20 THE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE 



useful in finding application in daily life or in 

 other sciences; it may be ridiculous through 

 some obvious self-contradiction, as a game 

 would be ridiculous if some rule had been so 

 awkwardly made as to make winning the game 

 impossible. Or, finally, it may be simply dull, 

 either because it has too little content or be- 

 cause it contains too much of complexity and 

 detail. 



I would not care to say that any of the work 

 of the present day mathematical logicians is 

 dull. Indeed, a part of it, as, for example, some 

 of the recent analyses of Whitehead, is extraor- 

 dinarilv interesting; but I cannot help feeling 

 that here and there in this field men are some- 

 times blinded by the illusion of finality. If there 

 were within our reach absolutely true theorems 

 provable by absolutely valid demonstrations, no 

 effort to attain such perfection would be wasted. 

 But if in our demonstrations we define every 

 word with meticulous care, still someone will 

 ask us to define the words used in these defini- 

 tions. 



When we abandon as chimerical the hope of 

 immediate perfection we need not cease in our 

 efforts to be more accurate in our thoughts, 

 more cautious in our demonstrations. Realizing 



