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Reals in the Jaina Metaphysics later developments from this primary experience of force. Accordingly Boscovitch rejected the Greek theory of atoms being extended substances and held in consistency with what our sense-perceptions give us, that atoms are only centres of force. They are no doubt in space but they need not be conceived as space-filling substances. They may be said to have a mass; but, for this they need not occupy space; for the purpose of their mass, it is enough that they are endowed with inertia. According to Boscovitch, then, atoms are geometrical centres of force in space, having no extension.
J. C. MAXWELL'S CRITICISM
With all this, however, Boscovitch attributes a peculiar force of repulsion to the atoms, whereby one atom when brought into apparent contact with another repels it absolutely; so that it is impossible for two atoms to coincide or occupy one and the same place. Thus although the theory of Boscovitch divests the atom of the attribute of impenetrability, he seems to introduce the very same characteristic by the back door. There is no doubt that we must endow the atom with the power of repulsion along with one of attraction. To say this, however, is very different from laying it down as a universal law that the power of repulsion is ultimate and absolute in an atom whereby it repels another atom without limit whenever the distance between the two diminishes without limit, making it impossible for the two to coincide in any circumstances whatsoever. Referring to this part of Boscovitch's theory, J. C. Maxwell says: "But this seems to be an unwarrantable concession to the vulgar opinion that two bodies cannot co-exist in the same place. This opinion is deduced from our experience of the behaviour of bodies of sensible size but we have no experimental evidence that two atoms may not sometimes coincide. For instance, if oxygen and hydrogen combine to form water, we have no experimental evidence that the molecule of oxygen is not in the very same place with the two molecules of hydrogen. Many persons canot get rid of the opinion that all matter is extended in length, breadth
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