CHAPTER V 

 THE EXPLANATION OF LAWS 



THROUGHOUT the previous chapter I wrote as if 

 the ordering of nature which is effected by laws was 

 all that was necessary to satisfy our intellectual 

 desires and so to fulfil the purpose of science. But really 

 when we have discovered laws, we have fulfilled only part 

 of the purpose of science. Even if we were sure that all 

 possible laws had been found and that all the external 

 world of nature had been completely ordered, there would 

 still remain much to be done. We should want to explain 

 the laws. 



"^Explanation in general is the expression of an assertion 

 in a more acceptable and satisfactory form?} Thus if 

 somebody speaks to us in a language we do not under- 

 stand, either a foreign language or the technical language 

 of some study or craft with which we are not familiar, 

 we may ask him to explain his statement. And we shall 

 receive the explanation for which we ask if he merely 

 alters the form of his statement, so as to express it in 

 terms with which we are familiar. The statement in 

 its new form is more acceptable and more satisfactory, 

 because now it evokes a definite response in our minds 

 which we describe by saying that we understand the 

 statement. Again we sometimes ask a man to explain 

 his conduct ; when we make such a demand we are 

 ignorant, or pretending to be ignorant, of the motives 

 which inspired his action. We shall feel that he has 

 offered a complete explanation if he can show that 

 his motives are such as habitually inspire our own 

 actions, or, in other words, that his motives are familiar 

 to us. 



mr*T 77 



V 



