ABSTRACT
Science is essentially a growth of organized factual knowledge and as science advances, the burden of factual information which it adds to daily is becoming well nigh insupportable. Science is no more a classified inventory of factual information than history a chronology of dates. The equation of science with facts and of the humane arts with ideas is one of the shabby genteelisms that bolster up the humanist’s self-esteem. The ballast of factual information, so far from being just about to sink people, is growing daily less. The factual burden of a science varies inversely with its degree of maturity. The case for prolonging a scientist’s formal education for many years beyond a humanist’s follows naturally from the belief that scientific education is a taking on board of specialized technical knowledge. The alternative conception runs something like this: Science is above all else a critical and analytical activity.
