本論文嘗試以自然哲學的視角閱讀艾略特（Thomas Stearn Eliot）的《四首四重奏》、《透明人》，以及《阿爾弗瑞德‧普魯弗洛克的情歌》等作品。透過科學的角度，本論文希冀處理艾略特詩中的兩個重要主題：現代時間與自然。十九世紀前的科學著作，如：笛卡兒（René Descartes）、牛頓（Isaac Newton）、湯瑪斯‧楊（Thomas Young）等，皆以自然哲學稱之。科學對他們而言，是關乎自然和宇宙的哲學。此外，時間與光的研究密不可分。本論將時間分為兩個路線探討：光有多快及光有多小？我將它們對時間產生的影響力拿來解決艾略特《四首四重奏》中的時間問題：(一) 〈焚毀的諾頓〉代表時間的靜止與瞬時性。(二)〈東科克〉不斷環繞著開始即結束、而結束便是開始的概念。(三)〈乾燥的薩爾維吉斯〉描述一個疊加態（superposition）的世界，一個量子力學的初始狀態。 (四)〈小吉丁〉闡述在微觀下的自然，光子（photon）的傳播特性顯示時間在第四度空間以上倒流的可能性，瓦解牛頓（Isaac Newton）的時間觀。
　　論文共分為三章。第一章爬梳懷海德（Alfred North Whitehead）如何分析笛卡兒（René Descartes）、洛克（John Locke）、牛頓、愛因斯坦在哲學及科學的介紹為伊始，作為閱讀艾略特詩作的導言。第二章由科學角度看時間觀念的變化，從普遍認定的牛頓三維線性時間觀：空間即空間、時間即時間的概念，跨越到愛因斯坦以降的時間觀：藉光速影響時間及其扭曲空間的能力，將時間增視為三度空間的第四個坐標系，使〈焚毀的諾頓〉和〈東科克〉具可行性。在此，時間是相對的，而光速為一常數(constant)。第三章就量子力學中，微觀下光子的特性：1) 光在波粒二相性（wave-particle duality）中的疊加態、2）光子的傳播違背線性時間因果關係（causality）來閱讀〈乾燥的薩爾維吉斯〉、〈小吉丁〉和《阿爾弗瑞德‧普魯弗洛克的情歌》。本章將普魯弗洛克視為一台擁有強大計算能力的超級/量子電腦，他將自身置於疊加態之奇想，在做出選擇前，藉著對波函數(wave function)坍塌機率的計算，臆想諸多其他角色的可能性。
    另外，論文提及艾略特重要信件公開及詩中時間可行性的科學佐證。信件方面，我提到關於西元2020年在普林斯頓大學圖書館公開的，艾略特給艾蜜莉‧海爾(Emily Hale)的1131封信及同年在哈佛大學公開的艾略特聲明信及其意義。科學佐證方面，包含：1) 太空人雙胞胎之一——史考特‧凱利(Scott Kelly)在太空旅行中，染色體中的端粒(telomere)變長，代表時間可能可以倒流。2)在量子力學的微觀狀態下，熱力學中向來視為不可隨時間遞減的時間之箭/熵（time’s arrow / entropy）卻在疊加態中遞減。在此不但作為光子具有違反時間能力的證明，也同時證明艾略特詩中的時間描述，就二十一世紀角度來說，是有科學根據的。
    在結論中，本論文作者藉由觀察二維世界生物——螞蟻眼中的世界，對比三維世界的人類眼中所見之巨大差異，解釋懷海德時間觀中的綿延(duration)為覺察事件(event)的能力，擴延(extension)為統合相關事件並產生意義的能力。觀察低維度宇宙的方式，或能對較高維度中既存的巨大差異，有更多的理解。另外，光的疊加態或許能理解成宇宙法則劃定前的階段。在此完全符合艾略特的信仰觀。如創世記一章三節道，『神說：「要有光。」就有了光。』光與暗物質相互定義彼此。

