SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 273 



ward. Religion harks back to revelation; government, as 

 expressed by law, is founded upon precedent, the emotional 

 factor in art arouses primitive psychic states. Science is not 

 only the latest born, it is also the only form of human 

 activity which is continually projecting itself into the future. 



Under these circumstances, the scientific frame of mind, 

 with its disregard for precedent, is of evident value in solving 

 social problems. Open-mindedness and fair judgment in 

 such questions are essential to progress. Honesty is needed, 

 and so is sense. The method of science is the method of fair 

 judgment and of the open mind the state of mind which 

 makes progress a possibility. Moreover, the method of 

 scientific thinking is the competent method in the analysis 

 of complex situations, despite the claims for intuition. One 

 might characterize the kind of thinking that is done by the 

 vast majority of human beings as in one dimension. A 

 small number think in two dimensions, and a very few in 

 three. This last form of thought is about as comprehensible 

 to the individual of the one dimensional mind as is the fourth 

 dimension of the mathematician to the ordinary layman. 

 Blind acceptance of what is, because it has been, is an ex- 

 ample of one dimensional thought. Habit and tradition in- 

 cline us to take things pretty much as we find them. When 

 an individual arises who seriously questions tradition, he is 

 regarded as dangerous. 



Now it is against the flooding current of traditional beliefs 

 that science has struggled in the past and must struggle in 

 the future. The unscientific frame of mind does not seem to 

 be born into men so much as it is trained into them by educa- 

 tion. The cases of individuals who begin in the old grooves, 

 but by some lucky chance of education or opportunity 

 find themselves and grow into the broader state of mind, are 

 sufficiently numerous that one need not feel discouraged for 

 the race. But it is a serious indictment of our educational 

 system that the schools are much concerned with what has 

 happened and little with what might happen if men would 



