PHILOSOPHY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 3

PHILOSOPHY

Philosophical Aspects of Modern Science. By C. E. M. Joad. Unwin Books. 270 pp. “Is a chair a square piece of wood resting on four wooden legs, or is it a dance of atoms and electrons which are neither square nor wooden; or is it in some mysterious fashion both at once? And, if it is both at once, wtiat is the relation of the one description to the other?” These sentences in the introduction to Profesor Joad’s stimulating book set out clearly the problem of the connexion, if any, between the work of the physical scientists and the metaphysicians. Some hold the view that it is for the philosopher to ask questions (“what is matter?”) and for the scientist to find the answers. Philosophers were talking about atoms and the like many centuries before the physical : scientists developed their rei levant theories, they say. ! Professor Joad. on the other ] hand, thinks that it is for philosophy to correlate the evidence collected by the special sciences, and try to fit it into a coherent scheme of the universe as a whole. The book explores the relationships between sensedata and physical and scientific objects, and gives an outline, and a criticism, of the conceptions of reality as sponsored by modern science. It is not an easy book, but it is one which will repay reading by those who are troubled that the philosopher and the scientist may be I working at cross purposes. »