The measurement of small radio-activities: G. Hoffmann. (Zeit. f. Physik, Vol. 25, No. 3.)

✍ Scribed by G.F.S.

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1924
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 64 KB
• Volume: 198
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(24)90465-0

✦ Synopsis

philosophy, and will be more inclined to maintain that philosophers are simply in error in denying that validity. But it is not a question of truth or error; it is a question of sense or nonsense. If Dr. Troland's " universe " were the physical universe, his statements about the " logical structure of the universe " would not be merely untrue; they would be meaningless; the physical universe can no more have a logical structure (as if it were a proposition) than an electron can have a color. If his " concrete substance " were our substance, it would be as sensible to say that science gives no information about it as to say that a black cat is not black. The only alternative to accusing all philosophers of complete imbecility is to recognize that they are using words in different senses from our own. Let us be as wise as philosophers in recognizing that some ideas are beyond our grasp, and wiser in refusing to discuss them.