ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 245 



is no way of directing one's gestures in such a way as to 

 indicate the phase or aspect of events to which he wishes to 

 call attention. For example, one cannot by means of point- 

 ing distinguish the smoothness from the hardness of an 

 object, or the shape from the size. One cannot, even by 

 means of proper names and pictorial symbols, direct the 

 attention of an individual unambiguously to the temporal 

 feature of the world, for time is a phase of objects and one 

 can never be assured that the listener has not confused the 

 temporal phase with some other with which it is associated. 

 Similar difficulties arise in the attempt to locate instances 

 of number and order. For example, the clarification of the 

 concept "twoness' : may be attempted by pointing to a 

 pair of objects. But a pair of objects is a highly complex 

 event, of which not only the event as a whole but each of 

 the partial events exhibits spatial and temporal features, 

 shape, size, color, and so on; consequently there is no way 

 of indicating that it is the duality of the event and not one 

 or more of the associated aspects to which reference is being 

 made. As a result, the reduction of scientific concepts to 

 their empirical foundations and of assumptions to the em- 

 pirical facts which they presume to justify cannot be carried 

 out with any assurance of success. In case dispute arises 

 as to what is given, almost no means of settlement are avail- 

 able. It seems likely that the disagreement between positiv- 

 ists and necessitarians on the question of the empirical 

 foundation of causation is essentially of this kind; one group 

 maintains that nature exhibits only sequences, the other 

 insists that it discloses intrinsic connections as well. In a 

 case of this kind, resort to the method of pointing is useless, 

 yet similar difficulties arise in connection with the attempt to 

 point out the empirical foundations of all of the basic concepts. 



DIFFICULTIES IN ASCERTAINMENT OF SCIENTIFIC 



CONTENT 



The second of the problems gives rise to further diffi- 

 culties. Analogous to the variability in the given there is a 



