Biosophy 
hand to the published results of others; the nearer the 
connection between the work of these others and his own, 
the more critically he examines their conclusions and 
the more tendency he has to repeat and verify their 
experiments. Among scientific workers themselves, 
knowing as they do the records of their colleagues and 
the standards necessary for reliability, the results over 
the whole range of science are accepted with confidence, 
though always with the reservation that they may be 
and almost certainly will be extended or modified in 
the light of further research; there is thus a very large 
degree of unanimity in thé territory covered by science, 
and when, in other territory, such unanimity is not 
found, it may be asserted with reasonable probability 
that scientific methods have not yet been sufficiently 
employed, and that their employment may be expected 
to clear up much of the confusion and discord which 
now prevails. The claim here made is that the scientific 
method is the only one capable of bringing enlighten- 
ment and that every aspect of knowledge including 
human relations is a proper subject for scientific 
treatment. 
69. Knowledge,'in the foregoing paragraphs, has 
been distinguished at three levels, roughly chronological, 
viz.: 1, the inarticulate animal level; 2, the older human 
level of speech and record; 3, the modern scientific level 
of organised observation and experiment. Knowledge 
at the third level (with some of its foundations at the 
second) may again be subdivided according to the nature 
or aspect of the things known. First we have the purely 
abstract science, A Mathematics, dealing with numbers 
and quantities and serving as a kind of universal 
language for the more concrete sciences; and, of lesser 
importance, is B Logic, defining the use of language in 
relation to the reality of things. Next we have a group 
of sciences graded in accordance with the scale and 
nature of the aggregation of the things dealt with; (6; 
Mechanics, relating to matter in the mass; with this may 
be grouped Physical Geography and Descriptive 
Astronomy: D, Molecular Physics, relating to the motion 
of molecules; E Chemistry, relating to the combinations 
of atoms: F Sub-atomic Physics, relating to atomic 
structure, particles and radiation. As a special series 
of sciences, based on C, D, E, F, but distinguished by the 
high chemical complexity of the forms of matter studied, 
are G the Life Sciences (including Biology, Psychology, 
Ethics, Politics, etc.). Finally in H History is studied 
such knowledge as can be recovered with regard to 
changes which have occurred, particularly in the Earth 
and in the Evolution of Life and in Human Relations. 
70. Knowledge, and the sciences which are the 
divisions of knowledge at its highest level, must be 
regarded as essentially “positive,” using positive in the 
sense of true, as opposed to “negative” or false. But it 
must not be forgotteen that in most, perhaps all, branches 
of knowledge perfection has not been obtained. The 
most we can hope in each case is that the positive factors 
are in the majority and that they are being constantly 
increased in number, and that the negative factors are 
in the minority and are being constantly eliminated. 
Where is negative knowledge to be placed in a scheme 
of classification of the sciences? The aim of each 
science being to increase positive and eliminate negative 
knowledge, the general answer is quite clear, viz., that 
error once recognised has no part in current Science 
and becomes relegated to History. But there are 
qualifications. The senses are imperfect through the 
limitations of our sense organs and the physiological 
processes on which their working is based; illusions can 
therefore occur; I do not think these illusions are of 
such importance as is often claimed, for practical pur- 
poses our senses are wonderfully efficient, and the 
laboratory demonstration of illusions is often staged 
much as a conjuror stages his tricks, whereas the acci- 
dental staging of illusions is not a common occurrence 
in nature, These errors of the senses, which can still 
be staged for us, even though we know the impressions 
are erroneous and know the reason of the illusions, are 
not negative knowledge; rather their appreciation. and 
explanation are positive knowledge and they are there- 
fore properly included in the sciences of Physiology and 
Psychology. 
71. Apart from sense illusion, which has just been 
excluded for reasons given, negative knowledge has no 
place in the first or animal level of knowledge. It was 
at the second, or human speech level, that negative 
knowledge became an important feature in the form 
of errors, falsehoods, and delusions, in part the result 
of carelessness of speech and thought, in part originating 
in deliberate falsification. The progress from animal 
to human level was mixed with much that was the 
reverse of progress. No animal approaches the wisdom 
of man, but none approaches man's folly. And man's 
folly still continues; although science is eliminating 
it among a minority, it still plays a most important 
part in the lives of the majority. Therefore, in 
saying that error once recognised has no part in 
current Science and becomes relegated to History, it 
must be admitted that this is to take a somewhat opti- 
mistic view, but a view which may, I think, be justified. 
The period during which science has been sufficiently 
advanced to dominate the thought, even of a minority, 
has been so short that, although the public has already 
welcomed and adopted. the technical inventions of 
science, it has not yet approached the application of 
scientific principles in the conduct of life. We may 
therefore relegate to History error recognised by the 
scientific minority, and it may, I think, be justifiable to 
treat the supernatural, and supernatural religions, as 
historical, and not as a branch of current science, even 
"though these still influence the thoughts and lives of 
a majority in a certain but rapidly diminishing degree. 
. Human History will consist, to a very considerable ex- 
50 
tent, in the history of negative knowledge, and of the 
folly and injustice for which negative knowledge has 
been responsible, ý 
E oin 
