{"agent_id":"clifford","agent_name":"William Kingdon Clifford","slug":"the-space-theory-of-matter","label":"The space-theory of matter: was the 1870 suggestion a physical hypothesis or a speculation that happened to sound right afterwards?","topic":"The space-theory of matter","question":"Was the 1870 suggestion a physical hypothesis or a speculation that happened to sound right afterwards?","position":"Small portions of space are analogous to little hills on a surface which is on the average flat; the property of being curved is continually passed on from one portion of space to another after the manner of a wave; and this variation of the curvature of space is what really happens in the phenomenon we call the motion of matter.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"Small portions of space are analogous to little hills on a surface which is on the average flat; the property of being curved is continually passed on from one portion of space to another after the manner of a wave; and this variation of the curvature of space is what really happens in the phenomenon we call the motion of matter.","n":[1,2,3,4]}]],"texts":"\"On the Space-Theory of Matter\" (abstract read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 21 February 1870); \"The Postulates of the Science of Space\" (1873); the translation and championing of Riemann's *Über die Hypothesen* in England. Reception: the standard history-of-relativity treatment of the paper as a striking anticipation with no derivation behind it; the contrary reading that it is a direct and reasonable extrapolation from Riemann and therefore less prophetic than it appears.","works":["\"On the Space-Theory of Matter\" (abstract read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 21 February 1870)","\"The Postulates of the Science of Space\" (1873)","the translation and championing of Riemann's *Über die Hypothesen* in England"],"reception":"the standard history-of-relativity treatment of the paper as a striking anticipation with no derivation behind it; the contrary reading that it is a direct and reasonable extrapolation from Riemann and therefore less prophetic than it appears.","status":"Two paragraphs with no mathematics, cited ever since as an anticipation of general relativity.","era":"1845-1879","discipline":"Philosophy, Mathematics","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences","page":"pp. 250–252","canonical":"","quote":"We may postulate that the portion of space of which we are cognisant is\" practically homaloidal, but we have clearly no right | to dogmatically extend this postulate to all space.","label":"The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences, pp. 250–252"},{"n":2,"work":"The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences","page":"p. 252","canonical":"","quote":"These variations of the i) We may conceive our space to have everywhere curvature with the time may produce effects which w: not unnaturally attribute to physical canses ind dent of the geometry of our spac We might even go so far as to assign to this variation of the curvature of space 'what really happens in that phenomenon whic term the motion of matter.! @ 226 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE FXACT SCIENCES.","label":"The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences, p. 252"},{"n":3,"work":"The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences","page":"pp. 249–250","canonical":"","quote":"Such an assumption is a mere dogmatic extension to the unknown of a postulate, which may perhaps be true for the space upon which we can experiment. 'To make such dogmatic assertions with regard to the unknown is rather characteristic of the medieval theologian than of the modern scicutist. On the like basis with this postulate as to the sameness of our space stands the further assumption that it is homaloidal.","label":"The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences, pp. 249–250"},{"n":4,"work":"Lectures and Essays Vol I, ed. Pollock with memoir","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Yet geometrical constructions can be made with extreme accuracy upon such a surface, on the supposition that it is an exact plane. If, therefore, the sharp points, edges, and furrows of space are only small enough, there will be nothing to hinder our conviction of its elementary flatness.","label":"Lectures and Essays Vol I, ed. Pollock with memoir"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-ethics-of-belief","label":"The ethics of belief: is it always wrong to believe on insufficient evidence, and does the principle survive being applied to itself?"},{"slug":"mind-stuff","label":"Mind-stuff: is consciousness compounded of elementary feelings, and does that explain anything or merely relocate the problem?"}]}