13

Logic II 13

wen a state is not too far from the ideal state, the nearer
it approaches that state the better. Moreover, the situation of
things most satisfactory to one desire is almost never the situation
most satisfactory to another. A brighter lamp than that
I use would perhaps be more agreeable to my eyes; but
it would be less so to my pocket, to my lungs, and to
my sense of heat. Accordingly, a compromise is struck;
and since all these desires concerned are somewhat vague,
the result is that the objects actually will cluster about
certain middling qualities, some being removed this
way, some that way, and at greater and greater removes fewer
and fewer objects will be so determined. Thus clustering
distributions will characterize purposive classes.

Natural classes not always definitely distinguished.

One consequence of this deserves particular notice, since
it will concern us a good deal in our classification
of the sciences, and yet is quite usually overlooked
and assumed not be as it is. Namely, it follows that it may