THE AIM OF SCIENCE 41 



with the definition of Science as a description of 

 the facts of experience, there lurks a second: Is 

 the explanation of things to be given up? Is it 

 not the office of Science to get behind description 

 and to supply explanation? The answer to that 

 question is this: (a) The vulgar belief that 

 Science has "explained everything" is a hope- 

 less misunderstanding. As we shall afterwards 

 find, it would be nearer the truth to say that 

 Science has explained nothing. (6) Science does 

 not even try to refer facts of experience to any 

 ultimate reality. That is not its business, (c) In 

 a limited sense Science explains things, namely, 

 by reducing them to simpler terms, by discover- 

 ing the conditions of their occurrence, and by 

 disclosing their history. What do we mean when 

 we say that Physics has accounted for the tides, 

 or that Physiology has made some function of 

 the body much more intelligible than it used to 

 be? What is meant is that we have gained a 

 general conception of the nature of the facts in 

 question, and that we are able to relate them to 

 some general formula. In this sense only does 

 Science explain things, and it does not really get 

 beyond a description. 



KNOWLEDGE OF CAUSES. We must admit 

 that there is good sense in the popular impres- 

 sion that it is the aim of Science to discover the 

 causes of things. What is Science for if it does 



