MS 1343 (1902) - Of the Classification of the Sciences

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These categories of purpose must be categories of every system of natural classification, so far as that classification expresses the development of a purpose working upon a unvarying condition of matter, or working upon conditions whose gradual changes and revolutions are sufficiently slow to allow of the purpose taking its full development. In some form they must appear in every natural classification,—be it of dances or be it of battles; or at least, so one may presume. But that form can hardly fail to be very different in case nothing interferes with the prosecution of a purpose and in case plans are liable to be deranged or frustrated at every step by unexpected emergencies. These categories must be expected to show themselves not only in true natural classification, but also in mistaken attempts at natural classification,—sometimes even more clearly. For they have their origin in the neces-

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sary relations between thoughts and their objects; and these affect the operations of the human mind, even when it is most illogical, quite as clearly as the do those of nature.

All this, however, as here stated, is vague in the extreme; and even granting that it is true, leaves us quite in the dark as to helpfulness of a further knowledge of the categories in drawing up a scheme of natural classification. Moreover, while enough has been said to excite a presumption that there are some such categories, yet even this is not made out with certainty. It will be the part of good sense to leave such matters entirely out of account until the frame-work of our classification is nearly or quite complete, and to avoid the "high priori" method.

Let us being, then, our enumeration of the principal sciences. A science, in the sense in which we are

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here [to] take the word is a deliberate course of inquiry. As such, it is animated by a purpose. Now every purpose has its root in a desire, and every desire is a phase of an instinct. The instincts of every animal appear to have for their quasi-purpose the presentation of the race of which that animal is a member, and this in one or other of two ways,

1st, by preserving that individual alive,

2nd, by causing him to reproduce his kind, and rear his offspring. This remark, even if it does not quite cover all the instincts, ought to afford a key to the classification of the instincts, and through them of purposes in general, and particularly of scientific purposes. Let us then draw up an orderly list of all the instincts of man, and from this form another of all scientific inquiries directed to the ascertainment of the best ways of giving these instincts free play and of satisfying the desire to which they give rise. This will be a natural

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group of sciences, since it will be founded on the motive causes of those sciences; and thus we shall have made a vigorous commencement of the classification of all the sciences, and we may hope that in going so far we shall discover indications of a path which may be followed out beyond that first group of sciences.

That will be an intelligible thing to do and surely nothing can be easier. That is to say, no other way of breaking ground in discovering the natural classification of the practical sciences can be easier. Not that there will be no difficulties, at all. On the contrary, the difficulties will soon be found to be such that a rude approximation to the natural classification of the practical sciences is all that we can hope, at present, to attain. To begin with, let us try to get some answer not entirely unsatisfactory

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to the question, What is an instinct? A trio of philosophers more awfully scientific that anything but a modern psychologist can be have put their heads together in Baldwin's Dictionary to produce this definition: An instinct is "an inherited reaction of the sensori-motor type, relatively complex and markedly adaptive in character, and common to a group of individuals." Observe that it is a reaction. To say that it was something implanted in the animal's nature fit to cause a reaction would be highly unscientific, mystical, and metaphysical. No, it is the very reaction itself, and this very reaction is inherited. This is very unmetaphysical, but it will not answer our purpose. We cannot aspire to be very scientific in our rude classification of the sciences. We shall be obliged to content ourselves with the following