86 TEIE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE 



Scientific 

 activity 



SCIENCE 



Scientific 

 accomplishment 



COSMOLOGY 



TECHNOLOGY 



not distinguishing two distinctly diflFerent kinds of scientific activ- 

 ity. The activity of individuals— immensely diverse and apparently 

 anarchic— is the highly personal expression of individual creativity. 

 Such activity ( examined at some length in Chapter XI ) is stabilized, 

 co-ordinated, and fostered by die activity of organized science. 

 Science is to its core a social enterprise; neglecting this, we neglect 

 elements that determine at a most fundamental level the nature and 

 capacity of science. Most obviously, science deals only with experi- 

 ence at least potentially common to all whereas, say, art treats of 

 experience that is highly individual. In the aphorism— L'arf, cest 

 moi; la science, cest nous—\he dichotomy is drawn oversharply. But 

 the poet has properly recognized the decisive role in science of col- 

 lective activity, collective judgment, perhaps even collective wis- 

 dom. The nature and functions of organized science I consider in 

 Chapter X. 



Even yet the anatomization is incomplete. Weizsacker speaks of 

 classical physics as a "methodological instrument." Clearly appertain- 

 ing to the activity of science, a methodological instrument is not it- 

 self activity but, rather, one product of antecedent activity. We 

 attain a more revealing picture when, just as we distinguished two 

 kinds of scientific activity, we distinguish also two kinds of scientific 

 accomplishment: see the diagram on the facing page. 



The anticipatory apparatus. Temporarily ignoring some complex 

 overlaps, we may say that in the main the anticipatory apparatvis is 

 the locus of a gargantuan assembly of colligative relations, or laws, 

 investing us with powers of prediction. Here the Egyptian desire 

 finds its consummation; and the conception of science as "accumula- 

 tive knowledge," its most conspicuous \^indication. Always our pre- 



