Reconstruction In Philosophy

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY

HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE"

Cornell University Library

B 945 .D53R3 1920

3 1924 024 246 070

RECONSTRUCTION PHILOSOPHY BY

JOHN DEWEY Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University

NEW YORK.

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1920

IN

ST

HKNBT HOLT

JLSD

COMPANY

BOOK MANUFACTURERS «AH«f»r nc«r

jshset

PREFATORY NOTE Being of

Japan

invited to lecture at the Imperial University in

Tokyo during February and March

of the

present year, I attempted an interpretation of the reconstruction of ideas and

philosophy.

ways of thought now going on

in

While the lectures cannot avoid revealing

the marks of the particular standpoint of their author,

the aim

is

to exhibit the general contrasts between older

and newer types of philosophic problems rather than to

make a partisan plea

in behalf of

tion of these problems.

to set forth the forces which

struction inevitable

upon which

Any

one

Japan

will

it

any one

specific solu-

I have tried for the

make

intellectual recon-

and to prefigure some of the

must proceed.

who has enjoyed

f

A

-

J'-

the unique hospitality of

be overwhelmed with confusion

mensurate to the kindnesses he received.

down

lines

'

deavors to make an acknowledgment in any

set

most part

in the barest of black

and white

if

Yet I must

my

appreciation of them, and in particular record faceable impressions of the courtesy

he en-

way comgrateful

my

inef-

and help of the

members of the department of philosophy of Tokyo University, and of my dear friends Dr. Ono and Dr. Nitobe.

September, 1919.

J.

D.

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

CHAPTER

I

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY Man

differs

from the lower animals because he pre-

What happened

serves his past experiences. is

lived

in the

past

About what goes on today

again in memory.

hangs a cloud of thoughts concerning similar things

With

undergone in bygone days. perience perishes as

it

happens, and each new doing or

But man

suffering stands alone.

each occurrence

is

the animals, an ex-

lives in

a world where

charged with echoes and reminiscences,

of what has gone before, where each event of other things.

the

field, in

Hence he

lives not, like the beasts of

A

world of signs and symbols.

stone

A

flame

and

shelter to

from his casual wanderings.

a monu-

not merely

a symbol of the

which

may

which

man

returns

Instead of being a quick

sting and hurt,

at which one worships and for which one this

is

a

of the household, of the abiding source of

cheer, nourishment

fire

is

in

not merely

it is

;

something which warms or burns, but life

is

bumps but

ment of a deceased ancestor.

fork of

a reminder

a world of merely physical things but

hard, a thing into which one

enduring

is

it is

the hearth

fights.

And

all

which marks the difference between bestiality and 1

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

2

humanity, between culture and merely physical nature is

man

because

remembers, preserving and recording

is

experiences.

The

revivals of

memory

literal. are, however, rarely

We naturally remember what interests us The past

interests us.

but because of what

primary lectual

of

life

is

memory

it

recalled not because of itself

Thus

adds to the present.

it

is

emotional rather than

Savage man

and practical.

and because

the

intel-

recalled yesterday's

struggle with an animal not in order to study in a scientific

way

the qualities of the animal or for the sake of

how

calculating

better to fight tomorrow, but to escape

from the^tedium of today by regaining the

The memory has

yesterday.

combat without

and

its

revel in it is to

all

thrill of

the excitement of the

To

danger and anxiety.

revive

it

enhance the present moment with a

new meaning, a meaning

different

ally belongs either to it or

from that which actu-

Memory

to the past.

vicarious experience in which there

is all

is

the emotional

values of actual experience without its strains, vicissi-

tudes and

pqignant in rif

The triumph of battle is even more the memorial war dance than at the moment

troubles.

victory

;

the conscious and truly

the chase comes when

by the camp

fire.

At the

with practical details '

Only

later

it is

human

experience of

talked over and re-enacted time, attention

is

taken

up

and with the strain of uncertainty.

do the details compose into a story and

fuse!

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY into

At

a whole of meaning.

man

experience

exists

3

the time of practical

from moment to moment, pre-

occupied with the task of the moment.

As he redrama emerges with a beginning, a middle and a movement toward surveys

all

moments

the

in thought, a

the climax of achievement or defeat.

Since interest

man

revives his past experience because of the

added to what would otherwise be the emptiness

of present leisure, the primitive

life

of

memory

is

one

of fancy and imagination, rather than of accurate recollection.

After

counts.

Only those incidents are

all, it is

the story, the drama, which selected

which have

a present emotional value, to intensify the present as

it is

tale

rehearsed in imagination or told to an admiring

listener.

What

does not add to the

thrill of

contribute to the goal of success or failure

Incidents are rearranged

Thus

the tale.

early

till

they

man when

fit

combat or

is

dropped.

into the temper of

left to himself,

when

not actually engaged in the struggle for existence, lived in a world of memories which

A

attempt is

was a world of suggestions.

suggestion differs from a recollection in that nol is

made to

a matter of

test its correctness.

relative indifference.

a'camel or a man's

face.

The

Its correctness

cloud suggests

It could not suggest these

things unless some time there had been an actual, literal

experience of camel and face.

of no account.

The main thing

But the is

real likeness

is

the emotional interest

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

4

in tracing the

face as

it

thai camel or following the fortunes of

forms and dissolves.

Students of the primitive history of mankind

tell ofl

the enormous part played by animal tales, myths ana

Sometimes a mystery

cults.

is

made out

cal fact, as if it indicated that primitive

by a

different

humanity.

of this histori-i

man was

psychology from that which now

But

the explanation

is,

moved!

animate),

I think, simple.

Until agriculture and the higher industrial arts were developed, long periods of

leisure alternated with

empty

comparatively short periods of energy put forth

habits, if

we tend

toj

Because of our own!

secure food or safety from attack.

to think of people as busy or occupied,

not with doing at least with thinking and planning.!

But then men were busy only when engaged in the hunt or fishing or fighting expedition. Yet the mind when awake must have some

filling; it

vacant because the body should crowd into the

with

animals,

is

cannot remain literally

idle.

And what

human mind

experiences

except experiences

transformed

influence of dramatic interest to

thoughts

under

make more

coherent the events typical of the chase?

vivid

the

and

As men

in

fancy dramatically re-lived the interesting parts of their actual lives, animals inevitably became themselves

dram-

atized.

They were true dramatis persona and as such astraits of persons. They too had desires,

sumed the

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY 'hopes

and

fears, a life of affections, loves

hates,

Moreover, since they were essen-

triumphs and defeats. 'tial

and

6

to the support of the community, their activities

"and sufferings

made them,

in the imagination which

'dramatically revived the past, true sharers in the 1

of the community.

life

Although they were hunted, yet thev,

permitted themselves after

they were friends and

all to

allies.

be caueht. a»d""nence

ThevjfevGted themselves,

quite literally, to the sustenance

and well-being of the

community group to which they belonged. produced not merely the multitude of dwelling affectionately

upon the

tales

activities

Thus were and legends and features

of animals, but also those elaborate rites and cults which

made animals

ancestors, heroes, tribal figure-heads and

divinities.

I hope that I do not seem to you to have gone too far afield from

For

it

seems to

my me

topic, the origin of philosophies.

that the historic source of phi-

losophies cannot be understood except as

even greater length and in more

We

siders t'ons as these.

detail,

is

dwell, at

need to recognize that the

ordina.y consciousness of the ordinary himself

we

upon such con-

man

left

a creature of desires rather than of

lectual study, inquiry or speculation.

Man

to

intel-

ceases to

be primarily actuated by hopes and fears, loves and hates, only is

when he

foreign to

human

is

subjected to a discipline which

nature, which

is,

from the stand-

1 RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSO^*

6

point of natural man, artificial.

our

,.,

7

llv Natural^

our Hf>Al 13»

they b<

a re wrBB'Ol"* I and philosophical books, ,

scientific

by men who have subjected themselves m u degree to intellectual discipline and cul thoughts are habitually reasonable. They to check their fancies

by

facts,

and

When

_which

^ r

8j

to organize thej fa»

and drama*

ideas logically rather than emotionally .eallyr

^J"B

M

m reverie and day-dreanT

they do indulge

probably more of the time than is cJ ventionally acknowledged—they are aware of what are doing. They label these excursions, and do not cwK, i

ng

%

is

We

fuse their results with objective experiences.

to judge others

by

and because

ourselves,

scientificfandl

jM)

that both

rationality

irrelevant

and episodical

that

men

actual facts, but

is

then

I

tffeii

largely

in undisciplined humanjnature;

memory

and reinforce

and

fit

into the dramatic taleJ

Are they consonant with the prevailing v

«-*v.

rati

memory rather than by not a rememb^Hg 0l

association, suggestion, dramaticl

feeling,

m

is

fancy. The standard used to measure the value of the| suggestions that spring up in the mind is not congruit y with fact but emotional congeniality. Do tli*y straralate

mi'

overloi

and irrationality are

are governed by

thought, and that

is

the

predomi-

nates, a similar rationality has been attributed by It

Wild be gu

and objective habit of mind

to the average and ordinary man.

tfiit

tend!

philosophic books are composed by men in whom reasonable, logical

To

m0 od> and

can

at

Oi

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

7

they be rendered into the traditional hopes and fears

of the community?

we are

If

dreams with a certain

willing to take the

libejrality, it is

word

hardly too much

to say that man, save in his occasional times of actual

work and

a world of dreams, rather

struggle, lives in

than of facts, and a world of dreams that

is

organized

about desires whose success and frustration form

its

stuff.

To as

if

treat the early beliefs

they were attempts at

and traditions of mankind

scientific

explanation of the

world, only erroneous and absurd attempts,

be guilty of a great mistake.

which philosophy

finally

and to explanation.

It

emerges

The is

is

thus to

material out of

irrelevant to science

figurative, symbolic of fears

is

and hopes, made of imaginations and suggestions, not

a world of

significant of

confronted. science,

and

It is

is

objective fact intellectually

poetry and drama, rather than

apart from

scientific

truth and falsity,

rationality or absurdity of fact in the

which poetry

is

same way

in

independent of these things.

This original material has, however, to pass through at least two stages before

it

becomes philosophy proper.

and legends and

their

accompanying dramatizations are consolidated.

At

One

is

the stage in which

stories

first the emotionalized records of experiences are largely

casual and transitory.

Events that excite the emotions

of an individual are seized upon and lived over in tale

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

8

But some

and pantomime.

experiences are so frequeni

and recurrent that they concern the group as a whole,

They are

The piecemeal adventure

socially generalized.

of the single individual

is

built out

till it

becomes repre-

and typical of the emotional life of the tribe, Certain incidents affect the weal aid woe of the group in its entirety and thereby get an exceptional emphasis and sentative

elevation.

A

certain texture of tradition

is

built

up;

the story becomes a social heritage and possession; the

pantomime develops into the stated

thus formed becomes a kind of

norm

fancy and suggestion conform.

An

A

to

Tradition

rite.

which individual

abiding framewoflp

communal way

of imagination

is

conceiving

grows up into which individuals are

life

constructed.

inducted by education. definite

social

assimilated to

Both unconsciously and by

requirement

individual

group memory or

characteristic of a community.

The

original

The is

and

body of

Poetry becomes

are indi-

beliefs fixated!

story becomes a social norm.

drama which

portant experience

memories

tradition,

vidual fancies are accommodated to the

and systematized.

of

re-enacts an emotionally im-

institutionalized into

a

cult.

Sug-

gestions previously free are hardened into doctrines.

—

The systematic and obligatory nature

trines

is

of such doc-

hastened and confirmed through conquests and

political consolidation.

extended, there

is

As

the area of a government

is

a definite motive for systematMng

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY and unifying

once free and floating.

beliefs

9

Aside from

natural accommodation and assimilation springing from the fact of intercourse stliaading,

there

is

and the needs of common under-

often political necessity which leads

the ruler to centralize traditions and

and strengthen

to extend

beliefs in

his prestige

Judea, Greece, Rome, and I presume

all

order

and authority. other countries

having a long history, present records of a continual

working over of earlier local interests of

a wider

way

social unity

and doctrines

and a more

in the

extensive

me

I shall ask you to assume with

political power.

that in this

rites

the larger cosmogonies and cosmologies

of the race as well as the larger ethical traditions have arisen.

Whether

this

necessary to inquire,

is

literally so or not, it is

much

less

to demonstrate.

enough for our purposes that under

not

It

is

social influences

there took place a fixing and organizing of doctrines

and

cults

which gave general traits to the imagination

and general tion

rules to conduct,

and that such a consolida-

was a necessary antecedent to the formation of

any philosophy as we understand that term. Although a necessary antecedent,

this organization

and generalization of ideas and principles of not the sole and

There

is still

sufficient

belief is

generator of philosophy.

lacking the motive for logical system and

intellectual proof.

This we may suppose to be furnished

by the need of reconciling

the

moral rules and ideals em-

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

10

bodied in the traditional code with the matter of fact

knowledge which gradually grows up.

pdsitijrastic

man can

never be wholly the creature of suggestion

The requirements

and fancy.

make

For

of continued existence

indispensable some attention to the actual facts

Although

of the world.

it is

surprising

the environment actually puts ideas, since

how

little

check

upon the formation

of

no notions are too absurd not to have been

accepted by some people, yet the environment does

minimum of correctness under penalty That certain things are foods, that they

enforce a certain

of extinction.

are to be found in certain places, that water drowns, fire

burns, that sharp points penetrate

heavy things

fall

unless

and

cut, that

is a day and night and

supported, that there

certain regularity in the changes of

the alternation of hot and cold, wet and dry:

—such

propaic facts force themselves upon even primitive attention.

Some

of them are so obvious

and so important

Auguste Comte says somewhere that he knows of no savage people who had a God of weight although every other that they have next to no fanciful context.

natural quality or force ally there

may

have been

deified.

Gradu-

grows up a body of homely generalizations

preserving and transmitting the wisdom of the race

about the observed facts and sequences of nature.

This

knowledge

is

and

where observation of materials and processes

crafts

especially connected with industries, arts

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY is

11

required for successful action, and where action

is

so continuous

and regular that spasmodic magic

will

not

Extravagantly

are

suffice.

fantastic

notions

eliminated because they are brought into juxtaposition

with what actually happens.

The

sailor is

more

likely to

be given to what we now

term superstitions than say the weaver, because activity is

his

more at the mercy of sudden change and

unforeseen occurrence.

may regard

But even

the sailor while he

the wind as the uncontrollable expression

of the caprice of

a great

spirit, will still

have to become

acquainted with some purely mechanical principles of

adjustment of boat,

may be

sails

and oar to the wind.

Fire

conceived as a supernatural dragon because some

time or other a swift, bright and devouring "flame called before the mind's eye the quick-moving and dangerous serpent.

But the housewife who tends

pots wherein food cooks will

still

the

fire

and the

be compelled to observe

certain mechanical facts of draft

and replenishment,

and passage from wood to ash.

Still

more

will the

worker in metals accumulate verifiable details about the conditions and consequences of the operation of heat.

He may

retain for special and ceremonial occasions

traditional beliefs, but everyday familiar use will expel

these conceptions for the greater part of the time, fire will

when

be to him of uniform and prosaic behavior,

controllable

by practical

relations of cause

and

effect.

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

12

As

the arts and crafts develop and become

more elabo-

and tested knowledge enlarges, and the sequences observed become more complex and of rate, the

body of

greater scope.

positive

Technologies of this kind give that

common-sense knowledge of nature out of which science takes

They provide not merely a

its origin.

collection

of positive facts, but they give expertness in dealing

and promote the development of the experimental habit of mind, as soon as an art

with materials and

tools,

can be taken away from the rule of sheer custom.

For a long time

the imaginative

body of

beliefs closely

connected with the moral habits of a community group

and with

emotional indulgences and consolations per-

its

sists side

by

side with the

fact knowledge.

At

growing body of matter of

Wherever possible they are interlaced.

other points, their inconsistencies forbid their inter-

weaving, but the two things are kept apart as different compartments.

