HISTORY OF SCIENCE 53 



law of the three states Qa hi des trois etats) , formulated by 

 Auguste Comte. The theory of historical materialism, originated 

 by Karl Marx, is also a proper example. 



It is sensible to undertake the study of intellectual activities in 

 the same way that we study the industry of the beavers or the 

 bees. Of the work produced by the human brain we generally 

 know nothing but the results, but these are tangible and can be, if 

 not actually measured, at least compared and appraised with 

 more or less precision. The invention of a machine or the discovery 

 of a natural law: are these not, at bottom, phenomena of the 

 same kind as the behavior of a crab or of a sea anemone under de- 

 termined circumstances? They are, of course, much more com- 

 plex and their study requires the use of new methods, scarcely 

 explored; but can one not admit, at least as a working hypothesis, 

 that they do not differ in essentials? The psychology of the su- 

 perior functions of the brain is not necessarily more complicated 

 than that of the inferior functions; I should be rather inclined to 

 think the contrary. For instance, would it not be easier to retrace 

 the development of a scientific idea in a clear mind than to dis- 

 entangle, in the "pre-logicaf * head of a primitive man, the obscure 

 roots of his instinct of property or imitation? 



It is from the comparison of these intellectual facts, as they can 

 be collected by the historian of science from the whole intellectual 

 experience of the world, that we may try to deduce the laws of 

 thought. Human experience has been continuously increasing dur- 

 ing the ages, but the intellect itself — has it evolved? The methods 

 of discovery, the mental experiences, the hidden mechanism of 

 intuition — have they not remained somewhat the same? 



Is there nothing invariable in men's intellectual behavior? What 

 are those invariants, or at least those relative invariants, those 

 more stable parts of ourselves? To what extent does the scientific 

 environment exert its influence upon the scientists, and vice versa"? 

 How do social activities evidence themselves in the domain of 

 science? By what mental processes are the ideas of the initiators 

 integrated in the collective thought, to become, by and by, com- 



