Material (science)

“ But with a view to the progress of science, the materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred. For it connects thought with the other phænomena of the universe, and suggests inquiry into the nature of those physical conditions, or concomitants of thought, which are more or less accessible to us, and a knowledge of which may, in future, help us to exercise the same kind of control over the world of thought, as we already possess in respect of the material world ”

“ God must and will forever remain superior to all the effects of the workings of this power.
The material universe, science tells us, is composed of some sixty-four or more elementary parts. An element cannot be resolved into two or more different substances. These elements combine under certain conditions and in certain proportions with each other to form compounds differing materially from their component parts. Everything we see in nature is formed of these elementary materials; yet, extensive as these compounds are, they are fashioned according to universal and unchangeable laws. ”

“ The edifice of science not only requires material, but also a plan, and necessitates the work of preparing the materials, putting them together, working out the plans and the symmetrical proportions of the various parts. ”

“ We advance step by step from the most solid to the most ethereal of material creations, and we examine a series of extraordinary effects produced by powers which we know not whether to regard as material or immaterial, so subtile are they. ”

“ All the physical sciences have need of some definite material (ὕλη) because they are always concerned with noses, eyes, flesh, bones, animals, plants, roots, bark, in short with material things, subject to movement. ”

“ 'The Philosophy of Nature takes up the material, prepared for it by physics out of experience, at the point to which physics has brought it, and again transforms it, without basing it ultimately on the authority of experience. Physics therefore must work into the hands of philosophy, so that the latter may translate into a true comprehension (Begriff) the abstract universal transmitted to it, showing how it issues from that comprehension as an intrinsically necessary whole. ”

“ Natural causes, as we know, are at work, which tend to modify, if they do not at length destroy, all the arrangements and dimensions of the earth and the whole solar system. But though in the course of ages catastrophes have occurred, and may yet occur, in the heavens, though ancient systems may be dissolved and new systems evolved out of their ruins, the molecules out of which these systems are built—the foundation-stones of the material universe—remain unbroken and unworn.
They continue this day as they were created, perfect in number, and measure, and weight, and, from the ineffaceable characters impressed on them, we may learn that those aspirations after accuracy in measurement, truth in statement, and justice in action, which we reckon among our noblest attributes as men, are ours, because they are essential constituents of the image of Him who in the beginning created, not only the heaven and the earth, but the materials of which heaven and earth consist. ”

“ The chemical and metallurgic arts, exercised by persons empirically acquainted with their secrets, began to be seriously studied with a view to the acquisition of rational and useful knowledge, and regular treatises on branches of natural science at length to appear. ”

“ First, we assert that there is one original formless stuff, or substance, from which all things are made. All the seemingly many elements are but different presentations of one element; all the many forms found in organic and inorganic nature are but different shapes, made from the same stuff. ”

“ Hence the words “matter” and “form,” as employed by us, have such a clear and precise sense that no room is left for their misinterpretation.
We therefore know, and clearly too, the essence of primitive material substance, whatever may be said to the contrary by some admirers of the old philosophy, who spurn the discoveries of modern physics, or by some [pg 674] modern thinkers, who revile all metaphysical analysis as mere rubbish.
The essential definition of material substance, as such, is therefore the following: Material substance is a being fit to cause and receive merely local motion. ”

“ There is a science which treats of the generation of things from their elements and of all inanimate things, as of the elements and liquids, simple and compound, common stones, gems and marble, gold and other metals, sulphur, salts, pigments, lapis lazuli, minium and other colors, oils, bitumen, and infinite more of which we find nothing in the books of Aristotle ”

“ Materialism as a doctrine of science means simply this: that whether “nature” be reality or phenomenon, in any case there is but one ultimate principle at its base, a principle relating to the movements of particles of matter. ”

“ A superficial glance at natural objects discloses to us the obvious, apparent; but science, inquiry, investigation, these are required to lay before us the hidden real facts of nature with which chemistry deals. ”

“ The constitution of matter, speaking now from an admittedly materialistic standpoint, that of the physical sciences, is a subject of vastest interest and importance to mankind, for human existence is material. ”

“ He who analyzes substances in order to decide questions solely of practical importance; who examines the properties of substances solely with a view of determining the practical uses to which these substances can be put; whose only problem relates to the applications of the truths of chemistry to the uses of man—he practises the art of chemistry.
But it is time to inquire what the science is, and what its relation to the art is. ”

“ To what purpose, or on what ground, do we arrange the results of chemical analysis according to the forms and subordination of natural history? Is not Chemistry a science distinct from Natural History? ”

“ When I speak of bodies, I mean substances, of whatever nature, whether solid or fluid; and matter is the general term used to denote the substance, whatever its nature be, of which the different bodies are composed. Thus, the wood of which this table is made, the water with which this glass is filled, and the air which we continually breathe, are each of them matter. ”

“ Our view, therefore, is that the concept of materiality can, in the way just indicated, be in all cases analysed into, and derived from, the conception of Energy; and that Science, if consistent, cannot [88] postulate the reality of Matter as well. Potential Energy adequately supplies the demand for a real substratum of which phenomena are the manifestation. ”

“ What is the world made of? According to the ancient doctrine of the Four Elements, all things are formed of fire, air, earth, and water; and the varieties and differences in the properties of bodies depend entirely on the proportion in which these great principles are mingled. ”

