[Under this system a single observer is competent to examine a single phenomenon, and to write down the absolute law of nature by referring the results to his innate ideas of absolute qualities and states. The root of the word absolute signifies "taking away," and in its philosophical sense the word implies the ability of the mind to subtract away the properties or qualities from things, and to consider these abstract qualities detached from the things; for example, to take away the coldness from ice, and to consider pure or abstract coldness apart from anything that is cold; or to take away motion from a moving body, and to consider pure motion apart from anything that moves. This assumed power is based upon the Socratic theory of innate ideas. According to this theory the mind is endowed by nature with the absolute ideas of hardness, coldness, roundness, equality, motion, and all other absolute qualities and states, and so does not have to learn them. Thus a Socratic philosopher could discuss pure or absolute being, absolute space and absolute time.]121 GETTING AWAY FROM THE GREEK IDEAS [This Greek mode of thought persisted into the late Middle Ages, at which time it was still altogether in order to dispose of a troublesome fact of the external world by quoting Aristotle against it. During the Renaissance, which intellectually at least marks the transition from ancient to modern, there came into being another type of absolutism, equally extreme, equally arbitrary, equally unjustified. The revolt against the mental slavery to Greek ideas carried the pendulum too far to the other side, and early modern science as a consequence is disfigured by what we must now recognize as gross materialism. The human mind was relegated to the position of a mere innocent bystander. The external reality was everything, and aside from his function as a recorder the observer did not in the least matter. The whole aim of science was to isolate and classify the elusive external fact. The rôle of the observer was in every possible way minimized. It was of course his duty to get the facts right, but so far as any contribution to these was concerned he did not count--he was definitely disqualified. He really played the part of an intruder; from his position outside the phenomena he was searching for the absolute truth about these phenomena. The only difference between his viewpoint and that of Aristotle was that the latter looked entirely inside himself for the elusive "truth," while the "classical" scientist, as we call him now, looked for it entirely outside himself.