INTELLECTUAL ANTECEDENTS OF SCIENCE

WE have now passed through our preliminary inquiries

respecting the objects, methods, and antecedents

of Science. We have recognized that there is a real,

external world, the conditions, laws, and relations of

which it is the business of science to investigate, as it is

also its business to take note of the existence, laws, and

relations of the investigating human mind. We haye seen

what are the main physical and psychical conditions

necessary for the very being of human knowledge, and

what are those fundamental psychical activities of which

we must make use for even its most trifling increase.

In our last two chapters we carefully distinguished between

our lower and our higher mental powers, and it now becomes

our business to direct our whole attention to the latter, as

they are the only tools of which we can make use in

exploring the foundations of science and seeking to obtain

a satisfactory Epistemology.

But before we can advance one step further in our inquiry,

we must make sure that the ground beneath our feet is

perfectly solid and secure, so that there shall be no danger

of our falling into an abyss of intellectual nihilism, or a

quagmire of doubt and uncertainty.

We long ago* remarked that we are all certain about

many things, and that certainty is necessary for any real

* See ante, p. 97.

217

WE have now passed through our preliminary inquiries

respecting the objects, methods, and antecedents

of Science. We have recognized that there is a real,

external world, the conditions, laws, and relations of

which it is the business of science to investigate, as it is

also its business to take note of the existence, laws, and

relations of the investigating human mind. We haye seen

what are the main physical and psychical conditions

necessary for the very being of human knowledge, and

what are those fundamental psychical activities of which

we must make use for even its most trifling increase.

In our last two chapters we carefully distinguished between

our lower and our higher mental powers, and it now becomes

our business to direct our whole attention to the latter, as

they are the only tools of which we can make use in

exploring the foundations of science and seeking to obtain

a satisfactory Epistemology.

But before we can advance one step further in our inquiry,

we must make sure that the ground beneath our feet is

perfectly solid and secure, so that there shall be no danger

of our falling into an abyss of intellectual nihilism, or a

quagmire of doubt and uncertainty.

We long ago* remarked that we are all certain about

many things, and that certainty is necessary for any real

* See ante, p. 97.

217