Science is practical in the highest sense of the word.
If the assignment consists of reaching a given aim, then it is sometimes easier to circumvent prevailing difficulties rather than to attack them; since the former is frequently possible when the latter exceeds our energy. Yet, we would be compelled to confine ourselves to direct confrontation if there were no connection between that which is occurring and that which will take place.This connection is real; in its over-all effect it is termed the relation between cause and effect. It is the task of Science to elucidate this connection in all its details.
This is the reason why I called Science practical in the highest sense of the word;
Science is the great expedient by which the environment is subjugated to our will.
With this we have more closely circumscribed the scope of our topic as: The role of the
imagination in investigating the connection between cause and effect. We will define imagination as the ability to visualize any objectwith all its properties so that one recognizes itwith the same great certainty as by simple observation. There now remains
only to describe theme chanismwith which the connection between cause and effect can be investigated and to ascertain where the ability just mentioned plays a role. This mechanism is extraordinarily simple. It is composed of two parts:
1. By means of the first, observation, one tries to obtain accurate knowledge of our
environment forthwith.
2. By means of the second, the causal connection in it is investigated.
While observation as such, the giving of an account to oneself of the impressions on our
sensory tools, requires nothing but skill in their use and the ability to focus their attention,
there are higher demands to bemade of those qualitieswhich alone give observation its high value, namely:
a) the choice of the moment or the object of observation,
b) the discretionary change of the observed,
c) the finding of those expedients which facilitate the observation and even frequently are the only means which make it possible.These are just as many prerequisites in which completely different faculties play a role rather than skilled sense organs and attention.
Choice of the moment or the object of observation: Shortly before his death the
French astronomer LEVERRIER predicted the existence of a new planet in proximity to the sun.Several observatories at his urging searched for this planet at the instant when it was located between earth and sun and should be seen as a dark disk on the latter. These observations were not crowned by the results hoped for.
If the assignment consists of reaching a given aim, then it is sometimes easier to circumvent prevailing difficulties rather than to attack them; since the former is frequently possible when the latter exceeds our energy. Yet, we would be compelled to confine ourselves to direct confrontation if there were no connection between that which is occurring and that which will take place.This connection is real; in its over-all effect it is termed the relation between cause and effect. It is the task of Science to elucidate this connection in all its details.
This is the reason why I called Science practical in the highest sense of the word;
Science is the great expedient by which the environment is subjugated to our will.
With this we have more closely circumscribed the scope of our topic as: The role of the
imagination in investigating the connection between cause and effect. We will define imagination as the ability to visualize any objectwith all its properties so that one recognizes itwith the same great certainty as by simple observation. There now remains
only to describe theme chanismwith which the connection between cause and effect can be investigated and to ascertain where the ability just mentioned plays a role. This mechanism is extraordinarily simple. It is composed of two parts:
1. By means of the first, observation, one tries to obtain accurate knowledge of our
environment forthwith.
2. By means of the second, the causal connection in it is investigated.
While observation as such, the giving of an account to oneself of the impressions on our
sensory tools, requires nothing but skill in their use and the ability to focus their attention,
there are higher demands to bemade of those qualitieswhich alone give observation its high value, namely:
a) the choice of the moment or the object of observation,
b) the discretionary change of the observed,
c) the finding of those expedients which facilitate the observation and even frequently are the only means which make it possible.These are just as many prerequisites in which completely different faculties play a role rather than skilled sense organs and attention.
Choice of the moment or the object of observation: Shortly before his death the
French astronomer LEVERRIER predicted the existence of a new planet in proximity to the sun.Several observatories at his urging searched for this planet at the instant when it was located between earth and sun and should be seen as a dark disk on the latter. These observations were not crowned by the results hoped for.
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