16 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN THE CENTURY. 



THE AIM OF SCIENCE. 



Briefly stated, the primary aim of science in- 

 cludes the observation, description, and interpreta- 

 tion of the knowable universe. 



Concerning the need for careful observation and 

 accurate description, enough has been said in our ex- 

 position of the characteristics of the scientific mood ; 

 it is necessary, however, to give particular attention 

 to the nature of a scientific interpretation, — in re- 

 gard to which misunderstanding is rife. 



The man of scientific mood becomes aware of cer- 

 tain fractions of reality which interest him ; he pro- 

 ceeds to become more intimately aware of these ; i.e., 

 to make his sensory experience of them as full as 

 possible. He seeks to arrange them in ordered 

 series, to detect their inter-relations and likenesses 

 of sequence; he tries to reduce them to simpler 

 terms or to find their common denominator; and 

 finally, he endeavours to sum them up in a general 

 formula, often called a " law of nature." 



Aristotle defines the aim when he says, " Art [or 

 as we should say. Science] begins when, from a 

 great number of experiences, one general conception 

 is formed which will embrace all similar cases." 

 Similarly the nature of scientific explanation is sug- 

 gested by Kirchhoff's definition of mechanics, as the 

 science of motion, whose object it is ^^ to describe 

 completely and in the simplest manner the motions 

 that occur in nature." 



With the advance of clear thinking our way of 

 looking at facts has altered not a little, and even 

 when we use the same words as our forefathers did 

 we do not always mean the same thing. Thus when 



