Truth and Error or the Science of Intellection/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII
COÖPERATION
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We have already discovered the nature of motion in its absolute as speed and its relative as path. The speed of the ultimate particle has never been measured; but bodies as such have their specific speeds and one is greater than another. Speed of a body is the rate at which it changes its position, regardless of the change of position of its particles to one another. The speed of one body may be taken as the measure of the rate of speed of another, and the process used gives rise to the formula of L + T. The length of path is divided by the time in which it is traversed. Thus to convert motion into number it must first be converted into terms of space.
We have discovered, in preceding chapters, the transmutations which motions undergo by incorporation when they become forces. In order that they may be treated mathematically, it is necessary that they should be resolved into the quantitative categories and expressed in numbers. This resolution is accomplished by measurement, and different formulae are employed which in mathematical science are called the equations of acceleration, force, impulse, energy and power. They are all devices for reducing force to motion and motion to number.
In molecular bodies motions are correlated in a manner yet unknown, but molecules are known to have interior motions exhibited in response to motions in the ether as its particles impinge on ponderable matter. The correlated structural motions of the molecule may be transmuted by collision with ethereal particles and be converted into heat—a mode of motion—so that which is structural motion will appear as heat, and if the transmutation is carried to a sufficient degree the structure of a molecular body will be destroyed, for by heat molecules are reduced to lower molecules or to atoms. Thus what appears in the molecule as structural motion appears in the particle as heat; and when disparate particles are incorporated in a molecule heat becomes molecular or structural motion. This may be stated in another way. By incorporation vibratory motion becomes structural motion; by decorporation structural motion becomes vibratory motion. We know that in stellar systems that which is structural motion in the system is vibratory or rhythmic motion in the particle; and we may conceive that stellar rhythms might be so modified in elongation or other ways that the structure of the system would be destroyed. Hence we may conjecture that in the molecule the rhythms of the particles become the structure of the molecule when these rhythms are systematic. There is much in the phenomena of motion which suggests that such is the case. In a previous chapter a brief statement was made to exhibit the universality of rhythm. That structural motion is always systematic vibration seems worthy of acceptation as a working hypothesis. The form of force known as energy may appear in another phase as a succession of distinct forces impinging upon a single body producing effects which remain with that body. Energy in this phase is called process; thus a succession of waves of air may beat upon a tree and then action and reaction are successively involved in vibration. It is a process by which gravity deflects the stars into revolutions and it must always be a process by which particles are deflected while they are incorporated in bodies. A multitude of processes appearing in inorganic nature have already been exhibited, while processes which appear in the vegetal realm were noted.
In nature processes are developed into modes of force known as powers. The meteor falls upon the earth and acts as a hammer. Boulders are carried by streams and act as hammers and produce effects as such which the particles acting separately could not produce. Thus collisions which might result simply in deflection if the particles acted severally, produce fracture when they act conjointly. Particles may produce pressure when they act separately, but when they act conjointly pressures may lead to rupture. By the device of the lever forces are multiplied in effect without increase or diminution of force as such; the same is true in the pulley, the wedge and the screw.
All directed motions are motions subjected to conditions. These conditions are causes which produce effects, so that the consequent condition differs from the antecedent condition; that is, the effect differs from the cause. Two bodies collide and their paths are deflected; the antecedent direction differs from the consequent direction. Thus forces are motions subjected to causes which produce changes of condition which we call effects. Here we see again that there can be no motion without causation, and while they cannot exist apart, they can be considered separately; but the separation is only ideal.
It is now proposed to give an outline of the forces as they appear in the different realms of nature to exhibit the universality of coöperation.
In the ethereal realm we recognize light, magnetism, heat, gravity and electricity. These are usually known as motions which are measured in amplitude and rate, and the kinds are distinguished as numerically different rates of vibration. Thus classification is directly resolved into enumeration, and again number is kind. This is illustrated in the classification of light as colors which depend upon rates of vibration.
Something more than motion is manifested by the ether.
Light is the expression of ether as number and kind in the colors. Magnetism is the expression of space and form in position and direction. Heat is the expression of motion as force. Gravity is the expression of time as causation. Electricity is the expression of affinity as electrolysis. When the electric discharge is manifested by the electric sparks or the flash of lightning, it is manifested as light. Thus ether manifests the pentalogic concomitants both in quantitative and classific properties.
