THE AIM OF SCIENCE 37 



ception is formed which will embrace all similar 

 cases." And the greater part of the clearing-up 

 which Science effects is not in forming some new 

 general conception, but in bringing new sets of 

 facts within the grasp of an old one. When we 

 make things more intelligible, we do so by dis- 

 cerning the general beneath the particular, 

 the "permanent law" beneath the "evanescent 

 circumstance." 



In short, it is the aim of Science to describe 

 the impersonal facts of experience in verifiable 

 terms, as exactly as possible, as simply as pos- 

 sible, and as completely as possible. It is an in- 

 tellectual construction a working thought-model 

 of the world. In its universe of discourse it keeps 

 always to experiential terms or verifiable sym- 

 bolical derivates of these. 



SCIENCE AND COMMON-SENSE. It is somewhat 

 remarkable that several investigators of distinc- 

 tion have compared Science to common-sense. 

 We are told that "A most simple description of 

 true science is embraced in the words: Keep your 

 eyes open and apply common-sense." Prof. P. 

 G. Tait was wont to say that Science aims at 

 giving "a common-sense view of the world we 

 live in." Huxley emphasized the idea that 

 "Science is nothing but trained and organized 

 common-sense." 



It seems to us that it would be nearer the truth 



