TRANSACTIONS OF TEE SECTIONS. 



Section A.— MATHEMATICAL AND rHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



President of tiik Section: Professor A. N. Wiiiteheap, 

 D.Sc, F.E.S. 



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 

 Tlie President delivered the following Address : — ■ 



The Organisalion of Thought. 



The subject of tliis address is the organisation of thought, a topic evidently 

 capable of many diverse modes of treatment. I intend more particularly to give 

 some account of that department of logical science with whicli some of my own 

 studies have been connected. But I am anxious, if I can succeed in so doing, 

 to handle this account so as to exhibit the relation with certain considerations 

 which underlie general scientific activities. 



It is no accident that an age of science has developed into an age of organisa- 

 tion. Organised thought is the basis of organised action. Organisation is the 

 adjustment of diverse elements so that their mutual relations may exhibit some 

 predetermined quality. An epic poem is a triumph of organisation, that is to 

 say, it is a triumph in the unlikely event of it being a good epic poem. It is 

 the successful organisation of multitudinous sounds of words, associations of 

 words, pictorial memories of diverse events and feelings ordinarily occurring in 

 life, combined with a special narrative of great events : the whole so disposed 

 ae to excite emotions which, as defined by IMilton, are simple, sensuous, a.nd 

 passionate. The number of successful epic poems is commensurate, or, rather, 

 is inversely commensurate with the obvious difficulty of the ta.sk of organisation. 



Science is the organisation of thought. But the example of the epic poem 

 warns us that science is not any organisation of thought. It is an organisation 

 of a certain definite type which we will endeavour to determine. 



Science is a river with two sources, the practical source and the theoretical 

 source. The practical source is the desire to direct our actions to achieve pre- 

 determined ends. For example, the British nation, fighting for justice, turns 

 to science, which teaches it the importance of compounds of nitrogen. The 

 theoretical source is the desire to understand. Now I am going to emphasise 

 the importance of theory in science. But to avoid misconception I most 

 emphatically state that I do not consider one source as in any sense nobler than 

 the other, or intrinsically more interesting. I cannot see why it is nobler to 

 strive to understand than to busy oneself with the right ordering of one's 

 actions. Both have their bad sides ; there are evil ends directing actions, and 

 there are ignoble curiosities of the understanding. 



The importance, even in practice, of the theoretical side of science arises 

 from the fact that action must be immediate, and takes place under circum- 

 stances which are excessively complicated. If we wait for the necessities of 

 action before we commence to arrange our ideas, in peace we shall have lost our 

 trade, and in war we shall have lost the battle. 



Success in practice depends on theorists who, led by other motives ot 

 exploration, have been there before, and by some good chance have hit upon 



