The Iron Heel | Page 8

all things of the mind
are metaphysical. That most exact and convincing of all sciences, mathematics, is sheerly
metaphysical. Each and every thought-process of the scientific reasoner is metaphysical.
Surely you will agree with me?"
"As you say, you do not understand," Ernest replied. "The metaphysician reasons
deductively out of his own subjectivity. The scientist reasons inductively from the facts
of experience. The metaphysician reasons from theory to facts, the scientist reasons from
facts to theory. The metaphysician explains the universe by himself, the scientist explains
himself by the universe."
"Thank God we are not scientists," Dr. Hammerfield murmured complacently.
"What are you then?" Ernest demanded.
"Philosophers."
"There you go," Ernest laughed. "You have left the real and solid earth and are up in the
air with a word for a flying machine. Pray come down to earth and tell me precisely what
you do mean by philosophy."
"Philosophy is--" (Dr. Hammerfield paused and cleared his throat)-- "something that
cannot be defined comprehensively except to such minds and temperaments as are
philosophical. The narrow scientist with his nose in a test-tube cannot understand
philosophy."
Ernest ignored the thrust. It was always his way to turn the point back upon an opponent,
and he did it now, with a beaming brotherliness of face and utterance.
"Then you will undoubtedly understand the definition I shall now make of philosophy.
But before I make it, I shall challenge you to point out error in it or to remain a silent
metaphysician. Philosophy is merely the widest science of all. Its reasoning method is the
same as that of any particular science and of all particular sciences. And by that same
method of reasoning, the inductive method, philosophy fuses all particular sciences into
one great science. As Spencer says, the data of any particular science are partially unified
knowledge. Philosophy unifies the knowledge that is contributed by all the sciences.
Philosophy is the science of science, the master science, if you please. How do you like
my definition?"
"Very creditable, very creditable," Dr. Hammerfield muttered lamely.
But Ernest was merciless.
"Remember," he warned, "my definition is fatal to metaphysics. If you do not now point
out a flaw in my definition, you are disqualified later on from advancing metaphysical
arguments. You must go through life seeking that flaw and remaining metaphysically

silent until you have found it."
Ernest waited. The silence was painful. Dr. Hammerfield was pained. He was also
puzzled. Ernest's sledge-hammer attack disconcerted him. He was not used to the simple
and direct method of controversy. He looked appealingly around the table, but no one
answered for him. I caught father grinning into his napkin.
"There is another way of disqualifying the metaphysicians," Ernest said, when he had
rendered Dr. Hammerfield's discomfiture complete. "Judge them by their works. What
have they done for mankind beyond the spinning of airy fancies and the mistaking of
their own shadows for gods? They have added to the gayety of mankind, I grant; but what
tangible good have they wrought for mankind? They philosophized, if you will pardon
my misuse of the word, about the heart as the seat of the emotions, while the scientists
were formulating the circulation of the blood. They declaimed about famine and
pestilence as being scourges of God, while the scientists were building granaries and
draining cities. They builded gods in their own shapes and out of their own desires, while
the scientists were building roads and bridges. They were describing the earth as the
centre of the universe, while the scientists were discovering America and probing space
for the stars and the laws of the stars. In short, the metaphysicians have done nothing,
absolutely nothing, for mankind. Step by step, before the advance of science, they have
been driven back. As fast as the ascertained facts of science have overthrown their
subjective explanations of things, they have made new subjective explanations of things,
including explanations of the latest ascertained facts. And this, I doubt not, they will go
on doing to the end of time. Gentlemen, a metaphysician is a medicine man. The
difference between you and the Eskimo who makes a fur-clad blubber-eating god is
merely a difference of several thousand years of ascertained facts. That is all."
"Yet the thought of Aristotle ruled Europe for twelve centuries," Dr. Ballingford
announced pompously. "And Aristotle was a metaphysician."
Dr. Ballingford glanced around the table and was rewarded by nods and smiles of
approval.
"Your illustration is most unfortunate," Ernest replied. "You refer to a very dark period in
human history. In fact, we call that period the Dark Ages. A period wherein science was
raped by the metaphysicians, wherein physics became a search for the Philosopher's
Stone, wherein chemistry became alchemy, and astronomy became astrology. Sorry the
domination of Aristotle's thought!"