172 THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE 



"rules of the road," presupposing certain characteristics of earthly 

 roads and human drivers, but they do not teach us to drive. 



The Existence of a Real World 



For such as Occam, Berkeley, and Eddington, the reality of an ex- 

 ternal world poses a major problem; but for others, like Bronowski, 

 that world is simply given. 



We do not construct the world from our experiences; we are aware 

 of the world in our experiences. 



In exactly the same vein Brain writes ; 



We do not need to ask how we become aware of things ouside our- 

 selves because it is with that awareness that we begin. 



Whether it is a something postulated or a something given, an exist- 

 ing real world is assuredly a something taken for granted by scien- 

 tists. To what was said of this principle in Chapter II I have now to 

 add one note of emphasis. I seek only to state, and indicate the appli- 

 cation of, this principle and all other regulative principles treated 

 hereafter. Never do I seek to justify them: taken as methodological 

 principles, they are amply accredited by the demonstrable triumphs 

 of the science that acknowledges them. I recognize no need (or 

 way?) to justify them on any other grounds. 



The Principle of Intelligibility 



The real world having been constituted a "something," the principle 

 of intelligibility asserts man's capacity— perhaps even his obligation— 

 to understand that something. No Kantian necessity of thought, the 

 first full conception of man's capacity for understanding appeared 

 only with the coming of the Greeks. That the search for understand- 

 ing is in any sense an obligation is a much later conception, even to- 

 day rarely acknowledged outside the community of scholars. In some 

 part inspirational, the principle of intelligibility has profound meth- 

 odological implications. 



FOUR METHODOLOGICAL COROLLARIES 



Seeking to understand the world, we are driven beyond colligative 

 relations— beyond "natural laws" the principle of intelligibility as- 