Since one

is

is

no need of reconciliation.

in

merely super-

imposed upon the other their incompatibility

and there

if

is

not

felt,

In most cases,

the two kinds of mental products are kept apart because

they become the possession of separate social classes.

The

religious

nite social

and poetic

and

beliefs

political value

having acquired a

and function are

defi-

in the

keeping of a higher class directly associated with the ruling elements in the society.

men who

The workers and

crafts-

possess the prosaic matter of fact knowledge

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

18

are likely to occupy a low social status, and their kind of knowledge is affected

tained for the

by the

social dislssteem enter-

manual worker who engages

useful to the body.

It doubtless

was

in activities

this fact in

Greece

which in spite of the keenness of observation, the extraordinary power of logical reasoning and the great

freedom of speculation attained by the Athenian, post-

poned the general and systematic employment of the experimental method.

Since the industrial craftsman

was only just above the slave

in social rank, his type of

knowledge and the method upon which

it

depended

lacked prestige and authority. Nevertheless, the time came

when matter of fact

knowledge increased to such bulk and scope that

came into spirit

conflict

and temper of

traditional

Without going into the there

is

it

with not merely the detail but with the

no doubt that

and imaginative

vexed, question of this is just

beliefs.

how and why,

what happened

what we term the sophistic movement

in

in Greece, within

which originated philosophy proper in the sense in

The them by

which the western world understands that term. fact that the sophists

had a bad name given

Plato and Aristotle, a

name they have never been

to shake strife

Ining,

off,

is

able

evidence that with the sophists the

between the two types of belief was the emphatic

and that the

conflict

disco had a disconcerting

upon the traditional system of

religioufe ious beliefs

effect

and the

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

16

the country,

by becoming saturated with in short

Greek tradition as to

fighting.

;

and

a practical adept in the

by becoming

customs

its ideals

To

attempt to derive

abstract rules from a comparison of native ways of over fighting with the enemies' ways is to begin to go to the enemies' traditions

and gods:

it is

to begin to be

own country.

false to one's

Such a point of view vividly realized enables us to appreciate the antagonism aroused point of view when tional.

and

The

it

came into

by the

positivistic

conflict with the tradir

was deeply rooted in social habits was surcharged with the moral aims

latter

loyalties; it

men lived and the" moral rules by which they Hence it was as basic and as comprehensive as

for which lived.

life itself,

of the being.

and

palpijfcated

community

life in

with the

warm glowing

which men realized their own

In contrast, the positivistic knowledge was con-

cerned with merely physical

utilities,

ardent associations of belief hallowed

and lacked

by

ancestors and worship of contemporaries. its

colors

limited

and concrete character

it

the

sacrifices of

Because

of

was dry, hard,

cold.

Yet the more acute and active minds,

like that of

Plato himself, could no longer be content to accept,

along with the conservative citizen of the time, the old beliefs in the old way.

knowledge and of the

The growth

critical,

of positive

inquiring spirit under-

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

17

mined these

in

their old

in

form.

The advantages

definiteness, in accuracy, in verifiability

side of the

new knowledge.

aim and scope, but uncertain questioned

said Socrates,

life,

by man, who

is

were

all

on the

Tradition was noble in

The un-

in foundation.

was not one

fit

to be lived

a questioning being because he

is

a

Hence he must search out the reason and not accept them from custom and political

rational being. of things,

What was to be done?

authority.

rational investigation

Develop a method of

and proof which should place the

essential elements of traditional belief

able basis

;

upon an unshak-

develop a method of thought and knowledge

which while purifying tradition should presejevCits

moral and social values unimpaired; nay, by purifying them, add to their power and authority. it in

To put

a word, that which had rested upon custom was

no longer upon the habits of upon the very metaphysics of Being and

to be restored, resting

the past, but

the Universe. as

the source

Metaphysics

—that

social values

is

as

—a philosophy,

let

Aristotle

of

a substitute for custom

the leading theme of the classic

Europe,

philosophy

is

and gujtcantor of higher moral and evolved

by Plato

and

us always recall, renewed

and restated by the Christian philosophy of Medieval Europe.

Out of

this situation emerged, if I mistake not, the

entire tradition regarding the function

and

office

of

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

18

philosophy which

till

the very recently has controlled

western| systematic and constructive philosophies of the world. If I am right in my main thesis that the origin «f philosophy lay in an attempt to reconcile the two different types of mental product, then the

key

is

in

our hands as to the main traits of subsequent philosophy so far as that was not of a negative kind.

In the

first

and heterodox

place, philosophy did not develop

in

an unbiased way from .an open and unprejudiced origin. It had its task cut out for it from the start. It had a mission to perform, and mission.

It

it

was sworn in advance to that

had to extract the

essential

moral kerneM

out of the threatened traditional beliefs of the past.

So-

far so good; the work was critical and in the interests

of the only true conservatism

—that which

will conserve

and not waste the values wrought out by humanity. But it was also precommitted to extracting this moral essence in liefs.

The

a

spirit conbenial to the spirit of past be-

association with imagination and with social

authority was too intimate to be deeply disturbed.

It

was not possible to conceive of the content of social institutions in any form radically different from that in which they had existed in the past.

It became the

work of philosophy to justify on rationaTgrounds~tKe spiritT^though not the form, of accepted beliefs and traditional customs.

The

resulting philosophy seemed radical

enough and

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

19

even dangerous to the average Athenian because of the difference of

form and method.

away excrescences and average citizen were

In the sense of pruning

eliminating factors which to the

all

one with the basic

was

radical.

and

in contrast with different types of

But looked at

beliefs, it

in the perspective of history

thought which

developed later in different social environments,

now easy

to see

how profoundly,

after

all,

it

is

Plato and

Aristotle reflected the meaning of Greek tradition and habit, so that their writings remain, with the writings

of the great dramatists, the best introduction of a stu-

dent into the innermost ideals and aspirations of distinctively art,

Greek

Greek

life.

Without Greek

civic life, their

Greek

religion,

philosophy would have been

impossible; while the effect of that science

upon which

the philosophers most prided themselves turns out to

have been superficial and spirit of

philosophy

is

negligible.

This apologetic

even more apparent when Medie-

val Christianity about the twelfth century sought for a

systematic rational presentation of

itself

and made

use of classic philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, to justify itself to reason.

A

not unsimilar occurrence

characterizes the chief philosophic systems of

Germany

in the early nineteenth century,

when Hegel assumed the

name

of rational idealism the

task of justifying in the

doctrines and institutions which were menaced

new

spirit of science

by

and popular government.

the

The

20

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

result

has been that the great systems have not been

free

from party

exercised in behalf

spirit

of pre-^

Since they have at the same time conceived beliefs. processed complete intellectual independence and rationality, the result

has been too often to impart to philoso-

phy an element

of insincerity,

all

the more infeiaious_be-

cause wholly unconscious on the part of those who sustained philosophy.

And

this brings us to a. second trait of philosophy

springing from

Since

its origin.

justification of things that

it

aimed at a rational

had been previously accepted

because of their emotional congeniality and social prestige, it

had to make much of the apparatus of reason

and proof.

Because of the lack of intrinsic rationality which

in the matters with

it dealt, it

leaned over back-

ward, so to speak, in parade of logical form.

In dealing

with matters of fact, simpler and rougher ways of

demonstration

may

be resorted

to.

It

say, to produce the fact in question

the fundamental form of it

all

is

enough, so to

and point to

it

But when

demonstration.

comes to convincing men of the truth of doctrines

which are no longer to be accepted upon the say-so of custom and social authority, but which also are not capable of empirical verification, there

is

no recourse

save to magnify the signs of rigorous thought

demonstration. stract

definition

Thus and

arises that

and

rigid

appearance of ab-

ultra-scientific

argumentation

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY many from

which rebels so been one of

At

its chief

21

philosophy but which has //

attractions to its devotees.

the worst, this has reduced philosophy to a show

of elaborate terminology, a hair-splitting logic ,

devotion to the mere external forms of com-

fictitious

prehensive and minute demonstration. best, it

and a

Even at the

has tended to produce an overdeveloped attach-

ment to system for

own

its

sake,

and an over-pretentious

Bishop Butler declared t hat prob a-

claim to certainty.

bUity_2sJthejruideofJife ; but few philosophers have been

courageous enough to ajvow that philosophy can be with anything that

satisfied

customs dictated by

is

tradition

and

desire

They had

finality

and immutability.

certain

and unvarying laws of conduct.

its

history philosophy

conclusiveness,

this

to classic philosophies ever since.

had claimed

claimed to give

Very early

made pretension

and something of

special sciences

temper has clung

They have

was necessary because after

truth.

in

fail

insisted

—

that,

all

the

attaining final and complete

dissenters who have venWilliam James, that " philosophy'

There have been a few

tured to assert, as did is

in

to a similar

that they were more scientific than the sciences indeed, philosophy

The

merely probable.

vision

" and that

minds from

bias

its chief

function

is

to free men's

and prejudice and to enlarge their

perceptions of the world about them.

philosophy has set

up much more

But

in the

main

ambitious pretensions.

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

22

To

say frankly that philosophy can proffer nothing but

hypotheses, and that

these

hypotheses are of value

only as they render men's minds more sensitive to

life

about them, would seem like a negation of philosophy itself.

In the third place, the body of

beliefs dictated

desire and imagination and developed under the fluence of

communal authority

to speak, omnipresent in life.

into an authoritative It was, so

was pervasive and comprehensive.

tradition,

Its pressure

universal.

It

all

the details of the group

was unr vtting and

influence

its

was then probably inevitable that the

rival principle, reflective thought, should

and comprehensiveness.

lar universality

as inclusive

by in-

aim at a It

would be

and far-reaching metaphysically as

tion had been socially.

Now

simi-

tradi-

there was just one

way

in which this pretension could be accomplished in con-

junction with a claim of complete logical system and certainty.

All philosophies of the classic type have fixed

and fundamental One

of existence. ligious

of

distinction between

these

which in

its

and sanction of in

the

re-

of popular tradition,

metaphysical rendering became the world

of highest and ultimate reality.

duct

a

two realms

corresponds to

and supernatural world

made

all

community

Since the final source

important truths and rules of conhad been found in superior and

life

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY unquestioned

religious

the

so

beliefs,

absolute

23

and

supreme reality of philosophy afforded the only sure guaranty of truth about empirical matters, and the

sole

rational guide to proper social institutions and indi-

vidual behavior.

Qy-er,

against this absolute and noume-'

nal reality which could be apprehended only by the

systematic discipline of philosophy

nary empirical,

It

was with

practical affairs and utilities of It was to

this imperfect

stoo d the ordi-

phenomenal world of

relatively real,

everyday experience.

itself

this

world that the

men were

connected.

and perishing world that mat-

ter of fact, positivistic science referred.

This

is

the trait which, in

most deeply the philosophy. office

classic

my

opinion, has affected

notion about the nature of

Philosophy has (arrogated to

itself

the

of demonstrating the existence of a transcendent*

absolute or inner reality and of revealing to

man

the

nature and features of this ultimate and higher reality.

was

It has therefore claimed that it

higher organ of knowledge than

is

in possession of

a

employed by posi-

tive science and ordinary practical experience, and that it is marked by a superior dignity and

importance

phy

leads

—

a

man

claim which

is

undeniable

if

philoso-

to proof and intuition of a Reality be-

yond that open to day-by-day

life

and the special

sciences.

This claim has, of course, been denied by various

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

24

But

philosophers from time to time. these denials have been agnostic

for the most part

and

They

sceptical.

have contented themselves with asserting tb/at absolute

and ultimate reality

is

beyond hu man kern

But

they

have not ventured to deny that such Reality would

be

the appropriate sphere for the exercise of philosophic

knowledge provided only

human

intelligence.

it

were within the reach

Only comparatively recently

another conception of the proper

This course of lectures

arisen.

office

will

of philosophy be devoted

setting forth this different conception of philosophy

some of

its

main contrasts to what

termed the classic conception. referred to only It

is

At

in

to in

this lecture has

this point, it

by anticipation and

of

has

can

be

cursory fashion.

implied in the account which has been given of the

origin

of philosophy

out of the background of an

authoritative tradition; a tradition originally dictated

by man's imagination working under the influence of love and hate and in the interest of emotional excitement and it

satisfaction.

Common

frankness requires that

be stated that this account of the origin of philoso-

phies claiming to deal with absolute

Being in a

sys-

way has been given with malice prepense. It me that this genetic method of approach is a more effective way of undermining this type of philo-

tematic

seems to

sophic theorizing than any attempt at logical refutation could be.

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY If this lecture succeeds in leaving in

25

your minds as a

reasonable hypothesis the idea that philosophy origi-

nated not out of intellectual material, but out of social

and emotional material,

it will

also succeed in leaving

with you a changed attitude toward traditional philosophies. in

They

a new

will

be viewed from a new angle and placed

New

light.

questions about them will be

aroused and new standards for judging them

be

will

suggested. If

any one

will

commence without mental

reservations

to study the history of philosophy not as an isolated

thing but as a chapter in the development of civilization

and culture ;

if

one will connect the story of philoso-

phy with a study of anthropology, primitive life, the history of religion, literature and social institutions, it confidently asserted that he will reach his own indeill

pendent judgment as to the worth of the account which has been presented today.

Considered in this way, the

history of philosophy will take on a new significance.

What

is

lost

from the standpoint of would-be

regained from the standpoint of humanity.

science

is

Instead

of the disputes of rivals about the nature of reality,

we

have the scene of human clash of social purpose and aspirations.

Instead of impossible attempts to tran-

scend experience, we have the significant record of the efforts of

men

to formulate the things of experience to

which they are most deeply and passionately attached.

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

26

Instead of impersonal and purely speculative endeavors to contemplate as remote beholders the nature of abso-

we have a living picture of the choice of thoughtful men about what they would have lute things-in-themselves,

life

to be,

and

to

what ends they would have men shape

their intelligent activities.

Any

one of you

philosophy definite

will

who

arrives at such a view of past

of necessity be led to entertain a quite

conception of the scope and aim of future

He

philosophizing.

will inevitably be

committed to

the

notion that what philosophy has been unconsciously,^

without knowing or intending cover,

When

it

and, so to speak, under

it,

must henceforth be openly and

it is

deliberately.

acknowledged that under disguise of dealing

with ultimate reality, philosophy has been occupied with the precious values embedded in social traditions, that it

has sprung from a clash of social ends and from a with incompatible con-

conflict of inherited institutions

temporary tendencies, futurejghilosophy

is

it

wil l be

-social andjmoral strifes of their

become so far as

is

humanly

ing with these conflicts. tiously unreal

when

s een

that the_taskj»f

to clarify men's ideas as ±o_Jthe

it is

own day.

possible

Its

aim

is

to

an organ for deal-

That which may be pretenformulated in metaphysical

distinctions becomes intensely significant

when connect* d

with the drama of the struggle of social beliefs and ideals.

Philosophy which surrenders

its

somewhat

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

27

barren monopoly of dealings with Ultimate and Absolute Reality will find a compensation in enlightening

the moral forces which move mankind and in contributing to the aspirations of

and

men to

intelligent happiness.

attain to a more ordered

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS IN PHILOSOPHICAL RECONSTRUCTION Fkancis Baco n of the Elizabethan age forerunner of the spirit of modern in is

is

the great

Though

life.

slight

accomplishment, as a prophet of new tendencies he

an outstanding figure of the world's intellectual

Like

many another prophet

intermingling of old and new.

What

cant in him has been rendered more or the later course of events.

But page

life.

from confused

he suffers

most

is

signifi-

less familiar

after

page

by

is filled

with matter which belongs to the past from which

Bacon thought he had escaped.

Caught between

these

two sources of easy disparagement, Bacon hardly ceives his

while he

re-

due as the real~Tbunder of modern thought, is

praised for merits which scarcely belong

to him, such as an alleged authorship of the specific

methods of induction pursued by science.

Bacon memorable world caught and

is

filled his sails

venture in new seas.

