SIR OLIVER LODGE'S ADDRESS 1 

 I.-THE LOGIC OF SCIENCE 



BY F. C. S. SCHILLER, M.A. D.Sc. 

 Corpus Ckriiti College, Oxford 



The Presidential Address at the British Association is the great 

 manifesto which annually announces urbi et orbi what advances 

 in scientific knowledge seem to its distinguished author to be 

 worthy of the attention of the English-speaking world, and 

 usually excites keen interest and debate. It is therefore highly 

 flattering to a philosopher who is not callous to the progress of 

 knowledge to be invited to take part in this debate and to have 

 an opportunity of expressing his characteristic comment before 

 a scientific audience. But to avoid misunderstandings, he should 

 make clear at the outset how very restricted is the philosopher's 

 competence in such a case. His primary attitude ought to be 

 that of a learner who welcomes gratefully the improvements in 

 human knowledge which the sciences have achieved. It is only 

 secondarily that he should claim the right to comment critically 

 on those aspects of scientific controversy which are ultimately 

 logical, and, skirmishing ahead as an unauthorised raider, to 

 "speculate" about those subjects which cannot yet be culti- 

 vated by the approved methods of scientific experiment 



In the latter case his ingenuity may enable him to guess at 

 analogies that may hereafter lead to a successful cultivation of 

 the field ; in the former, he may sometimes protect the scientist 

 against the deceptive glamour of words and help him to have 

 the courage of his convictions and his methods, in spite of the 

 arrogant pretensions and misleading suggestions of philosophic 

 " logic." For the philosopher should never forget that the 

 scientist is doing the actual work of human knowing, of which 

 logic professes to expound the theory. But unfortunately 

 science and logic at present conduct their operations almost 

 completely out of each other's sight, and only so avoid a conflict 

 which, if they met, would be fatal to one or the other. Modern 



1 Recently republished with notes (J. M. Dent & Sons). 



398 



