IX. Absolute Rest. Absolute Position in Space.
To any one who has examined critically the foundations of the theory of relativity it has certainly become apparent that the unexpected conclusions to which one is led concerning the relations of systems of reference is intimately connected with the point of view which the observer on each system takes in making his measurements. Each observer assumes his system to be at rest; and there seems to be no reason for preferring one assumption to the other or for replacing both of them by a third.
If, however, there were such a thing as absolute rest, or absolute position in space, the matter would be different. Each observer should reckon his velocity relative to that absolute; and the reason for divergence which existed before would no longer be found. We should, however, find it necessary to revise many of our "laws of nature," among them the postulates of relativity, if these laws are to be stated with reference to an absolute.
Since it appears to the present writer that absolute rest and absolute position are indefinable, this matter will be dismissed without further consideration.
X. Relation of the Theory of Relativity to the Philosophical Controversy concerning the One and the Many.
The author is probably due the reader an apology for injecting into this paper any remarks concerning the abstruse and difficult question as to whether the universe is monistic or pluralistic — a question which has engaged philosophers from the time of the earliest Greek thinkers down to our own day. But if any one of the special sciences has some light to throw on a question of such profound general importance it seems desirable that those engaged in the study of that science should make it known.
If we accept the statement of one of the most eminent philosophers of our day that the universe is one to us in so far (and only in so far) as we know the connections by which it is bound into a One, it will doubtless be interesting to us to examine in what way the theory of relativity leads us to observe new connections. To speak briefly of these is my purpose in the present section.
I. We have already seen that time is not something apart from one who measures it and the system to which he belongs, and that (so far as we are concerned, at least) there is an intimate interlocking of time and space in an essential manner so that we are not able absolutely to extricate the one from the other. That is to say, there is a mutual interdependence of space and time for us who measure them so that we have
