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Physical Continuity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Frederic B. Fitch
Frederic B. Fitch*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

Mathematical continuity, in the technical sense, is a precisely definable mathematical notion which refers to certain properties of numbers and number sequences. The continuity of the physical world, on the other hand, is rather different from mathematical continuity, since it is a directly experienced attribute of nature and does not require, for being understood, any mathematical theory of properties of numbers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , October 1936 , pp. 486 - 493
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1936

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Footnotes

1

Sterling Fellow, 1935–36. During 1934–35, when this paper was first drafted, the author held a Du Pont Research Fellowship at The University of Virginia.

References

2 Cp. G. T. Whyburn, “On the structure of continua,” Bul. Am. Math. Soc., Vol. 42 (1936), pp. 49–73.

3 This does not imply any indeterminateness of causal connection, but merely an indeterminateness of the states between which determinate causal connection may hold. Cp. F. S. C. Northrop, “The philosophical significance of the concept of probability in quantum mechanics,” Philos. of Science, Vol. 3 (1936), pp. 215–232.

4 I am indebted to Prof. H. Margenau for this term. See his “Methodology of modern physics,” Philos. of Science, Vol. 2 (1935), pp. 48–72, 164–187, esp. 174 ff.

5 Cp. L. Landau and R. Peierls in Zeits. f. Physik, Vol. 69 (1931), pp. 56–69.

6 Wm. Bender, “The method of physical coincidences and the scale coordinate” Philos. of Science, Vol. 1 (1934), pp. 253–272.

7 W. M. Malisoff, “An examination of the quantum theories. IV,” Philos. of Science, Vol. 2 (1935), pp. 334–343. See also, loc. cit., p. 335, references to Seeger and Lindsay; also, A. Einstein, “On the method of theoretical physics,” Philos. of Science, Vol. 1 (1934), pp. 163–169, esp. p. 169.

8 Loc. cit., p. 336.