ABSTRACT
Scientific description may be contrasted with philosophical or teleological interpretation, but the contrast is not absolute. The primary end of all scientific description is intercommunication with a view to active cooperation. Hence all such description is necessarily restricted to objects capable of being experienced in the same way by a plurality of individuals. The descriptions of science, again, must be carefully distinguished from such descriptions as can be effected by the mere multiplication of unanalysed sensible detail. Scientific description, it must be remembered, is always description undertaken with a view to the calculation and prediction of the course of events. In a society of finite individuals with interrelated aims and objects, each of the individuals can only attain satisfaction for his own subjective interests by some degree of concerted action along with the rest. Considerations of the kind seem to necessitate the following general view of the logical character of descriptive physical science.