He

makes

and stirred him to ad-

never himself discovered the

land of promise, but he proclaimed the

by

What

that breezes blowing from a new

faith he descried its features

from

new goal and

afar.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS The main

traits of his

29

thought put before our mind

the larger features of a new spirit which was at work in

They may suggest the social and historical forces out of which the new spirit was born. The best known aphorism of Bacon causing intellectual reconstruction.

is

that Knowledge

is

Power

Judged by

.

this

pragmatic

he condemned the great body of learning then

criterion,

extant as mof-knowledge, as pseudo- and pretentious-

For

knowledge.

not operative.

it

In his most extensive discussion he

classified the learning of his

delicate,

It was otiose,

did not give power.

day under three

fantastic and contentious.

Under

heads,"^

delicate

learning, he included the literary learning which through

the influence of the revival of ancient languages and literatures occupied so important a place in the intellec-

Bacon's condemnation

tual life of the Renaissance.

the

more

is

because he himself was a master of

effective

the classics and of all the graces and refinements which this literary

study was intended to convey.

In sub-

stance he anticipated most of the attacks which educational reformers since his time have

sided literary culture.

It contributed not to

to ornament and decoration. luxurious.

By

—wild

century

astrology, etc.

It

one-

power but

was ostentatious and

fantastic learning he meant the quasi-

magical science that was so sixteenth

made upon

Upon

this

rife all

over Europe in the

developments

of

alchemy,

he poured his greatest vials

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

SO

00 of wrath because the corruption of the g vain, but Delicate learning was idle and knowledge. fantastic learning aped the form of true knowledgeIt laid hold of the true principle and aim of

worst of

evils.

control of natural forces.

But

it

neglected the condi-

and methods by which alone such knowledge could be obtained, and thus deliberately led men astray. For our purposes, however, what he says about con-

tions

tentious learning

is

the most important.

For by

this, he

means the traditional science which had come down, in scanty and distorted measure to be sure, from antiquity through scholasticism.

It

called contentious both

is

because of the logical method used and the end to which it

was put.

In a certain sense

power over other men in the sect or person, not

common relsome,

interest of

it

aimed at power, but

interest of

some

class or

power over natural forces

all.

in the

Bacon's conviction of the quar-

self-displaying character of the

scholarship

which had come down from antiquity was of course not so

much due

to Greek science itself as to the degenerate

heritage of scholasticism in the fourteenth century,

when philosophy had

fallen into the

hands of disputa-

tious theologians, full of hair-splitting argumentativeness

and quirks and tricks by which to win victory over

somebody

else.

But Bacon Aristotelian

also

method

brought itself.

his

In

charge against the

its

rigorous forms

it

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS aimed at demonstration, and in

its

31

milder forms at

But both demonstration and persuasion aim at conquest of mind rather than of nature. Morepersuasion.

over they both assume that some one session of is

a truth or a

belief,

to convince some one

his

else,

the extent

existent,

a

In contrast,

slight opinion of the

and a

and importance of truths

It would be

already in pos-

or to teach.

new method had an exceedingly

amount of truth already

is

and that the only problem

lively sense

logic of discovery, not a logic of argu-

mentation, proof and persuasion. logic even at its best

To

Bacon, the old

was a logic for teaching the already

known, and teaching meant indoctrination, It

of

to be attained.

still

discipling.

was an axiom of Aristotle that only that which was

already known could be learned, that growth in knowl-

edge consisted simply in bringing together a universal truth of reason and a particular truth of sense which

had previously been noted separately.

In any case,

learning meant growth, of knowledge, and growth belongs in the region of becoming, change, and hence inferior to possession of

knowledge in the

self-revolving manipulation of

is

syllogistic

what was already known

—demonstration. In contrast with this point of view, Bacon eloquently proclaimed the superiority of discovery of new facts

and truths to demonstration of the

old.

only one road to discovery, and that

is

Now

there

is

penetrating in-

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

32

Scientific principle*

quiry into the secrets of nature.

on the surface of nature. They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active and elaborate technique of inquiry. Neither logical

and laws do not

lie

reasoning nor the passive accumulation of any number of observations

—which the ancients

to lay hold of them.

suffices

called

experience-

Active experimentation

must force the apparent facts of nature into forms different to those in which they familiarly present themselves; selves,

and thus make them tell the truth about themas torture may compel an unwilling witness to re-

what he has been concealing.

veal

Pure reasoning

as a

is like the spider who spins The web is orderly and elaborate, a trap. The passive accumulation of

means of arriving at truth a web out of himself. but

it is

only

experiences the ant

—the

who

traditional empirical

is like

and collects and piles up True method, that which Bacon

busily runs about

heaps of raw materials.

would usher

—

method

in, is

comparable to the operations of the

bee who, like the ant, collects material

from the external

world, but unlike that industrious creature attacks and modifies the collected stuff in order to

make

it

yield its

hidden treasure.

Along with

this contrast

between subjugation of na-

ture and subjection of other minds and the elevation of a method of discovery above a method of demonstration,

went Bacon's sense of progress as the aim and

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS test of genuine knowledge.

According to

SS

his criticisms,

the classic logic, even in its Aristotelian form, inevitably

played into the hands of inert conservatism.

For

in

accustoming the mind to think of truth as already

known,

it

habituated men to

fall

back on the

intellectual

attainments of the past, and to accept them without critical

scrutiny.

Not merely

the medieval but the

renaissance mind tended to look back to antiquity as a

Golden Age of Knowledge, the former relying upon sacred scriptures, the latter upon secular literatures.

And

while this attitude could not fairly be charged

against the classic logic, yet Bacon justice, that

any

felt,

up

and with

logic which identified the technique

of knowing with demonstration of truths already possessed

by the mind, blunts the spirit of investigation and mind within the circle of traditional learn-

confines the ing.

Such a logic could not avoid having for its salient features definition of what is already known (or thought to be known),

and

its

systematization according to

recognized canons of orthodoxy.

A

logic of discovery

on the other hand looks to the future. it

Received truthj

regards critically as something to be tested by new"

experiences rather than as something to be dogmatically

taught and obediently received.

Its chief interest in

even the most carefully tested ready-made knowledge is

the use which

may

be

made of

it

in further inquiries

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

34

and

discoveries.

Old truth has

its

chief value in assist-

Bacon's own apprecia-

ing the detection of new truth. tion of the nature of induction

defective.

was highly

acute sense that science means invasion of unknown, rather than repetition in logical form of

But

the

his

the

already known, makes him nevertheless the father of induction. Endless and persistent uncovering of facts

and principles not known induction.

—such

is

the true spirit

Continued progress in knowledge

is

of

the only

of protecting old knowledge from degeneration

sure

way

into

dogmatic doctrines received on authority, or from

imperceptible decay into superstition and old wives' tales.

Ever-renewed progress

is

to

as the aim of genuine logic.

Bacon

demands, where are the works, the logic?

What

has

it

the test as well

Where, Bacon constantly fruits,

done to ameliorate the

to rectify defects, to improve conditions?

the inventions that justify of truth?

its

of the older evils of

life,

Where

are

claim to be in possession

Beyond the victory of man over man

in

law courts, diplomacy and political administration, they are nil. One had to turn from admired " sciences " to despised arts to find works, fruits, consequences of value to

And

human kind through power over natural

forces.

progress in the arts was as yet intermittent,

accidental.

A true

make advance

logic or technique of inquiry

in the industrial, agricultural

fitful,

would

and medi-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS cal arts continuous, cumulative

85

and deliberately

sys-

tematic. If

we take

into account the supposed

body of ready-

made knowledge upon which learned men rested in supine acquiescence and which they recited in parrotlike chorus, we find it consists of two parts. One made up

of these parts is tors,

of the errors of our ances-

musty with antiquity and organized

into pseudo-

through the use of the classic logic. Such " truths " are in fact only the systematized mistakes science

and prejudices of our ancestors. nated in accident

;

many

Many

in class interest

of them origi-

and

petuated by authority for this very reason

bias, per-

—a

consid-

eration which later actuated Locke's attack upon the

The

doctrine of innate ideas. beliefs

other portion of accepted

comes from instinctive tendencies of the human

mind that give

it

a dangerous bias until counteracted

by a conscious and

The mind

of

man

critical logic.

spontaneously assumes greater sim-

plicity, uniformity and unity among phenomena than It follows superficial analogies and actually exists.

jumps to conclusions

;

it

overlooks the variety of de-

Thus

weaves a

tails

and the existence of exceptions.

web

of purely internal origin which it imposes

nature.

What had been

it

upon

termed science in the past con-

sisted of this humanly constructed and imposed web.

Men

looked at the work of their own minds and thought

86

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY They were

they were seeing realities in nature.

name

shipping, under the

wor-

of science, the idols of their

So-called science and philosophy con-

own making. sisted of these

And

"anticipations" of nature.

the

worst thing that could be said about traditional logic

was that instead of saving man from

this

natural source

of error, it had, thlough attributing to nature a false rationality of unity, simplicity

tioned these sources of delusion.

and generality, sanc-

The

office

of the new

logic

would be to protect the mind against

teach

it

to undergo a patient

and prolonged appren-

ticeship to fact in its infinite variety

and particularity

to obey nature intellectually in order to

command

Such was the significance of the new

practically.

—the new

itself: to

organon of learning, so named

tool or

it

logic in

express opposition to the organon of Aristotle.

Certain

other

important oppositions are implied.

Aristotle thought of reason as capable of solitary com-

munion with rational truth. celebrated saying that Intelligence, cal.

It

is

Nous,

is

man

is

The counterpart of a political animal,

neither animal,

divinely unique

and

human nor

self-enclosed.

error had been produced and perpetuated fluences,

and truth must be discovered by

organized for that purpose. vidual can do

little

involved in his

own

To by

is

his

that

politi-

Bacon,

social in-

social agencies

Left to himself, the indi-

or nothing; he self-spun

is

likely to

become

web of misconceptions.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS The great need

37

the organization of co-operative re-

is

search, whereby

men attack nature

work of inquiry

is

collectively

and the

carried on continuously

from generaBacon even aspired to the rather

tion to generation.

absurd notion of a method so perfected that differences

human

in natural

ability

might be discounted, and

all

be put on the same level in production of new facts

and new truths. tive side of his

Yet

this absurdity

was only the nega-

great positive prophecy of a combined

and co-operative pursuit of science such as characterizes our own day.

New

In view of the picture he draws in his

Atlantis of a State organized for collective inquiry,

we readily forgive him

his exaggerations.

Power over nature was not to be lective; the

Empire, as he says, of

Empire of

substituted for the

Man

individual but col-

Man

over Nature,

over Man.

Let us

employ Bacon's own words with their variety of picturesque metaphor " Men have entered into the desire :

of learning

and knowledge,

give a true account

.

.

.

seldom sincerely to

of their gift of reason, to the benefit

and use of men, but as

if

they sought in knowledge a

couch whereon to rest a searching and wandering spirit or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk

up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower for a proud mind to raise itself upon or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for ;

profit

and

sale

;

and not a rich storehouse for the glory

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

38

of the creator and the

Pragmatism a New Name

William James called

Old

Way

man's estate."

relief of

know that he was

of Thinking, I do not

When for an think-

ing expressly of Francis Bacon, but so far as concerns the spirit and atmosphere of the pursuit of knowledge,

Bacon may be taken

as the

conception of knowledge. spirit would be avoided

prophet of a pragmatic

Many

if his

misconceptions of

emphasis upon the

its

social

factor in both the pursuit and the end of knowledge were carefully obsej-ved.

This somewhat over-long resume of Bacon's ideas has not been gone into as a matter of historic retrospect.

The summary

is

rather meant to put before our minds

an authentic document of the new philosophy which may bring into relief the social causes of intellectual revolution.

Only a sketchy account can be here attempted,

but

may

it

be of some assistance even barely to remind

you of the direction of that religious

Upon

industrial, political and

change upon which Europe was entering. the industrial side,

it

is

impossible, I think,

to exaggerate the influence of travel, exploration and

new commerce which fostered a romantic sense of adventure into novelty beliefs

;

;

loosened the hold of traditional

created a lively sense of new worlds to be investi-

ture, commerce,

produced new methods of manufacbanking and finance; and then reacted

everywhere

stimulate

gated and subdued

to

;

invention,

and

to

intro-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS

39

duce positive observation and active experimentation

The Crusades,

into science.

the revival of the profane

learning of antiquity and even more perhaps, the contact with the advanced learning of the

Mohammedans,

commerce with Asia and Africa, the

the increase of

introduction of the lens, compass and gunpowder, the finding

and opening up of North and South America

most significantly called The some of the obvious external

—

New World

Contrast between

facts.

peoples and races previously isolated

most fruitful and logical

influential for

these are

is

always, I think,

change when psycho-

and industrial changes coincide with and

force each other.

rein-

Sometimes people undergo emotional

change, what might almost be called a metaphysical change, through intercourse.

The

especially in religious matters, times, there

is

inner set of the mind,

is

altered.

At

other

a lively exchange of goods, an adoption

of foreign tools

and

devices,

an imitation of

alien habits

of clothing, habitation and production of commodities.

One of

these changes

is,

so to speak, too internal

and the

other too external to bring about a profound intellectual development. But when the creation of a new mental attitude

falls

together with extensive material and

economic changes, something significant happens.

This coincidence of two kinds of change was, I take it, characteristic of the new contacts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Clash of customs and traditional

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

40 beliefs

dispelled

mental inertia and sluggishness;

and new

it

ideas.

aroused a lively curiosity as to different The actual adventure of travel and exploration purged the mind of fear of the strange territories

and unknown: as new

geographically and commercially speaking

were opened up, the mind was opened up.

New contacts

more contacts the appetite for novelty and discovery grew by what it fed upon. Conservative adherence to old beliefs and methods promoted the desire for

still

;

underwent a steady attrition with every new voyage

new parts and every new report of foreign ways. The mind became used to exploration and discovery. It into

found a delight and interest in the revelations of novel

and the unusual which

was old and customary.

it

no longer took

the

in what

Moreover, the very act

of

exploration, of expedition, the process of enterprising

adventure into the remote, yielded a peculiar joy and thrill.

This psychological change was essential to the birth of the

new point of view

Yet alone

it

of knowing.

purposes of

in science

and philosophy.

could hardly have produced the

But life

new method

positive changes in the habits and

gave objective conformation and sup-

port to the mental change. channels in which the

new

They

spirit

also determined the

found

exercise.

New-

found wealth, the gold from the Americas and new articles of consumption and enjoyment, tended to wean men

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS

41

from preoccupation with the metaphysical and theological,

and to turn their minds with newly awakened

terest to the joys of nature

resources

and new markets

and

in

this life.

New

in-

material

America and India under-

mined the old dependence upon household and manual production for a local and limited market, and generated

by means

quantitative, large scale production

for foreign and expanding markets. transit,

of steam

Capitalism, rapid

and production for exchange against money and

for profit, instead of against goods and for consumption, followed.

This cursory and superficial reminder of vast and complicated events

pendence of the revolution.

suggest the mutual interde-

scientific revolution

Upon

much applied

may

and the

industrial

the one hand, modern industry

science.

No amount

of desire to

is

so

make

money, or to enjoy new commodities, no amount of mere practical energy and enterprise, would have effected the

economic transformation of the last few centuries and generations.

chemical Business

and

Improvements biological

men through

laid hold of the

new

in mathematical, physical,

science

were

engineers of different sorts, have insights gained

into the hidden energies of nature,

them to account.

The modern

steamship, telegraph,

prerequisites.

all

by

scientific

men

and have turned

mine, factory, railway,

of the appliances and equip-

ment of production, and transportation, express

scienti-

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

42 fie

if

They would continue unimpaired

knowledge.

even

the ordinary pecuniary accompaniments of economic

activity were radically altered.

intermediary

knowledge

is

of

In short, through the

Bacon's

invention,

watchword that

power and his dream of continuous empire

over natural forces by means of natural science have

been actualized.

and

The

industrial revolution

electricity is the reply to

On

the other hand, it

is

by steam

Bacon's prophecy.

equally true that the needs

of modern industry have been tremendous stimuli to scientific

investigation.

