io6 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

change can take place, that no new existence can arise, save

as the result of causation, is spontaneously acted on by every

man of science, and, indeed, by every man of ordinary

intelligence, as if it were the most certain and indisputable

of axioms. Closely connected with this principle is the

ninth conviction, namely, the conviction that the course of

nature is uniform. The uniformity of nature is so evidently

necessary an assumption for all who would investigate

nature's phenomena and ascertain her laws, that the mere

mention of the fact is all that seems necessary at this stage

of our progress.

Lastly, since we have seen that the methods of science

imply the conviction on our part that some truths are

necessary, and that they reveal to us objective necessities

in external nature, we must here set down the tenth and last

of those convictions we desire to call attention to. This

is the conviction that there really is a condition expressed

by the abstract term necessity, a term which would be

meaningless without the correlative condition and term con-

tingency.

Reserving, as before said, for a future occasion an examina-

tion into the validity of the fundamental assumptions which

must be made by all who pursue physical science, and which

are latent in its every method, we may briefly tabulate those

assumptions as follows :

(1) It is possible to arrive at certain knowledge about

some things, and some absolute scientific certainty

has been actually attained.

(2) An external objective world exists and is truly appre-

hended by some of our intellectual acts, an absolutely

certain knowledge of objectivity being afforded us

through memory, which reveals to us real exist-

ences external to all our present experience.

change can take place, that no new existence can arise, save

as the result of causation, is spontaneously acted on by every

man of science, and, indeed, by every man of ordinary

intelligence, as if it were the most certain and indisputable

of axioms. Closely connected with this principle is the

ninth conviction, namely, the conviction that the course of

nature is uniform. The uniformity of nature is so evidently

necessary an assumption for all who would investigate

nature's phenomena and ascertain her laws, that the mere

mention of the fact is all that seems necessary at this stage

of our progress.

Lastly, since we have seen that the methods of science

imply the conviction on our part that some truths are

necessary, and that they reveal to us objective necessities

in external nature, we must here set down the tenth and last

of those convictions we desire to call attention to. This

is the conviction that there really is a condition expressed

by the abstract term necessity, a term which would be

meaningless without the correlative condition and term con-

tingency.

Reserving, as before said, for a future occasion an examina-

tion into the validity of the fundamental assumptions which

must be made by all who pursue physical science, and which

are latent in its every method, we may briefly tabulate those

assumptions as follows :

(1) It is possible to arrive at certain knowledge about

some things, and some absolute scientific certainty

has been actually attained.

(2) An external objective world exists and is truly appre-

hended by some of our intellectual acts, an absolutely

certain knowledge of objectivity being afforded us

through memory, which reveals to us real exist-

ences external to all our present experience.