6 What is Science ? 



upon the scientific pretensions of ethics. We 

 cannot define science, however, until the very 

 point at issue is settled whether that term is to 

 denote, along with the various branches of our 

 systematic knowledge of natural phenomena and 

 their quantitative relations, such disciplines as 

 logic, dialectic, ethics, and metaphysics. Certain 

 ly the oldest known classification of the sciences 

 embraced logic, ethics, and physics. And apart 

 from the sciences themselves, we have no royal 

 rule of exclusion or admission. In doubtful 

 cases, therefore, the only course open to us is to 

 compare the branches whose scientific character 

 is questioned, with others whose scientific char 

 acter is unimpeachable. 



First of all, then, following the ancient classi 

 fication, ethics may be compared with logic. 

 Now, logic is the science of reasoning, taking that 

 term in its broadest sense. In other words, it is 

 the theory of the ascertainment of reasoned or 

 inferred truth. It does not undertake to find 

 reasons, but to determine what is required to con 

 stitute them, to point out the conditions to which 

 all facts must conform in order that they may 

 serve as proof or evidence. But these conditions 

 are not deduced from any transcendent source. 

 They are simply the rules which men observe in 



