§ 52. Organic Division of Scientific Study
Before we can find a provisional answer, in the closing chapter of this division, to the question, whether Theology is or is not a necessary and an integral part of the organism of science, this organism itself must be somewhat closely examined. Only when the anatomy of this organism is known, can it be seen of what parts it consists, and whether among these parts a science in the spirit of what we call Theology occupies a place of its own. Of course, in the framing of this conclusion we must start out with a definition of Theology, which cannot be explained until the following division; but for the sake of clearness in the process of the argument, this hypothetical demonstration is here indispensable.
As far as the organism of science itself is concerned, we have purposely chosen as the title of this section the expression: The organic division of scientific study. If the organic division of science itself is viewed, apart from its relation to practice, nothing is obtained but an abstraction, which lies entirely outside of history and reality; and the question whether Theology is a science in this scientific organism can never be answered. For Theology is an historic-concrete complex, which, if brought over into the retort of abstractions, would at once slip through our fingers and volatilize.
As regards the organic character of science, three data must be taken into account: (1) the organic relation among the several parts of the object of science; (2) the organic relation among the different capacities of the subject and the data which lead to the knowledge of the object; and (3) the organic relation which in consequence of (1) and (2) must appear in the result of the scientific task. The object exists organically; the subject itself exists organically and stands organically related to the object; and consequently this organic character must be found again, as soon as the knowledge of the object has been attained by the subject with sufficient completeness and accuracy. The unity of these three reveals itself historically in the scientific task, which did not begin by making these distinctions clear for itself, but had its rise in the instinctive faith in this mutual relationship. The stimulus to undertake this scientific study is not given by an Academy of Sciences, but by our innate inclination to investigate. As a child breaks his toys and cuts them into pieces, in order to find out what they are and how they are constructed; or, as outside of his playhour he overwhelms you with questions; thus is man prompted by a natural impulse to investigate the cosmos. And, though with adults also this desire after knowledge may consist too largely of a playful inquiry, the needs of life add a nobler seriousness to this playful investigation and by it rule and continuity are imparted to the scientific task. If the practical need of physicians, lawyers, ministers of the Word, Academic professors, etc., did not continually press its claims, the very existence of universities would at once be jeopardized. If these were abolished, and with them the avenues to success were closed against those who desire to devote their lives to scientific pursuits, a small group only of competent persons would be able to allow itself the luxury of this pursuit. And if the number of scientists should thus be reduced, the study of science would likewise suffer from the gradual disappearance of the whole apparatus which is now at its service in libraries, laboratories, observatories, etc. The vitae non scolae is true also in the sense that only life gives the school its susceptibility to life.
The ideal representation that science would still be able to flourish when practised merely for its own sake, rests upon self-deception. This is best observed in the case of those special sciences whose study is not immediately born from the practical need of life, and whose development in consequence has been so greatly retarded. If there were no logic in this practical need of life, and if it were not connected with the organic motive of science itself, this dependence of the school upon life would be most fatal, and would obstruct the smooth progress of scientific investigation. This, however, is not so. The practical need of life is born from the relation in which the subject stands to the object, and from the necessary way in which the subject (humanity) develops itself organically from itself. It must be conceded that the claims which this practical need causes to be felt, are not always considered in the accurate order of succession, and that only after several fits and starts do they assume a more normal character; but the result also shows that science has made all these fluctuations with them, and only when the practical need of life has begun to express itself in clearer language, and, consequently, with clearer self-consciousness, has it assumed a more normal character. This would certainly have proved a difficulty, if the slow ripening of this clear insight into the claims of practical need were bound to any other law than that which governs the development of science itself; but it has created no disturbance, since both the development of these practical needs and the development of science have been governed by the self-same power, i.e. by the actual mode of existence and organic relation of object and subject. Every encyclopedical division of the sciences, which aims to be something more than a specimen of mental gymnastics, will therefore in the main always proceed from the practical division given historically in the academical faculties. Not as though this division were simply to be copied; for this division, which has already been modified so often, is always susceptible of further modification; but these future modifications also will not abstractly regulate themselves according to the demands of your scheme, but will be permanently governed by the demands of practical need; and only when your schematic insight has modified the form in which the practical need of life asserts itself, will this insight, through the medium of practical life, be able to influence effectively the process of discriminating the faculties.