KiDD. — What is Science 9 Ixiii 



The word Science, used as an abstract term, like the word Philosophy, 

 has a range of application that goes beyond the limits of the sciences, ^.e., of 

 the departments of generic knowledge which have been developed and 

 methodized. One science is more complete than another ; and some depart- 

 ments of generic truth have not been formed into sciences. It may be that 

 such a department awaits further development; or it may be that its 

 dimensions are too scanty for its receiving a designation, viz., that of being 

 a science, to which custom has assigned a certain quantum of amplitude. 

 But the narrowness of the area cultivated does not necessarily affect the 

 quality of the cultivation. The treatment of a subject may be scientific, 

 whatever the subject may be. As all Science is the valid inference of generic 

 truth, so also all valid inference of generic truth bears the character of 

 Science. Such expressions, therefore, as the science of historical criticism, the 

 science of grammar, the science of probability, the science of jurisprudence, 

 and the like, are not merely authorized by custom; they are in strict accordance 

 with the whole rationale of the subject. If generic truths have been validly 

 inferred, such an ascertainment and contemplation is scientific, whether or not 

 those inferences have been made to take their place in an extensive and 

 formal system. 



The word Science, used as an abstract term, is cognate to the word 

 Philosophy ; and in many instances the two terms are interchangeable. The 

 distinction seems to be, that the designation Philosophy is usually understood 

 to be more especially appropriate to the ultimate generalizations. 



The foregoing definition applies alike to demonstrative and to inductive 

 science; and to sciences of classification, not less than to those which are 

 wholly occupied with determining the relations of cause and effect. When we 

 classify, we assume generic concomitance of attributes or properties ; and this 

 concomitance is to be validly inferred from induction of experience. 



One observation only remains to be made. Science has been defined 

 above to be the valid inference of generic truth. But what may seem to be 

 individual facts, are designated as facts of science. It is, for example, a 

 scientific fact that the diameter of the planet Jupiter has a length between ten 

 and eleven times that of the earth; or that a transit of the planet Yenus 

 occurred in 1769, and will occur before the close of 1874. On consideration, 

 however, it is perceived that such knowledge as this is not devoid of the 

 character of being generic. The length of Jupiter's diameter is not an event, 

 isolated or temporary ; it is a permanent fact, and is known by inference from 

 generic truths. The transits of Venus at the specified times, and with the 

 specified circumstances, are scientific facts only by virtue of their generic 

 character, by their being instances of generic truths which have been validly 

 inferred. Hence it is that copious details of such an event can be so 



