TWO THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE 49 



a preference for deductive over inductive methods 

 as the failure to realise that Nature was a dynamic 

 operation. 



It is important, then, to understand accurately 

 what is the method of Science. 



The external world of our Experience seems to 

 be composed of sensible impressions. The ever 

 present visual panorama combined with the constant 

 occurrence of other sensations suggests that Nature 

 is, as has so often been asserted, simply another 

 name for the sensible presentation. A truer view 

 of Nature was adumbrated by Aristotle when he 

 formulated the theory of an Energy ever generative 

 of the sensible. If the founders of Science did not 

 fully grasp the Aristotelian conception, it is at 

 least certain that they looked upon Nature not 

 merely as a sensible presentation but as a process 

 a dynamic operation. It was to the study of these 

 operations, to the measurement of the natural 

 forces or normal categories of physical action that 

 Galileo and Newton devoted themselves. The true 

 estimate of a moving force may indeed be said to 

 have been their first great problem, just as the 

 law of universal gravitation was their grandest 

 generalisation. 



It was to this sure instinct that the founders of 

 4 



