Page:Philosophical Review Volume 5.djvu/675

659 the content of the object, it has fulfilled its office. If the ideal of truth is thus freed from a conditional character, if it is admitted only in a general way, the value will not be increased or diminished with the circumstances which elsewhere accompany it.

The author conceives science as a teleological construction, not as an outcome of passive observation. The factors of this construction are (1) phenomena—the element of diversity and change, and (2) laws—the element of unity and permanence. An examination of so-called 'positive' laws reveals at once their teleological nature. For example, in the law, 'phosphorus fuses at a temperature of 44 degrees,' the properties constituting phosphorus have been selected out of a countless number on wholly teleological grounds. Again, the term 'temperature of 44 degrees,' saying nothing of temperature as such, involves (1) that temperature shall be measured by the expansion of a body; (2) that the body shall be a column of mercury in a tube; (3) that equal variations of temperature shall correspond to equal variations in expansion. Finally, the conceptions of degree and measurement have no meaning apart from a process of adaptation. Further illustration is found in astronomical laws. Nor are the so-called 'fundamental hypotheses,' e.g., that of a vibrating ether, any more or less teleological than the 'positive' laws. What passes for 'objective verification' of a law or hypothesis, is simply an application of it. The breakdown of a law or hypothesis means that in the growth of the whole body of experience a stage has been reached where readjustment is demanded at that particular point, though it is conceivable that it might be demanded at some other. If, for instance, the facts of astronomy should demand a non-Euclidean geometry, the demand might be met by giving up the hypothesis of the rectilinear propagation of light. In a word, the teleological justification of a law or hypothesis constitutes its objective verification.

In this article the author avowedly follows the method which he has found so fruitful in other investigations, and especially in