A plea for pure science : being the inaugural lecture at the opening of the Faculty of Science, in University College, London, October 4th, 1870 / by A.W. Williamson.

  • Williamson, Alexander W. (Alexander William), 1824-1904.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A plea for pure science : being the inaugural lecture at the opening of the Faculty of Science, in University College, London, October 4th, 1870 / by A.W. Williamson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    degree as those above mentioned, the means of experi- mental illustration. Thus, in Mathematics, the process of abstract reasoning is carried so far as to outstrip our methods of experimental illustration; and we find that by pursuing with rigid con- sistency the simple laws which regulate its operations, it arrives at methods of perfectly general application. When- ever we study any order of natural phenomena, we get to mathematical laws for their representation, in proportion as our knowledge becomes accurate and comprehensive. One of the most remarkable of recently-discovered ap- plications of Mathematics is to the forms of Logic; and it seems likely that the laws of thought will ere long be worked out still more fully in a mathematical form. More- over, the study of the conditions of all correct reasoning has an obvious bearing on the advancement of science; while in Psychology the attempt is made to deal with the permanent facts of our mental nature. Another subject included in our Faculty is Political Economy; for it has been shown that the general pheno- mena of the production and distribution of wealth in modern society, are amenable to natural laws as truly as the simpler phenomena of nature, and that it is as neces- sary for those who take part in operations affecting the production or distribution of wealth, to know the natural laws in accordance with which they must act, as for a che- mist to know the natural laws of the formation of com- pounds, and of their distribution in the processes which he directs. If we compare the things shown in science-classes and the experiments there performed with other things and operations, we see at once a difference which explains the principle upon which they have been selected or contrived. Their essential characteristic is simplicity. They are the things and operations which we understand best—things