"I think," he agreed, "that I might admit that."
"Well, then," I said, "let us leave it there. And now, what has Dennis to say?"
"Ah!" he said, "you unmuzzle me at last. It has really been very hard to sit by in silence and listen to these heresies without a protest."
"Heresies!" retorted Wilson, "if it comes to that, which of us is the heretic?"
"What," I asked, "is the point of disagreement?"
"It's a fundamental one. On Wilson's view, Knowledge is merely the discovery of order among our perceptions. If that were all, I shouldn't value it much. But on my view, it is the discovery of necessary connection; and in the necessity lies the fascination."
"But where," argued Wilson, "do you find your necessity? All that is really given is succession. The necessity is merely what we read into the facts."
"Not at all! The necessity is 'given,' as you call it, as much as anything else, if only you choose to look for it. The type of all Knowledge is mathematical knowledge; and all mathematical knowledge is necessary."
"But it is all based on assumptions."
"That may be; but granting the assumptions, it deduces from them necessary consequences. And all true science is of that type. A law of Nature is not a mere description of a routine; it's a statement that, given such and such conditions, such and such results follow of necessity."