ABSTRACT

In order to get some idea of the extent of our knowledge according to Cook Wilson, the main thing is to determine how far natural science is knowledge on his view. Perhaps the first law of motion, the law of the conservation of energy, and the law that action and reaction are equal and opposite, would be considered self-evident, along with any other axioms that are merely corollaries or different formulations of these. This is the only exception to the uncertainty of natural philosophy that can be said to have been explicitly pointed out by Cook Wilson at any time, so far as Statement and Inference shows; and there appears to be only one other exception that his view implies. This is the mathematical element in science, for mathematics is knowledge according to him. One of the largest and most flourishing spheres of human inquiry yields, therefore, practically no knowledge.