OF THE DIVISION OF THE SCIENCES.
1. Science may be divided into three sorts.
All that can fall within the compass of human understanding, being
either, FIRST, the nature of things, as they are in themselves, their
relations, and their manner of operation: or, SECONDLY, that which
man himself ought to do, as a rational and voluntary agent, for the
attainment of any end, especially happiness: or, THIRDLY, the ways and
means whereby the knowledge of both the one and the other of these is
attained and communicated; I think science may be divided properly into
these three sorts:--
2. First, Physica.
FIRST, The knowledge of things, as they are in their own proper beings,
then constitution, properties, and operations; whereby I mean not only
matter and body, but spirits also, which have their proper natures,
constitutions, and operations, as well as bodies. This, in a little more
enlarged sense of the word, I call [word in Greek: physika], or NATURAL
PHILOSOPHY. The end of this is bare speculative truth: and whatsoever
can afford the mind of man any such, falls under this branch, whether it
be God himself, angels, spirits, bodies; or any of their affections, as
number, and figure, &c.
3. Secondly, Practica.
SECONDLY, [word in Greek: praktika], The skill of right applying our own
powers and actions, for the attainment of things good and useful. The
most considerable under this head is ETHICS, which is the seeking out
those rules and measures of human actions, which lead to happiness, and
the means to practise them. The end of this is not bare speculation and
the knowledge of truth; but right, and a conduct suitable to it.
4. Thirdly, [word in Greek: Semeiotika]
THIRDLY, the third branch may be called [word in Greek: Semeiotika], or
THE DOCTRINE OF SIGNS; the most usual whereof being words, it is aptly
enough termed also [word in Greek: Logika], LOGIC: the business whereof
is to consider the nature of signs, the mind makes use of for the
understanding of things, or conveying its knowledge to others. For,
since the things the mind contemplates are none of them, besides itself,
present to the understanding, it is necessary that something else, as a
sign or representation of the thing it considers, should be present to
it: and these are IDEAS. And because the scene of ideas that makes one
man's thoughts cannot be laid open to the immediate view of another, nor
laid up anywhere but in the memory, a no very sure repository: therefore
to communicate our thoughts to one another, as well as record them for
our own use, signs of our ideas are also necessary: those which men
have found most convenient, and therefore generally make use of, are
ARTICULATE SOUNDS. The consideration, then, of IDEAS and WORDS as the
great instruments of knowledge, makes no despicable part of their
contemplation who would take a view of human knowledge in the whole
extent of it. And perhaps if they were distinctly weighed, and duly
considered, they would afford us another sort of logic and critic, than
what we have been hitherto acquainted with.
5. This is the first and most general Division of the Objects of our
Understanding.
This seems to me the first and most general, as well as natural division
of the objects of our understanding. For a man can employ his thoughts
about nothing, but either, the contemplation of THINGS themselves, for
the discovery of truth; or about the things in his own power, which are
his own ACTIONS, for the attainment of his own ends; or the SIGNS the
mind makes use of both in the one and the other, and the right ordering
of them, for its clearer information. All which three, viz. THINGS, as
they are in themselves knowable; ACTIONS as they depend on us, in order
to happiness; and the right use of SIGNS in order to knowledge, being
TOTO COELO different, they seemed to me to be the three great provinces
of the intellectual world, wholly separate and distinct one from
another.
The End