INTRODUCTION XXVU 



and a great part of modern chemistry. However, for Maritain, 

 this type of knowledge was familiar to Aristotle and St. Thomas 

 as scientiae mediae between pure mathematics and natural phi- 

 losophy. The second type of knowledge found in modem science 

 is essentially empirical, descriptive of phenomena, ' perinoetic ' 

 and somewhat hypothetical in character. This type Maritain 

 calls empirioschematique, because it is concerned solely with 

 ordering empirical observation by means of non-mathematical 

 constructs. This concern is characteristic of such experimental 

 sciences as biology, botany, anthropology, physiology, neu- 

 rology and psychology. Finally, Maritain comes to reconciling 

 his analysis of modern science with the traditional division of 

 speculative knowledge. The empiriometric sciences present no 

 difficulty, since they are scientiae mediae between mathematics 

 and the first degree of abstraction. The empirioschematic sci- 

 ences, however, present a problem. They do not attain the 

 essential natures of material things; they are rather descriptive, 

 hypothetical and superficial (perinoetic) . Aristotle's natural 

 philosophy, on the other hand, intuitively attains the essential, 

 ontological natures of changeable being; it is ' dianoetic,' pro- 

 found and certain. Therefore Maritain suggests that Aristo- 

 telian natural philosophy and modem empirioschematic science 

 belong to two dift'erent levels of intelligibility within the tradi- 

 tional first degree of abstraction, the former resolving its 

 definitions to ' being,' the latter to sense and ' mobility.' The 

 view of Jacques Maritain, therefore, is similar to that of Car- 

 dinal Mercier, except . that Maritain alone accounts for the 

 unique position of physics in modern science. 



There is no denying the acumen of M. Maritain's analysis 

 and the astuteness of his solution. There is only one difficulty: 

 if the empirioschematic sciences are as superficial and hypo- 

 thetical as Maritain believes, then they are not sciences at all, 

 but only dialectical preparations for science. Scientific knowl- 

 edge, as understood by Aristotle and St. Thomas, consists in 

 true demonstration, that is, a causal explanation of essential 

 properties. But this is impossible without dianoetic knowledge 



