Law and Miracle 413 



the latter, or however complex the former. In so far as we 

 know the uniformities involved in stimulus-response proc- 

 esses, we are dealing with law (or mechanism, as some scien- 

 tists will insist) and not with miracles, however hopeless it 

 may be to explain stimulus-response in terms of push and pull. 



However complicated our problems may become, the 

 scientist will prefer to adhere to the mechanistic method. 

 He feels that once miracles are admitted, clear and consistent 

 thinking becomes impossible, since they imply a transgres- 

 sion of the uniformities, an intrusion into the orderly scheme 

 of things. 



It must be acknowledged that physics and chemistry 

 have so far failed to " explain " the origin of life, the dis- 

 tinctive properties of protoplasm, the relation between mind 

 and matter. This failure, however, may not be due to any 

 shortcomings or defect in these branches of science. It need 

 not be due even to the unreliability of the mechanistic method 

 of attacking problems. It is at least conceivable that the 

 fault lies in our transferring mechanically the formulas and 

 principles and laws developed by physics and chemistry to 

 a different order of facts and problems, instead of applying 

 the mechanistic — that is, the causo-mechanical methods of 

 research — to the facts of this more complex order. Me- 

 chanical thinking and mechanistic thinking may not be 

 the same. 



specialization of Knoivledge 



Specialization in research has made possible the inten- 

 sive study of restricted phenomena and the discovery of 

 usable laws and uniformities within narrow fields. It has at 

 the same time led to initial misunderstandings and suspi- 

 cions and has resulted in separating the thought of different 

 classes of workers. The chemist, for example, makes sure 

 of certain uniformities in his special field and has a great 

 deal of confidence in " mechanistic " explanations of what 

 he finds. He cannot, however, have the same confidence in 



