Article October 29, 1949 Issue

A PRIORI REASONING, A SCIENTIFIC NECESSITY

BENJAMIN WELLS SELBY

It is readily discernible in the practice of Christian Science that successful healing work must be accompanied by logical reasoning. One cannot strike out haphazardly and continue without specific direction in his mental work and reach the scientifically provable conclusions which destroy error's false evidence.

On page 467 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in answering the question, "What are the demands of the Science of Soul:" Mary Baker Eddy states, "We reason imperfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that matter is the effect of Spirit; but a priori reasoning shows material existence to be enigmatical." She goes on to say, "Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, we begin with Mind, which must be understood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter." It is interesting to note that this is the only place in any of her published writings where she uses the phrase "a priori," and it is particularly thought provoking that it appears where she is delineating "the demands of the Science of Soul." This seems to indicate that she considered a correct process of reasoning necessary to our continued understanding and demonstration of Christian Science.

The Latin term "a priori" relates to the basic method of reasoning, which Mrs. Eddy here endorses and which she adequately defines in the quotation above as "reasoning from cause to effect." This mode of reasoning, which starts with divine Principle, deduces that all real effect must be consistent with this Principle and makes no attempt to account for or accommodate thought to apparent phenomena. This is the method employed by the writer of the first chapter of Genesis, who starts his account of creation with the familiar words, "In the beginning God," and from this standpoint depicts all creation as partaking of the nature and condition of the great First Cause.

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