in cosmic puiLosornv. [pt.i 



as an " inconvenience," and the liberty to string together pre- 

 mises and conclusions without ever stopping to test their 

 conformity to facts is called a " striking advanl age." Nothing 

 could be more thoroughly metaphysical in temper. The "in- 

 convenience " of the objective method is the inconvenience 

 of being often obliged to stop and confess our ignorance of 

 many things we should like to know, our lack of many data 

 we should be glad to possess. The " striking advantage " of 

 the subjective method is no other than the advantage en- 

 joyed by the metaphysician of being permitted to persuade 

 himself that he has arrived at complete knowledge because 

 he has never stopped to confront the order of his conceptions 

 with the order of phenomena. But let us continue with 

 Comte: "Our logical system can be rendered complete and 

 durable only by the intimate union of the two methods. His- 

 tory does not authorize us to regard them as radically irre- 

 concilable, provided that both are systematically regenerated 

 in accordance with their common function, intellectual and 

 social. To yield to theology the exclusive privilege of using 

 the subjective method is as unnecessary as to see in theology 

 the only legitimate basis of religious feeling. If sociology 

 may possess the latter, it may also possess the former, as the 

 two are intimately connected. To this end it is enough that 

 the subjective method, renouncing the vain search into effi- 

 cient and final causes, should henceforth, like the objective 

 method, be employed solely in the discovery of natural laws, 

 whereby our social condition may be ameliorated." 1 



I do not know where one could find a passage, in the 

 literature of modern philosophy, more lamentably confused 

 in its ideas than this. The subjective method says that 

 verification is not necessary; the objective method says 

 that verification is necessary ; and yet we are told that the 

 two are not " radically irreconcilable ! " It is proposed to 

 " regenerate " the subjective method : yet there is no way of 



1 Politique Positive, torn. L p. 455. 



