230 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



THE METHOD OF SCIENCE 



If the field of the natural sciences is the content of the 

 human mind as determined by the incoming sense-impres- 

 sions, the method of these sciences is that by which the mind 

 deals with the facts of sense-experience. What is called the 

 external world is a creation of the mind, which, it is assumed, 

 parallels an objective reality. 2 The science of logic attempts 

 to determine the methods by which the mind acts in dealing 

 with the facts of experience. Science, therefore, depends 

 upon logic to check its conclusions, but in the history of 

 thought it is significant that the logic of scientific practice 

 has preceded and not followed the development of logic as a 

 science. Thus the deductive logic of Aristotle was founded 

 upon the examples of mental procedure then in practice, 

 while the inductive logic advocated by Francis Bacon, and 

 elaborated by John S. Mill (1806-1873) and others in the 

 nineteenth century, was a formulation of mental processes 

 which had long been practiced and had already created 

 modern science. 



Science was described by Huxley as "trained and organ- 

 ized common sense," and the methods of scientific analysis 

 as but extensions of those common in everyday life. 3 Hence 

 anyone who puts two and two together and draws conclu- 



2 Sellars, R. W., "Critical Realism," Chaps. I and II, presents a statement 

 concerning this assumption of parallelism which is clear to the scientist at 

 least. 



3 Huxley, T. H., "On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sci- 

 ences." Collected Essays, Volume entitled: "Science and Education." This 

 much-cited paragraph runs as follows: "Science is, I believe, nothing but 

 trained and organised common sense, differing from the latter only as a veteran 

 may differ from a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common 

 sense only so far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in 

 which a savage wields his club. The primary power is the same in each case, 

 and perhaps the untutored savage has the more brawny arm of the two. The 

 real advantage lies in the point and polish of the swordsman's weapon; in the 

 trained eye quick to spy out the weakness of the adversary; in the ready hand 

 prompt to follow it on the instant. But, after all, the sword exercise is only the 

 hewing and poking of the clubman developed and perfected." 



