The rationality of the world could be of two different kinds, necessary or contingent. If its rationality is necessary, so that it could not be otherwise, then we might hope to find out about it by pure thought, like mathematics. Some attempts have been made to develop science in this way, but without success. But if we believe that the rationality of the world is contingent, that it could be otherwise, then to find out what sort of rationality it is we have to look at the world carefully and make experiments. The scientist must have a strong motivation to encourage him to continue in spite of the difficulties he encounters.
Science is a cooperative endeavour, the work of many people helping and stimulating each other.
For this to happen, it must be accepted that any knowledge gained must be freely shared and not jealously guarded as an esoteric secret. These are some of the more important beliefs that we might reasonably expect to be held by a community if science is to develop spontaneously within it. They may indeed seem rather obvious beliefs, hardly worth listing, but that is because we are living in a civilization that does indeed take them for granted. In other civilizations matter has been variously considered to be unworthy of study, evil, chaotic, ruled by capricious gods or demons and so on. A very general belief found in most ancient civilizations is that of cycles of years in which everything will be repeated again and again for ever.