THE LAWS OF SCIENCE 47 



study in which propositions are deduced one from the 

 other in a direct line of descent from simple ultimate 

 mptions to complex final conclusions, this double 

 role of laws, partly assumptions and partly conclusions, 

 would cause grave difficulty. All scientific arguments 

 would appear " circular," that is to say, they would 

 assume what they pretend to prove. But the result 

 that follows from our discussion is not that science is 

 fallacious, because it does not adhere to the strict rules 

 of classical logic, but that those rules are not the only 

 means of arriving at important truths. And it is essen- 

 tial to notice this result ; for, since logic was the first 

 branch of pure learning to be reduced to order and to be 

 brought to something like its present position, there has 

 been a tendency in discussions of other branches and 

 especially in discussions of science to assume that, if 

 have any value and if they do really arrive at 

 truth, it can only be because they conform to logical 

 order and can .be expressed by logical formulas. The 

 assumption is quite unjustifiable. Science is true, what- 

 anyone may say ; it has, for certain minds, if not 

 for all, the intellectual value which is the ultimate test 

 of truth. If a study can have this value and yet violate 

 rules of logic, the conclusion to be drawn is that those 

 I, and not science, are deficient. Nevertheless, while 

 portant to insist that science is not necessarily 

 bound by logical formulas, it may be well to point out 

 difticiil h \\v hu\v bnii noticing can be 



overcome to some t difficulty arises bee 



d all the different laws of science as di 

 I, some of which giv . It 



Id probably be more accurate to regard all the 

 so-calk'd laws of science as 01 \vays 



led and reti \\x> take that \ 



re can be no q : one law from 



does not arise. Much D 



