Strictly speaking, it does not indicate the
objective relations of water any more than does a statement that
water is transparent, fluid, without taste or odor, satisfying to
thirst, etc. It is just as true that water has these relations
as that it is constituted by two molecules of hydrogen in
combination with one of oxygen. But for the particular purpose
of conducting discovery with a view to ascertainment of fact, the
latter relations are fundamental. The more one emphasizes
organization as a mark of science, then, the more he is committed
to a recognition of the primacy of method in the definition of
science. For method defines the kind of organization in virtue
of which science is science.
4. Subject Matter as Social. Our next chapters will take up
various school activities and studies and discuss them as
successive stages in that evolution of knowledge which we have
just been discussing. It remains to say a few words upon subject
matter as social, since our prior remarks have been mainly
concerned with its intellectual aspect. A difference in breadth
and depth exists even in vital knowledge; even in the data and
ideas which are relevant to real problems and which are motivated
by purposes. For there is a difference in the social scope of
purposes and the social importance of problems. With the wide
range of possible material to select from, it is important that
education (especially in all its phases short of the most
specialized) should use a criterion of social worth.
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