No. 552] AUTONOMY OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE Til 

 Conclusion 



I have tried to show that biological events are orderly; 

 that a distinct problem guarantees the autonomy of the 

 science; that the application of physical and chemical 

 methods has no shortcomings specifically different from 

 those met with when applied to the inorganic, and finally 

 that vitalism in addition to being unnecessary is absurd. 

 The question whether the modern outburst of metaphys- 

 ical biology, a movement which finds favor among phi- 

 losophers and psychologists, and has no small following 

 among zoologists and botanists, is not, despite its obvious 

 faults, sound in motive, remains to be answered. Me- 

 chanical methods, even if applicable to vital events no 

 less than to any others, might nevertheless possess an 

 inherent weakness discoverable only when enlisted in 

 biological service. The only reply possible to this ques- 

 tion is that they are the best methods which human 

 beings can devise, for their excellencies are grounded in 

 our structure, their deficiencies in that of the world out- 

 side. 



It has been pointed out over and over again that the 

 explanations of science never amount to more than the 

 enumeration of the conditions under which the events 

 in nature take place. With ultimate explanation science 

 does not deal, not because men of science do not want to, 

 but because in their experience nature contains nothing 

 ultimate. The failure, therefore, of science to give us 

 more than it does can be held up as a fault only by those 

 who are dissatisfied with the structure of the universe. 

 For this feeling intellectual hygiene is the only cure. 



If the limitations of scientific methods are to be found 

 in the limitations of a limitless universe, their excellen- 

 cies, as instruments for the automatic preservation of 

 life, are to be found in ourselves, for the mechanical 

 symbols by the aid of which natural phenomena are in- 

 terpreted are the easiest for us to use. The value of 

 these symbols depends on our power to visualize, and 



