Page:Reichenbach - Experience and Prediction.djvu/27

§ 1. THE THREE TASKS 13 there are others in which two or even more different decisions are in use, intermingling and interfering within the same context and confusing logical investigations. The concept of meaning may serve as an example; simpler examples occur in the theory of measurement. The concrete task of scientific investigation may put aside the exigencies of logical analysis; the man of science does not always regard the demands of the philosopher. It happens, therefore, that the decisions presupposed by positive science are not clarified. In such a case, it will be the task of epistemology to suggest a proposal concerning a decision; and we shall speak, therefore, of the advisory task of epistemology as its third task. This function of epistemology may turn out to be of great practical value; but it must be kept clearly in mind that what is to be given here is a proposal and not a determination of a truth-character. We may point out the advantages of our proposed decision, and we may use it in our own expositions of related subjects; but never can we demand agreement to our proposal in the sense that we can demand it for statements which we have proven to be true.

There is, however, a question regarding facts which is to be considered in connection with the proposal of a decision. The system of knowledge is interconnected in such a way that some decisions are bound together; one decision, then, involves another, and, though we are free in choosing the first one, we are no longer free with respect to those following. We shall call the group of decisions involved by one decision its entailed decisions. To give a simple example: the decision for the English system of measures leads to the impossibility of adding measure numbers according to the technical rules of the decimal system; so the renunciation of these rules would be an entailed decision. Or a more complicated example: the decision expressed in