1 8 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



classification and the latter forms the basis of his " explana- 

 tions "; but, as Mill has justly remarked, " There are two kinds 

 of uniformities, the one conditional [as the succession of day and 

 night], the other conditional on the first [as the dependence of 

 this succession on the revolution of the earth]; laws of causation, 

 and other successions dependent on those laws." ^ 



Comte repudiates all hypotheses not capable of verification 

 such as those of luminiferous ether and chemical affinities as 

 being metaphysical,^ yet he does not always keep clear of such 

 assumptions, as when he assumes a " tendency to development " 

 in man,^ and when he admits that his biological classification is 

 purely subjective, i. e., is logical rather than genetic. This last 

 point is of such importance as to warrant the giving of a few 

 quotations in its support. In discussing biological evolution he 

 justifies the use of scientific fictions to fill up the gaps in the 

 evolutionary process. " The process," he says, " would be to 

 intercalate among different known organisms, certain purely 

 fictitious organisms, so imagined as to facilitate their compari- 

 son, by rendering the biological series more homogeneous and 

 continuous: and it might be that several might hereafter meet 

 with more or less of a reafization among organisms hitherto unex- 

 plored." * " In forming the animal series, it (our encyclopedia) 

 — [i. e., of positivism] — takes as its continual guide the true 

 object of that formation, — a logical rather than a scientific object. 

 As we only study the animals to gain a sounder knowledge of man 

 by tracing through them his connections with plants, we are fully 

 authorized to exclude from our hierarchy all the species which 

 disturb it." He goes on to show that the same method is justifi- 

 able in social evolution; i. e., the creation of certain races and 

 introduction of them into the logical series to make it complete.^ 



That his synthesis is consciously and purposely subjective and 

 logical rather than objective is proven by these words: " Not 

 merely is it true, that no organic existence ever sprung from 



» Mill, op. cit.y p. 58. ' Ihid.y ii, pp. 83, 88. Cf. ii, p. 147- 



* Positive Philosophy, i, pp. 225 f., 301. * Ihid.y i, p. 389. 

 ' The Catechism of Positivism, pp. 222, 224. Cf. Positive Philosophy, ii, pp. 520, 

 521; also A General View, pp. 34 f., 369. 



