CHAPTER XIX 



The Theory of Genetic Modes 



On the basis of the conclusions of the preceding chapter 

 we may take up a question which concerns the method of 

 positive science and the nature of the formulations which 

 science is able to make. If it be of the nature of all 



* things ' that they are in process of change, and if the 

 growth of experience be such that two aspects of reality 

 alike engender mental attitudes, called respectively the 



* prospective ' and the * retrospective,' then it becomes 

 of great importance to determine, so far as may be, the 

 relatiofi of the mind to its objects^ hi the body of knowledge 

 called science. There are two general positions, held more 

 or less explicitly by different writers, with reference to 

 which the following discussion may be conducted. 



§ I. Agenetic Science 



In the first place, the processes or events with which 

 science deals may be considered under certain mental 

 rules or conditions, which represent an ideal of regularity 

 in a series of transformations which run their course in 

 a finished and traceable form. The * shorthand ' descrip- 

 tions of such processes state the ' laws ' which, if these 

 ideals or rules be conformed to, phenomena, broken in 

 upon — cut in cross-section, as it were — at any point of 

 their development for purposes of observation, will be 

 found to illustrate. An adjunct to this method is the 



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