22 :emile boutroux 



tined to absorb the whole man and to reduce 

 him to the dust of atoms? 



That hypothesis arises from a misunder- 

 standing which Descartes denounced long ago. 

 It supposes a confusion between science al- 

 ready formed or made and science which is in 

 the making, or rather, a confusion between 

 science considered as a thing in itself and 

 science as it actually exists. If science were 

 a thing in itself, ready made from all eternity 

 — if man had nothing to do but to discover it 

 as a treasure buried in the ground is discover- 

 ed, then it would be true that man does not 

 really exist except in a scientific form — that 

 is to say, so far as he is a man, he does not 

 exist at all. But that so-called science in 

 itself, is nothing but a creation of reason, 

 imagined by metaphysicians of the absolute or 

 by university professors inclined by profession 

 to dogmatism. The only science which exists 

 is the science which is being formed, the sci- 

 ence which is becoming science — and that is 

 not really a discovery — it is rather an inven- 

 tion. If there is one result which is plain 

 from the deep study which, in our day espe- 



