the height of the alae equal to their width. 5. The tablinum should be given two thirds of the width of the atrium when the latter is twenty feet wide. If it is from thirty to forty feet, let half the width of the atrium be devoted to the tablinum. When it is from forty to sixty feet, divide the width i…
Continuing Monday’s travel narrative, the text describes snowy high peaks, collected fennel-like roots and sunflower seeds used as food, and a speculative explanation linking climate and constitution to Shoshone childbirth.
than when the father is an Indian. If this account be true, it may contribute to strengthen the belief, that the easy delivery of the Indian women is wholly constitutional. The tops of the high irregular mountains to the westward are still entirely covered with snow; and the coolness which the air acquires in passing them, is a very agreeable relief from the heat, which has dried up the herbage on the sides of the h…
Locke defines solidity as resistance from touch that excludes other bodies from a space, distinguishes it from impenetrability, and claims it is essential to body at every scale.
IDEA OF SOLIDITY. 1. We receive this Idea from Touch. The idea of SOLIDITY we receive by our touch: and it arises from the resistance which we find in body to the entrance of any other body into the place it possesses, till it has left it. There is no idea which we receive more constantly from sensation than solidity. Whether we move or rest, in what posture soever we are, we always feel something under us that sup…
Locke argues that bodies operate on us only by impulse and touch, transmitting motion via nerves and animal spirits to the brain, and he explains how primary and secondary qualities produce sensations through particles too small to detect.
12. By motions, external, and in our organism. If then external objects be not united to our minds when they produce ideas therein; and yet we perceive these ORIGINAL qualities in such of them as singly fall under our senses, it is evident that some motion must be thence continued by our nerves, or animal spirits, by some parts of our bodies, to the brains or the seat of sensation, there to produce in our minds the …
Locke uses bodily experience (e.g., feeling warmth or harm in limbs) to show that personal identity can persist despite change in the thinking substance, and he questions whether one person could be multiple persons.
But the question is, Whether if the same substance which thinks be changed, it can be the same person; or, remaining the same, it can be different persons? And to this I answer: First, This can be no question at all to those who place thought in a purely material animal constitution, void of an immaterial substance. For, whether their supposition be true or no, it is plain they conceive personal identity preserved i…
Locke argues that “self” depends on consciousness rather than substance: if consciousness follows the separated little finger, it would be the same person, owning the actions it reaches.
19. Self depends on Consciousness, not on Substance. SELF is that conscious thinking thing,—whatever substance made up of, (whether spiritual or material, simple or compounded, it matters not)—which is sensible or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends. Thus every one finds that, whilst comprehended under that consciousness…
Locke further claims we know little about the powers by which bodies change other bodies’ qualities and are even more ignorant about spirits, whose ideas come mainly from reflecting on our own minds.
16. Our Knowledge of the Co-existence of Power in Bodies extends but a very little Way. But as to the powers of substances to change the sensible qualities of other bodies, which make a great part of our inquiries about them, and is no inconsiderable branch of our knowledge; I doubt as to these, whether our knowledge reaches much further than our experience; or whether we can come to the discovery of most of these p…
Locke argues that substance qualities depend on external, remote, and largely unobserved causes, so objects do not contain their powers within themselves; knowing nature’s hidden causes would yield more certainty.
11. The Qualities which make our complex Ideas of Substances depend mostly on external, remote, and unperceived Causes. Had we such ideas of substances as to know what real constitutions produce those sensible qualities we find in them, and how those qualities flowed from thence, we could, by the specific ideas of their real essences in our own minds, more certainly find out their properties, and discover what quali…
He offers supporting reasons for sensation’s role in knowing external existence: we only get sense-ideas through appropriate organs, sensations differ from memory, and pleasure or pain tracks actual objects.
6. III. Thirdly, Because Pleasure or Pain, which accompanies actual Sensation, accompanies not the returning of those Ideas without the external Objects. Add to this, that many of those ideas are PRODUCED IN US WITH PAIN, which afterwards we remember without the least offence. Thus, the pain of heat or cold, when the idea of it is revived in our minds, gives us no disturbance; which, when felt, was very troublesome;…
Locke argues that pleasure or pain accompanies actual sensation but not merely recalled ideas, using examples of remembered heat, hunger, thirst, and headache to show pain depends on real external disorder.
9. But reaches no further than actual Sensation. In fine, then, when our senses do actually convey into our understandings any idea, we cannot but be satisfied that there doth something AT THAT TIME really exist without us, which doth affect our senses, and by them give notice of itself to our apprehensive faculties, and actually produce that idea which we then perceive: and we cannot so far distrust their testimony…
Faraday proposes the electro-tonic or electro-ionic state, claiming a wire under induction briefly resists steady current formation yet can originate current when released, and shows it creates no detectable attraction or repulsion by nearby magnets.
the phenomena produced by currents of electricity. For reasons which will immediately appear (71.), I have, after advising with several learned friends, ventured to designate it as the *electro-ionic* state. 61. This peculiar condition shows no known electrical effects whilst it continues; nor have I yet been able to discover any peculiar powers exerted, or properties possessed, by matter whilst retained in this sta…
Faraday lists many salts and sulphurets and reports that some become conducting only after softening and heating to red heat, while others gain no conducting power at all when liquid.
