DESCRIPTIVE SCIENCE 139 



The result is that descriptive science cannot be said to 

 exhibit the necessary features of the realm of events. It 

 affirms merely that events are occasionally or frequently 

 associated. That events are sometimes associated may be 

 ascertained with a high degree of certainty, but that they 

 are universally and inevitably associated cannot be estab- 

 lished without elaborate assumptions and complicated oper- 

 ational techniques. A universal law extends beyond the 

 actual cases examined, and therefore involves an anticipa- 

 tion as to the behavior of the still-unexplored. But the 

 notion of anticipation is essentially opposed by descriptive 

 science, which maintains that symbols should follow events, 

 not precede them. This is in line with the spirit of extreme 

 caution which is characteristic of descriptive science. If 

 events cannot be known to be necessarily related, they 

 should not be presumed to be so related. 



INTENSIONAL FEATURES OF DESCRIPTIVE SCIENCE 



Intensionally every descriptive science is (1) loosely inte- 

 grated, and (2) non-explanatory. Considerations of the 

 intensional character of science involve turning attention 

 away from events and toward the interrelations of the 

 symbols. Intension was defined in Chapter IV as the rela- 

 tion of a symbol to other symbols in the system. At this 

 point examination will be made of the internal features of 

 empirical science. 



(1) By the loosely integrated character of descriptive 

 science is meant the aggregational rather than the systematic 

 character of the body of symbols. Loosely integrated com- 

 plexes are commonly characterized as collections, conglomer- 

 ates, or heaps, whereas highly integrated complexes are 

 usually called systems, or organic and organized wholes. 

 A pile of stones exemplifies an aggregate, while a machine 

 or a human organism illustrates a system. Descriptive 

 science resembles the former in that no concept has important 

 relations to other concepts, and no law is intimately con- 

 nected with any other law. Classificatory schemes, involving 



