ORGANIZATION OF THE SCIENCES 



lar truths ; while an abstract truth colligates no 

 particular truths, but formulates a truth which 

 certain phenomena all involve, though it may- 

 be actually seen in none of them." * 



Now there can be no question that if we were 

 to substitute the words general and special for 

 the words abstract and concrete, in the Comtean 

 classification, that classification would express, 

 to a certain extent, a true distinction. No doubt 

 chemistry and biology are general sciences, while 

 mineralogy, zoology, and botany are more or 

 less special sciences. But the distinction be- 

 tween abstract and concrete is by far the deeper 

 distinction, and because the Comtean classifica- 

 tion incorrectly formulates it, there is no alter- 

 native but to regard that classification as incura- 

 bly faulty. 



The above criticism, however, supplies us 

 with materials for making a better one. As the 

 case now stands, we have three abstract sciences, 

 — mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Yet a 

 distinction in degree of abstractness arises be- 

 tween mathematics and the other two. All three 

 were originally obtained by generalization from 

 concrete phenomena. All mathematical analy- 

 sis starts from numeration, as all geometry starts 

 from measuring. Nevertheless mathematics has 

 utterly outgrown the processes of concrete ob- 



1 Spencer, Classification of the Sciences, 1864, pp. 7—9. 



43 



