488 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Part IY. — The Essay. 



An Inquiry into the Relation between the Scientific 

 Study of Nature and the Actual Events of the 

 Universe. 



Hitherto every attempt to ascertain the events that are actually 

 happening in the universe of real existences, and to determine what 

 those existences are — in other words, the study of ontology — has 

 been pursued almost exclusively from the standpoint of the meta- 

 physician. This mode of treatment has led to a few negative results 

 which are chiefly of value by helping to dispel some popular errors* 

 but it has established little that is positive, or that can be of much 

 service to the scientific student of nature. And yet the scientific 

 investigation of nature has been pushed in more than one direction 

 into contact with problems of ontology, and is there arrested 1 owing 

 to the wholly different levels at which these two fields of investiga- 

 tion lie. It appears therefore to be in an eminent degree desirable 

 that an attempt should be made to bring them into line by carrying 

 on the ontological investigation from the standpoint of the scientific 

 student of nature. 



Such an investigation will necessarily be extensive ; but the 

 present essay 2 only aims at endeavouring to lay its foundation by 

 seeking to ascertain in what way the scientific study of nature (with 

 which the human mind is fitted to cope) stands related to the real 

 events and real existences of which the universe actually consists. 



Let us for convenience call these real existences auta {rd ovra 

 avrd) — the very things themselves. An auto then is a thing that 

 really exists, and in no wise depends on the way we, human minds, 

 may happen to regard it. Our impressions or beliefs about it may be 

 correct or may be erroneous, but the term auto means the thing itself. 



1 Notably in physiology, in which science we are brought to a stand when we 

 come face to face with the problem of the interdependence between the thoughts of 

 animals and changes in their brains ; and generally throughout physics, when we 

 make any attempt to penetrate to the causes of the events that occur. 



2 For convenience of reference, the postulates upon which the reasoning of this 

 essay is founded are set out explicitly in the Introduction (p. 476) ; and definitions of 

 most of the terms used will be found in the Outline (p. 478). (A complete Glossary 

 of the Terms is given at p. 520.) Some Diagrams are added (p. 484), the first of which 

 represents, in a graphical form, the general plan of the argument. 



