120
PARTISAN REVIEW
that the mass of a body is a property ascribed to it with the help of the
!aws of motion. They will also tell you that energy is
not
activity, though
it is certainly compatible with activity; they will tell you that "energy" is an
abstract term representing an invariant of certain systems, and not a
quality
of a physical field. Is not Professor Whitehead therefore taking the conclu–
sions of modern physics completely out of their relevant contexts when he
uses them as lumber for his metaphysical system? Is he not simply employ–
ing the
words
which modern physicists employ, but in senses which bear no
likeness to the meanings which these words possess within the scientific
enterprise? Professor Whitehead makes frequent use of a so-called principle
of continuity, according to which all of nature is "continuous with" the
qualities occurring in the human scene. It is not easy to discover just exactly
what that "principle" asserts or what the evidence for it is; but it is not
hard to see that if it is once invoked, there is no place at which one is
compelled to stop in attributing to anything whatsoever, however remote
and inaccessible, the traits known to occur in specific contexts under very
specific conditions. Can we seriously believe that the imaginative flights
made possible by the use of such a principle are improvements upon the
less spectacular but safer methods for securing knowledge which obtain in
the natural sciences?
There is no space here to consider Professor Whitehead's remarkable
pronouncements on logic and mathematics, or his rejection of the conclu–
sions of a.century of minute research in these domains. They are pronounce–
ments which, if made to him while writing
Principia Mathematica,
he would
unquestionably have dismissed as irrelevant and as based upon misunder–
standings. Professor Whitehead accepts as an important maxim of philoso–
phizing that "we must be systematic, but we should keep our system open".
The extent to which he has succeeded in systematizing his insights will no
doubt remain a theme for debate among professional philosophers for a
long time. There is little question, however, that he has kept his system
wide open. He has found room within it for most of the occult powers
which critical minds, bravely taking their stand upon the method of science
Professor Whitehead finds repeated occasion to castigate, have with so much
effort learned to exclude from the theory of nature. Remembering the great
promise of his earlier writings, his mastery of the natural sciences, and his
remarkable sensitivity to the varied aspects of experience, this reviewer
concludes with infinite regret that those interested in a critique of abstrac–
tions intended to illuminate their function and structure, will not find it in
his latest book.
ERNEST
NAGEL
THE BEGGAR'S OPERA-AFTER MARX
A PENNY FOR THE POOR. By Bertolt Brecht. Translated from the
German by Desmond Vesey; with verses translated by Christopher Isher–
wood. Hillman-Curl. $2.50.
Brecht was first attracted to John Gay's
Beggar's Opera
because it
seemed to offer him a better dramatic legend for the expression of his
