THE LOGICAL STRUCTURE OF SCIENCE 57 



imity of various interfering factors. Many events are known 

 primarily in terms of recording devices, such as deflections 

 of needles, photographic images, and pointer readings of 

 various kinds. The point with reference to all of these illus- 

 trations is that something is presented for direct awareness, 

 and that certain complicated techniques are necessary in 

 order to bring about situations in which such activity is 

 possible. Bacon suggested that the scientist proceeds by 

 collecting facts. His conception of the scientific method, as 

 Jevons points out, was a "kind of scientific bookkeeping. 

 Facts were to be indiscriminately gathered from every 

 source, and posted in a ledger, from which would emerge in 

 time a balance of truth." x The obvious truth in his method 

 is somewhat obscured by the fact that the behavior of the 

 scientist is one of activity rather than of passivity. Nature 

 is often reluctant to speak. Her utterances are frequently 

 produced only by prodding, and even then one is satisfied 

 with her statements only when he has introduced elaborate 

 recording and measuring devices. The fact that one's 

 recording instruments may lose the essence of that which 

 he is trying to observe need not be emphasized here, though 

 it becomes a problem of some significance in the deeper con- 

 sideration of science. For present purposes one need only 

 reemphasize the fact that at some point in the scientific set- 

 up the investigator is obliged to say "I am now experiencing 

 such-and-such." Without such an initial given science be- 

 comes meaningless. 



But knowing is not merely the becoming aware of events; 

 it is also the symbolizing of them. The scientist knows nature 

 not only directly but mediately in terms of models, pictures, 

 and diagrams, in terms of mathematical equations, and in 

 terms of words and sentences. Hence the second significant 

 aspect of the scientific method is the large group of highly 

 intricate activities constituting the invention or discovery 

 of a symbolic system which is presumed to be the interpre- 

 tation of the realm of events. Unfortunately, very little is 



1 W. S. Jevons, The Principles of Science (London: Macmillan, 1907), p. 576. 



