My Philosophy

Representing my Views on the Many Functions of the Ether of Space

Cambridge University Press

In his study of optics, Newton postulated that light, like sound, must be carried through a medium, and that this medium must exist even in a vacuum. By the late nineteenth century, this theoretical substance was known as the luminiferous ether. But the ether theory faced several problems. If the earth moved through ether, there would be ether wind, and light travelling against the flow would move more slowly than light travelling with it. That was soon disproven. Nor could the ether be stationary: by 1905, Einstein's work on relativity had disproven absolute motion. In this fascinating advocacy of ether, first published in 1933, Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940) fiercely defends ether against the new physics, arguing for solid models over mathematical abstractions, and urging new ether experiments. With in-depth references to Einstein, Jeans and Eddington, this book is still relevant to students in the history of science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lodge, Oliver

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte

Inhalt

Foreword; Part I. An Elementary Survey of Physical Existence: 1. The constitution of things around us; 2. The progress of physical science; 3. Design and purpose in the universe; 4. Religion and science; 5. The organism and the control; 6. The property of inertia; 7. Summary of new knowledge; 8. Machinery of guidance; Part II. Evidence for and Controversies Concerning the Ether: 9. Matter, energy and the ether; 10. The ether and the forms of energy; 11. Faraday's conception of the ether; 12. Modern gibes at the ether; 13. The physical aspect of the universe; 14. Views of Thomas Young, Newton and Fresnel; 15. The ether and relativity; 16. Magnetism and the ether, with suggestions for experiment; 17. Summary of our present knowledge about the ether; Part III. Introduction of Life and Mind: 18. The interaction of the psychical with the physical; 19. Life and mechanism; 20. A psychical function suggested for the ether of space; 21. Ether and the soul; Part IV. The Evidence for Survival and its Mechanism: 22. Evidence for and mechanism of survival; 23. On the difficulty of proving individual survival; 24. On the reasons for the non-recognition of psychical research by the majority of the scientific world; 25. On the apparent element of caprice introduced by the spiritistic hypothesis; 26. The whole organically considered; 27. The spiritistic hypothesis; 28. The bearing of the theory upon religions; Index.