378 PART V. WORKING STAGE. 



preaching the standpoint of Francis Bacon who had the temerity 

 of seeking, by the ladder of methodological rules, 1 to raise the 

 mentality of the average man to the giddiest heights. To the 

 end of proving the reasonableness of automatically initiated and 

 methodically developed deductions, at least in certain cases, 

 we shall examine deductively the proposition "Culture is a 

 pan-human product". 



For practical purposes, we shall assume the absolute truth 

 of the proposition, leaving it to him who makes the deductions 

 in the course of an enquiry to allow in each instance for the 

 corrections necessitated by special circumstances. Our aim will 

 be to show that by following certain methodological rules me- 

 chanically, appreciable headway may be made in rendering ex- 

 plicit the implications of a general proposition. Of course, 

 thorough acquaintance with the topic of the proposition is 

 presupposed. 



The two terms of significance in the proposition are mani- 

 festly "culture" and "pan-human". Following Conclusion 19, 

 we commence at the beginning and analyse therefore the im- 

 plications of the first term, naturally in relation to the second. 



1. As a first step, and in order to reduce complexity (Con- 

 clusion 20), we break up the word Culture into the principal 

 recognised types of culture moral, intellectual, hygienic, and 

 aesthetic culture, but ignore, for simplicity sake, their inter- 

 relations. 



Following the simplest practicable case (Conclusion 20), and 

 the Conclusion mentioned in the penultimate paragraph, we 

 shall deal below with moral culture alone, and envisage in the 

 first instance only the individual. 



2. Moral culture is a pan-human product. 



3. Given 2, it follows that, in identical external (i.e., non- 

 congenital) circumstances, the moral contribution of any one 

 individual to the existing moral treasure is equal to the total 

 moral treasure existing, divided by the number of human be- 

 ings who have lived and who are living. 



4. This involves that whatever differences exist in matters 

 moral among individuals are due respectively to favourable 

 or unfavourable external circumstances. 



5. This further suggests (Conclusion 20) that the profoundest 

 sage a Socrates or a Buddha and, for example, the most 

 benighted Australian aboriginal, would, but for varying ex- 

 ternal circumstances, make the same moral contribution to the 

 moral treasure of the world. 



6. The existence of the lower extremes, mentioned in 5, 

 again involves that the actual direct moral contribution of a 

 Socrates or a Buddha is practically infinitesimal. 



"My way of discovering sciences goes far to level men's wits, and leaves 

 but little to individual excellence, because it performs everything by the 

 surest rules and demonstrations." (Novum Organum, bk. 1, 122.) 



