PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 



phenomena, and to connect them by the natural relations of 

 succession and resemblance." 1 In the words of Pearson, 

 "the law of gravitation is a brief description of how every 

 particle of matter in the universe is altering its motion with 

 reference to every other particle. It does not tell us why 

 particles thus move; it does not tell us why the earth de- 

 scribes a certain curve around the sun. It simply resumes, 

 in a few brief words, the relationships observed between a 

 vast range of phenomena. It economises thought by stating 

 in conceptual shorthand that routine of our perceptions 

 which forms for us the universe of gravitating matter." 2 

 The scientist is not forbidden, however, to talk about the 

 super sensuous; he may, for example, talk about the atom. 

 But "either the atom is real, that is, capable of being a 

 direct sense-impression, or else it is ideal, that is, a purely 

 mental conception by the aid of which we are enabled to 

 formulate natural laws. It may pass . . . from the ideal 

 stage to the real; but till it does so, it remains merely a con- 

 ceptual basis for classifying sense-impressions, it is not an 

 actuality. On the other hand, the metaphysician asserts 

 an existence for the supersensuous which is unconditioned 

 by the perceptive or reflective faculties in man. His super- 

 sensuous is at once incapable of being a sense-impression, 

 and yet has a real existence apart from the imagination of 

 man. It is needless to say that such an existence involves an 

 unproven and undemonstrable dogma." 3 



On the other hand, philosophy "is concerned not with 

 the accumulation of facts, but -with the interpretation of 

 previously ascertained facts, looked at broadly and as a 

 whole. When the facts of physical Nature and of Mind 

 and the special laws of their connection have been discovered 

 and systematised by the most adequate methods of experi- 

 ment, observation, and mathematical calculation at our 

 disposal, the question still remains, how we are to conceive 

 of the whole realm of such facts consistently with the gen- 



1 A. Comte, Positive Philosophy, tr. by Martineau (New York, 1858), p. 28. 



2 Grammar of Science (3d ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1911), p. 99. 



3 Ibid., p. 96. 