The demands

of progressive

production and transportation have set new problems to inquiry; the processes used in industry have suggested new experimental appliances and operations in science; the wealth rolled

up

in business has to

endowment of research.

tent been diverted to

some

The

interrupted and pervasive interaction of scientific

ex-

undis-

covery and industrial application has fructified both

and industry, and has brought home to the contemporary mind the fact that the gist of scientific science

knowledge facts,

is

control of natural energies.

natural science, experimentation,

progress have been inextricably bound

These four control

up

and

together.

"That up to the present the application of the newer methods and results has influenced the means of life rather than

its

ends

;

or, better put, that

human

aims

have so far been affected in an accidental rather than

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS

43

an intelligently directed way, signifies that so far the change has been technical rather than human and moral,

in

has been economic rather than adequately

that

it

Put

in the

language of Bacon,

this

we have been reasonably successful

mand

social.

means that

while\

in obtaining

com-

by means of science, our science is not yet such that this command is systematically and preeminently applied to the relief of human estate. Such of nature

applications occur and in great numbers, but they are incidental,

sporadic and external.

tion defines the specific

And

this

limita-

problem of philosophical

For

construction at the present time.

re-

emphasizes

it

the larger social deficiencies that require intelligent diagnosis, and projection of aims It

is

marked

new

and methods.

hardly necessary to remind you however that political

science

and

changes have already followed upon the its

industrial applications,

and that

in

so far some directions of social development have at least been

marked

out.

The growth

of the

of industry has everywhere been followed

new technique

by

the fall of

feudal institutions, in which the social pattern

was

formed in agricultural occupations and military pursuits. Wherever business in the modern sense has gone, the tendency has been to transfer power from land to financial capital,

from the country to the

city,

from the

farm to factory, from social titles based on personal allegiance, service and protection, to those based on

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

44

control of labor

and exchange of goods.

The change

in the political centre of gravity has resulted in emanci-

pating the individual from bonds of class and custom and in producing a political organization which depends less

upon superior authority and more upon voluntary

choice. less

as

Modern states, in other words, are regarded divine, and more as human works than they

used to be;

less

as necessary manifestations of some

supreme and over-ruling principles, and more as trivances of

men and women

to realize their

The contract theory of the theory whose falsity philosophically

may

and

own

con-

desires.

origin of the state

is

a

easily be demonstrated both

Nevertheless

historically.

theory has had great currency and influence.

this

In form,

men voluntarily got made a compact with one another to observe certain laws and to submit to certain authority and in that way brought the state and the relation of

it

stated that some time in the past

together and

ruler

and subject into

existence.

Like

many

things

in

philosophy, the theory, though worthless as a record of fact,

of

is

human

of great

worth as a symptom of the direction

desire.

It testified to a growing belief that

human needs and could be shaped by human intention and volition. Aristotle's theory that the state exists by nature failed to satisfy

the state existed to satisfy

thought of the seventeenth century because seemed by making the state a product of nature to

the

it

re-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS move

constitution beyond

its

significant

human

45

choice.

Equally

was the assumption of the contract theory

that individuals

by

their personal decisions expressing

their personal wishes bring the state into existence.

The

rapidity with which the theory gained a hold all over

western Europe showed the extent to which the bonds of customary institutions

had relaxed

It

their grip.

proved that men had been so liberated from absorption in larger

groups that they were conscious of themselves

as individuals

having rights and claims on their own

account, not simply as members of a class, guild or social grade.

by

Side

religious

side with this political individualism

went a

The metaphysical

and moral individualism.

doctrine of the superiority of the species to the individual, of the ticular,

permanent universal to the changing par-

was the philosophic support of

ecclesiastical

institutionalism.

The

political

universal church

was the ground, end and limit of the individual's

and acts in

of his behavior in secular affairs.

classic

where

beliefs

spiritual matters, just as the feudal hier-

archical organization was the basis, law

barians

and

and

fixed limit

The northern bar-

had never completely come under the sway of ideas and customs. That which was indigenous

life

was primarily derived from Latin sources

was borrowed and more or

Germanic Europe.

less externally

imposed

in

Protestantism marked the formal

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

46

breaking away from the domination of

by an organized

that at the outset the

new

institution claiming

It cannot truly be said

to be permanent and universal.

in

ideas.

of individual conscience and wor-

It effected liberation

ship from control

Roman

religious

movement went

far

promoting freedom of thought and criticism, or

in

denying the notion of some supreme authority to which

was absolutely

individual intelligence first

did

go far

it

Nor

in bonds.

But

divergency of moral and religious convictions. practically institutions.

it

at

in furthering tolerance or respect for

did tend to disintegration of established

By

multiplying sects and churches

it en-

couraged at least a negative toleration of the right

of

individuals to judge ultimate matters for themselves.

In

time, there developed a formulated belief in the sacred-

ness of individual conscience

and

in the right to freedom

of opinion, belief and worship. It

is

unnecessary to point out how the spread of

conviction increased

p olitical

jndiyjdualism, or

accelerated the willingness of ideas in science

and experiment for themselves.

ligious

movements

dom when

to question received

—

to think and observe

Religious individualism

much needed sanction to

independence of thought in officially

it

men

and philosophy

served to supply a

this

how

all spheres,

initiative

and

even when

re-

were opposed to such

carried beyond a limited point.

The

free-

greatest

influence of Protestantism was, however, in developing

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS the idea of the personality of every

WhenTiuman

endjnjhimjielf.

47

human being

as an

beings were regarded as

capable of direct relationship with God, without the intermediary of any organization like the Church, and the

drama

of sin, redemption and salvation was some-

thing enacted within the innermost soul of individuals

rather than in the species of which the individual was a

subordinate part, a fatal blow was struck at trines

doc-

all

which taught the subordination of personality

a blow which had

many

promoting democracy.

political

For when

reverberations

in

in religion the idea of

the intrinsic worth of every soul as such was proclaimed, it

was

difficult

to keep the idea from spilling over, so to

say, into secular relationships.

The absurdity

is

obvious of trying in a few para-

graphs to summarize movements religion

whose influence

is still

in industry, politics

and

far from exhausted and

about which hundreds and thousands of volumes have been written.

But

I shall count

upon your forbearance

to recall that these matters are alluded to only in order

to suggest some of the forces that operated to

the channels in which new ideas ran.

mark out

First, there

is

the

transfer of interest from the eternal and universal to

what

is

changing and

thai showed

specific, concrete

itself pracTicaTIy~in

characteristic

movement

carrying over of atten-

tion and thought from another world to

supernaturalism

—a

of

the

this,

from the

Middle Ages

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

48

Secondly, there

natural intercourse.

and

activity

to delight in natural science, natural is

the gradual

decay of the authority of fixed institutions and distinctions and relations, and a growing belief

class

m

the

power of individual minds, guided by methods of obserreflection, to attain the truths

and

vation, experiment

needed for the guidance of

The

life.

operations and

results of natural inquiry gained in prestige and power

at

the

of

expense

dictated

principles

from high

authority.

Consequently

principles

and

alleged

truths

judged more and more by criteria of their in experience in

experience,

and

their consequences of weal

and

by

less

are

origin

and woe

criteria of sublime origin

from beyond everyday experience and independent fruits in experience.

It

is

no longer enough for a

ple to be elevated, noble, universal It

must present

its

just what conditions of erated,

and

it

and potential.

and hallowed by

birth certificate,

human

must justify

Such

is

it

by

time.

must show under

experience

itself

of

princi-

its

it

was gen-

works, present

the inner meaning of the modern

appeal to experience as an ultimate criterion of value .

and

validity.

In the third place, great store

upon the idea of progress.

The

is

set

future rather than the

The Golden Age lies Everywhere new possibilities beckon and arouse courage and effort. The great

past dominates the imagination.

ahead of us not behind us.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS

49

French thinkers of the later eighteenth century borrowed this idea from Bacon and developed it into the doctrine of the indefinite perfectibility of

Man

earth.

is

capable,

if

mankind on

he will but exercise the re-

quired courage, intelligence and effort, of shaping his

own

Physical conditions offer no insurmountable

fate.

In the fourth place, the patient and experi-

barriers.

mental study of nature, bearing fruit in inventions

which control nature and subdue her forces to social

by which progress

uses,

is

the method

edge

is

power and knowledge

mind

is

is

made.

Knowl-

achieved by sending the

school to nature to learn her processes of

to

change.

In this lecture as in the previous one, I can hardly close better

than by reference to the new responsibilities

imposed upon philosophy and the new opportunities opened to

it.

these changes

Upon up

the whole, the greatest effect of

to date has been to substitute an

Idealism based on epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, for the Idealism based

on the metaphysics of

classic antiquity.

Earlier

modern philosophy

sciously to itself)

(even

though uncon-

had the problem of reconciling the

and

ideal basis, stuff

and end of the universe with the new

interest in indi-

traditional theory of the rational

vidual

was

mind and the new confidence

in a

dilemma.

On

in its capacities.

the one hand,

it

had no

It

intention

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

fiO

of losing itself in a materialism which subordinated to physical existence and mind to matter just at the

moment when

in actual affairs

were beginning to achieve genuine

On it

—

man

especially

man and

mind

rule over nature.

the other hand, the conception that the world as

stood was an embodiment of a fixed and comprehensive

Mind or Reason was uncongenial

to those whose main

concern was with the deficiencies of the world and with

The

an attempt to remedy them.

effect of the objective

theological idealism that had developed out of classic metaphysical idealism was to make the mind submissive

and acquiescent.

The new

the restrictions imposed

individualism chafed under

upon

it

by the notion

versal reason which had once and for

all

of a uni-

shaped nature

and destiny. In breaking away from antique and medieval thought, accordingly, early modern thought continued the older tradition of a

Reason that creates and constitutes

world, but combined

it

the

with the notion that this Reason

human mind, individual or colleccommon note of idealism sounded by

operates through the tive. all

This

is

the

the philosophies of the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries, whether belonging to the British school of

Locke, Berkeley and

Hume

or the Continental school of

In Kant as everybody knows the two came together; and the theme of the formation of the knowable world by means of a thought that

Descartes. strains

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS operated exclusively through the

51

human knower became

Idealism ceased to be metaphysical and cosmic

explicit.

in order to

become epistemological and personal.

It is evident

that this development represents merely

a transitional stage.

It tried, after all, to

wine in the old bottles.

put the new

It did not achieve a free and

unbiased formulation of the meaning of the power to direct

nature's

—that

through knowledge

forces

is,

purposeful, experimental action acting to reshape beliefs

and

institutions.

The

strong enough to project

ancient tradition was

still

unconsciously into men's

itself

ways of thinking, and to hamper and compromise the expression of the really modern forces and aims.

Es-

sential philosophic reconstruction represents an attempt

to state these causes and results in a

incompatible inherited factors.

way

freed from

It will regard intelli-

gence not as the original shaper and

final

cause of

things, but as the purposeful energetic re-shaper of

those phases of nature

and

life

that obstruct social

well-being.

geratedly

self-sufficient

Ego which by some magic

creates the world, but as the agent who

through

initiative,

inventiveness

and

responsible

is

intelligently

directed labor for re-creating the world, transforming it

into an instrument and possession of intelligence.

The

\

It esteems the individual not as an exag^j

train

Knowledge

is

of ideas represented by the Baconian

Power thus

failed in getting

an emanci-

52

EECONSTEUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

pated and independent expression. lessly entangled in standpoints

embodied a

social, political

These become hope-

and prepossessions that

and

scientific tradition with

which they were completely incompatible. scurity, the

product of

The

confusion of modern philosophy

this

is

ob-

the

attempt to combine two things which

cannot possibly be combined either logically or morally. Philosophic reconstruction for the present

is

thus the

endeavor to undo the entanglement and to permit the

Baconian aspirations hindered expression.

to

come to a

free

and

In succeeding lectures we

consider the needed reconstruction as

it

unshall

affects certain

classic philosophic antitheses, like those of experience

and reason, the

real

and the

ideal.

have to consider the modifying

But

first

we

effect exercised

shall

upon

philosophy by that changed conception of nature, ani-

mate and inanimate, which we owe to the progress of science.

CHAPTER

III

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR

IN RECONSTRUCTION OF PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy

starts

responding to the

from some deep and wide way of

difficulties life presents,

only when material

is

at

hand for making

but

it

grows

this practical

response conscious, articulate and communicable.

companying the economic,

political

and

Ac-

ecclesiastical

changes which were alluded to in an earlier lecture, was

a

scientific revolution

enormous in scope and leaving un-

changed almost no detail of

and human.

In part this

belief

scientific

produced by just the change temper.

But

as

it

about nature, physical transformation was

in practical attitude

progressed,

it

furnished that change

an appropriate vocabulary, congenial to

made

it articulate.

generalizations

and

The advance

its

needs, and

of science in its larger

in its specific detail of fact supplied

precisely that intellectual equipment of ideas crete

fact

precipitate, sition.

and

and con-

that was needed in order to formulate,

communicate and propagate the new dispo-

Today, accordingly, we

shall deal with those

contrasting conceptions of the structure and constitution of Nature, which

when they are accepted on the 53

RECONSTRUCTION IN

54

PHILO^HY

authority of science (alleged or real), form the lectual

intel-

framework of philosophy.

Contrasting

conceptions

science have been selected.

and

modern

For I see no way

in which

of

ancient

the truly philosophic import of the picture of the

world painted by modern science can be appreciated except to exhibit

it

in contrast with that earlier picture

which gave classic metaphysics tion

and confirmation.

its

intellectual founda-

The world

in

which philoso-

phers once put their trust was a closed world, a world consisting internally of a .limited

and having of

modern science

definitely its

number of

boundaries externally.

definite is

fixed forms,

The

world

an open world, a world varying

in-

without the possibility of assignable limit

internal make-up, a world stretching

assignable bounds

externally.

in

beyond any

Again, the world

in

which even the most intelligent men of olden times thought they lived was a fixed world, a realm where changes went on only within immutable limits of rest

and permanence, and a world where the fixed and unmoving was, as we have already noted, higher in quality and authority than the moving and altering. the third place, the world which

And

in

men once saw with

portrayed in their imaginations and repeated in their plans of conduct, was a world of a their

eyes,

limited

number of

quality (as kinds

classes,

and

kindsj

species

forms, distinct

must be

distinct)

in

and

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR arranged

in

graded

a

order

of

55

superiority

and

inferiority.

It

is

not easy to recall the image of the universe which

was taken for granted of

in the

world tradition.

cal elaborations of Aristotle

the fact that

it

and

St.

Thomas,

its

in spite of

overthrow involved a

religious upheaval, it is already dim, faded

Even

dialecti-

held men's minds captive until the last

hundred years, and that

three

and remote.

a separate and abstract thing of theory

as

not easy to recover.,

As something tails

In spite

dramatic rendering (as in Dante), of the

its

it is

1

pervasive, interwoven with all the de-

of reflection

and observation, with the plans and

rules of behavior, it is impossible to call it

back again.

Yet, as best we can, we need to put before our minds a enclosed universe, something which can be

definitely

called

a universe in a

earth at

its

fixed

literal

all

in

est,

earth,

heavenly arch of fixed stars

them forever at one and

though at the centre,

most material,

is

least significant

maximum

rational, it

fluctuation

and

and therefore the

in order.

the coarsest, gross-

and good (or per-

fect) of the parts of this closed world.

of

having the

an eternal round of divine ether, hemming in

things and keeping

The

visible sense,

and unchanging centre and at a

fixed circumference the

moving

and

vicissitude.

It

It

is is

the scene

the least

least notable, or knowable;

offers the least to reward contemplation, provoke

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

56

admiration and govern conduct.

lie

this grossly

the immaterial, spiritual

material centre and

heavens

Between

and

eternal

a definite series of regions of moon, planets,

sun, etc., each of which gains in rank, value, rationality

and true being as

it is

own appropriate

and nearer

composed of

its

stuff of earth, water, air, fire in

its

Each

the heavens.

farther from earth

of these regions

is

own dominant degree, until we reach the heavenly firmament which transcends

all these principles,

being con-

stituted, as was just said, of that immaterial, inalterable

energy called ether.

