42 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC 



is something which includes deduction as much as 

 induction, logic and mathematics as much as botany and 

 geology. I shall not attempt the difficult task of stating 

 what the scientific method is, but I will try to indicate 

 the temper of mind out of which the scientific method 

 grows, which is the second of the two merits that were 

 mentioned above as belonging to a scientific education. 



The kernel of the scientific outlook is a thing so simple, 

 so obvious, so seemingly trivial, that the mention of it 

 may almost excite derision. The kernel of the scientific 

 outlook is the refusal to regard our own desires, tastes, 

 and interests as affording a key to the understanding of 

 the world. Stated thus baldly, this may seem no more 

 than a trite truism. But to remember it consistently in 

 matters arousing our passionate partisanship is by no 

 means easy, especially where the available evidence is 

 uncertain and inconclusive. A few illustrations will 

 make this clear. 



Aristotle, I understand, considered that the stars 

 must move in circles because the circle is the most 

 perfect curve. In the absence of evidence to the con- 

 trary, he allowed himself to decide a question of fact by 

 an appeal to aesthetico-moral considerations. In such 

 a case it is at once obvious to us that this appeal was 

 unjustifiable. We know now how to ascertain as a fact 

 the way in which the heavenly bodies move, and we 

 know that they do not move in circles, or even in 

 accurate ellipses, or in any other kind of simply de- 

 scribable curve. This may be painful to a certain 

 hankering after simplicity of pattern in the universe, 

 but we know that in astronomy such feelings are irre- 

 levant. Easy as this knowledge seems now, we owe it 

 to the courage and insight of the first inventors of scien- 

 tific method, and more especially of Galileo. 



