Category Archives: Philosophy

Arts, Britain, Economic, History, Philosophy, Politics, Scotland, Society

Quantum Leaps: Adam Smith (1723-1790)…

‘UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF INTENDED ACTION’

Scottish philosopher of morals, politics and economics, Adam Smith was a contemporary of the Empiricist, David Hume (1711-1776), and is very close to him in outlook and philosophic temperament. His lectures on ethics and logic were published under the title Theory of the Moral Sentiments but he is most famous for his work of political economics, The Wealth of Nations.

Favoured philosopher of Margaret Thatcher and darling of Conservative economists, Smith is famous for his views on private property, the free market economy and the doctrine that ‘unintended consequences of intended action’ will be to the benefit of society at large. The idea behind this most fortunate if true of principles is that in intentionally serving one’s interests one unintentionally serves the interests of society as a whole.

'The Wealth of Nations' is one of the most important and deservedly read works of economic and political philosophy in the history of Western thought.

‘The Wealth of Nations’ is one of the most important and deservedly read works of economic and political philosophy in the history of Western thought.

A simple example will illustrate the essence of Smith’s idea. Suppose that Jones, in seeking his own fortune, decides to set up and run his own business, manufacturing some common item of everyday need. In seeking to provide for his own fortune, Jones’ entrepreneurial enterprise has a number of unintentional benefits to others. First, he provides a livelihood for the people in his employ, thus benefiting them directly. Second, he makes more readily available some common item which previously had been more difficult or more expensive to obtain for his customers, thus easing one, if only minor, aspect of their lives. The forces of market economy ensure that these unintentional benefits occur, for if Jones’ workers could find more profitable employ elsewhere they would either cease to work for him or he would have to raise their salaries in order to secure a workforce. Likewise, if Jones’ product was available more readily or less expensively from some other source, Jones would either go out of business or be forced to lower his prices to a competitive rate. The model assumes the absence of a monopoly, both in the labour and economic markets.

The belief that ‘unintended consequences of intended action’ will be of benefit to society held great imaginative power over the industrial philanthropists of the 18th and 19th Centuries and provided the philosophical groundwork for the later ethical theories of Bentham and Mill. However, criticism is not hard to come by. It is surely a blinkered view, if comforting for the entrepreneurial capitalist, to suppose that pursuing one’s own self-interest constitutes a magnanimous and philanthropic act towards society at large. One has only to review the social history of industrial Britain, to witness the treacherous and exploitative working practices of the industrial age, the extreme poverty and degrading social conditions of the suffering working classes, to realise Smith’s idealistic model has far more serious ‘unintended’ consequences. What has largely brought an end to such conditions in the industrialised West is not a triumphant adherence to Smith’s principles in Western economics, but a shifting of the poverty and exploitative working practices from one part of the world to another. In other words, the living conditions of those in the West has improved to the detriment of other countries just insofar as the labour required to support Smith’s economic philosophy has been removed from Western societies and transferred to those of the Third World.

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Regardless of one’s political views on Smith, The Wealth of Nations is one of the most important and deservedly read works of economic and political philosophy in the history of Western thought. It needs to be read and understood by its detractors as much as it does by its supporters.

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Arts, History, Philosophy, Science

Quantum Leaps: Robert Hooke…

1635 – 1703

Perhaps one of the most ‘underrated’ scientists of the seventeenth century, Robert Hooke, an Englishman, experimented and made advances in a wide range of scientific areas. Yet because of this breadth of coverage, he seldom developed any of his concepts to their fullest extent. This explains why he rarely gained credit for them. Indeed, it is arguable that his role as a provider and facilitator to others is his most important legacy.

Boyle’s Assistant – The most obvious example of his contribution to others was the work he undertook with Robert Boyle at Oxford, where they met in 1656. Boyle, as the aristocrat, was clearly the dominant partner in the relationship, in social terms at least. Hooke, as his assistant, acted on Boyle’s instructions, yet many of his creations were worthy inventions in their own right. The most obvious example is the air pump that he devised in 1659, the most efficient vacuum creator of its time. It enabled Boyle to go on to make many of his discoveries.

Provider of Ideas – Moreover, Boyle was responsible, albeit indirectly, for keeping Hooke in his position as jack of all sciences, master of none. The aristocrat had been influential in having Hooke elevated to the position of Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society in 1662. While the prestige of the role pleased Hooke, the job requirement of showing ‘three or four considerable experiments’ to the Society at each of its weekly meetings was almost certainly the factor that ensured Hooke would never have the time to develop any of his findings fully.

A Source of Ideas – Another scientist to whom Hooke felt he had provided source material was the Dutch physicist Christian Huygens. Huygens is credited with creating the influential wave theory of light, which he published in 1690. Yet as early as 1672, Hooke had explained his discovery of diffraction (the bending of light rays) by suggesting that light might behave in a wave-like fashion.

In 1662, Robert Hooke became the first Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society. In 1670 he discovered the ‘law of elasticity’.

In 1662, Robert Hooke became the first Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society. In 1670 he discovered the ‘law of elasticity’.