Within

this tight

place of course. of fixed kinds

Each kind is

;

and pent

in universe,

changes take

But they are only of a small number

and they operate only within

fixed limits.

own appropriate motion.

of stuff has its

It

the nature of earthly things to be heavy, since they

move downward.

are gross, and hence to

superior things are light and hence their proper place

;

which naturally belongs to in

to

air rises only to the plane of the

planets, where it then takes its

and

Fire and

move upward

it,

as

back and forth motion is

evident in the winds

Ether being the highest of

respiration.

physical things has a purely circular movement. daily return of the fixed stars

is

all

The

the closest possible

approximation to eternity, and to the self-involved revolution of

mind upon

its

the earth in virtue of

own

its

ideal axis of reason.

—

earthly nature

Upon

or rather

its

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR

—

lack of virtue

is

a scene of mere change.

and meaningless, starts at no

aimless

arrives at nothing,

57

Mere

definite point

amounts to nothing.

flux,

and

Mere changes

of quantity, all purely mechanical changes, are of this kind. sea.

They are like the shiftings of the sands by the They may be sensed, but they cannot be " noted "

or understood

They are

;

they lack fixed limits which govern them.

They

contemptible.

are casual, the sport of

accident.

Only changes which lead to some defined or

fixed out-

come of form are of any account and can have any account

—any

logos or reason

growth of plants and animals kind of change which

mundane

sphere.

The

of them.

illustrates the highest

possible in the sublunary or

They go from one

definite fixed

form

Oaks generate only oaks, oysters only

to another. oysters,

is

—made

man

only

man.

mechanical production enters

The in,

material

factor

of

but enters in as acci-

dent to prevent the full consummation of the type of the species,

and to bring about the meaningless variations

which diversify various oaks or oysters from one another; or in extreme cases to produce freaks, sports,

monsters, three-handed or four-toed men. accidental

Aside from

and undesirable variations, each individual

has a fixed career to pursue, a fixed path in which to travel.

Terms which sound modern, words

like

poten-

tiality and development abound in Aristotelian thought,

58

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

and have misled some into reading

in classic

the significance of these words

But

modern meanings.

and medieval thought

their context.

thought

into his

rigidly determined

is

by

Development holds merely of the course

of changes which takes place within a particular member of the species.

It

only a

is

name for the

prede-

termined movement from the acorn to the oak tree.

It

takes place not in things generally but only in some

one of the numerically insignificant members of the oak

Development, evolution, never means, as

species.

in

new forms, a mutation from an old species, but only the monotonous traversing of a So potentiality previously plotted cycle of change. modern

science, origin of

never means, as in modern of

invention,

of

life,

radical

the possibility of novelty,

deviation,

only

but

that

principle in virtue of which the acorn becomes the oak.

Technically, opposites.

it is

movement

the capacity for

Only the cold can become hot

can become wet

;

;

only the dry

only the babe can become a

seed the full-grown wheat

and so

on.

between-

man

;

Potentiality

the in-

stead of implying the emergence of anything novel means

merely the facility with which a particular thing peats the recurrent processes of

becomes a

specific

through which

all

its

kind,

re-

and thus

case of the eternal forms in and

things are constituted.

In spite of the almost

infinite

numerical diversity of

individuals, there are only a limited

number of

species,

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR And

kinds or sorts.

which

the world

falls into sorts; it is

essentially a world

is

pre-arranged into distinct

Moreover, just as we naturally arrange plants

classes.

and animals into

series,

ranks and grades, from the

lower to the highest, so with

The

59

things in the universe.

all

distinct classes to which things belong

very nature form a hierarchical order.

The

castes in nature.

universe

is

by

There are

constituted on an

aristocratic, one can truly say a feudal, plan. classes

dent,

do not mix or overlap

and to the

their

Species,

—

except in cases of acci-

result of chaos.

Otherwise, everything

belongs in advance to a certain class, and the class has its

own

universe

fixed place in the hierarchy of Being. is

with only

indeed a tidy spot whose purity

by those

irregular changes

in

is

The

interfered

individuals

which are due to the presence of an obdurate matter that refuses to yield

Otherwise

it is

itself

wholly to rule and form.

a universe with a fixed place for every-

thing and where everything knows

and

class,

and keeps

it.

its place, its

station

Hence what are known

techni-

cally as final and formal causes efficient

causes are relegated to an inferior place.

so-called final cause

there

is

are supreme, and

some

fixed

is

just a

name

The

for the fact that

form characteristic of a

class or sort

of things which governs the changes going on, so that

they tend toward

it

as their end

of their true nature.

and goal, the

The supralunar

region

fulfilment is

the end

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

60 or

final

cause of the proper movements of air and

the earth of the motions of crass, heavy things of the acorn ; the mature

;

fire

the oak

in general of the germi-

form

nal.

The "

efficient

movement

stigates a it

cause," that which produces

and

in-

only some external change as

is

accidentally gives a kind of push to an immature,

imperfect being and starts

moving toward

it

The

fected or fulfilled form.

final

cause

is

its

per-

the per-

fected form regarded as the explanation or reason of

prior changes.

When

it is

not taken in reference to the

changes completed and brought to rest in it, but in itself it is the " formal cause " The inherent nature or character which " makes " or constitutes a thing :

,

what

it is

as

does not change.

it

so far as

it

truly

is,

namely, what

it is

Logically and practically

the traits which have been enumerated cohere.

one and you attack all

go.

This

is

all.

When any

the reason

why

tion of the last few centuries revolution.

one

is

so far all

of

Attack

undermined,

the intellectual modifica-

may

truly be called a

It has substituted a conception of the world

differing at every point.

It

makes

little

matter at what

point you commence to trace the difference, you find yourself carried into all other points.

Instead of a closed universe, science

now

presents us

with one infinite in space and time, having no limits here

or there, at this end, so to speak, or at that, and as

infinitely

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR

61

complex in internal structure as

it is infinite

Hence

in extent.

it is also

an open world, an

infinitely

variegated one, a world which in the old sense can

hardly be called a universe at far-reaching that in

is

And change

any one formula.

now a measure of " omnipresent.

of science

is

all; so multiplex

and

cannot be summed up and grasped

it

rather than fixity

is

reality " or energy of being ; change

The laws

in which the

modern man

interested are laws of motion, of generation

and consequence.

He

speaks of law where the ancients

spoke of kind and essence, because what he wants correlation of changes,

an

ability to detect

occurring in correspondence with another.

is

a

one change

He does

not

try to define and delimit something remaining constant

He

a constant order of change. And while the word "constant" appears in both statements, the meaning of the word is not the

in change.

same.

tries to describe

In one case, we are dealing with something con-

stant in existence, physical or metaphysical; in the

other case, with something constant in function and operation.

other

is

One

is

a form of independent being; the

a formula of description and calculation of

interdependent changes.

In

short,

classic

arranged order of classes

from a superior and and service to an

a feudally or kinds, each " holding

thought

accepted

in turn giving the rule of conduct inferior.

This trait

reflects

and

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

62

most closely the social situation we were conWe have a fairly definite sidering at the last hour.

parallels

notion of society as organized upon the feudal basis.

The family and

principle, the principle of kinship

especially

scale.

is

this true as

may

be lost more or

end, individuals

the mass.

Since all are parts of the

herd, there

is

But among

strong,

is

in the social

At the lower

less in

common

nothing especial to distinguish their birth.

the privileged and ruling class the case

quite different.

The

off externally

and gives

holds

we ascend

all its

tie of

is

kinship at once marks a group it distinction,

members together.

and

internally

Kinship, kind, class,

genus are synonymous terms, starting from social and concrete facts and going to the technical

For kinship

is

a sign of a

common

and

abstract.

nature, of something

universal and permanent running through all particular individuals,

and giving them a real and objective unity.

Because such and such persons are kin they are

and not merely conventionally, marked having something unique about

it.

off into

really,

a class

All contemporary

members are bound into an objective unity which cludes ancestors and descendants

belong to another kin or kind.

and excludes

all

in-

who

Assuredly this parcel-

ling out of the world into separate kinds, each having its qualitatively distinct

species,

gether,

nature in contrast with other

binding numerically distinct

and preventing

their diversities

individuals

to-

from exceeding

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR fixed

bounds,

may

68

without exaggeration be called a pro-

jection of the family principle into the world at large.

In a feudally organized society, moreover, each kinship

group or

species occupies a definite place.

marked by the possession of a

specific

lower with respect to other grades. fers

upon

it

tailing

upon

upon those lower

it

dered to superiors. to speak,

from above

The

to enforce

it

and en-

in the scale

to be ren-

relationship of causation, so

up and down.

is

rank higher or

and homage

certain services

is

This position con-

certain privileges, enabling

certain claims

It

Influence, power, proceeds

to below; the activities of the inferior are

performed with respect, quite

literally, to

what

is

above.

Action and reaction are far from being equal and opposite directions.

All action

is

in

of one sort, of the

nature of lordship, and proceeds from the higher to the lower.

Reaction

is

of the nature of subjection and

The

deference and proceeds from lower to higher. classic

theory of the constitution of the world corre-

sponds point by point to this ordering of classes in a scale of dignity

and power.

A third trait assigned by historians to feudalism is that the ordering of ranks centres about

armed

service

and

armed defense and protection. I am what has already been said about the paral-

the relationship of afraid that

lelism of ancient

cosmology with social organization may

seem a fanciful analogy; and

if

a comparison

is

also

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

64

drawn

no doubt

in this last regard, there will be

your minds that a metaphor truly the case

But not

so, if

is

being forced.

Such

in is

we take the comparison too literally.

if

we

confine our attention to the notion

and command implied in both. Attention has already been called to the meaning that is now given of rule

"the term law

—a constant relationship among changes.

" we often hear about laws which " govern and it often seems to be thought that phenomena

Nevertheless, events,

would be utterly disorderly were there not laws to keep them in order.

This

way

of thinking

is

a survival

—not

of reading social relationships into nature

neces-

sarily a feudal relationship, but the relation of ruler

and ruled, sovereign and subject. to a is

command or

order.

Law

assimilated

is

If the factor of personal will

eliminated (as it was in the best Greek thought)

still

the idea of law or universal

sense of a guiding

above on what

is

is

impregnated with the

and ruling influence exerted from

naturally inferior to

it.

The

universal

governs as the end and model which the artisan has in mind " governs " his movements. The Middle Ages

added to

this

Greek idea of control the idea of a

command proceeding from a superior

will;

thought of the operations of nature as fulfilment of

a task

set

if

and hence

they were a

by one who had authority

to

direct action.

The

traits of the picture of

nature drawn by modern

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR spring by

science

fairly

Modern

science took its first step

contrast

into

65

high

relief.

when daring astrono-

mers abolishedJbhe distinction of high, sublime and ideal forces operating in the heavens

forces

actuating

terrestrial

from lower and material events.

The supposed

heterogeneity of substances and forces between heaven

and earth was denied.

It

was asserted that the same

laws hold everywhere, that there

is

homogeneity of

material and process everywhere throughout nature.

The remote and esthetically sublime is to be scientifically described and explained in terms of homely familiar events and forces. The material of direct handling and observation is that of which we are surest it is the ;

better known.

more

Until we can convert the grosser and

superficial

observations of far-away things in

the heavens into elements identical with those of things directly at hand, they

remain blind and not understood.

Instead of presenting superior worth, they present only problems. challenges.

moon and

They are not means of enlightenment but The earth is not superior in rank to sun,

stars, but it

is

equal in dignity, and

its

occur-

rences give the key to the understanding of celestial existences.

Being at hand, they are also capable of

being brought under our hand; they can be manipulated, broken up, resolved into elements

managed, combined at net result

may

will in old

which can be

and new forms.

The

be termed, I think, without any great

66

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY democracy of individual rank for the feudal system of an ordered

'forcing, the substitution of a

facts equal in

.gradation of general classes of unequal rank.

One important incident of the new science was the destruction of the idea that the earth the universe.

When

there went with

esthetic

the idea of a closed universe and a

it

its

the centre of

the idea of a fixed centre went,

To

circumscribing heavenly boundary. just because

is

the Greek sense,

theory of knowing was dominated by the

considerations,

finite

was the

Literally, the finite

was

finished,

the

perfect.

the ended, the

completed, that with no ragged edges and unaccountable

The

operations.

infinite

character just because thing, it

was nothing.

it

or limitless was lacking

was

in-finite.

It was unformed and chaotic,

uncontrolled and unruly, the deviations

in

Being every-

and accidents.

source of incalculable

Our present

sociates infinity with boundless

feeling that as-

power, with capacity

for expansion that knows no end, with the delight in a

progress that has no external limit, would be incomprehensible were

it

not that interest has shifted from

the esthetic to the practical ;

from

interest in beholding

a harmonious and complete scene to interest in trans-

forming an inharmonious one. the authors

Bruno, to

of the

realize

One has only

transition period,

to read

say Giordano

what a pent-in, suffocating sensation

they associated with a closed,

finite

world, and what a

THE SCIENTIFICH^ACTOR

and boundless pos-

feeling of exhilaration, expansion sibility

infinite

was aroused

thought of a world

in themfiby the

in stretch of space~

and

67

time, and

composed

numerous elements.

internally of infinitesimal infinitely

That which the Greeks withdrew from with repulsion they welcomed with an intoxicated sense of adventure.

The

infinite

meant,

something forever un-

it teas true,

traversed even-by thought, and hence something forever

—no

matter how great attainment in learnBut this " forever unknown " instead of being

unknown ing.

chilling

and repelling was now an inspiring challenge

to ever-renewed inquiry, ible possibilities of

The student

of history

made great progress as of geometry.

and an assurance of inexhaust-

progress.

At

knows

well that the Greeks

in the science of first sight, it

appears strange that

with this advance in mechanics so

made

in the direction of

modern

paradox impels us to ask why remained a separate science, description the

mechanics as well

little

science. it

why

advance was

The seeming

was that mechanics it

was not used

in

and explanation of natural phenomena after

manner of Galileo and Newton.

found in the

social

Socially speaking,

ployed by artisans.

parallelism

The answer

is

already mentioned.

machines, tools, were devices em-

The

science of mechanics

had

to

do with the kind of things employed by human mechanThey were at the ics, and mechanics were base fellows.

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

68

how could

light

on the

heavens, the highest, be derived from them?

The

appli-

lower end of the social scale, and

cation

considerations

of

of

to

mechanics

natural

phenomena would moreover have implied an interest in the practical control and utilization of phenomena which was totally incompatible with the importance attached to final causes as fixed determiners of nature. All the scientific reformers of the sixteenth

and

seven-

teenth centuries strikingly agree in regarding the doctrine of final causes as the cause of the failure of science.

Why?

Because this doctrine taught that the processes

of nature are held in bondage to certain fixed ends which

they must tend to realize. ing strings limited

;

it

number

in lead-

was cramped down to production of stereotyped results.

paratively small into being,

Nature was kept

of a

Only a com-

number of things could be brought

and these few must be similar to the ends

which similar cycles of change had effected in the past.

The scope

of inquiry

and understanding was

limited to

the narrow round of processes eventuating in the fixed

ends which the observed world offered to view. best, invention

and production of new

At

by use

of

machines and tools must be restricted to articles

of

transient dignity

When

and

results

bodily, not intellectual, use.

the rigid clamp of fixed ends was taken

fjromja&ture, observation

off

and imagination were emanci-

pated, and experimental control for scientific and prac-

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR tical

purposes enormously stimulated.

69

Because natural

processes were no longer restricted to a fixed

number

of immovable ends or results, anything might conceiv-

ably happen.

It

was only a question of what elements

could be brought into juxtaposition so that they would

work upon one another.

