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The results in physics are to be connected with forces whose operations are external calculable rather than with agencies which are internal incalculable. Let us consider how the metaphysical demand arises in connection with both of these physical conceptions. Tak- ing that of the formalists who abstract largely from the world of reality it is characteristic of this concept of the science that it drops one after another in detail all ques- tions pertaining to the nature of reality. It becomes more more bound up in the conception of world-automaton in which every movement is explained when it has been exactly stated in terms of quantity that is when it has been accurately measured in which all apparent agents are mere puppets by-spectators of the show. In thus conceiving its world physics does not deny the real world of agency but simply thrusts it beyond its own pale. prev next |