THE SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 



We reply that science can, after all, deal 

 only with particular orders of phenomena. No 

 matter how vast the generalities to which it 

 can attain, it only proclaims truths which hold 

 throughout certain entire classes of phenomena. 

 It does not proclaim truths which hold through- 

 out all classes of phenomena. Its widest truths 

 are astronomic, or chemical, or biological truths ; 

 they are not Cosmic truths, in the fullest sense 

 of that expression. For by science we mean 

 merely the sciences, — the sum of knowledge 

 obtained by systematic inquiries into the various 

 departments of phenomena. Such knowledge 

 is, after all, only an aggregate of parts, each of 

 which is more or less completely organized in 

 itself; it is not an organic whole, the parts of 

 which are in their mutual relations coordinated 

 with each other. Or, to put the same truth in 

 another form : The universe of phenomena is 

 an organic whole, the parts of which are not 

 really divisible, though we must needs separate 

 them for convenience of study. We find it ne- 

 cessary to pursue separate lines of investigation 

 for gravitative, or thermal, or chemical, or vital, 

 or psychical, or social phenomena ; but in re- 

 ality these phenomena are ever intermingled 

 and interactive. Let us, for example, arrive at 

 the widest possible generalization respecting 

 astronomic phenomena ; we have still not con- 

 structed a body of doctrine concerning the uni- 

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