838 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1041 



is safe unless it is built up from a large col- 

 lection of facts. Our philosophers are begin- 

 ning to realize that the same sort of thing is 

 true in their realm, and hence we shoidd not 

 be surprised to see science itself conquer a 

 large part of the ancient domain of philos- 

 ophy. Progress in this direction has already 

 been sufficient for men to begin to speak defi- 

 nitely of " the scientific method in philos- 

 ophy." Such indeed is the title of the vol- 

 ume containing the Lowell Lectures delivered 

 by Bertrand Eussell in Boston last spring. 

 The adherents of this new method believe that 

 it represents in philosophy " the same kind 

 of advance as was introduced into physics by 

 Galileo: the substitution of piecemeal, de- 

 tailed and verifiable results for large untested 

 generalities recommended only by a certain 

 appeal to imagination." This method has 

 gradually crept into philosophy through a 

 critical scrutiny of mathematics. It is im- 

 bued with the essential spirit of a theoretical 

 science based on experimental results. 



The fact that the scientific method is en- 

 croaching upon the domain of philosophy will 

 raise the question as to how far it is able to 

 go towards solving the problems of meta- 

 physics. It appears already to have been 

 quite successful in dealing with the notions 

 of continuity and infinity. But that it shall 

 undertake to solve all the metaphysical prob- 

 lems is unlikely. What is more probable is 

 that it shall pronounce many of them mean- 

 ingless or else out of reach of exact investi- 

 gation and consequently leave them to one 

 side. 



Eeturning now to the more special prob- 

 lems of science proper, let us inquire what is 

 the present outlook for definite achievement 

 in research. There are various types of an- 

 swers to this question and various types of 

 persons who make them. Some take an en- 

 thusiastically optimistic view of the situation. 

 Others are pessimistic, though there seems to 

 be less ground for pessimism now than there 

 was fifteen or twenty years ago. Some of 

 these pessimists believe that research is about 

 to run out, at least in their own fields. They 

 see nothing vital remaining to be done or else 



they feel helpless in the presence of a prob- 

 lem which is conceived. The persons who 

 have this pessimistic feeling may be divided 

 into two classes. 



In the first place, there are those who have 

 not attempted research and therefore have no 

 first-hand acquaintance with its methods and 

 problems and difficulties. At most they can 

 see as through a glass darkly. One feels that 

 their pessimism will prevent them from ever 

 seeing as face to face. Some of these persons 

 are so pronounced in their views as to believe 

 that research has never made any really sig- 

 nificant progress. They reach this opinion 

 from quasi-philosophical considerations and 

 not from an examination of the facts. It is 

 unnecessary to refute these persons. Their 

 judgment of matters of research properly has 

 no weight at all among men who are actually 

 engaged in extending the bounds of knowl- 

 edge. 



In the second place, our group of pessimists 

 include those who have themselves under- 

 taken research and have been unsuccessful in 

 their venture. There is an obvious reason for 

 their opinion; but it is one which makes no 

 contribution toward answering the question 

 as to the general outlook for definite achieve- 

 ment in research. 



Over against these pessimists there is a 

 large and ever-increasing body of enthusiastic 

 researchers. They believe in to-morrow be- 

 cause they saw good things yesterday and 

 have seen better ones to-day. It is hard for 

 them to perceive how any one can fail to feel 

 the expansion of growth in the midst of 

 which he is living. To them it is the most 

 natural of all expectations to think that we 

 are just now on the eve of great develop- 

 ments. What is the ground of their confi- 

 dence, insofar as it is not t-emperamental ? 



It is not that they have a vision of easy eon- 

 quest. It can not be doubted for a moment 

 that difficulties of the most serious sort con- 

 front us in scientific investigations. No one 

 of these optimists can see the goal which he 

 confidently expects science to attain. But 

 there are some things which he can see, 

 namely, past achievements and the circum- 



