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DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. Ill, No. 31. JULY 1922. 



PRICE Is. NET, 



DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

 ledge. 



Edited by Edward Livei.xg, B.A-, Rothersthorpe, 

 Northampton, to whom all Editorial Communications 

 should be addressed. (Dr. A. S. Russell continues to 

 act as Scientific Adviser.) 



Published by John Murray, 50A Albemarle Street, 

 London, W.i, to whom all Business Communications 

 should be addressed. 



Advertisement Office : 34 Ludgate Chambers, 32 

 Ludgate Hill, London, E.C.4. 



Annual Subscription, 12s. 6rf. post free ; single numbers, 

 IS. net ; postage, 2d. 



Binding cases for Vol. IL 1921, are now ready. Price 

 2S. 6d. net each ; postage, gd. 



Editorial Notes 



There are many ways of writing about science, but 

 all would be in praise of it, and most would be un- 

 necessary. For it may now be taken for granted that 

 science holds a high position in the minds of thinking 

 men and women, and that it is one of the things that 

 will continue to grow in power and influence. Re- 

 garded merely as a matter of interest for leisure hours, 

 the discoveries of science are engaging the attention 

 of a gradually increasing body in the community. But 

 there is an aspect of science which is often emphasised, 

 and yet one to which attention might be often pro- 

 fitably called, and that is its effect on modes of thought, 

 the value of its method in forming opinion. 

 ***** 

 Science, no doubt, has concerned itself mainly with 

 simple things, the easy problems, but what an achieve- 

 ment is hers ! How has she so often successfully reached 

 the bottom of things ? By a method, a method which 

 consists in collecting and weighing evidence, organising 

 its facts, and generalising them to a clear conclusion. 

 Science, it has been said, is really an animated logic 

 in which the mind receives its first training among real 

 things — real palpable things — not mere words or ab- 

 stractions. Its method consequently should help us 

 to be both logical and lucid, to go straight towards 

 the truth instead of wandering around all anyhow. The 

 thesis of these notes is that the scientific method can 



be and should be applied to all questions that matter 

 a great deal, questions both personal and national 

 which do not appear to be getting solved by the present 

 methods, and which indeed are at a distance from 

 solution which is roughly proportional to the solver's 

 neglect of the scientific method. 



***** 



The subject is big, and we can say little more about 

 it here beyond drawing attention to its existence. Let 

 us contrast, however, the opinions expressed on scienti- 

 fic matters with those on subjects, more difficult and 

 complex perhaps, but which are yet capable of being 

 investigated by the methods of science. It is not 

 possible for anyone to talk nonsense seriously about 

 scientific matters without quickly being found out, and 

 so for the most part the uninformed man keeps his 

 mouth shut. But. unfortunately, on other subjects, 

 like economics, history, sociology, politics, where the 

 scientific method has got little more than a footing, the 

 expert who knows his subject as well as at present it 

 can be known is worried by all kinds of uninformed 

 people, who speak as with authority out of empty 

 minds. We, the listeners, do not heed the expert, but 

 tend to accept whatever is personally most pleasant 

 to us, without inquiring sufficiently from what evi- 

 dence or experience the conclusion we accept is de- 

 rived. Just think, for example, of the kind of evidence, 

 and the kind of people w'ho give it, from \vhich we are 

 asked to form an opinion on, say, the working of prohi- 

 bition in the United States, or on some political subject. 

 .\nd the tragedy is that many scientific things con- 

 cerning which we demand a high standard of truth do 

 not matter very much, while the other things do. 

 ***** 



Let us consider one of the latter things first. Many 

 writers in the political reviews tell us that war is a 

 " biological necessity," that wars will always be fought, 

 that human nature never changes, and so on. Many 

 people believe this. Let us consider very briefly 

 the first statement : war is a biological necessity. 

 Who say this ? It was said and is repeated by those 

 who know little about man, little about his past, little 

 about biology. But the biologists don't say this, and 

 when people are talking about biological necessities they 



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