How should scientists deal with occult phenomena?



1 : How did the Ancients grasp electromagnetism?

The ancient Greek knew that amber, when rubbed, attracts light bodies and magnetic iron ore attracts iron. Laertius[1] wrote Aristotle and Hippias affirm that, arguing from the magnet and from amber, Thales attributed a soul or life even to inanimate objects.[2] It seems that Thales [3] supposed amber and magnetic iron had such power as a soul or life had to move bodies. The electrostatic force and the magnetic force as actions at a distance were the ground for Greek hylozoism[Note].


It is natural to associate the magnetic or electrostatic attraction with human attraction. Chinese called a magnet (磁石) “affection stone (慈石) ” before the era of the Han dynasty, because a magnet attracts iron just as the mother’s affection attracts her child[4]. The Sanskrit word for a magnet, “अयस्कान्त (ayaskAnta) ”, is literally “iron-lover”. The Latin “adamas”, the Spanish “imán” and the Portuguese “ímã” derive from a verb meaning “love”. In the Medieval Europe it was believed that a wife’s chastity could be tested by placing a magnet against her head while she was lying in bed, because her falling out of bed indicated she was unfaithful and her clinging to her husband proved she was faithful[5]. This superstition is based on the association of attraction/repulsion with human love/hate.

According to Alexander of Aphrodisias[6], Empedocles[7] regarded the electrostatic or magnetic force not as action at a distance but as action through medium.



Fig.01. The magnetic field represented by the alignment of iron filings.[9]


Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius, Diogenes of Apollonia, later Plato, Plutarch succeeded to the theory of Empedocles and early Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Alexander of Aphrodisias carried on the tradition of Thales.[11]. The debate was not settled in antiquity and faded away in the medieval period until it restarted from the Renaissance.

2 : How was magic treated after the Middle Ages?


The transition from the medieval period to the modern times
Period Intellectual Pioneer Attitude toward Magic Representative Researchers
Late Middle Ages (14-16 century) Engineers and magicians Experiment in magic Paracelsus, Porta, Gilbert

In the Middle Ages before the Renaissance of the 12th century the Catholic Church had strong power. Libraries were mostly confined to abbeys and intellectuals to monks. Since the Church prohibited pagan magic, there was no formal study concerning electromagnetism that was associated with magic. As the religious suppression was not so severe as in the early modern age of witch-hunt, informal study of folklore remained such as De Lapidibus by Marbodus[12] which wrote practical or medical utilities of magnetism.



The first example was Petrus Peregrinus[16], a French engineer who wrote in 1269 the earliest scientific treatise on the magnet, The letter of Petrus Peregrinus, where he demonstrated by experiment that divided magnets show polarity respectively. The mainstream of the late Renaissance was mysticism influenced by Hermetica, a body of mystical Neo-Platonic texts about alchemy, astrology, magic, theurgy and so on written in Egypt from the 2nd to the 6th century, but believed to be much older during the Renaissance. Ficino[17] translated Hermetica into Latin and published it in 1471. Then Hermeticism became in fashion in the 16th century and researchers tried to verify it by experiment.



Fig.02. The illustration of the magnetic field of the earth and magnets drawn by René Descartes in 1644.[21]





3 : What was the essence and cause of Newton’s success?

When Newton published Principia (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) in 1687, followers of Cartesian vortex theory on the European Continent did not accept Newtonian universal gravitation. Leibniz criticized it as an intelligible occult quality[25]. In fact the idea that the sun and the moon exert a powerful force on the earth is astrological and accepting action at a distance without knowing its essence and cause seems equal to accepting mysterious magic. But as the mechanistic theory was so barren, Newtonian physics was accepted even on the European Continent.

The decisive evidence was the shape of the Earth. If Cartesian vortex theory is correct, it should be prolate, because the pressure of vortex particles is higher near the equator than near the poles. If Newtonian gravitational theory is correct, the Earth should be prolate, because of the centrifugal force. To settle this dispute, King Louis XV sent the survey teams including Maupertuis to Lapland and Peru to measure the length of a degree of the meridian near arc and equator in 1736. In 1738 Maupertuis concluded that the length near arc is longer thanthat near equator[26] and Newton’s prediction turned out to be correct.




This is a common remark on Newtonian revolution or more generally the modern scientific revolution. Before Newton Galileo propounded a similar theory of knowledge. In our speculating, Galileo wrote, we either seek to penetrate the true and internal essences of natural substances, or content ourselves with knowledge of some of their properties. The former I hold to be as impossible an undertaking with regard to the closest elemental substances as with more remote celestial things.[28] He thought all we could do is the apprehension of some properties of things.

Newton said “hypotheses non fingo (I frame no hypotheses)” in the Principia and it seems to be akin to Galileo’s idea[Note].

[Note] Newton actually ventured hypotheses, but did not publish them for fear that he might get involved in a controversy. Newton thought that the gravity as an action at a distance was irrational and speculated about an aether serving as a medium for the gravitational interactions in a letter to Boyle in 1679[29], although he could have no confidence in this hypothesis. The gravity as an action at a distance was supported by those more Newtonian than Newton such as Daniel Bernoulli.


Now that our experience is limited, an inductive method cannot give a complete demonstration to any general proposition. Any general proposition deduced from phenomena retains the status of hypothesis. So does Newton’s would-be theory. Newton claimed that his doctrine of light and colors should be a theory, not a hypothesis[31] but he also put forward a corpuscular hypothesis of light at the same time. The absolute space and time that Newton presupposed in the Principia was also a hypothesis that we no longer support. Scientists should not be inhibited from advancing hypotheses. Otherwise science could never make progress, because the progress of science is nothing but modification of hypotheses.


