34 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



is clear that we all do know and are certain about some- 

 thing, if only that we are inquiring about the certainty 

 of knowledge. Utter folly, then, logically results from 

 doubt as to the validity of reasoning. 



Evidently, mental paralysis must also result from any 

 real doubt about our own existence, and our perception 

 of this existence involves the validity of our faculty of 

 memory, which is implied in this way as well as in every 

 scientific experiment we perform. For we cannot obvi- 

 ously have a reflex perception* either of our feelings 

 or our self-existence, without trusting our memory as to 

 the past. 



Now there are two technical terms with which the 

 student who desires to be introduced to the elements of 

 science must make himself familiar. 



They may be represented to a certain extent by the 

 two familiar words "facts " and "feelings" The two 

 technical terms which correspond with them respectively 

 are : (i) things which are objective, and (2) things which 

 are subjective. 



Every " feeling " or " state of consciousness " present 

 to the mind of whoever is the subject of it, is spoken of 

 as being " subjective," and the whole of such experience, 

 taken together, constitutes the sphere of " subjectivity." 



On the contrary, everything whatever which exists 

 externally to our present " consciousness " or " feelings," 

 is spoken of as being " objective," and all that is thus 

 external to the mind is the region of objectivity ; it is 

 the region of facts as considered apart from feelings. 

 But the reader must understand that the feelings of one 

 man are " objective facts " to any other man ; only a man's 

 own present thoughts and feelings are to him " subjective." 



* See ante, p, 259. 



