28 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



force which has taken the leading role in the modern scene ? 

 Is it entitled to the claim which it asserts — the claim that 

 every phase of life may justifiably be subjected to scientific 

 analysis, the claim that only the scientifically verifiable is 

 real, the claim that man's salvation is to be found in sub- 

 servience to the laws of nature as revealed through the tech- 

 niques of science ? The systematic attempt to answer this 

 question became the philosophy of science. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



Through these three approaches there has gradually taken 

 form a new discipline which has been called, variously, 

 "the philosophy of science," "the science of science," "phil- 

 osophical science," "the logic of science," "the metaphysics 

 of science," and "metaphysical science." It is probably 

 impossible today to obtain any general agreement among 

 authorities as to what exactly constitutes a problem of the 

 philosophy of science. All that one can say is that a new type 

 of question is being asked, and that there is gradually grow- 

 ing up a body of literature which seems to be devoted to 

 the attempt to answer this kind of question. Some of the 

 literature tries definitely to answer the question; some of it 

 offers certain vague hints; some of it can hardly be said 

 to have contributed anything specific toward the solution. 

 Four new periodicals * have appeared in the last decade, 

 all of them devoted directly or indirectly to the attempt to 

 answer this question. The First International Congress 

 of the Philosophy of Science was held in Paris, September, 

 1935, and the plan calls for a continuance of the movement 

 in the form of annual meetings. Courses in the philosophy 

 of science are given in practically all of the leading colleges 

 and universities of the world. Contributors to the subject 

 include such eminent figures as Einstein, Eddington, Jeans, 

 Heisenberg, Poincare, Whitehead, Russell, Planck — to men- 

 tion only a few of those best known. 



1 Philosophy of Science, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore; Analysis, Basil Black- 

 well, Oxford; Erkennlnis, Felix Meiner, Leipzig; Theoria, Wettergren and Kerber, 

 Gothenberg. 



