Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge.djvu/91



18.4 The parts of an event are the set of events (excluding itself) which the given event extends over. It is a mistake to conceive an event as the mere logical sum of its parts. In the first place if we do so, we are necessarily driven back to conceive of more fundamental entities, not events, which would not have the mere abstract logical character which (on this supposition) events would then have. Secondly, the parts of an event are not merely one set of non-overlapping events exhausting the given event. They are the whole complex of events contained in that event; for example, if a be the given event, and a extends over b, and b over c, then a extends over c and both b and c are parts of a. Thus an event has its own substantial unity of being which is not an abstract derivative from logical construction. The physical fact of the concrete unity of an event is the foundation of the continuity of nature from which are derived the precise laws of the mathematical continuity of time and space. Not any two events are in combination just one event, though there will be other events of which both are parts. We recur to this point in Part III, art. 29, when considering theyunction of events.

19. Absolute Position. 19.1 The third constant of externality is the fact (already explained) that an event as apprehended is related to a complete whole of nature which extends over it and is the duration associated with the percipient event of that perception.

19.2 The fourth constant of externality is the reference (already explained) of the apprehended event to the percipient event which (when sufficiently restricted in its temporal extension) has a definite station within the associated duration.