The first scientist who revived the theory of action through medium was Faraday[32]. Faraday assumed invisible medium even in a vacuum that would transmit the Coulomb force. His idea is akin to Cartesian model that assumed aether composed of invisible subtle materials[33] that filled space and transmitted light. Although Michelson-Morley experiment refuted aether as medium of electromagnetism in 1887, the experiment by Hertz[34] in 1888 demonstrated the existence of electromagnetic wave and the theory of action through medium proved true. Physicists now consider the medium of electromagnetism not as materials that fill the space but the space (field) itself. According to the quantum theory a vacuum is not really vacant but a fluctuating field of continuously appearing and disappearing virtual pairs of particles that can transmit electromagnetic wave.


4 : How should scientists deal with occult phenomena?






5 : References

  1. Diogenes Laertius (Greek) Διογένης Λαέρτιος (Latin) Diogenēs Laertios; fl. c. 3rd century AD
  2. “Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ καὶ Ἱππίας φασὶν αὐτὸν καὶ τοῖς ἀψύχοις μεταδιδόναι ψυχάς, τεκμαιρόμενον ἐκ τῆς λίθου τῆς μαγνήτιδος καὶ τοῦ ἠλέκτρου. ” Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων, Θαλής, 23 (author) Διογένης Λαέρτιος
  3. Thales of Miletus (Greek) Θαλῆς (Latin) Thalēs; c. 624 BC – c. 546 BC
  6. (Greek) Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Ἀφροδισιεύς; fl. 200 AD
  7. (Greek) Ἐμπεδοκλῆς (Latin) Empedoklēs; c. 490–430 BC)
  9. Practical physics for secondary schools: fundamental principles and applications to daily life (author) Newton Henry Black, Harvey N. Davis.
  12. Marbodius of Rennes; CA. 1035 – 1123
  13. Thomas of Aquin, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274
  16. (French) Pierre Pelerin de Maricourt (Latin) Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt; fl. 1269
  17. Marsilio Ficino (Latin) Marsilius Ficinus; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499
  18. Theophrastus von Hohenheim, Phillipus Areolus, Bombastus; 1493 – 1541
  19. Giambattista della Porta; 1538 – 1615
  20. William Gilbert; 1544 – 1603
  21. Principia Philosophiae (author) René Descartes.
  23. “彼の自然学、とりわけその宇宙論は、数学的推論によって導かれる結果を精密な測定によって検証するという近代物理学や近代天文学の基本的要件をまったく欠落させている。惑星運動についてのケプラーの精密な数学的法則にいたっては一顧だにされていない。磁力についても、磁力を定量的に測定するという発想はデカルトには皆無で、磁石の定性的なふるまいを再現するモデルを仮想の物質で担造することでその磁力論は尽きている。その意味では、デカルト機械論は、自然学としては、魔術思想に対置された未成熟でそれゆえきわめて不完全なアンチテーゼであったと言わざるをえない。” 磁力と重力の発見〈3〉近代の始まり (page) 765 (author) 山本義隆
  24. Magnetism During the 17th Century (author) H.H. Ricker III
  25. “une qualité occulte déraisonnable” Die philosophischen Schriften: Band III (page) 519 (author) Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
  26. La Figure de La Terre (author) Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
  27. “一八世紀にニュートンの力学が大陸に浸透してゆく過程で、重力についてはその「法則」の確定こそが大切であるということが次第に認められてゆき、「重力の本質」や「重力の原因」を問うといったそれまでの哲学での問いは、物理学では主要な問題ではなくなっていった。ミュッセンブルークからマイヤーとクーロンにまでいたる研究はこの過程を電磁力にまで押し広げるものであった。こうして磁気と電気の力もまた、数学的関数で表される遠隔力として合理化されたことで数理物理学にとって不可欠な概念の地位を獲得し、近代物理学に組み込まれていったのである。物理学としての電磁気学はここから始まる。かくして物質的世界は合理化され、遠隔作用として古代以来「隠れた力」の典型と見なされてきた磁力からはその魔術的性格が脱色されていった。もはやニュートンが重力にたいして考えていたような神学的根拠すら語られていない。物理学は事物の本質についての形而上学的な認識を求めることを放棄し、さしあたって現象の法則についての数学的な確実性を求めることに自足したのである。そしてここに数理物理学がはじまる。” 磁力と重力の発見〈3〉近代の始まり (page) 935 (author) 山本義隆
  28. Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (page) 123 (author) Galileo Galilei (translator) Stillman Drake
  29. Newton’s 1679 Letter to Boyle, on the Cosmic Ether of Space (media) Letter to Henry Lord Brougham
  30. “Rationem vero harum gravitatis proprietatum ex phænomenis nondum potui deducere, et hypotheses non fingo. Quicquid enim ex phænomenis non deducitur, hypothesis vocanda est; et hypotheses seu metaphysicae, seu physicae, seu qualitatum occultarum, seu mechanicae, in philosophia experimentali locum non habent. In hac philosophia Propositiones deducuntur ex phaenomenis, et redduntur generales per inductionem.” Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Liber Tertius, Scholium Generale (author) Isaac Newton
  32. Michael Faraday; 1791 – 1867
  33. “matière subtile” La dioptrique (page) 9 (author) René Descartes
  34. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz; 1857 – 1894
  35. Giordano Bruno; 1548 – 1600
  36. William Stanley Jevons; 1835 – 1882
  37. Commercial Crises and Sun-Spots (author) William Stanley Jevons