Abstract
REFERRING to the discussion on this subject in previous issues of NATURE, might one ask: Is there not confusion regarding the aims of science and of psychical research, which at present are fundamentally dissimilar? We know that the object of experimental science, as distinct from philosophy and mathematics, is to obtain control over the energies of Nature by learning the laws inherent in matter; that science has never set a limit to the varieties of matter; that, consistent with its purpose, it accepts facts as it finds them; and that its function, qua science, has never been to prove a priori conceptions. Some of us forget, however, that the elementary conditions essential for the pursuit of its object are not compatible with the objects and conditions of psychical research. By way of contrast a simple statement of scientific requirements might be made as follows:
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L., W. Science and Psychical Research. Nature 118, 588–589 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118588a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118588a0
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