Immediately, mechanics ceased

to be a separate science

and became an organ for

tacking nature. ley

The mechanics

at-

of the lever, wheel, pul-

and inclined plane told accurately what happens

when things

in space are

used to move one another

during definite periods of time.

became a scene of pushes and

The whole

pulls, of cogs

of nature

and

levers,

of motions of parts or elements to which the formulae of

movements produced by well-known machines were

directly applicable.

The banishing of ends and forms from the universe has seemed to many an ideal and spiritual impoverishment.

When nature was

regarded as a set of mechanical

interactions, it apparently lost all pose.

Its glory departed.

meaning and pur-

Elimination of differences

of quality deprived it of beauty.

Denial to nature of

and aspiring tendencies toward ideal ends removed nature and natural science from contact with poetry, religion and divine things. There all

inherent longings

seemed to be left only a harsh, brutal despiritualized exhibition of mechanical forces.

has seemed to

many

As a

consequence,

it

philosophers that one of their

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

70

chief problems

was to reconcile the existence of

this

purely mechanical world with belief in objective rationality

terialism.

—

from a degrading maHence many sought to re-attain by way of

and purpose

to save life

an analysis of the process of knowing, or epistemology, that belief in the superiority of Ideal Being which had anciently been maintained on the basis of cosmology.

But when

it is

recognized that the mechanical view

is

determined by the requirements of an experimental control of natural energies, this

no longer vexes

us.

problem of reconciliation

Fixed forms and ends,

let

us

recall,

mark fixed limits to change. Hence they make futile all human efforts to produce and regulate change except within narrow and unimportant limits. They paralyze constructive

demns them

human in

inventions

advance to

by a theory which

Human

failure.

con-

activity,

can conform only to ends already set by nature.

was not

till

It

ends were banished from nature that pur-

human

poses became important as factors in

capable of reshaping existence.

A

minds

natural world that

does not subsist for the sake of realizing a fixed set of ends

is

relatively malleable

for this end or that.

and plastic

;

it

may

be used

That nature can be known through

the application of mechanical formulae

condition of turning

it

to

human

machines are means to be utilized.

regarded as mechanical,

is

is

the prime

account.

Tools,

Only when nature

is

systematic invention and

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR

71

construction of machines relevant to nature's activities.

Nature

is

subdued to human purpose because

it is

no

longer the slave of metaphysical and theological purpose.

Bergson has pointed out that man might

Home

animal. till

He

Faber.

is

well be called

distinguished as the tool-making

This has held good since

man was man; but

nature was construed in mechanical terms, the mak-

ing of tools with which to attack and transform nature

was sporadic and accidental. stances

it

Under such circum-

would not have occurred even to a Bergson

that man's tool-making capacity was so important and

fundamental that

it

very things that

make the nature

The

could be used to define him.

of the mechanical-

physical scientist esthetically blank and dull are the things which render nature amenable to

When

qualities

human

control.

were subordinated to quantitative and

mathematical relationships, color, music and form

appeared from the object of the such. sion,

dis-

scientist's inquiry as

But the remaining properties of weight,

exten-

numerable velocity of movement and so on were

just the qualities which lent themselves to the substitution of one thing for another, to the conversion of one

form of energy into another formations.

When

;

to the effecting of trans-

chemical fertilizers can be used in

place of animal manures, when improved grain and cattle

can be purposefully bred from inferior animals

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

72

and grasses, when mechanical energy can be converted into heat

and

electricity into

mechanical energy,

Most

gains power to manipulate nature.

man

of all he gains

power to frame new ends and aims and to proceed in regular system to their actualization. Only indefinite substitution

and

nature

render

nature

is

of quality

regardless

convertibility

The mechanization

manageable.

of

the condition of a practical and progressive

idealism in action. It thus turns out that the old, old dread

of matter as something opposed to

ing

it,

and

dislike

mind and threaten-

to be kept within the narrowest bounds of

recognition; something to be denied so far as possible lest it

encroach upon ideal purposes and finally exclude

them from the real world, it

is

as absurd practically as

was impotent intellectually.

scientific

standpoint, what

it

to respect the conditions

does and

To

matter means conditions.

Judged from the only

how

functions,

it

respect matter means

of achievement

;

conditions

which hinder and obstruct and which have to be changed, conditions which help and further and which can be

used to modify obstructions and attain ends.

men have learned

to

pay

sincere

to matter, to the conditions tively

Only as

and persistent regard

upon which depends nega-

and positively the success of

all

endeavor, have

they shown sincere and fruitful respect for ends and purposes.

To

profess to have an aim

and then neglect

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR the means of

its

execution

dangerous sort.

is

73

self-delusion of the

Education and morals

most

will begin to

on the same road of advance that

find themselves

say-

chemical industry and medicine have found for themselves

when they too learn

fully the lesson of whole-

hearted and unremitting attention to means and conditions

—that

what mankind so long despised as

to

is,

When we take means

material and mechanical.

we indeed

fall into

moral materialism.

we degenerate

take ends without regard to means sentimentalism.

for ends

But when we

In the name of the ideal we

into

fall bacls

upon mere luck and chance and magic or exhortation and preaching; or force

the

upon a fanaticism that

else

realization

preconceived

of

ends

at

will

any

cost.

upon many things Yet there has been but one point

I have touched in this lecture

a cursory way.

mind. in

The

in in

revolution in our c onceptions of nature and

our methods of "knowing

it

imagination and aspiration. attitude generated

has bred a new temper of It has confirmed the

by economic and

new

political changes.

It has supplied this attitude with definite intellectual

material with which to formulate and justify ***

In the

first

was noted that

lecture it

in

itself.

Greek

life

prosaic matter of fact or empirical knowledge was at a great disadvantage as beliefs

compared with the imaginative

that were bound

up with

special institutions

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

74

Now

and moral habitudes. has grown

till it

of application

has broken

empirical knowledge

this its

low and limited sphere

It has itself

and esteem.

become an

organ of inspiring imagination through introducing ideas of boundless possibility, indefinite progress, free

movement, equal opportunity irrespective of fixed It has reshaped social institutions,

veloped a new morale. It

is

and

limits.

in so far de-

It has achieved ideal values.

convertible into creative

and constructive

philoso-

phyConvertible, however, rather than already converted.

When we

how deeply embedded

consider

in

customs of

thought and action the classic philosophy came to be

and how congenial liefs,

it is

to man's

the throes that attended

wondered

We

at.

tainly

is

made

its

way without more

martyrdoms and disturbances.

not surprising that

its

It

cer-

complete and consistent

formulation in philosophy has been long delayed.

main

be-

birth are not to be

should rather wonder that a view so

upsetting, so undermining,

persecutions,

more spontaneous

its

The

were inevitably directed to

efforts of thinkers

minimizing the shock of change, easing the strains of transition, mediating

back upon almost

and eighteenth

all

and

reconciling.

When we

look

of the thinkers of the seventeenth

centuries,

upon

all

excepting those who

were avowedly sceptical and revolutionary, what strikes us

is

the amount of traditional subject-matter

and

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR method that

is

to be found even

regarded as most advanced.

off their old habits of thinking,

of

all

them at

ceiving

new

and never can throw

we are compelled

old ones as tools of understanding

to use

new

science be grasped.

seventeenth

century

off re-

some of the

and communication.

Only piecemeal, step-by-step, could the the

who were

those

cannot easily throw

In developing, teaching and

once.

ideas

among

Men

75

full

import of

Roughly speaking, the

witnessed

its

application

in

astronomy and general cosmology; the eighteenth century in physics and chemistry; the nineteenth century

undertook an application in geology and the biological sciences. It ficult

was said that

it

has now become extremely

dif-

to recover the view of the world which univer-

Europe till the seventeenth century. we need only recur to the science of plants and animals as it was before Darwin and to the ideas sally obtained in

Yet after

all

which even now are dominant in moral and political matters to find the older order of conceptions in possession of the popular mind. fixed

Until the

full

dogma

of

unchangeable types and species, of arrangement

in classes of Tiigher

and lower, of subordination of the

transitory individual to the universal or kind had been

shaken in

,

its

hold upon the science of

life, it

was im-

possible that the new ideas and method should be made atjjpme in social and moral life. Does it not seem to be

76

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

the intellectual task of the twentieth century to take this last step? scientific

When

development

this step- is

will

taken the circle of

be rounded out and the

re-

construction of philosophy be made an accomplished fact.

CHAPTER

IV

CHANGED CONCEPTIONS OF EXPERIENCE AND REASON What What

How

is

experience and what

is

is

the scope of experience and what are

far

is it

of conduct?

havior?

Or

shifting,

its limits ?

a sure ground of belief and a safe guide

Can we is

trust

it

in science

and

in be-

a quagmire as soon as we pass

it

beyond a few low material interests?

Is it so shaky,

and shallow that instead of affording sure

footing, safe paths to fertile fields,

and engulfs ? il

Reason, Mind?

Is

misleads, betrays,

it

a Reason outside experience and above

needed to supply assured principles to science and

conduct?

In one sense, these questions suggest tech-

nical problems of abstruse philosophy

;

in another sense,

they contain the deepest possible questionings regarding the career of man. to

he

employ in forming is

direct

his beliefs

to direct his life it.

They concern ;

the criteria he

the principles

by which

and the ends to which he

Must man transcend

is

is

to

experience by some

organ of unique character that carries him into the super-empirical? Failing this, must he wander sceptical

and disillusioned?

Or

is

human 77

experience itself worth

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

78

while in

its

purposes and

its

methods of guidance? Can must it be sus-

it organize itself into stable courses or

tained from without?

We

know

answers

the

philosophy.

traditional

of

They do not thoroughly agree among

themselves, but

they agree that experience never rises above the level of the particular, the contingent, and the probable.

Only

a power transcending in origin and content any and

all

conceivable experience can attain to universal, neces-

The em-

sary and certain authority and direction.

admitted the correctness of these

piricists themselves

assertions.

They only said that since there

is

no faculty

of Pure Reason in the possession of mankind, we must

put up with what we have, experience, and make the

most possible out of sceptical attacks

cations of the

it.

They contented

upon the

ways

themselves with

transcendentalist, with indi-

in which

we might best

meaning and good of the passing moment or ;

seize the

like Locke,

asserted that in spite of the limitation of experience, affords

modestly

needed

the

light

in

conduct.

thoritative guidance

They

guide

to

men's

it

footsteps

affirmed that the alleged au-

by a higher faculty had practically

hampered men. It

why

is

the function of this lecture to show

it is

now

possible to

a guide in science cists did

make

and moral

how and

claims for experience as

life

which the older empiri-

not and could not make for

it.

EXPERIENCE AND REASON Curiously enough, the key to the matter

may

in the fact that the old notion of experience

a product of experience

—the only kind of

which was then open to men. experience

is

now

it

be found

was

itself

experience

If another conception of

possible, it

quality of experience as

79

precisely because the

is

may now

be lived has under-

gone a profound social and intellectual change from

The account

that of earlier times.

we

find in

Plato and Aristotle

Greek experience actually was.

is

of experience which

an account of what

It agrees very closely

with what the modern psychologist knows as the method of learning

by

and error as distinct from the

trial

method of learning by

ideas.

Men

tried certain acts,

they underwent certain sufferings and affections. of these in the time of its occurrence lar

—

its

counterpart

sensation.

is

But memory preserves and accumulates

variations get cancelled,

built up,

As they pile up, irregular common features are selected,

and combined. Gradually a habit of action

and corresponding to

certain generalized picture of

We

isolated, particu-

transient appetite and transient

these separate incidents.

reinforced

is

Each

this habit there

an object or

come to know or note not merely

forms a

situation.

this particular

which as a particular cannot strictly be known at (for not being classed

it

all

cannot be characterized and

identified) but to recognize it as

—an

is

man,

individual of a certain kind,

tree, stone, leather

marked by a certain

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

80

a whole species of thing. Along with the development of this common-sense universal form characteristic of

knowledge, there grows up a certain regularity of con-

The particular

duct.

ing which skill

is

incidents fuse,

is

of act-

goes, builds up.

The

shown by the artisan, the

shoe-

general, as far as

develops which

and a "way

it

maker, the carpenter, the gymnast, the physician, who have regular ways of handling cases. This regularity signifies,

of course, that the particular case

not

is

treated as an isolated particular, but as one of a kind, I

[which therefore demands a kind of action.

From

the

multitude of particular illnesses encountered, the physician in learning to class some of

them as indigestion

learns also to treat the cases of the class in a

He

or general way.

common

forms the rule of recommending a

and prescribing a certain remedy.

certain diet,

forms what we

call experience.

All this

It results, as the

tration shows, in a certain general insight

and a

illus-

certain

organized ability in action.

But

needless to insist, the generality

zation are restricted

and

fallible.

and the organi-

They

hold, as Aris-

was fond of pointing out, usually, in most cases,

totle

as a rule, but not universally, of necessity, or as a

The

principle.

because individual ably arise

:

such in

is

bound to make mistakes, cases are bound to vary unaccount-

physician

is

their very nature.

The

difficulty does

a defective experience which

is

not

capable of

EXPERIENCE AND REASON remedy such,

is

in

some better experience.

defective,

irremediable.

Experience

and hence default

The only

81 itself,

inevitable

is

universality and certainty

as

and is

in

a region above experience, that of the rational and con-

As

ceptual.

the particular was a stepping-stone to

image and habit, so the latter

and

stone to conceptions

may become a

stepping-

But the

principles.

latter

leave experience behind, untouched; they do not react

to rectify

it.

Such

is

the notion which

the contrast of " empirical "

we say that a certain architect or physician not

scientific in his

lingers in

still

and " rational " as when

procedures.

But

is

empirical,

the difference be-

tween the classic and the modern notion of experience is

revealed in the fact that such a statement

is

now a

charge, a disparaging accusation, brought against a particular architect or physician. totle

and the Scholastic,

callings, since

it

With

Plato, Aris-

was a charge against the

they were modes of experience.

an indictment of

all

It was

practical action in contrast with

conceptual contemplation.

The modern philosopher who has professed an empiricist has usually had a

critical

himself

purpose in mind.

Like Bacon, Locke, Condillac and Helvetius, he stood

a body of

and a

set of institu-

which he profoundly disbelieved.

His problem

face to face with tions in

beliefs

was the problem of attack upon so much dead weight carried uselessly

by humanity, crushing and distorting

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

82

His readiest way of undermining and disintegrating was by appealing to experience as a final test and criterion. In every case, active reformers were " empiriit.

cists " in the

They made

philosophical sense.

their

it

business to show that some current belief or institution

that claimed the sanction of innate ideas or necessary conceptions, or an origin in an authoritative revela-

from a lowly

tion of reason,

had

in experience,

and had been confirmed by accident, by

class interest

The

in fact proceeded

origin

or by biased authority.

philosophic empiricism initiated

by Locke was

It optimistically took

thus disintegrative in intent.

it

for granted that when the burden of blind custom, im-

posed authority, and accidental associations was

re-

moved, progress in science and social organization would spontaneously take place.

moving the burden.

Its

The

part was to help

best

way

from the burden was through a natural history origin and growth in the

in re-

to liberate

men

of the

mind of the ideas connected

with objectionable beliefs and customs.

Santayana

justly calls the psychology of this school a malicious

psychology.

It tended to identify the history of the

formation of certain ideas with an account of the things

—an

to which the ideas refer rally

had an unfavorable

Mr. Santayana neglects to latent in the malice.

He

identification

effect

which natu-

on the things.

notice the social zeal fails to

But

and aim

point out that this

EXPERIENCE AND REASON " malice " was

83

aimed at institutions and traditions

which had lost their usefulness that to a large extent

;

he

to point out

fails

was true of them that an

it

account of their psychological origin was equivalent to

But

a destructive account of the things themselves. after

Hume

with debonair clarity pointed out that

the analysis of beliefs into sensations left

and associations

" natural " ideas and institutions in the same posi-

had placed "

tion in which the reformers

The

ones, the situation changed.

that " Reason " must be resorted to

The new

his

successors

totally

seemed

destructive

isolated par-

if

and concluded

;

experience was

any binding and connecting

rationalistic

to

results

ex-

and to moral laws and

obligations as to obnoxious institutions

ples.

show that

heap of chaotic and

ticulars, is as fatal to science

to be furnished with

employed

rationalists

the logic of sensationalistic-empiricism to perience, giving only a

artificial

idealism

be of

of

necessitated

the

princi-

Kant and

new

by

the

empirical

philosophy.

