SCIENCE AS A SYMBOL AND A LAW 3 



reality. Thus the methods of physics have, to a degree, 

 become the model which the other sciences seek to 

 follow, a logical mathematical theory based on, and 

 corrected by, experimental observation. Moreover, 

 this science presents a longer and more consecutive 

 history than most of the others. 



It is also noticeable that physics treats of problems 

 similar to those of metaphysics. During the sixteenth, 

 seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries philosophy and 

 physics were closely united, and were largely domi- 

 nated by the deductive method, which was introduced 

 by Descartes and which led to persistent attempts to 

 explain scientific laws by metaphysical causes. It was 

 then that the two great metaphysical ideas, of the con- 

 tinuity of matter with its identification with space, and 

 of matter as a form of indivisible and discrete atoms 

 different in kind from space, were adopted as scientific 

 postulates, and were expressed in mathematical form.: 

 The following century was distinguished by a separa- 

 tion of philosophy and physics, as that period is best 

 known by the extraordinary rise of the experimental 

 method and the classification of phenomena under 

 mathematical laws. With the mass of experimental 

 data now at our disposal, an imperative need is again 

 felt for theoretical laws which shall classify them, and 

 accompanying this correct scientific need there is a 

 disposition to re-introduce metaphysical systems, simi- 

 lar in aim to that of Descartes. The reason for this 



