Show TOLSTOI AND TUB count tolstoi has recently ex preBel his views regarding the inadequacy of aC science when the question onla la to salvu the problems of existence in a preface to IL a russian translation of eadward carpenters book on science he bequeaths the results of ahto observations to the public they are aim particularly valuable at a tim when the tendency of the world to is to adolte scientific research and give tt an importance far beyond what it claims for itself A summary of the views on the subject is given in the curr current Olit number of the literary digest tolstoi Toll states that in russia rp specially pecia allY liy the superstitious belief prevails that the only thing necessary for humanity is in not religion or morality but a knowledge of the experimental sciences this he characterizes a all a fatal error then he points out that no science in the who whole lellot list from efm astronomy to sociology gives u us A true knowledge of reality and that th the so oly daled caged laws of those sciences have only ah appt approximate value the method they follow explaining nometta nearest to us by those more remote is erroneous the sciences in getting away from reality get into a field flold foreign to man and leave the only important problems unanswered they act as would a man who wishing to know the nature of an object instead of drawing near and ald holding it recedes to a point from which color and figure cannot cannat be distinguished gui shed he then attempts to give ft a complete and exact description thus thua with the experimental sciences pretending to explain reality they despoil it of all that makes it real and then they give us only arbitrary generalist eions knowledge of the way we should live was always tolstoi ea says YS considered the science of eclen sciences ces the laborer supposes that the men who study shall be able to tell him where to find happiness he expects science should teach him how to tive how to act how to control his instincts and what to believe but instead of reply ing to these important questions science talks about distances between the heavenly bodies and the vibrations ot of X rays the poor man finds no satisfaction he asks how to live then science replies that this is a problem ot sociology but before answering the vital question it Is necessary to study zoology botany physiology for the time being however we are confined to the study of atoms and the principles on which motion is communicated to the worlds and when this reply is regarded as unsatisfactory the still more unsatisfactory assurance to is given that science has no aim at all that it is in its own end and that its dicta are final to this the count observes now science is wrong when it claims this science cannot throw its light beyond the limits of observation just as a lamp lights poorly in proportion as objects are distant not lighting at all the objects beyond its reach so human science can ever teach a man except in a fragmentary way it may explain its own direct object well objects more remote not so well and those at a distance not at all but the essential thing on which our judgment of values must rest Is the total view of life its meaning and aims science cannot rise to that view religion alone can do so our brur men of science have no religion and admit none hence their futile claim that science teaches all things and is its own end however it does not teach all things it busies itself only with what to is easiest to reach and study it ft does not teach us how to live and be happy such teaching is secondary and to is committed to the theologian jurist or economist this spirit on the part of science was waa never stronger than it is now science is constantly pointing to its victories over the forces of nat the like but sensible men do not see those things they see only the misery suffering degradation and hardships to which so many are subjected and the little prospect of relief that is in sight were our men of science to teach men more about religious moral and social truths we would not see the hundredth part of suffering and hardship which are now seen on every side we may add to this strong and philosophical statement of the aims and the shortcomings of the sciences that what is highly needed in our day is a distinct line of between the exclusive domain of scientists and that which to Is common ground views manifestly un philosophical not to say absurd obtain currency because of at prestige tige from their adoption by students admittedly admit tedy skilled in reading the facts of nature people know that they are capable of precise observation and er that their inferences from such observations are on that ground authoritative although the fact Is that a scientist may speak with certainty as long as he confines himself to phenomena and yet be entirely wrong when he commences to build hypotheses whenever he pas passes s k from the field of physical observation and commences to philosophize on the nature and origin of those things he leaves his own domain and antei entera that of universal human thought there he has no advantage over his neighbor whose peculiar eminence may be in some other direction if for instance a student of phy steal nature from his superior know edge of the structure of the brain claims the right to say my that organ is the origin of thought or that man came from a beast he to Is oft off fits nis own ground and tries to construct a theory which I 1 as ae much assailable when stated by the most eminent scholar as by the tym were the proper domain and ex exact t authority of the sciences understood rs tood there would be less disappointment less strife they would not be unduly idolized and therefore better able to serve mankind in its search for truth and happiness |