ABSTRACT

The discoverer of scientific truth is often also the inventor of scientific instruments, or scientific apparatus; but the technical inventions which pave the way for scientific discovery, and the technical inventions for which scientific discovery lays the foundations, can always be distinguished from science proper, or pure science. In order to obtain the kind of impartial, well-founded, and systematic knowledge at which the sciences aim, certain modes of investigation are followed, which are known as Scientific Methods. The conjectural, highly speculative character of early science was probably due, in large measure, to the lack of suitable technical methods and scientific apparatus. The more speculative flights of philosophic and theological reflection also aim at the satisfaction of certain human needs. Whatever use scientific discoveries may be put to, science as such is a species of theoretical knowledge, as opposed to all forms of active skill or practical wisdom.