viction when he takes us about to view
his estates. Together we ascend up into heaven, or make our beds in
sheol, or take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea--and look in vain for anything that is not work done, or work
projected, by natural science. Persuade him, however, to _define_ his
estates, and he has circumscribed them. In his definition he must employ
conceptions more fundamental than the working conceptions that he
employs within his field of study. Indeed, in viewing his task as
definite and specific he has undertaken the solution of the problem of
philosophy. The logical self-consciousness has been awakened, and there
is no honorable way of putting it to sleep again. This is precisely
what takes place in any account of the generating problem of science. To
define science is to define at least one realm that is other than
science, the realm of active intellectual endeavor with its own proper
categories. One cannot reflect upon science and assign it an end, and a
method proper to that end, without bringing into the field of knowledge
a broader field of experience than the field proper to science, broader
at any rate by the presence in it of the scientific activity itself.

Here, then, is the field proper to philosophy. The scientist _qua_
scientist is intent upon his own determinate enterprise. The philosopher
comes into being as one who is interested in observing what it is that
the scientist is so intently doing. In taking this interest he has
accepted as a field for investigation that which he would designate as
the totality of interests or the inclusive experience. He can carry out
his intention of defining the scientific attitude only by standing
outside it, and determining it by means of nothing less than an
exhaustive searching out of all attitudes. Philosophy is, to be sure,
itself a definite activity and an attitude, but an attitude required by
definition to be conscious of itself, and, if you please, conscious of
its own consciousness, until its attitude shall have embraced in its
object the very principle of attitudes. Philosophy defines itself and
all other human tasks and interests. None have furnished a clearer
justification of philosophy than those men of scientific predilections
who have claimed the title of agnostics. A good instance is furnished by
a contemporary physicist, who has chosen to call his reflections
"antimetaphysical."

"Physical science doe