It manifests these properties by producing effects on ponderable matter, which effects appear to the senses and to the reasoning faculties as exhibiting quantitative and categoric properties; for example, light exhibits number to the mind, and when analyzed by the prism it exhibits color or kinds of light. Magnetism exhibits space relations in polarity and form relations in attraction. Heat exhibits motion in the particles of bodies as vibrations which may be increased in amplitude until the incorporation of the body is destroyed, when only space relations appear. Gravity manifests itself in pressure as continuous action, which appears as acceleration of speed in the falling body and as the cause of the fall. Electrolysis exhibits decorporation or the dissolution of the bonds of affinity, and reincorporation 6r the establishment of new bonds of affinity.
In the ethereal realm particles in inconceivable numbers coöperate in the production of effects in multiplied ways.
In the stellar realm the ethereal forces are found, for the stars exhibit the phenomena of light, magnetism, heat, gravity and electricity through the medium of the ether, not only because the ether surrounds the stellar bodies, but also that it seems to permeate them.
There are molecular forces believed to exist in stars as chemism; but the theater upon which their action may be studied is on the surface of the earth.
The forces exhibited in stars and in the systems of which the stars are particles are centripetal and centrifugal, as rotatory and revolutional. Gravity is a force which acts upon stellar bodies through a medium and which is transmuted into rotation and revolution and is again manifested in the figures of the bodies of the solar system, for they have the spheroidal form.
Thus the ether coöperates with the stellar orbs by transmitting light, magnetism, heat, gravity and electricity from one to another. These transmissions are made not by extracting them from one orb and transporting them to another as if they were bodies, but by inducing the motions in ether by which they are expressed, which in turn are induced by the ether in the body receiving them as an effect the cause of which is in the emitting body. In the language of the sciences of the ether the five ethereal concomitants are called radiant forces, but perhaps it would conduce to sound reasoning if they were designated radiant causations.
So also in the celestial realm body coöperates with body. The orbs of the solar system coöperate with one another in producing the solar system itself as a body, and they coöperate with one another through the medium of the ether in radiant causation as reciprocal cause and effect.
In the terrestrial realm the spherical bodies coöperate with one another in producing strains and stresses which induce chemical reaction, and thus are the cause of the special mode of motion which we call chemism. So sphere coöperates with sphere, formation with formation, rock with rock, molecule with molecule in the reincorporation of mineral substances, which is a reincorporation of forces as well as of forms.
Molecules of air coöperate with molecules of air in a wind. Molecules of water coöperate with molecules of water in a rain; molecules of air and water coöperate in a storm, while molecules of air, water and particles of dust coöperate with one another that vapor may be transformed into water antecedent to the storm. Molecules of water coöperate with molecules of water to constitute the stream, the current, the wave and the glacier, while molecules of rock coöperate in the boulder as it grinds its way, coöperating with other rocks in corrading the channel.
The terrestrial spheres coöperate with one another in all geological processes. Upheaval and subsidence with flexure and faulting are produced by the coöperation of the nucleus in yielding to pressure derived from the building of formations with material transported by the river, which was disintegrated by the action of rain which fell as storm blown by the wind caused by unequal temperatures induced by the ether caused by the heat of the sun. Endless illustrations can be given of coöperation in the terrestrial realm.
In the vegetal realm by the coöperation of protoplasmic particles chemical force is transformed into vital force and processes coöperate with one another in the same body. The process of absorption by the rootlets coöperates with the process of transportation to the leaves, and here they both coöperate with the process of transpiration, and these coöperate with the processes of osmosis in the redistribution of the materials to the growing parts, and these again coöperate with the process of assimilation where the growth takes place, and all of these processes coöperate with the process of reproduction by which the seed is formed.
Beside the coöperation in production above noticed, an additional coöperation is discovered in the higher forms, where individuals coöperate as sexes in their reproductive function. The vegetal forces coöperate with terrestrial forces in the disintegration of rocks into soils, in which function they also coöperate with chemism, gravity, and ethereal force. Thus coöperation in the vegetal realm extends throughout the universe.
In the zoönomic realm all other forces of nature coöperate with the forces of animal life to accomplish motility. That the organism itself is a system of coöperating powers in which the function of every organ is necessary to the continuance of the function of the others is commonplace doctrine.