*Iodides* of potassium, zinc and lead, protiodide of tin, periodide of mercury; *fluoride* of potassium; *cyanide* of potassium; *sulpho-cyanide* of potassium. *Salts.* Chlorate of potassa; nitrates of potassa, soda, baryta, strontia, lead, copper, and silver; sulphates of soda and lead, proto-sulphate of mercury; phosphates of potassa, soda, lead, copper, phosphoric glass or acid phosphate of lime; carbonates of po…
He argues that liquefaction generally causes bodies to assume electrical conducting power, discusses links to electro-chemical decomposition, and notes exceptions such as per-iodide of mercury.
that remaining in the interstices of the solid mass, and moistening the planes of division, would prevent the correct observation of the phenomena due to entire solidification and subsequent liquefaction. 410. With regard to the substances on which conducting power is thus conferred by liquidity, the degree of power so given is generally very great. Water is that body in which this acquired power is feeblest. In the…
Faraday concludes his results prove electrochemical action depends directly on absolute quantity of electricity, and he broadens this into the doctrine of electrolytes and ions with electro-chemical equivalents.
On examining the two electrodes, the positive had lost precisely as much as the negative had gained; and by comparison with the volta-electrometer, the number for tin came out 59. 820. It is quite necessary in these and similar experiments to examine the interior of the bulbs of alloy at the ends of the conducting wires; for occasionally, and especially with those which have been positive, they are cavernous, and co…
He proposes a concrete model for induction using electrolytes: solids block current though they still charge by induction, while liquefaction allows current tied to a molecular arrangement and polarized particle states.
P i. *Induction an action of contiguous particles.* 1161. The science of electricity is in that state in which every part of it requires experimental investigation; not merely for the discovery of new effects, but what is just now of far more importance, the development of the means by which the old effects are produced, and the consequent more accurate determination of the first principles of action of the most ext…
He presents an apparatus with a glass vessel filled with gases to measure insulating resistance via spark interval changes, then reports mean discharge distances for many gases, including hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and muriatic acid gas.
[A] The drawing is to a scale of 1/6. 1384. The other part of the apparatus consisted of two insulating pillars, *h* and *i*, to which were fixed two brass balls, and through these passed two sliding rods, *k* and *m*, terminated at each end by brass balls; *n* is the end of an insulated conductor, which could be rendered either positive or negative from an electrical machine; *o* and *p* are wires connecting it wit…
Transitioning from gases to liquids and solids, Faraday claims discharge thresholds rise from air to liquids to solids due to more particles in the interval and cohesive forces in solids, while specific dielectric differences may exist.
the small balls *s* and S positively, *all* the discharge took place through the *air*; but on charging them negatively, *all* the discharge took place through the *muriatic acid gas*. 1400. So also, when the conductor *n* was connected *only* with the muriatic acid gas apparatus, it was found that the discharge was more facile when the small ball *s* was negative than when positive; for in the latter case, much of …
Faraday reports that brush forms depend strongly on the gas, while changing conductors at the emitting electrodes mainly affects how easily discharge occurs rather than its brush character.
gas in which it takes place, and opposes the idea that gases are but obstructions to the discharge, acting one like another and merely in proportion to their pressure (1377.). 1476. In *air*, the superiority of the positive brush is well known (1467. 1472.). In *nitrogen*, it is as great or even greater than in air (1458.). In *hydrogen*, the positive brush loses a part of its superiority, not being so good as in ni…
Newton states his aim in Opticks: to prove properties of light using definitions, axioms, and experiments, introducing rays, refrangibility, incidence/reflection/refraction angles, and showing how refraction governs images and visible colours through lenses, prisms, and the eye.
* * * * * THE FIRST BOOK OF OPTICKS *PART I.* My Design in this Book is not to explain the Properties of Light by Hypotheses, but to propose and prove them by Reason and Experiments: In order to which I shall premise the following Definitions and Axioms. *DEFINITIONS* DEFIN. I. _By the Rays of Light I understand its least Parts, and those as well Successive in the same Lines, as Contemporary in several Lines._ …
He measures ring diameters to infer that squared diameters follow odd-number arithmetic progression for bright rings and even-number progression for dark rings, and he computes air thicknesses between glasses.
at divers parts of the Glasses, that by their Agreement I might be confirmed in them. And the same method I used in determining some others of the following Observations. *Obs.* 6. The Diameter of the sixth Ring at the most lucid part of its Orbit was 58/100 parts of an Inch, and the Diameter of the Sphere on which the double convex Object-glass was ground was about 102 Feet, and hence I gathered the thickness of th…