INTRODUCTORY 21 



and imagination, to which unfortunately men too often, 

 but still with decreasing prevalence, pay higher respect 

 than to knowledge. 



We must here investigate a little more closely what 

 the man of science means when he says, " Here I am 

 ignorant^ In the first place, he does not mean that 

 the method of science is necessarily inapplicable, and 

 accordingly that some other method is to be sought for. 

 In the next place, if the ignorance really arises from the 

 inadequacy of the scientific method, then we may be quite 

 sure that no other method whatsoever will reach the 

 truth. The ignorance of science means the enforced 

 ignorance of mankind. I should be sorry myself to 

 assert that there is any field of either mental or physical 

 perceptions which science may not in the long course of 

 centuries enlighten. Who can give us the assurance that 

 the fields already occupied by science are alone those in 

 which knowledge is possible ? Who, in the words of 

 Galilei, is willing to set limits to the human intellect ? 

 It is true that this view is not held by several leading 

 scientists, both in this country and Germany. They are 

 not content with saying, " We arc ignorant," but they add, 

 with regard to certain classes of facts, " Mankind must 

 always be ignorant." Thus in England Professor Huxley 

 has invented the term Agnostic, not so much for those 

 who are ignorant as for those who limit the possibility 

 of knowledge in certain fields. In Germany Professor 

 E. du Bois-Reymond has raised the cry, " Ignorabiinus " 

 (" We shall be ignorant "), and both his brother and he 

 have undertaken the difficult task of demonstrating that 

 with regard to certain problems human knowledge is 

 impossible.^ We must, however, note that in these cases 

 we are not concerned with the limitation of the scientific 

 method, but with the denial of the possibility that any 

 method whatever can lead to knowledge. Now I venture 

 to think that there is great danger in this cry, " We sJiall 

 be ignorant." To cry " We are ignorant " is safe and 



1 See especially Paul du Bois-Reymond : Ueber die Gnindlagen der 

 Erkenntniss in den exacten Wissenschaften. Tubingen, 1890. 



