ABSTRACT
The liberal tradition, in which I was brought up, has still, it seems to me, immense importance for human welfare. It is true that, on the economic side, the growth of vast industrial organizations has necessitated a new approach to the problem of distributive justice, but in other respects I have found no reason to abandon the ideals that I imbibed in youth: freedom of speech, toleration, democracy, and respect for the individual so far as the need of maintaining public order permits. These ideals are, in the political sphere, the counterpart of scientific method in the intellectual sphere, and where either is abandoned the other suffers. It is this connection between democracy and the scientific outlook that I am now concerned to make clear.
