2 Introduction It is often taken as given that a thesis should be of a certain structure. Some would have it that a thesis should be an argument, and that it should flow seamlessly from one page to the next. In order to achieve this requires an acceptance of certain things that the subject of this thesis brings into question. The problem of ‘meaning’ is a philosophical problem still not resolved. If natural language were efficient it would not be necessary to have judges to interpret the law. Formal languages might offer something that is more efficient but which formal language should be the superior to guide the lesser formal languages. Does logic determine arithmetic or does arithmetic determine logic? What is logic and what is arithmetic? A contemporary lively debate in the public domain is the authority of science to take the lead role and place metaphysics a poor second. In order to provide some depth to the debate the philosophy of science should be considered. This thesis is in large part concerned with the philosophy of science. It concentrates on the metaphysical thought of William Kingdon Clifford. Clifford was a person that possessed rare ability in mathematics. If Clifford were to be drawn into this current dispute which side would have a claim on his thought? I find the debate superficial and have little interest in it. Grouping together people to make up teams might have a purpose but assuming it does it is something I would rather avoid. In order to arrive at some understanding of the thought of Clifford it would be unhelpful to consider him to be in a group that had a common objective. Clifford did have friends and did have strong ‘opinions’ on certain matters that relate to groups that would place limitations on his speculative metaphysic. I would suggest that this side of Clifford’s thought is contained in what could be loosely termed his ethical writings. I have little interest in ethics. I have lived in five countries on three continents. I have made friends in all five, but I would find it impossible to find any common metaphysical position that would enclose them into a group. In order to appreciate Clifford it is necessary to keep in mind the period in which he lived. What had come before Clifford is not what came before you or I. What came after Clifford would be unknown to Clifford. It has been said that Clifford did ground work that led to the work of Einstein. This is defendable but equally defendable is that Einstein’s grandfather lead to the work of Einstein. There is the danger of thinking that because the work done in the 20th Century has proved valuable then all that came before was a slow progress to the inevitable. This can be erroneously taken as giving the illusion that what we ‘know’ now is a progression from what was known then. Standing on the shoulder of giants. A great deal of productive work can be achieved by standing on the shoulder of giants, but some very gifted individuals leap from the shoulder to the head and then leap into the air. I suggest that Clifford was one such person. 3 John Harrison and George Daniels are of interest to me. Both were artisans that built time pieces. Harrison is credited with building the first time piece accurate enough to provide for a practical determination of longitude at sea. His grasshopper escapement was used in his early wooden clocks. George Daniels created the co-axial escapement in the 20th Century. Harrison was an artisan. An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes things; one of these things could be time pieces. Harrison was more than an artisan, he was self educated in mathematics and ‘science’. Harrison is not recognised as a mathematician, scientist or artisan, rather he is recognised as the person that created a time piece capable of determining longitude at sea. A person can be an artisan capable of constructing fine time pieces. A person can be a scientist yet create nothing novel that is concrete. A person can be a mathematician and devote his life to the construction of abstruse mathematical models. Harrison created the ‘grasshopper escapement’ which he used in his early wooden pendulum clocks. Escapements as employed in time pieces are not the result of scientific method. In the 20th C another watch maker, George Daniels created the co-axial escapement. George Daniels was an artisan. Daniels expressed how he made a watch as follows: And so I started on this watch. I made a couple of drawings of it, I got into a bit of a tangle now and again and realised that designing watches on paper and then making them wasn’t the way I was going to go through life. I had to make the watch without any drawings, and then when it was finished, make the drawings to use perhaps on some later occasion.2 My interest in mechanics, it started so early in my life that I was able early on to make comparisons in quality of workmanship and design and style and it I think it’s obvious that mechanics came quite naturally to me, I didn't have to learn about them, I could just sense what was required. I never had any difficulty in learning about mechanical things. I mean a quick glance at a mechanical device and I could go away and make the whole thing from first principles. So that was very lucky for me and obviously helpful and so through a lot of association with mechanics, you know one learns to appreciate the elegance of mechanical things, especially if you study the horology of the 18th and 19th Centuries.3 If Daniels is true to his word his co-axial escapement was constructed without drawings. Daniels was capable of making engineering drawings. He says he was not capable of making his watches by first making drawings then the watch. How this is to be explained in relation to what is going on in the 2 http://www.webofstories.com/play/10706?o=MS accessed 30 October 2012 3 http://www.webofstories.com/play/10749?o=MS accessed October 2012 4 mind of Daniels is of interest. If it were to be argued that Daniels had a mental picture of the watch prior to its construction then he would be able to draw it. This perhaps has a connection to Wittgenstein’s ‘Private Language Argument’ and Clifford’s essay ‘On Some Conditions of Mental Development’. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter discusses the world in which Clifford lived, and contains my own opinion of the personality of Clifford arrived at by reading some of his work and some works about him. The second chapter discusses Clifford’s essays that are relevant to my investigation of his metaphysic. The essays are discussed in chronological order. I do not discuss Clifford’s essays that concern ethics. The third chapter is an overall analysis of Clifford’s metaphysic. The fourth chapter discusses various reactions to the thought of Clifford. This includes reactions during his lifetime and after his death. The fifth chapter is some concluding remarks. There is an addendum that contains some comments and opinions that I thought relevant but are additional to the main object of the thesis. I have tried to express myself as best I can in what follows. It would not be a legitimate excuse but it might provide me some solace to consider the following quote from The Nature of Explanation written by K.J.W. Craik should I fail to present my feelings as intelligible thoughts: Besides, if my view of the deceptiveness of verbal precision happens to be correct, the analysis of apparently definite perceptual situations or concepts stirs up a bottomless morass where statement becomes increasingly difficult and judgment more uncertain. 5 Chapter 1 The world Clifford lived in I wish to show how it was that the thought of Clifford brought about a change in approach to questions found in physics, mathematics and speculative metaphysics. In order to do this I must present my understanding of the world that Clifford entered. Immediately I am confronted by the impossibility of achieving this in absolute terms. Clifford was born 4 May 1845 at Exeter, England. He died 3 March 1879. He never reached his 34th birthday. If I take his active period, the period in which he formulates his thought relevant to my thesis, as being from the age of 15 when he entered King’s College London to his final metaphysical essay “On the Nature of Things-in-Themselves” published in Mind, Vol. No. 9, pp. 57-67, I have a time window of less than twenty years. This period was one of great change. Although the changes in society are important and influence the thought of people of the time, it would be impossible and irrelevant to list them all. One that is interesting if in an oblique manner is the publication by Charles Dickens of Great Expectations, the first instalment appearing in 1860. Clifford’s thought if anything is optimistic and full of expectations. Another that is perhaps representative of the times is the 1860 underground explosion that occurred in the Risca Black Vein Pit at Crosskeys, Monmouthshire4. The explosion killed 142 coal miners and was the sixth explosion to occur at the mine between 1842 and 1860. Not everyone was to experience the benefits of the industrialization of Britain, much less have great expectations.