352 METHODOLOGY OF SCIENCE 



In the actual working of every science the two methods of investiga- 

 tion are continually changing. The best means of finding new success- 

 ful inductions is in the making of a deduction on a very insufficient 

 basis, perhaps, and subsequently testing it in experience. Sometimes 

 the elements of his deductions do not come into the investigator's 

 consciousness; in such cases we speak of scientific instinct. On the 

 other hand we have much evidence from great mathematicians that 

 they were accustomed to find their general laws by the method of 

 induction, by trying and considering single cases; and that the 

 deductive derivation from other known laws is an independent 

 operation which sometimes does not succeed until much later. Indeed 

 there is to-day a number of mathematical propositions which have 

 not yet reached the second stage and therefore have at present a 

 purely inductive empirical character. The proportion of such laws in 

 science increases very quickly with the rise in the scale (page 339). 



Another peculiarity which may be mentioned here is that in the 

 scale all previous sciences have the character of applied sciences 

 (page 341) with reference to those which follow, since they are every- 

 where necessary in the technique of the latter, yet do not serve to 

 increase their own field but are merely auxiliaries to the latter. 



If we ask finally what influence upon the shaping of the future such 

 investigations as those which have been sketched in outline above 

 can have, the following can be said. Up till now it has been considered 

 a completely uncontrollable event whether and where a great and 

 influential man of science has developed. It is obvious that such a 

 man is among the most costly treasures which a people (and, indeed, 

 humanity) can possess. The conscious and regular breeding of such 

 rarities has not been considered possible. While this is still the case 

 for the very exceptional genius, we see in the countries of the older 

 civilization, especially in Germany at present, a system of education 

 in vogue in the universities by which a regular harvest of young 

 scientific men is gained who not only have a mastery of knowledge 

 handed down, but also of the technique of discovery. Thereby the 

 growth of science is made certain and regular, and its pursuit is 

 raised to a higher plane. These results were formerly attained chiefly 

 by empirically and oftentimes by accidental processes. It is a task of 

 scientific theory to make this activity also regular and systematic, so 

 that success is no more dependent solely upon a special capacity for 

 the founding of a "school" but can also be attained by less original 

 minds. By the mastery of methods the way to considerably higher 

 performances than he could otherwise attain will be open for the 

 exceptionally gifted. 



