The Analysis of Matter is the product of thirty years of thinking by one of the twentieth century's best-known philosophers. An inquiry into the philosophical foundations of physics, it was written against the background of stunning new developments in physics earlier in the century, above all relativity, as well as the excitement around quantum theory, which was just being developed.
Concerned to place physics on a stable footing at a time of great theoretical change, Russell argues that the concept of matter itself can be replaced by a logical construction whose basic foundations are events. He is careful to point out that this does not prove that matter does not exist, but it does show that physicists can get on with their work without assuming that matter does exist. Russell argues that fundamental bits of ''matter'', such as electrons and protons, are simply groups of events connected in a certain way and their properties are all that are required for physics.
This Routledge Classics edition includes the 1992 Introduction by John G. Slater.
Introduction to the Routledge Classics edition John G. Slater
Preface
1. The Nature of the Problem
Part 1: The Logical Analysis of Physics
2. Pre-Relativity Physics
3. Electrons and Protons
4. The Theory of Quanta
5. The Special Theory of Relativity
6. The General Theory of Relativity
7. The Method of Tensors
8. Geodesics
9. Invariants and Their Physical Interpretation
10. Weyl’s Theory
11. The Principle of Differential Laws
12. Measurement
13. Matter and Space
14. The Abstractness of Physics
Part 2: Physics and Perception
15. From Primitive Perception to Common Sense
16. From Common Sense to Physics
17. What is an Empirical Science
18. Our Knowledge of Particular Matters of Fact
19. Data, Inferences, Hypotheses, and Theories
20. The Causal Theory of Perception
21. Perception and Objectivity
22. The Belief in General Laws
23. Substance
24. Importance of Structure in Scientific Inference
25. Perception From the Standpoint of Physics
26. Non-Mental Analogues to Perception
Part 3: The Structure of the Physical World
27. Particulars and Events
28. The Construction of Points
29. Space-Time Order
30. Causal Lines
31. Extrinsic Causal Laws
32. Physical and Perceptual Space-Time
33. Periodicity and Qualitative Series
34. Types of Physical Occurrences
35. Causality and Interval
36. The Genesis of Space-Time
37. Physics and Neutral Monism
38. Summary and Conclusion.
Index
Biography
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century and a celebrated writer and commentator on social and political affairs.
'The whole book is candid and stimulating and, for both its subject and its treatment, one of the best that Mr. Russell has given us.' - The Times
