208 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



explanation. The contrast with descriptive science is here 

 somewhat obliterated. As has been mentioned repeatedly, 

 data are given with continuously varying degrees of clarity. 

 Hence if one attempts to point out the most clearly given 

 data, he may be said to be describing; but if he symbolizes 

 the less clearly given data, he must be said to be explaining. 

 Descriptive science, for example, insists that the task of 

 science is the symbolism of the classiiicatory, serial, and 

 correlational features of events. But it is noteworthy that 

 descriptive science limits itself to the most obvious of these 

 features, i.e., it does not describe in terms of highly abstract 

 properties or series, nor does it refer to universal correla- 

 tions. The presumption is that these features of events ap- 

 proach the obscure, and hence would lead into explanatory 

 science. Reference to such entities would, in fact, constitute 

 border-line cases, and one might say with equal justification 

 that he is describing or that he is explaining. A mature 

 explanatory science represents the continuation of this 

 process of symbolizing more and more obscure entities. 

 Hypotheses of the type mentioned earlier in the chapter 

 (causes and effects, ends, elements and wholes, etc.) indicate 

 sciences which have become definitely explanatory. Since 

 it is not known that all events possess causes, effects, ends, 

 elements, or wholes, one is plunging into the realm of the 

 conjectural. He runs the risk of populating nature with 

 entities of his own creation. Hence he has abandoned 

 description and resorted to explanation. 



INTENSIONAL FEATURES OF EXPLANATORY SCIENCE 



Intensionally every explanatory science (1) exhibits a high 

 degree of integration, whose essential feature is (2) the 

 explanation of all descriptive symbols by means of hypoth- 

 eses. 



(1) An explanatory science is a system of symbols rather 

 than a mere aggregate. An explanatory science is a de- 

 scriptive science in which every symbol has found its 

 proper place. A descriptive science is one in which no 



