The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science

The story of the breakdown extends over more than a century. For by
far the greater part of that period men of science were quite unaware
that the ideas which they were introducing, slowly, one after the other,
were finally to accumulate into a body of thought inconsistent with the
Newtonian ideas dominating their thoughts and shaping their modes of
expression. The story commences with the wave-theory of light and ends
with the wave-theory of matter. It finally leaves us with the philosophic
question, What are the concrete fact which exhibit this mathematical
attribute of wave-vibration?
The story in detail is the history of modern physics, which lies beyond
the scope of this discussion. We merely require to understand the
contrast between the most general notions respectively underlying
Newtonian physics and modern physics. Newtonian physics is based upon
the independent individuality of each bit of matter. Each stone is
conceived as fully describable apart from any reference to any other
portion of matter. It might be alone in the Universe, the sole occupant of
uniform space. But it would still be that stone which it is. Also the stone
could be adequately described without any reference to past or future.
It is to be conceived fully and adequately as wholly constituted within
the present moment.
This is the full Newtonian concept, which bit by bit was given away, or
dissolved, by the advance of modern physics. It is the thorough-going
doctrine of 'simple location' and of 'external relations'. There was some