“ That in which this invention is mainly concerned consists first in transferring the phenomena, activities, and conditions of a higher level of fact in a way that illustrates the content of less important material, and in bringing to light significances of such inferior matter in the form and image which stands above them. The organic, for example, is by itself essentially of higher importance than the inorganic, and to carry forward that which has no life within, the range of vital phenomenal enhances its expression. ”

“ Under the head of physics we have the theory of the elements, of sound, heat and cohesion, and finally of chemical affinity—presenting the phenomena of material change and interchange in a series of special forces which generate the variety of the life of nature. ”

“ The transformations of chemistry, by which we are enabled to convert the most apparently useless materials into important objects in the arts, are opening up to us every day sources of wealth and convenience of which former ages had no idea, and which have been pure gifts of science to man. Every department of art has felt their influence, and new instances are continually starting forth of the unlimited resources which this wonderful science developes in the most sterile parts of nature. ”

“ It was necessary to strip off all these garments, to appeal to simple personal direct experience for the actual core of fact, and to show that that core, so far from being soluble by analysis into what science counts as nothing, is itself, like every other natural organic function, a fact of science. ”

“ It may be said that, after all, Art does really involve the knowledge which Science delivers;—that the artisan who raises large weights, practically knows the properties of the mechanical powers;—that he who manufactures chemical compounds is virtually acquainted with the laws of chemical combination. ”

“ As matter and motion comprise everything we can behold or conceive, and as Chemistry is an investigation of the properties of matter, with the causes and effects of its various combinations, it is evidently the most important part of science, or rather, the first and last part of it. The cultivation of the earth—the cookery of our food—its quantity and quality, and every thing connected with feeding the body—the preservation of our health, and the very preparation of our clothing, may be said to be comprised in the terms chemical analysis and composition. ”

“ The remainder of the essay endeavors to meet the charge of materialism. The following is the conclusion:—"In itself it is of little moment whether we express the phaenomena of matter in terms of spirit; or the phaenomena of spirit in terms of matter: matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of matter—each statement has a certain relative truth. But with a view to the progress of science, the materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred. ”

“ It is sufficient to say that the fundamental sciences are those that embrace distinct departments of the natural forces or phenomena; and the derivative or concrete departments assume all the laws laid down in the others, and apply them in certain spheres of natural objects. For example, Chemistry is a primary, fundamental, or abstract science; and Mineralogy is a derivative and concrete science. In Chemistry the stress lies in explaining a peculiar kind of force, called chemical force; in Mineralogy the stress is laid on the description and classification of a select group of natural objects. ”

“ Hence bodies may be discovered, which,—from the imperfections of science,—resisting our means of analysis, must, for a time, be regarded as new elements, whereas they are possibly only altered states of the same substance. ”

“ Modern science has satisfactorily demonstrated the compound nature of fire, air, earth, and water, and they can no longer be regarded as elements. By the term element, we understand any kind of matter which up to the present time has never been decomposed into constituents, and which consequently appears to have a simple nature. ”

“ Taking these two, Matter and Energy, as distinct, let us concentrate for a little upon each of them separately. Let us first turn attention upon Matter. This form of existence is most easily contemplated, as most directly presenting itself to observation. A piece of metal may best serve for illustration, such as the iron out of which we form so many of our industrial implements. ”

“ But it cannot be said that any theory yet propounded is sufficiently exact to embrace the whole of the known phenomena, and the questions,—What is crystallogenic attraction, and what is the physical nature of the ultimate particles of matter,—are still open for the inquiries of that genius which delights in wrestling with the secrets of nature. ”

“ Throughout the entire organic world, and even down to the inorganic creation, down to the world of crystals, nothing that wears a specific form attains the full perfection of that form. I once requested a friend of mine, a mathematician, to reduce to a single formula the curves of an ivy-leaf. ”

“ Every element should have its relations to the forces of Nature thoroughly fixed and tabulated. Even the rarest elements ought not to be neglected, since each one has its scientific importance, fills a place in some series or groups, and, for purposes of generalization, is of as great interest as any other. ”

“ The forms and properties of brute nature having been sufficiently defined by the previous classes of numbers, the organic world, both vegetable and animal, remains outstanding, and offers a higher series of phenomena for our investigation. All exact knowledge relating to the forms and sizes of living things, their numbers, the quantities of various compounds which they consume, contain, or excrete, their muscular or nervous energy, &c. must be placed apart in a class by themselves. ”

“ The more securely chemistry had established its household, the more willingly were its services offered to its neighbors. In investigating the composition of minerals, an exact science was created out of our collections of specimens. ”

“ I do not mean merely practical discoveries made empirically, but the chief part of this progress is attributable to the highest theoretical conceptions of the positive sciences. Thus all the modern industries of metals, stones, wood, work in materials of every sort, rest upon the general discoveries of chemistry and mechanics. ”

“ The worker in metal, the painter, the dyer, the vintner, the brewer, all the artisans in short who deal with practical chemistry, are able to teach the speculative chemist that it is an utter mistake to expect that the qualities of the elements shall be still discoverable, in an unaltered form, in the compound. This first rude notion of an element, that it determines the properties of bodies by resemblance, must be utterly rejected and abandoned before we can make any advance towards a true apprehension of the constitution of bodies. ”