THE UNITY OF SCIENCE 1 



ARTHUR O. LOVEJOY 

 Professor of Philosophy 



The course of lectures now begun is not designed merely 

 to add one hour per week to the already alarming number of 

 hours during which, within these halls, the learned speech of 

 professors may be heard or slumbered through. Our meet- 

 ings here have a purpose somewhat different from that of our 

 routine gatherings in the class-room. They are meant to 

 complement the specialized work of the regular courses in a 

 way which appears to be increasingly necessary in the modern 

 university. Since these lectures are to be purely voluntary 

 on the part of all concerned works of supererogation, as the 

 theologians say, for both speakers and hearers they may at 

 least serve as a little rite of intellectual piety, as an expres- 

 sion and a measure of the genuine interest in knowledge 

 that is to be found in our community; and since they are to 

 deal with aspects of science so large or activities so stirring 

 as to impress any mind retaining some vestiges of an imagin- 

 ation, the course ought to do something for the intensification 

 among us of enthusiasm for the things of the intellect, and 

 for the production of a keener sense of the true interesting- 

 ness and significance of scientific inquiry: that very ancient 

 game which the most highly endowed part of the race has 

 been playing throughout all history, the struggle to under- 

 stand the world and man himself, and thereby to realize that 



1 This lecture has been extensively revised for publication. The 

 opening passages of the original discourse, which had especial reference 

 to the occasion of its delivery, have been abridged, and the subsequent 

 part has been much altered and amplified. 



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