4 Th^ Concept of Method 



and it approaches the problem, as far as may be, in the same 

 simplicity of spirit, seeking to find in the " blooming buzzing 

 confusion " of the complications of experience some unity, some 

 coherent process of development, some idea of method. In 

 view of some of the tendencies of contemporary education, there 

 is need to repeat those wise words which were uttered by Francis 

 Bacon three centuries ago, and which contain the key to the 

 whole problem of method: "Nay, it is a point fit and neces- 

 sary in the front and beginning of this work, without hesitation 

 or reservation to be professed, that it is no less true in this 

 human kingdom of knowledge, than in God's kingdom of 

 heaven, that no man shall enter into it * except he become first 

 as a little child.' " 



The general course followed in this consideration of the his- 

 torical significance and of the epistemological interpretation of 

 the method of experience corresponds, as nearly as the limita- 

 tions of material and of subject allow, with the general course 

 of experience itself, no matter in what particular form or phase 

 that experience may present itself. Whatever unity there is, 

 therefore, in the following pages will be due in the first place 

 to the purpose underlying them: the tracing out of the implica- 

 tions of a too often uncritically accepted course of experience; 

 and, in the second place, to the identity of the method employed 

 in approaching each of the particular problems that present 

 themselves. For it is true that when method is realised in its 

 character of organic unity, it can be seen as well and as thor- 

 oughly in microcosm as in macrocosm, in typical instances as well 

 as in a detailed chronological conspectus. 



A word of explanation may seem to be necessary in connec- 

 tion with the selection of the various types which have been 

 chosen for consideration in the historical chapters, and which 

 form the basis for the later interpretation. Other and more 

 numerous philosophers and scientists might well have been in- 

 cluded had the aim been historical completeness and not merely 

 the review of a few typical instances of thinkers whose main 

 object was to examine and to organise the method of experience. 



The lacunae in the concluding chapters cannot be more ap- 

 parent to the reader than they are to the writer "Orav o-uvrcAeo-?/ av 



6poiiTO<; to'tc apteral, Kai orav Trava-rjTai Tore. aTroprjOi^cxcTaL. Their 



