PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 29 



At present one cannot set the limits of the field of the 

 philosophy of science; one can only list the problems which 

 are being discussed in contemporary literature — problems 

 which are neither scientific in the strict sense of the word 

 nor philosophical according to the traditional use of the 

 term. The following list occurred in the first number of 

 the Philosophy of Science. It is purely tentative and pre- 

 sented merely on the editor's responsibility. 



I. Studies in the analysis of meaning, definition, symbolism. 

 II. Studies in presuppositions — axioms, postulates, maxims. 



III. Studies in method. 



IV. Studies of the nature and formulation of theoretical prin- 

 ciples. 



V. Studies in the structure of the sciences, their hierarchies. 

 VI. Studies in the function and significance of science within 

 various contexts. 1 



The program of the First International Congress of the 

 Philosophy of Science was divided into sessions designated 

 by the following topics: unity of science, logic and mathe- 

 matics, pseudo-problems, definition and experience, protocol 

 propositions, language and logic, induction, probability, se- 

 mantics, psychology and sociology, history of logic, logic and 

 theory of groups. 



If one cannot set the limits of the problems which belong 

 properly to the philosophy of science, so much the less can 

 one classify within themselves the problems which by a 

 more or less arbitrary act are assigned to the field. However, 

 a tentative classification may be^ made upon the grounds of 

 certain characteristics which are exhibited by the sciences. 

 The most obvious of these features are the following: 



1. The most important characteristic of science is that 

 one finds not science but sciences. Every scientific investi- 

 gator is a physicist or a mathematician or a biologist, i.e., 

 a specialist. In general he pursues his studies in his own 

 particular field without any concern for what is being dis- 

 covered in other fields except in so far as these have direct 



1 Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 3-4. 



