photo neededIn hmolscience, Edmund Noble (1853-1937) was a Scottish-born American philosopher noted for his 1896 “Imitation Among Atoms and Organisms”, wherein he suggest that "imitation", can serve as a unifying principle, atoms to humans, in regards to likes attracting and opposites repelling and the conflict dynamics therein.

Overview
In 1896, Noble, in his “Imitation Among Atoms and Organisms”, attempted to outline, in what might be called a semi-modern Empedocles style of discussion, a unified theory of imitation and organization applicable to atoms as well as to humans, based in loose outline on speculations about chemical affinity and gravity, so to explain evolution. [1] Nobel, in opening of his article, wherein he aims to extend imitation, e.g. the way a child acquires characteristics by imitation of their parents, from humans to lower organisms to the inorganic, defines what he refers to as the “law of assimilation” as follows:

“All things free to move, capable of becoming closely associated, and impelled to movement by the system to which they belong, tend to come together when they are likes, and to be separated when they are unlikes. If we regard this tendency from the point of view of the movement, we shall say that likeness of things involves association of them in the degree of their likeness, and that unlikeness of them involves dissociation of them in the degree of their unlikeness; while, if we regard the tendency from the point of view of the things themselves, we shall say that association of things involves likeness of them in the degree of the association, while dissociation of things involves or implies unlikeness of them in the degree of the dissociation. These truths may be expressed in a more general way by saying that in systems the association of likes involves the least degree of resistance among them, while the association of unlikes involves the utmost degree of resistance. It follows that where unlikes are associated, the resistance offered to their union will tend (1), where they are forcibly held in association, to make them likes; and (2) where they are free to move, to dissociate them.”

He says this model is of “universal character” and thereafter goes into examples of how likes attract, e.g. “Most people usually fall in love with those about their own age; deaf-mutes almost invariably marry deaf-mutes”, and opposites repel, e.g. opposite religious beliefs repel, differing wealth classes don’t fit, etc.

Noble then superficially touches on how certain atoms and molecules attract and repel, or who mercury, oil, and water won’t mix but will form, three layers if poured in a jar, etc.

He then concludes with the following:

“Here, then, our treatment of the subject must draw to a close. While necessarily brief, it has been complete enough to reveal a process far reaching in its scope and of cosmical significance. We have seen how like units everywhere tend to be associated and unlikes dissociated; how unlikes, held in forcible association, tend to be more or less profoundly assimilated to one another; and how disturbances of prevailing uniformity tend to be equably distributed through the several media in which they occur. But we have also noted that the power impelling to these multifarious acts of assimilation, to these movements of association and dissociation, is not the power of the units themselves, but the power of the system to which they immediately belong; and we are thus warned of the important bearing which our law has upon two problems of the utmost generality in physics namely, the problems of chemical affinity and gravitation. It is true that we have as yet no formula for explaining these manifestations of power by a single principle; that we do not yet know the real structure of ether; and that there is still needed a definite account of gravitation as an intelligible mechanical process. Nevertheless, the causal connection of both gravitative and chemical actions with the ether system is already obvious to physicists. That the power which accomplishes these actions does not reside in matter alone, but resides also in the ether system is, in fact, a function of that system regarded as including both ether and matter seems to be increasingly pointed to by the trend of recent physical research.”

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In 1926, Noble published Purposive Evolution: the Link Between Science and Religion, in attempts to rectify the science and religion conflict. [2]

References
1. Noble, Edmund. (1896). “Imitation Among Atoms and Organisms” (Ѻ), Popular Science, Feb, pgs. 462-510.
2. Noble, Edmund. (1926). Purposive Evolution: the Link Between Science and Religion (atoms, 41+ pgs; molecules, 46+ pgs). H. Holt and Co.

External links
Edmund Noble – Wikipedia.

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