THE SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 



what respect philosophy differs from science, 

 and in what respect both philosophy and science 

 differ from that comparatively imperfect kind of 

 knowledge which is the common property of 

 uncultivated minds. 



Though science has been often vaguely sup- 

 posed to be something generically distinct from 

 ordinary knowledge, yet the briefest consider- 

 ation will suffice to show us that this is not 

 the case, but that scientific knowledge is only 

 a higher development of the common informa- 

 tion of average minds. In the first place we 

 shall see that the process gone through, and 

 the results attained by the process, are not ge- 

 nerically different in scientific and in ordinary 

 thinking. 



All knowledge whatever is, as we have seen, 

 a classification of experiences. No intelligence 

 or intelligent action is possible unless the dis- 

 tinctions among surrounding phenomena be 

 detected and registered in the mind. Even 

 the lowest animal can only preserve its exist- 

 ence on condition that different external agen- 

 cies shall affect it in different ways, — that dif- 

 ferent sets of circumstances shall cause it to put 

 forth correspondingly different sets of corre- 

 lated actions. Perhaps it is sufficient for these 

 simply constituted creatures to distinguish be- 

 tween the organic and inorganic matters present 

 in their environment, or between light and 

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