SECTION 22. OBSERVATION. 259 



unlike that of physiology or medicine, has made no progress 

 worth remarking for several generations, solely because the 

 primary facts were not adequately investigated. 1 



The case of the science of ethics is, in one respect, even less 

 satisfactory, for whereas the social factor necessarily complicates 

 matters here to a notable degree, almost the only promise we 

 have yet of this department of knowledge is the academic name. 

 Those who have made a faithful study of this nominal science, 

 can scarcely call into question that theory plays in this science 

 a prodigiously greater part than fact. Here also the irrelevant 

 views of common sense and scholasticism are triumphant. One 

 vainly searches for a systematic treatise telling of the various 

 notions men and women entertain, and have entertained, on 

 morals; of the relative place morals occupy in life and mind, 

 and their relation to other parts of life and mind ; of experiments 

 to test their genuineness, scope, and limits; of the nature of 

 the good man, and of the signification of ethical terms ; of the 

 development of morality in children and also in institutions, 

 such as charities, hospitals, schools, prisons, etc., etc. all per- 

 formed in a thoroughly impartial and scientific spirit, with an 

 eye to pristine fact and not to prevalent or ancient theories 

 and philosophies. 2 



124. (e) Accuracy. Scrupulous accuracy as to constituents, 

 form, quality, quantity, time, place, degree, state, changes, and 

 the categories generally, should be aimed at in observation, and 

 on this point the present generation of men of science has be- 

 come almost preternaturally sensitive with magnificent results. 

 Accuracy prevents endless complications, and saves, therefore, 

 much time and thought. Thus he who concluded from his ob- 

 servations that each expiration emptied the lungs of air and 

 each inspiration filled them with air, or that the expelled 

 air had lost all its oxygen, would gravely misrepresent the 

 facts. 



Faraday's infinitely precious rule should guide and inspire 

 the observer that no need should exist for repeating an ob- 

 servation or experiment, and we should ever recall that Darwin 

 "saved a great deal of time through not having to do things 

 twice". (Frank Cramer, op. cit., p. 29.) The accuracy should 

 also extend to the statement embodying the observations, and 

 for the same cogent reasons. 



1 The present writer has attempted in his Mind of Man to deal with the 

 nature of the human mind, apart from tradition and on the methodological 

 lines sketched in earlier drafts of this volume. 



2 In a recent work treating of the methods employed in the sciences, and 

 consisting of contributions by eminent specialists (De la me~thode dans les 

 sciences, 1910), M. Levy-Bruhl examines the methods of ethics, and arrives 

 at the conclusion that not even the beginnings of a science of ethics exist 

 as yet. In regard to the methods to be employed in ethical enquiries, see 

 the author's "De la methode dans les recherches des lois de 1'ethique", 

 in Revue philosophique, January, 1905. 



17* 



