308 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



inquiry into the order of nature, human nature included. 

 Thoughtful inquiry demands skepticism, wherever the 

 grounds for a conclusion appear inadequate. Within its own 

 field, science escapes the paralyzing effects of skepticism, 

 because science is continually encouraged by its material 

 accomplishments. It is, therefore, able to function un- 

 disturbed by the pessimism bred of abstract thought. 

 Within the field of human relationships, skepticism becomes 

 effective only where the facts make their meaning clear. 

 The doubting mind, like the open mind, is the one through 

 which comes progress and displacement of the idols of tradi- 

 tion. 



SCIENCE AND EMANCIPATION 



But even more important that its values as a material 

 foundation, as a broader field for imagination and esthetic 

 emotion, as an example of fair judgment and the open mind, 

 and as the foe of persecution, is the value of science in the 

 intellectual emancipation of mankind. The faith of science 

 that truth makes men free has been more than justified. 

 Many lesser cases might be cited, but a single comprehensive 

 example of the emancipation, which has followed the spread 

 of an important scientific doctrine, will suffice. The theory 

 of organic evolution is the best illustration afforded by 

 biological science, and perhaps by science in general. 



As we have noted, the evolutionary theories current 

 among the Greeks were tinctured with philosophy. Lacking 

 concreteness, these philosophical concepts made little head- 

 way. The beginnings of modern evolutionism appear in the 

 accumulations of facts regarding animals and plants, which 

 marked the closing centuries of the Scientific Renaissance. 

 To Buffon and to other less known writers of the eighteenth 

 century belongs the credit for having first promulgated the 

 evolutionary theory in a form that was scientific rather 

 than philosophical, and that carried a measure of convic- 

 tion, despite its crudities and the hamperings of theological 



