| Chairman: | Professor James E. Creighton, Cornell University. |
| Speakers: | Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, University of Leipzig. |
| Professor Benno Erdmann, University of Bonn. | |
| Secretary: | Dr. R. B. Perry, Harvard University. |
ON THE THEORY OF SCIENCE
BY WILHELM OSTWALD
(Translated from the German by Dr. R. M. Yerkes, Harvard University)
[Wilhelm Ostwald, Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Leipzig, since 1887. b. September 2, 1853, Riga, Russia. Grad. Candidate Chemistry, 1877; Master Chemistry, 1878; Doctor Chemistry, Dorpat. Dr. Hon. Halle and Cambridge; Privy Councilor; Assistant, Dorpat, 1875-81; Regular Professor, Riga 1881-87. Member various learned and scientific societies. Author of Manual of General Chemistry; Electro Chemistry; Foundation of Inorganic Chemistry; Lectures on Philosophy of Nature; Artist's Letters; Essays and Lectures; and many other noted works and papers on Chemistry and Philosophy.]
One of the few points on which the philosophy of to-day is united is the knowledge that the only thing completely certain and undoubted for each one is the content of his own consciousness; and here the certainty is to be ascribed not to the content of consciousness in general, but only to the momentary content.
This momentary content we divide into two large groups, which we refer to the inner and outer world. If we call any kind of content of consciousness an experience, then we ascribe to the outer world such experiences as arise without the activity of our will and cannot be called forth by its activity alone. Such experiences never arise without the activity of certain parts of our body, which we call sense organs. In other words, the outer world is that which reaches our consciousness through the senses.
On the other hand, we ascribe to our inner world all experiences which arise without the immediate assistance of a sense organ. Here, first of all, belong all experiences which we call remembering and thinking. An exact and complete differentiation of the two territories is not intended here, for our purpose does not demand that this task be undertaken. For this purpose the general orientation in which every one recognizes familiar facts of his consciousness is sufficient.
Each experience has the characteristic of uniqueness. None of us doubts that the expression of the poet "Everything is only repeated in life" is really just the opposite of the truth, and that in fact nothing is repeated in life. But to express such a judgment we must be in position to compare different experiences with each other, and this possibility rests upon a fundamental phenomenon of our consciousness, memory. Memory alone enables us to put various experiences in relation to each other, so that the question as to their likeness or difference can be asked.