   In this dissertation, I tend to read Thomas Stearn Eliot’s Four Quartetes, “The Hollow Men” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in the perspective of natural philosophy. Through a scientific angle, I hope to deal with two pivotal topics in Eliot’s poems: modern time and nature. The scientific writers before the nineteenth century, René Descartes, Isaac Newton, Thomas Young and so forth, title their works “natural philosophy.” Science for them is philosophy about nature and cosmos. Besides, the research of time is closely related to that of light. I route time exploration through two questions: 1) How fast is light? 2) How small is light? The impact on time resulted from the velocity and the size of light is ascribed to the following four laws in order to solve time issues in Four Quartets: (1) “Burnt Norton” manifests the stillness and instantaneousness of time. (2) “East Coker” revolves a notion of one’s beginning to be the one’s very end and vice versa in a run-on mode. (3) “The Dry Salvages” depicts a world of superposition, a primordial state in quantum mechanics. (4) “Little Gidding” scrutinizes a microscopic photonic nature. The propagation of the photon features some possibilities of a counter-flow of time, which breaks down that of Newton’s perspective.
The dissertation is divided into three chapters.  Chapter One sets out with Whitehead’s philosophical as well as scientific introductions to René Descartes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein, from which their stances of natural philosophy in their own texts are also retraced as references to reading Eliot’s poems in Chapter Two. Chapter Two examines variations of time perspective through science in hope of disentangling the bewildering time puzzles in “Burnt Norton” and “East Coker”: shifting from the fixed general idea of the Newtonian linear time scheme in three dimensional space to Einstein’s four-dimensional spacetime scheme by viewing time as the fourth coordinate in the three dimensionalities. For Newton, space is space and time remains itself. For Einstein, the velocity of light affects time and is equipped with an ability to cause a time warp. In this respect, time is relative and the velocity of light is a constant. Chapter Three demonstrates two traits of the photon in quantum mechanics in order to solve time problems in “The Dry Salvages” and “Little Gidding”: 1) the photon’s superposed state of wave-particle duality and 2) the photon’s propagation being against the causal nexus of linear time. Prufrock, the super / quantum computer with immense calculating abilities in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is also inspected in Chapter Three to see its whims of playing a role of other characters by figuring probability of the collapse of its wave function in a superposed state before any choice is made. 
    In this dissertation, I also refer to the opening of Eliot’s important letters and two scientific proofs of the feasibility of time in Eliot’s Quartets. In respect of the letters, I explain the meanings of Eliot’s statement on the opening of his 1131 letters to Miss Emily Hale from my perspective.  The scientific proofs include: 1) Scott Kelly, one of the twin astronauts, is tested whose telomeres in chromosome getting longer in a space travel. It denotes a possibility of time’s counter-flow. 2) In the microscopic state of quantum physics, time’s arrow / entropy never recedes by time, but it does in the superposed state. It becomes a sound proof of not only the photon’s ability to go against time but also Eliot’s time depiction in Quartets being scientifically credible in the perspective of the twenty-first century.
    In the conclusion, by investigating salient differences between the two-dimensional plane in an ant’s eye in contrast to the three-dimensional space in a human’s eye, I explicate Whitehead’s time perspective of duration as an ability to sense an event and that of extension as the other ability to integrate relevant events and endow them with some meaning. One may enhance an understanding of the huge dissimilarities between any two higher dimensions by observing a lower dimensional universe. Besides, the superposition of light might be understood as a state before the law of the universe is demarcated. It therefore corresponds to Eliot’s belief system. As depicted in Genesis 1:3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Light and dark matter define each other.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements -----------------------------------------------------i
Abstract (Chinese) ------------------------------------------------------ii-iii
Abstract (English)-------------------------------------------------------iv-vi
Table of Contents --------------------------------------------------------vii-viii
Figures and Diagrams --------------------------------------------------ix
Introduction-------------------------------------------------------------- 1
Eliot and Whitehead on Time and Nature ----------------------------- 1-7
Research Motive ---------------------------------------------------------- 7-12
Literature Review ---------------------------------------------------------12-22
Chapter One
A. N. Whitehead’s Natural Philosophy of Time and Nature: 
from Descartes, Locke, Newton to Einstein ------------------------ 23
Nature ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 23-27
Whitehead’s Concept of Nature in Mathematical View ------------- 27-32
Bifurcation of Nature ----------------------------------------------------- 33-40
The Event and Whitehead’s Idea of Time ----------------------------- 40-44
Some Events Irrelevant to Space or Time ----------------------------- 44-45
Time Issue: Simultaneity and Instantaneousness --------------------- 45-52
Whitehead’s Explication of Einstein’s Theories of Special and General Relativity ----------------------------------------------------------- 52-56
Gravity’s Influence on Time -------------------------------------------- 56-59
Events against Causality -------------------------------------------------59-61
Chapter Two
T. S. Eliot’s Poems: Time and Nature ------------------------------- 62
Time Issues in Eliot’s Four Quartets -----------------------------------62-65
Musical Form of a Quartet ----------------------------------------------- 65-69
“Burnt Norton” ------------------------------------------------------------ 69-77
“East Coker” --------------------------------------------------------------- 77-86
(A)ether --------------------------------------------------------------------- 86-88
Chapter Three
T. S. Eliot’s Poems: the Microscopic Observation of Light in Quantum Size ------------------------------------------------------------- 89
Brief Feedback: Philosophical and Scientific Stands 
in Previous Chapters ----------------------------------------------90-94
AlphaGo and AlphaGo Zero: 
AI Super Computers in the Real World ------------------------- 94-97
The Superposition Principle ---------------------------------------------- 97-99
Revelations of Super / Quantum Computer: 
Prufrock’s Superposed Example --------------------------------- 99-117
Genealogy of Quantum Mechanics: 
The Propagation of Light ----------------------------------------- 117-123
“The Dry Salvages” -------------------------------------------------------123-139
“Little Gidding” ----------------------------------------------------------- 139-145
The Time’s Arrow: Entropy ----------------------------------------------145-147
Conclusion -----------------------------------------------------------------148
Observation on the Ant through Lower Dimension -------------------154-158
On the Photon’s against Causality-------------------------------------- 158-161
Works Cited--------------------------------------------------------------- 162-169

Figures and Diagrams

Figure 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------    30

Figure 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------    37

Figure 3, Figure 4-1, Figure 4-2 ------------------------------------    54

Figure 5-1, Figure 5-2 ------------------------------------------------    56

Diagram 5-4 -----------------------------------------------------------    83

Diagram A-1, Diagram A-2, Diagram A-3, Diagram A-4, 
Diagram A-5 -----------------------------------------------------------    84

Diagram 1 --------------------------------------------------------------   102

Diagram 2, Diagram 3, Diagram 4 ----------------------------------   123

Diagram 5-1, Diagram 5-2, Diagram 5-3, Diagram 5-4, 
Diagram 5-5, Diagram 5-6 --------------------------------------------  126

Diagram 6 ---------------------------------------------------------------   136

Figure A-1, Figure A-2, Figure A-3, 
Figure B-1, Figure B-2 -------------------------------------------------  156

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