CHAPTER VI 



DESCRIPTIVE TECHNIQUES 



The present chapter is essentially a continuation of the 

 preceding one. The problem under consideration is that of 

 getting the data. At this point, however, the emphasis 

 changes slightly. Interest is no longer directed so much 

 to the understanding of the passive receptivity of the observer, 

 i.e., his capacity to receive messages from external objects, 

 as to his activity, i.e., what the scientist does to himself 

 and to nature in order to make it yield its secrets. 



Attention should be called immediately to the fact that 

 there is no contradiction between these two aspects of the 

 scientific method. It seems obvious, on the one hand, as 

 has already been indicated, that man must proceed by 

 listening to nature. Nature is a given, stubborn, and brute 

 fact, and one must take it as it is. Fortunately, it chooses 

 on somewhat rare occasions to speak about itself — often 

 haltingly, and usually enigmatically. But one must be 

 continually on the watch, lest through his inattentiveness 

 he lose one of those golden opportunities when it discloses 

 its secrets. At best, therefore, one can only wait. 



But it seems equally obvious, on the other hand, that 

 nature often responds to prodding. Through properly ad- 

 ministered techniques it may be. forced to speak. Nature 

 is not only what takes place, but what may be made to 

 take place. By putting one's finger into nature one often 

 succeeds in bringing about situations which would occur 

 rarely or not at all without his intervention. Thus by com- 

 bining, separating, moving, increasing, diminishing, heating, 

 cooling, and a thousand other operations he incites nature 

 to manifest itself in unaccustomed forms. He suspects 

 nature to be more than it obviously is, and he finds the 



variety of its responses to be capable of almost indefinite 



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