Two

things have rendered possible a

new conception

new conception of

the relation of

of experience and a

reason to experience, or, of reason in experience.

more accurately, of the place

The primary

change that has taken place

in the actual

experience, its contents and methods, as lived.

The

other

is

factor

it

is

the

nature of is

actually

the development of a psychology

RECONSTRUCTION JN PHILOSOPHY

84

based upon biology which makes possible a new scientific formulation of the

nature of experience.

Let us begin with the technical side psychology. preciate

We

are only just

—the change

now commencing

how completely exploded

in

to ap-

the psychology that

is

dominated philosophy throughout the eighteenth and

life

this theory, mental

According to

nineteenth centuries.

originated in sensations which are separately and

and which are formed, through laws

passively received, of retention

and association, into a mosaic of images,

perceptions, and conceptions.

The

senses were regarded

Except

as gateways or avenues of knowledge.

in

com-

bining atomic sensations, the mind was wholly passive

and acquiescent

and desire follow

The

knowing.

in

in the

Volition, action, emotion,

wake of sensations and images.

intellectual or cognitive factor

tional

and

volitional life

is

comes

first

tion of ideas with sensations of pleasure

The

effect of the

reverse the picture. havior, activity.

Wherever there

In order that

life

is life,

may

tent.

is

be-

and adapted to the

;

is

is

not a mere matter of the mould-

ing of the organism by the environment.

upon

there

persist, this

This adaptive adjustment, moreover,

not wholly passive

acts

and pain.

development of biology has been to

activity has to be both continuous

environment.

and emo-

only a consequent conjunc-

the environment

and modifies

It selects materials for food

Even a clam it

to some* ex-

and for the

shell that

EXPERIENCE AND REASON protects

It does somethi ng to the

it.

well as has

som ething done to

85

environment as

There

itself.

is

no such

thing in a living creature as mere conformity to conditions,

though parasitic forms

may approach this

In the interests of the maintenance of

life

there

is

limit.

trans-

formation of some elements in the surrounding medium.

The higher

the form of

life,

the more important

active reconstruction of the medium.

control

may

be illustrated by the contrast of savage

Suppose the two are

with civilized man.

With

wilderness.

the

is

This increased

the savage there

is

the

living in a

maximum

of

accommodation to given conditions; the minimum of what we may

call hitting

back.

The savage takes

things

" as they are," and by using caves and roots and occasional pools leads a

The

man

civilized

streams.

He

meagre and precarious

builds reservoirs, digs channels, and con-

ducts the waters to what

had been a

searches the world to find plants thrive.

He

till

such means he

the soil and

may

desert.

and animals that

takes native plants and by

cross-fertilization improves them.

chinery to

existence.

goes to distant mountains and dams

He

selection

He will

and

introduces ma-

care for the harvest.

By

succeed in making the wilderness

blossom like the rose.

Such transformation scenes are so familiar that we overlook their meaning.

power of

We

life is illustrated in

forget that the inherent

them.

Note what a change

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

86

this point of view entails in the traditional notions of

Experience becomes an affair primarily of The organism does not stand about, Micawber-

experience.

doing. like,

waiting for something to turn up.

It does not wait

passive and inert for something to impress itself upon it

The organism

from without.

its

own

acts in accordance with

structure, simple or complex,

upon

its

surround-

As a consequence the changes produced in the ings. environment react upon the organism and its activities.

The

living creature undergoes, suffers, the consequences

own

of its

behavior.

This close connection between

doing and suffering or undergoing forms what we

Disconnected doing and disconnected suf-

experience.

fering are neither of them experiences.

encroaches upon a

body

is

result in

man when

burned away.

any

instructive is

he

is

The burn

from what he has done.

again there

call

of muscles in a spasm.

fire

Part of

his

does not perceptibly

There

way can be named

a series of mere

Suppose

asleep.

is

nothing which

Or

experience.

activities, like twitchings

The movements amount to

ing; they have no consequences for

life.

Or,

if

noth-

they

have, these consequences are not connected with prior doing.

There

no experience, no learning, no cumu-

is

But suppose a busy infant puts

lative process.

finger in the

fire

;

the doing

intention or reflection. sequence.

The

is

his

random, aimless, without

But something happens

in con-

child undergoes heat, he suffers pain.

EXPERIENCE AND REASON

87

The doing and undergoing, the reaching and the burn, One comes to suggest and mean the are connected. other. Then there is experience in a vital and significant sense.

Certain important implications for philosophy follow.

In the

the interaction of organism and en-

first place,

vironment, resulting in some adaptation which secures

primary

utilization of the latter, is the

Knowledge

category.

is

relegated to a derived posi-

tion,

secondary in origin, even

once

it is

if its

importance, when

Knowledge

established, is overshadowing.

not something separate and volved in the process evolved.

fact, the basic

The

but

self-sufficing,

by which

life is

is

is

in-

sustained and

senses lose their place as gateways of

knowing to take their rightful place as stimuli to

action.

To

not an

an animal an affection of the eye or ear

idle piece

of information about something indifferently

going on in the world.

ment to act

in

It is an invitation

a needed way.

It

is

It

is

and induce-

a clue in behavior,

a directive factor in adaptation of life in ings.

is

its

urgent not cognitive in quality.

surround-

The whole

controversy between empiricism and rationalism as to the intellectual worth of sensations obsolete.

The

is

rendered strangely

discussion of sensations belongs under the

head of immediate stimulus and response, not under the head of knowledge.

As a conscious

element, a sensation

marks an

inter-

/,

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

90

the ways that require thought

and inference, because

they are not ways of knowing at to reflection

and

inference.

As

all.

They

are stimuli

interruptions, they raise

What does this shock mean? What is happening? What is the matter? How is my relation What should be done to the environment disturbed? about it? How shall I alter my course of action to the questions:

meet the change that has taken place in the surround-

How

ings?

Sensation

shall

I readjust

my

behavior in response?

thus, as the sensationalist claimed, the be-

is

ginning of knowledge, but only in the sense that the experienced shock of change to the investigating

is

the necessary stimulus

and comparing which eventually

produce knowledge.

When

experience

is

aligned with the life-process and

sensations are seen to be points of readjustment, the alleged this

atomism of sensations totally disappears.

disappearance

faculty

of

Philosophy less

is

abolished the need for a synthetic

super-empirical reason is

of sand

may

connect them.

in

which separate grains

be woven into a strong and coherent rope

into the illusion

isolated

to

not any longer confronted with the hope-

problem of finding a way

—or

With

When Locke and Hume

and pretence of one.

and simple existences of

the

are

seen not to be truly empirical at all but to answer to certain

demands of their theory of mind, the necessity

ceases for the elaborate

Kantian and Post-Kantian ma-

EXPERIENCE AND REASON

91

chinery of a priori concepts and categories to synthesize the alleged stuff of experience.

of experience

The

" true " stuff

recognized to be adaptive courses of

is

action, habits, active functions, connections of doing

and undergoing

;

sensori-motor co-ordinations. Experi-^

ence carries principles of connection and organization within

These principles are none the worse be- v

itself.

cause they are vital and practical rather than epistemo-

Some degree of organization is indispensable to the lowest grade of life. Even an amoeba must

logical.

even

have some continuity in time in adaptation to

its

cannot

experience

its activity

environment in space. possibly

consist

and some

Its life

and

momentary,

in

atomic, and self-enclosed sensations.

Its activity has

reference to its surroundings and to

what goes before

and what comes life

after.

This organization

intrinsic to

renders unnecessary a super-natural and super-em-

pirical synthesis.

It affords the basis

and material for

a positive evolution of intelligence as an organizing factor within experience.

Nor

is

it

entirely aside

from the subject to point

out the extent in which social as well as biological organization enters into the formation of perience.

human

ex-

Probably one thing that strengthened the idea

that the mind

is

passive and receptive in knowing was

the observation of the helplessness of the

But the observation points

human

infant.

in quite another direction.

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

92

Because of his physical dependence and impotency, the contacts of the

other persons.

little child

with nature are mediated by

Mother and nurse, father and older

determine what experiences the child shall

children,

have ; they constantly instruct him as to the meaning of

what he does and undergoes. socially current

The conceptions that

and important become the

ciples of interpretation

attains to personal

are

child's prin-

and estimation long before he

and deliberate control of conduct.

Things come to him clothed in language, not in physical nakedness, and this garb of communication makes him

a sharer in the beliefs of those about him. liefs

coming to him as so many facts form

furnish the centres about which his ditions

his

These be-

mind they ;

own personal expe-

and perceptions are ordered.

Here we have

" categories " of connection and unification as important as those of Kant, but empirical not mythological.

From

these elementary, if

siderations, self

we turn

somewhat technical con-

to the change which experience

it-

has undergone in the passage from ancient and

medieval to modern

life.

To

Plato, experience meant

enslavement to the past, to custom.

Experience was

almost equivalent to established customs formed not by

reason or under intelligent control but by repetition

and blind

rule of thumb.

Only reason can

Bacon and

his successors,

us above

When we come we discover a curious re-

subjection to the accidents of the past. to

lift

EXPERIENCE AND REASON Reason and

versal. is

now the

perience

is

its

bodyguard of general notions Experience means the

the liberating power.

away from adherence

past, that which reveals novel facts in experience

and truths.

Faith

This difference in temper

more significant because

it

is

the

was so unconsciously taken

Some concrete and

for granted.

to the

produces not devotion to custom but en-

deavor for progress.

vital

change must have

occurred in actual experience as that after

Ex-

conservative, mind-enslaving factor.

new, that which calls us

is

93

is

For,

lived.

the thought of experience follows after and

all,

modelled upon the experience actually undergone.

When veloped react

mathematics and other rational sciences de-

among

the Greeks, scientific truths did not

back into

isolated,

daily

Medicine was the

art in which perhaps the greatest tive

knowledge was obtained, but

the

dignity

of

science.

They remained

experience.

apart and super-imposed.

It

amount of

posi-

did not reach

it

an

remained

art.

In

practical arts, moreover, there was no conscious in-

vention

or purposeful

Workers

improvement.

fol-

lowed patterns that were handed down to them, while

departure usually

from

resulted

established in

standards

degenerate

and

models

productions.

Im-

provements came either from a slow, gradual, and un-

acknowledged accumulation of changes or

some sudden inspiration, which at once

set

else

from

a new stand-

94

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

ard.

Being the result of no conscious method,

In the social arts,

fittingly attributed to the gods.

such a radical reformer as Plato

was

it

that existing

felt

evils

were due to the absence of such fixed patterns as con-

The

trolled the productions of artisans.

ethical pur-

port of philosophy was to furnish them, and when once

they were instituted, they were to be consecrated by

adorned by art, inculcated by education and

religion,

enforced by magistrates so that alteration of them woufd

be impossible. It

is

unnecessary to repeat what has been so often

dwelt upon as to the effect of experimental science

man to vironment. But enabling

effect

a deliberate control of his

since the

impact of

the traditional notion of experience

this control

is

in

en-

upon

often overlooked,

we must point out that when experience ceased to be empirical and became experimental, something of radical importance occurred.

Aforetime

man employed

results of his prior experience only to

the

form customs

that henceforth had to be blindly followed or blindly broken.

Now,

old experience

used to suggest aims

is

and methods for developing a new and improved perience.

ex-

Consequently experience becomes in so far

constructively self-regulative.

pregnantly said of nature,

What

it is

Shakespeare so " made better by no

mean, but nature makes that mean," becomes true of experience.

We do

not merely have to repeat the past,

EXPERIENCE AND REASON

95

or wait for accidents to force change upon us.

We

use

our past experiences to construct new and better ones in the future.

the process

The very

by which

fact of experience thus includes directs itself in its

it

own

better-

ment. Science,

" reason "

is

not therefore something laid

from above upon experience. experience, it

is

also

Suggested and tested

employed through inventions

in

thousand ways to expand and enrich experience.

in

a

Al-

though, as has been so often repeated, this self-creation

and self-regulation of experience logical rather

than truly

is still

artistic or

largely techno-

human, yet what

has been achieved contains the guaranty of the possibility of

an intelligent administering of experience.

limits are

good

will

moral and

intellectual,

and knowledge.

They

due to defects

our

are not inherent meta-

physically in the very nature of experience. as a faculty separate

The

in

" Reason "

from experience, introducing us to

a superior region of universal truths begins

now

to

strike us as remote, uninteresting and unimportant.

Reason, as a Kantian faculty that introduces generality

and regularity into experience, strikes us more and

more as superfluous

—

the unnecessary creation of men-

addicted to traditional

terminology.

formalism and to elaborate

Concrete suggestions arising from past

experiences, developed

and matured

in the light of the

needs and deficiencies of the present, employed as aims

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

96

and methods of success or

failure in

adjustment,

suffice.

accomplishing this task of re-

To

such empirical suggestions used

in constructive fashion for

gence

is

and tested by

specific reconstruction,

new ends the name

intelli-

given.

This recognition of the place of active and planning thought within the very processes of experience radically alters the traditional status of the technical prob-

lems of particular and universal, sense and reason, per-

But the

ceptual and conceptual.

more than technical

mental intelligence, conceived science,

alteration

is

For reason

significance.

the

after

It liberates

man from

experi-

pattern of

and used in the creation of social arts

something to do.

much

of

is

;

it

has

the bondage of

the past, due to ignorance and accident hardened into

custom.

It projects a better future

its realization.

And

test in experience.

operation

its

is

and

The plans which

principles which

man

tive action, are

not dogmas.

assists

man

in

always subject to are formed, the

projects as guides of reconstruc-

They are hypotheses

to

be worked out in practice, and to be rejected, corrected

and expanded as they

fail

or succeed in giving our

present experience the guidance call

them programmes of

it

requires.

We

may

action, but since they are to be

used in making our future acts less blind, more directed, they are flexible. Intelligence is not something possessed once for

all.

It

is

in constant process of form-

EXPERIENCE AND REASON ing,

and

97

retention requires constant alertness in

its

observing consequences, an open-minded will to learn

and courage

in re-adjustment.

In contrast with this experimental and re-adjusting intelligence, it

must be said that Reason as employed by

historic rationalism has tended to carelessness, conceit, irresponsibility,

and

rigidity

—

in short absolutism.

A

certain school of contemporary psychology uses the term " rationalization " to denote those mental mechan-

isms

by which we unconsciously put a better face on our

conduct or experience than facts justify. ourselves to ourselves

We

excuse

by introducing a purpose and we are secretly ashamed. In

order into that of which

like fashion, historic rationalism

use Reason as ics.

It has

an agency of

has often tended

justification

taught that the defects and

experience disappear in the

toi

and apologetevils

of actual

" rational whole " of things

that things appear evil merely because of the partial,

incomplete nature of experience.

Or, as was noted by

Bacon, " reason " assumes a false simplicity, uniformity

and universality, and opens for science a path of

fictitious ease.

sponsibility

This course results in

intellectual irre-

—

and neglect:

irresponsibility because ra-

tionalism assumes that the concepts of reason are so

and so far above experience that they need and can secure no confirmation in experience. Neglect, because this same assumption makes men careself-sufficient

98'

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

less

about concrete observations and experiments.

Con-

tempt for experience has had a tragic revenge in experience;

it

has cultivated disregard for fact and this

disregard has been paid for in failure, sorrow and war.

The dogmatic

rigidity of Rationalism

is

best seen in

the consequences of Kant's attempt to buttress an otherwise chaotic experience with pure concepts.

He

set

out with a laudable attempt at restricting the extrava-

gant pretensions of Reason apart from experience.

He

But because he taught

called his philosophy critical.

that the understanding employs fixed, a priori, concepts, in order to introduce connection into experience

thereby

make known objects

relationships

and

possible (stable, regular

of qualities), he

developed in

German

thought a curious contempt for the living variety of experience and a curious overestimate of the value of

system, order, regularity for their

were

practical

causes

peculiarly

German regard

and

at

work

for drill,

own

sakes.

