SECTION 22.OBSER VA TION. 31 9 



everything on the earth. Thus, ta'king a very comprehensive 

 relativist view, Einstein questions the absolutist conception 

 of space and time, and deduces from gravitational influences 

 the curvature of light rays and of spectra reaching us from 

 distant stars. 



CONCLUSION 24. 



Need of a Critical Attitude, of Provisional Treatment, and of 

 Repeated Testing, throughout the Process of Enquiry. 



160. (A) CRITICAL ATTITUDE. The critical attitude 

 should never forsake the inquirer. However cogent his reasons 

 for the conclusions which he has reached, he should still cease- 

 lessly call everything in question. Some few observations may 

 be erroneous, the argument may require buttressing, or an 

 unsuspected fallacy may vitiate the entire solution. The as- 

 sumption needs to underlie his procedure that the real and 

 complete truth will only emerge after a repeated re-inspection 

 of the facts, a repeated re-testing of his conclusions, and after 

 having collected and collated a considerable number of truths. 

 Alertness, and not formal scepticism, is the attitude desiderated 

 here. 



Much of the thinking in the past has been critical, not of 

 oneself but of others. Men have written voluminously to prove 

 that some one else's theory is defective, and have at the same 

 time assumed that their own point of view, conceived as the 

 sole alternative, is thereby recommended, if not substantiated. 

 They have been, in fact, as stern and unreasonable towards 

 others, as they have been excessively lenient and conciliatory 

 towards themselves. Speaking generally, any discussion or 

 criticism of others should be incidental, and in such discussion 

 or criticism there needs to be full recognition of the ease of 

 misjudging, and the difficulty of dealing out justice to, others. 

 Extensive criticism is rare in the established and typical sciences, 

 and presupposes on the whole critical rather than scientific 

 acumen, since the removal of errors by criticism gives ge- 

 nerally place to other errors rather than to truth. 



161. (B) PROVISIONAL TREATMENT AND REPEATED 

 TESTING. Whilst attempts within reasonable limits to exhaust 

 any part of a problem need to be made even in the incipient 

 stages, there should be the further assumption that the results 

 arrived at are provisional, and that we should revert frequently 

 to a re-examination with a view to perfecting or modifying the 

 conclusions. This provisional treatment renders subtlety and 

 speculation superfluous, and the repeated investigations, in the 

 light of connected examinations, are sure to alter many of the 

 earlier inferences. 



Darwin's practice supports our contention. "Some of the 

 most important explanations under his theories did not occur 

 to him until years after he had begun their study. . . . His work 



