38 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



to say that Science is sharply contrasted with 

 common-sense. Thus one of the most marked 

 characteristics of science is its critical quality, 

 which is just what common-sense lacks. By 

 common-sense is usually meant either the con- 

 sensus of public opinion, of unsystematic every- 

 day thinking, the untrustworthiness of which is 

 notorious, or the verdict of uncritical sensory 

 experience, which has so often proved fallacious. 

 It was "common-sense" that kept the planets 

 circling round the earth; it was "common- 

 sense" that refused to accept Harvey's demon- 

 stration of the circulation of the blood. 



THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF SCIENCE. We have 

 already pointed out that Science is independent 

 of any particular order of facts. It takes the 

 knowable universe for its subject; it deals with 

 psychical as well as physical processes, with Man 

 as much as with Nature; it has to do with every- 

 thing to which its methods can be applied. What 

 makes a study scientific is not, of course, the 

 nature of the things with which it is concerned, 

 but the method by which it deals with these 

 things. A study of a skylark is not necessarily 

 zoological. 



The subject-matter of Science includes all 

 clearly defined facts of experience which are 

 communicable and verifiable. There are three 

 points here to be attended to. (1) Before Science 



