THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 413 



contemplated by those of us who are desirous of founding an 

 efficient and valid methodology. 



The support of so eminent a man of science, given in so 

 official a capacity and in so public a manner, is of the highest 

 value. Many of the assertions contained in the address, the 

 main trend and aspect of it, need only to be mentioned. 

 " Science should not deal in negations, it is strong in affirma- 

 tions, but nothing based on abstractions should presume to 

 deny outside its own region" — an admirable and valid saying, 

 to which should be added the corollary that, as all affirmation 

 is, of necessity, denial of the contradictory, science should not 

 presume to make dogmatic and confident assertions outside 

 its own region. In short, the limits of the applicability of 

 scientific truths require careful philosophical delimitation. 



" All intellectual processes are based on abstractions. Science 

 makes a diagram of reality, displaying the works like a skeleton 

 clock. . . . The laws of nature are a diagrammatic framework ana- 

 lysed and abstracted out of the full comprehensiveness of reality." 

 Let us disregard, for the moment, the particular applications 

 and regard the principles. The statements are true, valuable, 

 practical. They are of the greatest service to the right under- 

 standing of scientific truths, to common sense in common life, 

 to sanity in politics, to the advancement of the wider aspects 

 of human knowledge. It is the main object of this essay to 

 ensure that they shall not be ignored, that they should not be 

 buried out of sight by the concentration of attention and 

 criticism on the detail with which we have already dealt, and 

 which, in view of the importance of the main current of the 

 address, would much better have been omitted. Before pro- 

 ceeding to some of the special applications, on which there are 

 controversy and difference of opinion, it will be well to indicate 

 the significance of these few assertions, to emphasise them, and 

 to express appreciation of Sir Oliver Lodge's sound judgment 

 and philosophic insight. 



Concerning particular applications, space will only allow us 

 briefly to consider one or two. One of these concerns the 

 present-day developments known as non-Newtonian mechanics 

 and the Principle of Relativity. The statements in the address 

 are an admirable support to those who are pressing upon men 

 ol science the essential truth and importance of fixity in funda- 

 mentals. By mathematical analysis and experimental investi- 



