XXVI JAMES A. WEISHEIPL 



experimental sciences, because it reaches " a level of thought in 

 which no sense-perceptible element is retained and therefore no 

 verification by the senses is possible." In " support " of this 

 view, proponents invariably quote, out of context, a passage 

 from St. Thomas' In Boethium De trinitate, q. 5, a. 1 ad 6. 

 However, apart from the impossibility of justifying this view in 

 the writings of St. Thomas, St. Albert or any of the schoolmen, 

 it seems to be unsatisfactory for many reasons. It is based on 

 what seems to be a misconception of metaphysics; it apparently 

 ignores the genesis of analogical concepts; and it widens the 

 chasm between philosophy and science, returning to the in- 

 soluble situation of Wolffian Idealism. It denies the dignity of 

 natural science by giving it too little intellectual content, and 

 it denies the dignity of natural philosophy by rarefying it be- 

 yond sense contact. There is no doubt that the physical uni- 

 verse can be studied ' metaphysically,' but only at the expense 

 of those very details of interest to the natural philosopher. The 

 universe which interests the natural philosopher is full-blooded, 

 and quite un-metaphysical. 



A more realistic approach to the relation of philosophy to 

 science was made by Jacques Maritain in his monumental 

 Distinguer pour JJnir: ou Les Degres dii Savoir (1932) and in 

 his detailed La Philosophie de la Nature of 1935. This dis- 

 tinguished Thomist learned contemporary philosophy from 

 Henri Bergson and biology from Hans Driesch before finding 

 his home in Thomism. First, Maritain accepts the traditional 

 division of speculative philosophy into natural philosophy, 

 mathematics and metaphysics. Second, he realizes that the 

 experimental sciences have developed greatly since the time of 

 Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Third, he examines modem 

 ' science ' and sees that it is not a homogeneous whole; in fact, 

 it includes two specifically different types of knowledge. One 

 type is formally mathematical, even though empirical. This 

 type Maritain calls eTnpiriometrique, because it is concerned 

 solely with the measurable aspect of empirical observation. 

 This concern is characteristic of all parts of modern physics 



