Outlines of scientific anatomy : for students of biology and medicine / by Wilhelm Lubosch ; translated from the German by H.H. Woollard.

  • Wilhelm Lubosch
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of scientific anatomy : for students of biology and medicine / by Wilhelm Lubosch ; translated from the German by H.H. Woollard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    However, whatever method be chosen this must be adhered to throughout, if a logical science is to issue. We might, therefore, define a science as a “ perfect whole of similar lucid knowledge arranged according to a uniform plan.” From what has been said, important consequences arise which affect the relations of science to the objects it investigates, and also for the further progress of science. In regard to the first point, it is to be observed that the ultimate object of science is to submit all phenomena to the operations of the mind ; ideas, judgments and con¬ clusions, system and order, lie not in the phenomena themselves, but are imposed on them by our thinking. It is questionable if the con¬ ception of order has any validity apart from our thinking. The essence of science is the subjective element, which, because it has been attained logically, has therefore general validity. Our know¬ ledge is thereby brought into intimate relation with the phenomena of experience, and the agreement between knowledge and experience is what w7e mean by scientific truth (Jahn). Since new experience and thinking may carry us to new know¬ ledge, scientific truth cannot be regarded as absolute, but it is only by the scientific method that truth can be verified. Truth is by no means furnished only by science, since the human mind has besides its logic, its aesthetic and ethical power. Truth may be apprehended through these too. Art shows truth through the beauty of form [para. 38], religion apprehends truth by means of the parable. But only science can verify truth. The definition of science implies the necessity of further progress. Perfection can never be reached. Science ever grows by new dis¬ coveries, and the treasury of knowledge is increased. The lucidity of our knowledge is thereby rendered dependent upon circumstances, and though it may be obscured by new knowledge, yet it is again made clear by the progress of science. The struggle to attain com¬ pleteness acts as a stimulus to progress, and even leads to the forma¬ tion of a new science. Anatomy only becomes a science after it has freed itself from the physiological considerations of the organism, and insists on analysiug the form of the organism from a purely morphological standpoint. Finally, the possibility of an improved order of knowledge opens a way to the perfection of science, e.g., numerous organs of the body, whose classification was before doubtful, can now be brought together as organs of internal secretion on functional or genetic grounds. The progress of science is inherent in its definition. Evolutions such as have occurred in human history have no counterpart in