54 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



mon notions? All these questions, raised by the history of science, 

 are so many psychological problems. 



As to research concerning the psychology of invention, choice 

 materials will be found in the history of technology. The results of 

 technical invention are material objects of a very concrete and 

 tangible nature. Besides, the mechanism of industrial discoveries 

 is especially interesting, because to materialize his ideas the 

 engineer has actually to struggle with all the difficulties of real 

 life. The struggle is more obvious here than in any other domain. 

 It frequently happens that unexpected obstacles are so great that 

 the idea cannot be carried out; but it also happens very often that 

 the very clash of these obstacles gives birth to new ideas, deeper 

 and richer than the original ones. Then one sees, so to say, the 

 invention gush out from the conflict between matter and spirit. 



It would be apposite here to present some remarks about the 

 "genealogical" research work that was initiated by Francis Galton 

 and Alphonse de Candolle. These very interesting historico- 

 statistical investigations, intimately connected with the eugenic 

 movement, bring new testimonies to the importance of the history 

 of science from the psycho-sociological point of view. But, in order 

 to give a good idea of these studies, I should be obliged to make 

 too long a digression from my subject. 



THE HUMANISTIC POINT OF VIEW 



A deeper knowledge and a greater diffusion of the history 

 of science will help to bring about a new "humanism." (I beg the 

 reader to excuse me for using a word that has already been em- 

 ployed in at least two different senses, but I do not find any other 

 that is more adequate to the idea I wish to convey.) The history 

 of science, if it is understood in a really philosophic way, will 

 broaden our horizon and sympathy; it will raise our intellectual 

 and moral standards; it will deepen our comprehension of men 

 and nature. The humanistic movement of the Renaissance was 

 essentially a synthetic movement. The humanists were longing 



