*V OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



OF 



THE AIM AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCIENTIFIC 



METHOD. 



CHAPTEE I. 



1- i 



THE words " Science " and " Philosophy " seem not unhappy 

 examples of a distinct class of terms terms that are 

 recognised everywhere as indispensable and yet can find 

 few who will accept the responsibility of giving them pre- 

 cise and exhaustive definitions. The phrase " Science and 

 Philosophy" is felt probably by most educated persons to 

 express a certain antithesis; but the vague and unanalysed 

 character of this antithesis is shown (for example) by the 

 " oddly alternative way " in which the two words are used in 

 such names as " Mental Philosophy " and " Mental Science."* 



The causes of this confusion are mainly historical. The 

 modern spirit of inquiry in its first youth addressed itself 

 naively and indifferently to all the problems which the world 

 presented to it, and only learnt gradually to distinguish 

 essential differences of character between the various questions 

 which it raised and to elaborate distinct methods of dealing 

 with them. In England, in particular, where speculation has 

 rarely wandered far from the needs of practice, the antithesis 

 alluded to above was, until some years into the nineteenth 

 century, recognised only confusedly and imperfectly in the 

 distinction between " moral " and " natural philosophy." The 



* Sidgwick, Philosophy : its Scope and Relations, London, 1902, p. 2. 



B 