Isaac Newton vehemently argued against Hooke’s theory of light, beginning a bitter feud which would continue for the rest of Hooke’s life. Hooke also claimed to have discovered one of the most important theories credited to Newton, arguing that the latter had plagiarised his ideas from correspondence between the two during 1680. Certainly, Hooke’s letters suggested some notion of universal gravitation and hinted at an understanding of what later became Newton’s law of gravity. In spite of this, though, it is unquestionable that Newton’s mathematical calculations and endeavours in proving the law give him a much stronger claim.

Robert Hooke’s countless experiments did, however, result in some other discoveries solely credited to him. He was, for example, the first to describe the universal law that all matter will expand upon heating. He is credited with the law of elasticity, discovered in 1670. Also known as Hooke’s Law, it states that the strain, or change in size, placed upon a solid – when stretched – is directly proportional to the stress, or force, applied to it. Hooke was also the first person to use the word ‘cell’ in the scientific sense understood by us today, after observing the properties of cork under one of the powerful microscopes that he had developed. This word was used in his 1665 work Micrographia or Small Drawings, which also included many other advances such as Hooke’s theory of combustion, as well as other discoveries of the microscope. These included crystalline structure of snow, and studies of fossils which led to the proposition that they were the remains of once living creatures. He suggested that whole species had lived and died out long before man, centuries before Charles Darwin came to the same conclusion.

Hooke also made discoveries in astronomy, locating Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and proposed that the huge planet rotated on its axis.

Further accreditations – Hooke’s inventions were greatly influential. He either invented or significantly improved the reflecting telescope, compound microscope, dial barometer, anemometer, hygrometer, balance spring (for use in watches), quadrant, universal joint and iris diaphragm (later used in cameras). He also showed impressive vision, foreseeing the development of the steam engine and the telegraph system.

Beyond this he was an accomplished architect who designed parts of London following the great fire of 1666.

Inset – In 1662, Robert Hooke became the first Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society. In 1670 he discovered the ‘law of elasticity’.

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Arts, History, Philosophy, Science, Society

Quantum Leaps: ‘Galileo Galilei’…

1564-1642

In both his life and through the imprisonment which he was forced to endure in the years leading up to his death, Galileo more than any other figure personified the optimism and struggle of the scientific revolution. He was responsible for a series of discoveries which would change our understanding of the world, while struggling against a society dominated by religious dogma, bent on suppressing his radical ideas.

Galileo Galilei, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution.

Galileo Galilei, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution.

…A Mathematician

Although he was initially encouraged to study medicine, Galileo’s passion was mathematics, and it was his belief in this subject which underpinned all of his work. One of his most significant contributions was not least his application of mathematics to the science of mechanics, forging the modern approach to experimental and mathematical physics. He would take a problem, break it down into a series of simple parts, experiment on those parts, and then analyse the results until he could describe them in a series of mathematical expressions.

One of the areas in which Galileo had most success with this method was in explaining the rules of motion. In particular, the Italian rejected many of the Aristotelian explanations of physics which had largely endured to his day. One example was Aristotle’s view that heavy objects fall towards earth faster than light ones. Through repeated experiments rolling different weighted balls down a slope (and, legend has it, dropping them from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa!), he found that they actually fell at the same rate. This led to his uniform theory of acceleration for falling bodies, which contended that in a vacuum all objects would accelerate at exactly the same rate towards earth, later proved to be true. Galileo also contradicted Aristotle in another area of motion  by contending that a thrown stone had two forces acting upon it at the same time; one which we now know as ‘momentum’ pushing it horizontally, and another pushing downwards upon it, which we now know as ‘gravity’. Galileo’s work in these areas would prove vital to Isaac Newton’s later discoveries.

…The Pendulum

Galileo’s earliest work involved the study of the pendulum, inspired by observing a lamp swinging in Pisa cathedral. Following further experiments, he concluded that a pendulum would take the same time to swing back and forth regardless of the amplitude of the swing. This would prove vital in the development of the pendulum clock, which Galileo designed and was constructed after his death by his son.

…Through The Telescope

One of the inventions Galileo is often mistakenly credited with today is the invention of the telescope. This is not true; there had been numerous early prototypes that had been mostly developed in Holland before him, and a Dutch optician called Hans Lippershey applied for a patent on his version in 1608. Galileo did, however, develop his own far superior astronomical telescope from just a description of Lippershey’s invention, and quickly employed it to make numerous discoveries. A strong advocate of the Copernican view of planetary motion, Galileo’s initial findings published in the Sidereal Messenger (1610) provided the first real physical evidence to back up this interpretation. As well as discovering craters and mountains in the moon, sunspots and the lunar phases of Venus for the first time, he also noted faint, distant stars which supported the Copernican view of a much larger universe than Ptolemy had ever considered. More importantly, he discovered Jupiter had four moons which rotated around it, directly contradicting the still commonly held view, including that of the Church, that all celestial bodies orbited earth, ‘the centre of the universe.’

…Galileo and Copernicus

Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems – Ptolemaic and Copernican, in which the Ptolemaic view was ridiculed, attracted the attention of the Catholic Inquisition when it was published in 1632. Threatened with torture, Galileo renounced the Copernican System. His work was placed on the banned ‘Index’ by the Church where it remained until 1835, and he was subject to house arrest for life. But the tide of scientific revolution Galileo had helped instigate proved too powerful to hold back.

After being forced to renounce his heliocentric view of the Earth, Galileo said:

… Nevertheless, it turns!

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