134 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



existence of molecules and electrons, he is not obliged at the 

 same time to acknowledge that it must give to these entities 

 the same status as observed data. Though they may be 

 given, they are less obviously given than sense qualities. 

 Hence a science which talks about hypothetical and the- 

 oretical entities, constructs, fictions, idealizations, and other 

 suppositional entities must be less rather than more descrip- 

 tive. This is all that need be admitted in order to establish 

 the existence of sciences which are predominantly descrip- 

 tive. A descriptive science can therefore be defined as one 

 which minimizes rather than maximizes the importance of 

 such entities. Descriptive science frankly admits that it 

 has no concern for considerations of this kind, since they 

 arise only when questions of the rationality or intelligibility 

 of nature are raised — questions which are foreign to the 

 program of empirical science. The task of descriptive sci- 

 ence is the complete description, classification, and organ- 

 ization of objects as they appear to the observer. A perfect 

 science is the most inclusive and the most orderly formula- 

 tion of the laws connecting appearances. The desire to 

 explain the interconnections of nature has not yet arisen, 

 hence there is no urge to get beneath or behind phenomena. 

 Descriptive physics would contain no symbols for molecules, 

 atoms, or electrons; instead it would describe as exactly 

 as possible the way in which the macroscopic, i.e., the ordi- 

 nary, objects of everyday experience influence and are in- 

 fluenced by one another. Descriptive biology would make 

 no mention of genes and vital forces; instead it would en- 

 deavor to express as accurately as possible the variations 

 in the behavior of organisms under different stimuli. Descrip- 

 tive sociology would not refer to vague social forces, minds, 

 and wills, but would rest content with the statistical descrip- 

 tion of the behavior of individuals in society. Descriptive 

 psychology would reduce to descriptive biology, except that 

 the behavior reactions would be more complex. 



(2) The essential method of descriptive science is classifi- 

 cation. This is involved in the very notion of the Unguis tic 



