Introduction to science / by J. Arthur Thomson.

  • Thomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur), 1861-1933.
Date:
[1911], ©1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introduction to science / by J. Arthur Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    matter. Two sciences may work and often do work at the same material,—but with different ends in view, with different funda¬ mental concepts, and with methods different in detail. Let us illustrate. An anthropologist may work for years at a particular societary form, and yet his results may be contributions to biology rather than to sociology. A psycholo¬ gist may devote himself to the study of cats and dogs, and yet his results may not be contributions to biology in the stricter sense. A physicist may give persistent and profitable attention to the electrical changes associated with contracting muscle, and yet though he is in a sense dealing wdth organisms all the time, his results may be contributions to physics rather than to biology. Similarly, the chemist, for purposes of his own, may give his life to the study of the odoriferous sub¬ stances in flowers, and yet never ask one biological question. The Correlation of the Sciences.— From the classification of the sciences and sub-sciences we turn with a feeling of relief to the idea of their Unity. Blocked apart for practical convenience, treated of in separate books, expounded by different teachers, investigated in different laboratories, the sciences are, after all, parts of one discipline, illustrations of one method, attempts to make