Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-27
TAOS PHILOSOPHY
LOSES TO SCIENCE
Chinese Could Have Built Up
Great Structure With
Modern knowledge.
BY ii. H. SHELDON,
Professor OF Physics, N. Y. u.

Professor OF Physics, N Y. u.
last night I dreamed that was a
butterfly. In my dreams I behaved as
butterfly. / thought like a butter
fly. My mind was quite divorced from
that of a man. Today think 1 am a
man. How do I know that I am not a
butterfly dreaming that am a mani"
So. in effect. is the thought of the an
cient Chinese philosopher, Tao, the
father of the philosophy of SAY moth
ing. do nothing"
Tao influenced the lives Of the Chi
neSe for centuries and no doubt still
does influence this nation somewhat. II
was necessary for him to base his en-
tire philosophy upon such arguments
as that given above. It is interesting
to imagine what a wonderful structure
he might have built had he the knowl-
edge of modern science that exists
today.
New Theories Applied.
The earth no longer occupies the i'm
portant place in the universe that 1t
did. We have the whole philosophy OF
the fourth dimension to work with. We
have the Einstein theory. the bounded
universe curved space, light with mass,
mass convertible to light, the fact that
all mass is composed of the same build
ing blocks. We have the electrical the
ory of transmission of stimuli through
nerves, we have the chromosome theory
of heredity and an endless variety of
things which prove that, after all, man
is but a physical-chemtcal machine
which responds, curiously enough, to
outside stimuli.
It is. of course. impossible. except ir
"a N diCH1IEc
these phenomena which might belittle
the importance of man. But let us
consider a few Of them. Take the mo-
lecular theory, for example. The early
Greek philosophers knew something
about this In fact. Democritus de-
scribed the molecular theory almost as
We know it today. He described matter
as discontinuous. as being made up OF
tiny particles which had motions.
Molecules Form All Matter.
Now we have both mathematical and
experimental evidence that the Specu-
lations OF this philosopher were sub
Stantially correct. We know that all
matter is composed of molecules which
are in constant motion with enormous
velocity. We know that they are con-
stantly colliding and rebounding. We.
also know, and Tao would have liked
large as compared to their own size.
If we add to this fact that the dis
lance apart of the pieces that go TO
make up the molecules is also tremen-
dous as compared to the size OF these
and, If we now say that II I'VE could
compress all these parts so that they
represented actually a solid mass, q
human being would be no larger than
a louise. you now see what WonderIJ
ammunition we would have supplied to
Tao. We could now Immediately arrive
at the conclusion that a human being
is of no more consequence than a louise,
and every one knows how little tmpor-
lance we attache to his apparently busy
life.
Same Material in Structure.
And now. if we examine the struc-
tllre of this same louise we shall until
mately find that he is made up OF the
same materials as we are. We shall
find that the molecules of which he Is
composed are made up of atoms and
that these are, in turn, made up OF
particles which are charged with either
plus or minus electricity, the ultimate
building blocks Of which all matter is
composed.
The really astonishing thing. and
that which shows some plan to the
universe. is that in spite OF this SIM
ilarity of materials, he grew up to be
a louise, while we grew up to be men,
and that we stopped growing when he
did. Perhaps Tao would not have found
these things convenient to discuss.
Mystery in Molecular Forces.
On the other hand, we may yet pro-
vide all the material necessary to answer
even these questions. At the present
time we know much about the structure
of matter. We know that all matter Is
made up of molecules and"that 1t is
held together by forces of attraction,
but we do not know how to bring
these forces into action except to very
limited degree. 1t is true. theoretically.
hat II all the molecules in square inch
IF iron we're to be equally and complete
ly effective, it would require 100000
pounds tension square inch to break it.
Ordinary structural steel will require
about 30 900 pounds a square inch. The
best piano wire will require about 400
600 pounds a square inch to break 1t.
Thus, in spite of our boosted knowl-
edge of molecules. even in so simple a
case as this we only reach 10 per cent
success. How much less do we know
of the behavior of molecules in mice
and men?
CoIors Merely Reflected.
The subject of light and color Is also
interesting from this philosophical
viewpoint All cats are black in the
dark. No object possesses any color OF
itself. 1t is only in the nature of dis
tribution of its molecules that it pos
sesses the ability to reflect or transmit
certain colors red rag is not red II
1t Is illuminated with green light. There
will be no red for it to reflect and so
it will appear black.
Light is made up of waves and 1t Is
the difference in these waves which the
eye interprets as color. Different
length waves will cause different kinds
of alternating currents to be set up
in the nerves going from the eye to the
brain and these the brain interprets as
color. In reality there is, then. no
color. This is a drab world in which
u.a live Some animals for example,