400 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



of the sciences, properly conceived, is rather a problem of the 

 organization of knowledge. 1 It is defined in Baldwin's 

 Dictionary of Philosophy 2 as "the systematic arrangement 

 of the various branches of knowledge or of positive science, 

 in order to fix their definitions, determine their boundaries, 

 bring to light their interrelations, and ascertain how much 

 of the task of science has been accomplished and what 

 remains to be done." Accordingly, it includes not only what 

 are ordinarily called the sciences, but also the philosophical 

 disciplines, historical studies, trades and technologies, and 

 even religion and the fine arts in so far as these presume to 

 assert facts and convey messages. 



With the problem thus conceived, a question arises as to 

 what can be the possible motive for carrying on speculations 

 of so extensive and conjectural a character. As is common 

 to all speculative problems, there seems to be nothing within 

 the special disciplines themselves that demands such con- 

 siderations. It is rather the encyclopedic or synoptic interest 

 of the human mind that appears to be the determining factor. 

 Organizations and systems are always to be preferred to 

 mere aggregates and collections. Sometimes, to be sure, 

 more specialized interests prevail. The individual pursuits 

 must be placed within a general scheme if one is to avoid 

 conflicts and hostilities, if one is to organize tasks upon coop- 

 erative lines, and if one is to avoid duplication of labor. 

 But a more basic interest is commonly to be discerned in the 

 long list of historical attempts to wrestle with this problem. 

 The speculative philosopher seems to feel that a classifica- 

 tion of intellectual disciplines somehow reveals important 

 information about reality itself. The various ways in which 

 one talks about the world at least indicate the various kinds 

 of things which may be talked about. "The system of the 

 sciences is broadly a synthesis of concepts and conceptual 

 relations, believed to be correlative to objective realities and 



1 This is the title of a book by H. E. Bliss, to which more specific reference will be 

 made later in the chapter. It is probably one of the oiost satisfactory and com- 

 prehensive treatments of the problem in contemporary literature. 



2 New York: Macmillan, 1901, p. 188. 



