ss for an
organism reacting directly to the stimulus _abc_, and yet be easily met
by a free knowledge of _d_. One who knows that _l_, _m_, and _n_ will
produce _d_, may by these means provide the missing factor, complete the
sum of required conditions, _abcd_, and so obtain the end _M_. Such
indirection might be used to obtain any required factor of the end, or
of any near or remote means to the end. There is, in fact, no limit to
the complexity of action made possible upon this basis; for since it is
available in idea, the whole range of such knowledge may be brought to
bear upon any individual problem.

[Sidenote: Skill as Social.]

Sect. 44. But knowledge of this free type becomes at the same time
_social_ or _institutional_. It consists no longer in a skilful
adaptation of the individual organism, but in a system of terms common
to all intelligence, and preserved in those books and other monuments
which serve as the articulate memory of the race. A knowledge that is
social must be composed of unequivocal conceptions and fixed symbols.
The mathematical laws of the exact sciences represent the most
successful attainment of this end so far as form is concerned.
Furthermore, the amount of knowledge may now be increased from
generation to generation through the service of those who make a
vocation of its pursuit. Natural science is thus a cumulative racial
proficiency, which any individual may bring to bear upon any emergency
of his life.

[Sidenote: Science for Accommodation and Construction.]

Sect. 45. Such proficiency as science affords is in every case the
anticipation of experience. This has a twofold value for mankind, that
of _accommodation_, and that of _construction_. Primitively, where mere
survival is the function of the organism as a whole, the value of
accommodation is relatively fundamental. The knowledge of what may be
expected enables the organism to save itself by means of its own
counter-arrangement of natural processes. Construction is here for the
sake of accommodation. But with the growth of civilization construction
becomes a positive interest, and man tends to save himself for definite
ends. Accommodation comes to take place for the sake of construction.
Science then supplies the individual with the ways and means wherewith
to execute life purposes which themselves tend to assume an absolute
value that cannot be justified merely on the ground of science.

[Sidenote: Method and Fundamental Co