Prof. Muni Mahendra Kumar
We have already seen how different scientists, such as: Edington, Jeans, Weyl and others have advocated idealism in their views. Sir Arthur Eddington is an eminent physicist and also an original thinker. He has called his philosophy as ‘Selective Subjectivism’ and tried to show that it is the philosophy of physical science. But for the reasons given in the previous paragraph it can be said that his philosophy viz., Selective Subjectivism’ cannot be regarded as the philosophy of physical science.
In fact it is representative only of his personal view. Prof. L. Susan Stebbing, a well-known philosopher-critic, has rightly remarked, “The difficulty presented to the common reader by Sir Arthur Eddington’s philosophical writings is due to the fact that he is not only a great scientist but has also wide and deep interests beyond the bounds of science, whilst his strong philosophical bent makes him anxious to connect his philosophy of science with his philosophy of life at all costs.”[1] “The cost is greater than he seems to have realised.... His interpretation, however, suffers from very serious omissions and from an altogether misleading emphasis. His very skillful, frequently amusing, mode of presentation has enabled him to throw the emphasis upon just those elements which are most essential for the development of his metaphysical views.”[2]
