No philosopher is needed to say where reality may be found. The fool no less than the wise man is in direct touch with real existence at every moment of his waking or dreaming life. To find reality might be a problem for timeless gods beyond the flux of nature—if timeless gods can be said to have problems—but natural creatures encounter reality at every turn. Nor need we look to the philosopher for knowledge. A division of labor having been made (...) between philosopher and scientist, it is to the scientist that we turn for most of our knowledge. Nevertheless, tasks for the philosopher remain and one of these is to make clear what knowledge is, for, to have knowledge is one thing; to know what knowledge is, is another. Science, we may safely assume, constitutes our best claim to knowledge but not all who know their science can say why it is knowledge. (shrink)

The literature of science speaks of many things in the heavens and on earth that neither the man in the street nor the scientist in his laboratory, can directly see with his eyes or touch with his fingers. Scientific hypotheses refer to atoms and genes, cosmic rays and electrostatic charges. No one can deny the importance of these hypothetical constructions; without them we could neither understand nor manage the world which we directly experience. They simplify the system of laws that (...) relate observable variables to one another. They suggest further research and enable us to predict what will be found if certain operations are carried out. The sporadic and disjointed collection of observed objects and events, and the occurrence of the unusual ones which we call illusions, are explained by correlating them with a hypothetical physical or physiological state of affairs that has order and spatio-temporal continuity. (shrink)