First we note that metabolism consists of two correlative systems, one of anabolism, the other of catabolism; that is, the one builds up, the other tears down. They are not only correlative, but to a large extent they are contemporaneous. In fact, there can be no building up without tearing down; that is, no placement which is not displacement, except that material may be stored adjacent to organs as fatty substances, to be used as needed after it has thus been stored.
In the animal body functional coöperation becomes still more efficient by more thorough specialization, when multiple like organs of like functions are eradicated.
In animal life the body is moved by the differentiated movements of its component parts. The body as a particle moves by impact from external influences in the higher incorporation of the earth, but it also moves as an individual by the differentiation of its own internal movements ideally determined. This force is motility as it is exhibited in all locomotion, by which we mean all motions of the parts of the body which are directly related to the environment by which the whole body or any part of the body may be carried from one place to another.
Through motility the property of judgment becomes the guide of the animal body, determining the movements of the parts, stimulating the function of one organ, inhibiting the function of another and causing them all to coöperate to a mentally determined end. Judgment thus controls function and through it produces locomotion, by which the parts of the body are changed in relation to one another, and by this power of changing the place of parts the power of changing the place of the whole is accomplished in the more restricted sense expressed by the term locomotion. Thus we make a distinction between vitality as a method of molecular motion and motility as a method of organic motion directed by opposing or correlative muscles, motility being thus directed by contraction and relaxation, which results in all forms of locomotion. In this manner food is masticated, swallowed, and moved along the intestinal canal and delivered to the circulatory system by appropriate muscles; then it is taken up by the circulatory system and moved by the heart with certain accessory muscles, and as the circulation proceeds excretory materials are discharged, all by appropriate muscles. There are also muscles for the movement of the limbs, all adapted to locomotion. Then there are muscles necessary for the reproductive functions and finally there are muscles for the movement of organs of sense. All of the motions thus indicated in a summary manner are the result of the forces which we call motility to distinguish it from vitality, which is molecular force. Motility is controlled by metabolism, and is the metabolism of opposing muscles where one contracts and the other relaxes. The reason for explaining contraction and relaxation in this manner was set forth in a previous chapter. We thus see how the processes of metabolism and motility coöperate. We also see that all of the organs of one system, as that of digestion, or that of circulation and excretion, coöperate. We also see that systems coöperate with systems. Finally it must be noted that all of the other systems coöperate under the direction of the nervous system, and are thus obedient to mind, being under the control of volition, which is choice of activity, which is the choice of affinity—the mutual selection of particles of matter for molecular association. If all of this reasoning is valid, affinity is molecular choice in the animate body, and we may hence conclude that all affinity is molecular choice, as it seems to be, for chemists who do not ignore affinity never find any other way of rendering the facts into language. So that affinity is practically synonymous with selection. I will to cross the street, I will to walk, I will to set the organs of walking in motion, and I accomplish it by controlling the affinities of molecules in metabolism. Thus a system of organs has been developed by which muscular metabolism may be accomplished by a constant supply of new material for anabolism, and a constant discharge of waste material by catabolism.
We cannot conceive or express these facts in any way except by teleologic concepts. It is now a fundamental doctrine of evolution that the organism is developed through the accumulation of effects by individuals in successive generations. Not that each individual in the hereditary line has such a concept of the future that he could foretell the ultimate result, but that he had such a concept of the immediate future that he purposely planned and executed immediate action, and while a perfect state was not known so that every action was the right action for the ultimate benefit of the race, yet the judgments of action were usually judgments of immediate benefit to be derived, and these judgments resulted in action, whether good or evil, for of necessity they were followed by action without waiting for their verification by experience. We have already seen that judgments of intellection do not become judgments of cognition until they are verified. Judgments of action result in immediate action, and are verified after the act only when they appear as sentiments of good or evil to control the will.
Let us see how this control of the functions is accomplished, and what part the different portions of the system take in the mental activities as they control the mechanical action. The brain seems to be the organ of mentation, but there are ganglia in the different mechanical organs which take a subordinate part in the general system of mentation in locally controlling motility by exciting or inhibiting activity. It is not necessary that the brain should deal with every muscle, but only with general ideas of action, while the ganglia control the details of activity, for there is a hierarchy of authorities which ramify to every cell particle in the system. Thus the brain has the means of inciting metabolism in every particle of the body. This is the machinery of habit by which customary actions are rendered apparently automatic. By an analogous process of reasoning we must conclude that every particle of matter in the system has judgment as consciousness and inference, and that these judgments are transmitted by the sensory nerves to ganglia in a collecting hierarchy which finally reaches the brain. The organs of sense sending their judgments by the sensory nerves from the exterior, the organ of feeling from the interior, and we are compelled to infer that every particle of matter in the animate body has judgment; and that in the organs of sense they have judgments of cognition, but in the mechanical organs they have judgments of good and evil. Then we may consistently infer that the ganglia are organs of conception, and we come back to the statement that the brain is the organ of mentation, which does not deal with judgments individually, but only with concepts.
