It is artificial
(an acquired art), not spontaneous; learned, not native. To this
fact is due the unique, the invaluable place of science in
education, and also the dangers which threaten its right use.
Without initiation into the scientific spirit one is not in
possession of the best tools which humanity has so far devised
for effectively directed reflection. One in that case not merely
conducts inquiry and learning without the use of the best
instruments, but fails to understand the full meaning of
knowledge. For he does not become acquainted with the traits
that mark off opinion and assent from authorized conviction. On
the other hand, the fact that science marks the perfecting of
knowing in highly specialized conditions of technique renders its
results, taken by themselves, remote from ordinary experience --
a quality of aloofness that is popularly designated by the term
abstract. When this isolation appears in instruction, scientific
information is even more exposed to the dangers attendant upon
presenting ready-made subject matter than are other forms of
information.
Science has been defined in terms of method of inquiry and
testing. At first sight, this definition may seem opposed to the
current conception that science is organized or systematized
knowledge. The opposition, however, is only seeming, and
disappears when the ordinary definition is completed. Not
organization but the kind of organization effected by adequate
methods of tested discovery marks off science.
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