498 SISTER M. OLIVIA 



tion for the study of virtues and moral law in the religion 

 course. 



Up to this point in the Saint Xavier Plan, science has been 

 limited almost entirely to expenence. Therefore, it is called pre- 

 science. By the beginning of the junior year, however, the 

 student should be ready to approach the physical world under 

 a new aspect, one which can be called scientific in a qualified 

 sense. For the most part the student is not yet able to carry 

 out the logical steps necessary to unlock the mysteries of 

 natural science because, unlike geometry wherein the demon- 

 strative pattern is relatively simple, the physical universe pre- 

 sents a complexity which requires a proficiency in logical tech- 

 niques. Nevertheless, he is ready to follow the footsteps of 

 the great discoverers of the past — to think, to search, to find 

 with them the fundamental concepts of natural science. This 

 new approach can give him an appreciation of the part that 

 individual human endeavor plays in the development of science. 

 He can recognize the place of modern science within the total 

 accomplishments of the human race. 



In the junior year the student considers the nature and 

 methodology of science, coming to the realization that science 

 is more than a collection of statements, formulas and informa- 

 tion found in a book, a journal or in other peoples' heads. 

 Facts become scientific when their regularity suggests a com- 

 mon cause. Scientific knowledge is achieved when we can 

 demonstrate, or prove a fact by means of the universal cause 

 of that fact. 



Emphasis on the causal nature of science, beginning already 

 in the junior year, is perhaps characteristic of the Saint Xavier 

 Plan; one might almost say that it is uniquely characteristic of 

 it. The causal nature of scientific explanations is not gener- 

 ally admitted. The modern revolution in physics brought with 

 it transformations that went far beyond the prevalence of in- 

 tegral signs and pd functions. Many eminent scientists now 

 believe that scientific theory is an artistic creation, that the 

 goal of scientific investigation is not to discover the nature of 

 the real world but merely to devise some fruitful guide to 