In reaction animals coöperate with plants, rocks, orbs and ethereal bodies. The systems of coöperation of which we have made mention are developed into a higher sphere, and a new mode is discovered in human activities, as every man coöperates with his environment. We have seen how in motility the internal motions of the body are converted into external motions by deforming the body itself. By motility as expressed in locomotion, the animal body can change the relation of its parts, and thus of the whole body in relation to external parts, while all such changes of relation are in obedience to mind. The animal body, therefore, can move itself in relation to external bodies in a limited manner, and can thus impinge upon them and coöperate with external bodies at will.
In the coöperation of animal with animal, societies are organized. These societies are highly developed and best illustrated in human life. Men, through activities, coöperate with other men. We thus have a vast assemblage of coöperations, but in these activities the man must necessarily coöperate with plants, rocks, orbs, and ether as well as with other men.
The activities in which men engage are all designed to accomplish purposes, and in order that these ends may be reached, man invents by minute increments sundry agencies by which they may more adequately be reached. In order that we may understand this subject, consider the purposes to be accomplished. By a careful examination of all human activities and the purposes directly subserved, it will be found that they are naturally grouped in five classes. First, man pursues pleasure, and those things which give him pleasure are sought. These are the ambrosial, decorative, athletic, divinatory, and fine-art pleasures. Second, man naturally pursues welfare in length of life and abundance of health, and seeks to avoid disease and death. By these are produced those activities which are called industries. Under industries we have to consider kind, form, force, history and purpose. Third, for pleasure and welfare man has found it well to associate, and to promote these associations he finds it necessary to regulate conduct. He therefore naturally pursues justice, and that gives rise to institutions which are constitutive, legislative, executive, operative, and judicative. This leads to a fourth form of activity, which again divides into two forms, activity of expression and activity of reception. Thus it is that man invents languages which are emotional, gestural, oral, written, and technical. Fifth; but man in the pursuit of pleasure, welfare, justice and expression discovers that he makes many mistakes, and that pain, misery, injustice and misunderstanding are secured instead of the desired ends. He thus finds it advisable to pursue wisdom, and organizes the necessary agencies. Therefore these are the agencies for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, observation, acculturation, education, publication and research; for this diffusion it becomes necessary to teach and to learn; so research and instruction appear and become pursuits of life for wisdom. These pursuits of wisdom imply both teaching and learning.
Now, we have pleasure, welfare, justice, expression, and wisdom as the purpose of the five grand classes of activities. These activities are indissolubly associated, for it is found that one end cannot be accomplished without accomplishing them all. The act which is designed for pleasure becomes pain if it does not conduce to welfare; the act designed for welfare may decrease life if justice is not secured. The pursuit of justice may result in injustice if truth is neglected. The end pursued for truth may lead to error if wisdom is not reached. All of the permutations between pleasure, welfare, justice, expression and wisdom may be examined, and forever it will be found that they are indissolubly connected, and must coöperate in order that the end may be reached by the individual.
At the same time the individuals have their activities differentiated, so that the labors of every man are to a greater or less extent distinguished from the labors of every other man in every organized society. All of this differentiation of labor upon which the highest civilization depends illustrates in the most forcible manner the nature of coöperation, for society itself is organized upon the theory of coöperating activities.
In these activities men not only coöperate with one another, but they individually and collectively coöperate with nature, and thus external nature is made to assist man.
The club is but an instrument to coöperate with the hand to increase its efficiency. The flail is but a club with a handle for increased efficiency. The thresher is but a group of clubs placed upon a cylinder and made to revolve to increase efficiency. The snow-shoe is but an addition to the foot to increase its efficiency. The sled is but an improved snow-shoe. The wagon is but an improved sled, and the railroad train but an improved wagon. The lens is but an improvement to the eye, and the telescope is but an improved lens, and the microscope still another improved lens. There would be no end to the illustrations which could be cited to show the manner in which the arts of man coöperate with one another and with man himself.