More

producing the discipline, " order " in

docility.

But Kant's philosophy served to provide an intellectual justification or " rationalization " of subordination of individuals to fixed and ready-made universal, " principles," laws. Reason and law were held to be synonyms.

And

reason came into experience from without and above, so law had to come into life

as

from some external and superior authority.

The

EXPERIENCE AND REASON practical correlate to absolutism

is

rigidity, stiffness,

When Kant

of disposition.

inflexibility

99

taught that

some conceptions, and these the important ones, are a priori, that

they do not arise in experience and cannot

be verified or tested in experience, that without such

ready-made injections into experience the latter

and

anarchic

he

chaotic,

absolutism, even

fostered

the

spirit

is

of

though technically he denied the possi-

bility of absolutes.

His successors were true to

his spirit

rather than his letter, and so they taught absolutism

That

systematically.

the

Germans with

all their scien-

competency and technological proficiency should " have fallen into their tragically rigid and " superior

tific

style of

them lived)

thought and action (tragic because involving

in inability to is

a

understand the world in which they

sufficient lesson of

what may be involved

in a

systematical denial of the experimental character of intelligence

and

By common

its

conceptions.

consent, the effect of English empiricism

was sceptical where that of German rationalism was apologetic

;

it

undermined where the latter

justified.

It

detected accidental associations formed into customs

under the influence of

German

self-

or class-interest

where

rational-idealism discovered profound meanings

due to the necessary evolution of absolute reason. The modern world has suffered because in so many matters philosophy has offered

it

only an arbitrary choice be-

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

100

tween hard and fast opposities Disintegrating analysis or rigid synthesis complete radicalism neglecting and :

;

attacking the historic past as trivial and harmful, or complete conservatism idealizing institutions as embodi-

ments of eternal reason ; a resolution of experience into atomic elements that afford no support to stable or-

down

ganization or a clamping categories

fixed

the

alternatives

of all experience by

and necessary concepts that

conflicting

—

schools

these

have

are pre-

sented.

They are the opposition

Reason.

of

logical consequences of the traditional

Sense

Common

and Thought, Experience and

sense has refused to follow both

theories to their ultimate logic, faith,

intuition

and has

fallen

back on

or the exigencies of practical com-

But common sense too often has been confused and hampered instead of enlightened and directed by the philosophies proffered it by professional inpromise.

tellectuals.

sense "

Men who

are thrown back upon " common

when they appeal to philosophy for some general

guidance are likely to

fall

back on routine, the force of

some personality, strong leadership or on the pressure of

momentary circumstances.

estimate the

harm that has

It

would be

difficult to

resulted because the liberal

and progressive movement of the eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries had no method of intellectual articulation commensurate with its practical aspirations. Its

EXPERIENCE AND REASON heart was in the right place. in intention.

But

of constructive power.

ties

Too

It

had no

it

was humane and

head was sadly

Its

its

deficient.

professed doctrines

in their atomistic individualism,

anti-human in devotion to brute sensation. ficiency

social

theoretical instrumentali-

often the logical import of

was almost anti-social

101

This de-

played into the hands of the reactionary and

obscurantist.

The strong

point of the appeal to fixed

dogmas incapable

principles transcending experience, to

of experimental verification, the strong point of reliance

upon a priori canons of truth and standards of morals in

upon

opposition to dependence

fruits

and conse-

quences in experience, has been the unimaginative conception

of

experience

which

empiricists have entertained

professed

philosophic

and taught.

A philosophic reconstruction which should relieve men of having to choose between

cated experience on one

an impoverished and trun-

hand and an

artificial

potent reason on the other would relieve

from the heaviest intellectual burden It

it

two hostile camps.

who

effort

has to carry.

would destroy the division of men of good

of those

and im-

human

will into

It would permit the co-operation

respect the past and the institutionally

established with those

who are

a freer and happier future.

interested in establishing

For

it

would determine

the conditions under which the funded experitece of the

past and the contriving intelligence which looUs to the

102

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

future can effectually interact with each other.

would enable men

It

to glorify the claims of reason without

at the same time falling into a paralyzing worship of

super-empirical authority or into an offensive " rationalization " of things as they are.

CHAPTER V

CHANGED CONCEPTIONS OF THE IDEAL AND THE REAL It has been noted that human experience

human through

made

is

the existence of associations and recol-

which are strained through the mesh of imagi-

lections,

nation so as to suit the demands of the emotions. life

that

is

humanly interesting

of discipline, is

filled

a

life

in

is,

A

short of the results

which the tedium of vacant

with images that excite and satisfy.

leisure

It

is

in

this sense that poetry preceded prose in human experi-

ence, religion antedated science,

decorative art while

it

and ornamental and

could not take the place of utility

early reached a development out of proportion to the

practical arts. light, in

In order to give contentment and de-

order to feed present emotion and give the

stream of conscious

life

intensity

and

color, the sug-

gestions which spring from past experiences are worked

over so as to smooth out their unpleasantnesses and en-

Some

hance their enjoyableness. that there

is

what they

call

obliviscence of the disagreeable '

psychologists claim

a natural tendency to

—that

men turn from

the unpleasant in thought and recollection as they do 103

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

104

from the obnoxious

in

Every serious-minded

action.

person knows that a large part of the effort required in

moral discipline consists in the courage needed to acknowledge the unpleasant consequences of one's past

and present

We

acts.

squirm, dodge, evade, disguise,

cover up, find excuses and palliations— anything to

render the mental scene

less

....

uncongenial.

t

tendency of spontaneous suggestion perience, to give

it in

In short, the

to idealize ex-

consciousness qualities which

does not have in actuality. artists;

is

Time and memory are

they remould reality nearer to

it

true

the heart's

desire.

As imagination becomes

and

freer

less controlled

by

concrete actualities, the idealizing tendency takes further flights unrestrained

The

world. it

by the

rein of the prosaic

things most emphasized in imagination as

reshapes experience are things which are absent in

reality.

In the degree in which

imagination

which

life is

is

sluggish

life is

and bovine.

placid and easy,

In the degree

uneasy and troubled, fancy

is

in

stirred to

frame pictures of a contrary state of things.

By

reading the characteristic features of any man's castles in the air you can make a shrewd guess as to his underlying desires which are frustrated. What is difficulty

and disappointment

in real life

becomes conspicuous

achievement and triumph in revery fact will be positive in the image

;

what

is

negative in

drawn by fancy what ;

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL is

105

vexation in conduct will be compensated for in high

relief in idealizing

imagination.

These considerations apply beyond mere personal

They

psychology.

marked

are decisive for one of the most

traits of classic philosophy:

an ultimate supreme Reality which

— is

its

conception of

essentially ideal

Historians have more than once drawn an

in nature.

instructive parallel between the developed

Olympian

Pantheon of Greek religion and the Ideal Realm of

The

gods, whatever their origin

became

idealized projections of the

Platonic philosophy.

and original selected

traits,

and matured achievements which the Greeks

admired among their mortal like

The gods were

selves.

mortals, but mortals living only the lives which

men would wish to

live,

with power intensified, beauty

and wisdom ripened.

perfected,

When

Aristotle criti-

cized the theory of Ideas of his master, Plato,

that the Ideas were after ized,

he pointed out

phy with

religion

been made.

import,

is it

And

all

in effect

the parallelism of philoso-

and art to which

allusion has just

save for matters of merely technical

not possible to say of Aristotle's Forms

just what he said of Plato's Ideas? these

by saying

only things of sense eternal-

Forms and Essences which

What

are they,

so profoundly influ-

enced for centuries the course of science and theology, save the objects of ordinary experience with their blemishes removed, their imperfections eliminated, their lacks

106

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

rounded out,

What

their

suggestions

fulfilled?

are they in short but the objects of familiar

divinized because reshaped

tion to meet the in

and hints

demands of desire

which actual experience

That fashion,

by the

is

life

idealizing imagina-

in just those respects^

disappointing?

Plato, and Aristotle in somewhat different and Plotinus and Marcus Aurelius and Saint

Thomas Aquinas, and Spinoza and Hegel that Ultimate Reality

is

all

taught

either perfectly Ideal

and

Rational in nature, or else has absolute ideality and rationality as

its

necessary attribute, are facts well

known to the student of philosophy.

But

position here.

it is

They need no

ex-

worth pointing out that these

„great systematic philosophies defined perfect Ideality in conceptions that express the

which make is

life

oppos ite of those things

unsatisfactory and troublesome.

the chief source of the complaint of poet

What

and moralist

with the goods, the values and satisfactions of experience? exist;

Rarely it is

is

the complaint that such things do not

that although existing they are momentary,

transient, fleeting.

They do not stay;

come only to annoy and tease with

at worst they

their hurried

and

dis-

appearing taste of what might be; at best they come only to inspire and instruct with a passing hint of truer

commonplace of the poet and moralist mpermanence not only of sensuous enjoyment, but of fame and civic acHievenierTEs""was profoundly reality. V"This

as to the

i

i

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL reflected

uppn by philosophers,

The

Aristotle./

results

107

by Plato and

especially

of their thinking have been

wrought into the very fabric of western

Time,

ideas.

change, movement are signs that what the Greeks called

Non-Being somehow ology

is

now

strange, but

the conception of

The phrasemany a modern who ridicules

infect true Being.

Non-Being repeats the same thought

under the name of the Finite or Imperfect.

VWherever stability is

there

is

change, there

and

These are the

ideas

to the connection between change, becoming

perishing,

in-

proof of something the matter, of absence,

deficiency, incompleteness)*/

mon

instability,

is

and Non-Being,

com-

and

and imperfection.

finitude

Hence complete and true Reality must be changeless, unalterable, so full of Being that

ever maintains

itself

in

fixed

always and for-

it

rest

and

repose.

As

Bradley, the most dialectially ingenious Absolutist of

our own day, expresses the doctrine " Nothing that

is

perfectly real moves." fr And while Plato took, comparatively speaking, a pessimistic view of

lapse

change as mere

and Aristotle a complacent view of

to realization, yet Aristotle doubted no

it

as tendency

more than Plato

that the fully realized reality, the divine and ultimate, changeless. I

Activity

was the

Though

it is

called Activity or

is

Energy, the

knew no change, the energy did nothing. It activity of an army forever marking time and

never going anywhere.

108

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

From

permanent with the tran-

this contrast of the

which mark

sient arise other features

off the

Ultimate

Reality from the imperfect realities of practical

Where

there

change, there

is

is

life.

of necessity numerical

and from variety comes opposition, strife. Change is alteration, or " othering " and Diversity means division, and this means diversity. plurality, multiplicity,

division

which

means two

is

and

their conflict.

The world

must be a world of discord, for

transient

lacking stability

sides

it

lacks the government of unity.

in

Did

unity completely rule, these would remain an unchanging totality.

What

has parts and partialities

alters

which, not recognizing the rule of unity, assert themselves independently

and discord. hand, since

and One.

and make

life

a scene of contention

Ultimate and true Being on the other

it is

changeless

is

Total, All-Comprehensive

knows only harmony, and therefore enjoys complete and eternal Good. It is Since

it is

One,

it

Perfection.

Degrees of knowledge and truth correspond with degrees of reality point

by

point.

The higher and more

complete the Reality the truer and more important the

knowledge that refers to

it.

Since the world of be-

coming, of origins and perishings, Being,

it

is

deficient in true

cannot be known in the best sense.

means to neglect

its flux

To know it

and alteration and discover

some permanent form which limits the processes that

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL The acorn undergoes a

alter in time.

109

series of

changes

these are knowable only in reference to the fixed of the

oak which

the same in the entire oak species in

is

Moreover, this

spite of the numerical diversity of trees.

form

form

limits the flux of

growth at both ends, the acorn

coming from the oak as well as passing into

it.

Where

such unifying and limiting eternal forms cannot be detected, there is

mere aimless variation and fluctuation,

and knowledge

is

On

out of the question.

the other

hand, as objects are approached in which there

no

knowledge becomes really demonstra-

movement at

all,

tive, certain,

perfect

—truth pure and unalloyed.

heavens can be more truly the

is

known than

the earth,

The God

unmoved mover than the heavens.

From

this fact follows the superiority of

tive to practical

knowledge, of pure theoretical specula-

tion to experimentation,

that depends

ing, noting.

in things or that induces

Pure knowing

It

is

complete in

is

nothing beyond

itself

aim or purpose.

It

for being.

and to any kind of knowing

upon changes

change in them.

contempla-

;

it

is

pure beholding, viewIt looks for

itself.

lacks nothing and hence has no

most emphatically

its

own excuse

Indeed, pure contemplative knowing

much the most truly

self-enclosed

thing in the universe that

it is

and

is

so

self-sufficient

the highest and indeed

the only attribute that can be ascribed to God, the

Highest Being in the scale of Being.

Man

himself

is

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

110

divine in the rare

moments when he attains to purely

self-sufficient theoretical insight.

In contrast with such knowing, the so-called knowing of the artisan is base. He has to bring about changes in things, in

wood and

evidence that his material

condemns

and

stone, is

knowledge even more

his

not disinterestedly for

own

its

this fact is of itself

What

deficient in Being. is

sake.

the fact that

it is

It has reference to It

results to be attained, food, clothing, shelter, etc. is

concerned with things that perish, the body and It thus has

needs.

an ulterior aim, and one which

For want, Where

to imperfection.

testifies

every sort, indicate lack. desire

—

as in the case of

activity

While

—there

civic

is

all

its

itself

desire, affection of

there

is

need and

practical knowledge and

incompleteness

and

insufficiency.

or political and moral knowledge rank

higher than do the conceptions of the artisan, yet intrinsically considered they are

Moral and

political action

plies needs

and

beyond

itself.

is

practical; that

effort to satisfy them.

is, it

It has

im-

an end

Moreover, the very fact of association

shows lack of self-sufficiency ; others.

a low and untrue type.

Pure knowing

is

it

shows dependence upon

alone solitary, and capable of

being carried on in complete, self-sufficing independence. """

In short, the measure of the worth of knowledge ac-

cording to Aristotle, whose views are here summarized, _is

the degree in which

it is

purely contemplative.

The

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL highest degree

attained in knowing ultimate Ideal

is

Being, pure Mind. because

This

perfect

is

and

consummated.

this

—

perfect Bliss

One point more and

The kind

ultimate

and highest term

;

acme

the

it

of ration-

the argument

of knowing that concerns itself

reality

(which

Philosophy

also

is

is

ultimate

therefore the last_

pure contemplation.

in

it all

perfect Being,

it is

ideality.

ideality) is philosophy.

may

Since

Mind and

completed.

with

of Forms,

It has no desires because in

change or variety.

ality

Form

Ideal, the

is

has no lacks, no needs, and experiences no

it

desires are is

111

Whatever

be said for any other kind of knowledge, philos-

ophy

is

itself; it

It has nothing to do beyond

self-enclosed.

has no aim or purpose or function

be philosophy

—that

ultimate reality.

is,

—except

to

pure, self-sufficing beholding of

There

is

of course such a thing as

philosophic study which falls short of this perfection..

Where

$ut

there

is

learning, there

change and becoming.

the function of study and learning of philosophy

as Plato put

it,

the inferior realities

and to lead Being.

it

Thus

upon the images

of things,

upon

that are born and that decay,

to the intuition of supernal and eternal the mind of the knower

becomes assimilated to what

Through a

is,

to convert the eye of the soul from

dwelling contentedly

It

is

variety

of

it

is

knows.

channels,

transformed.

V

especially

Neo-

Platonism and St. Augustine, these ideas found their

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

112

way

theology;

Christian

into

is

to

know True True Being

is

pure Immaterial Mind, and to know

While

Salvation.

in this stage of life

far as

to

is

man

contemplative, that

thinkers taught that the end of

Being, that knowledge

and great scholastic

it is

nor without supernatural

accomplished

the divine

Through

it is Bliss

essence

and

knowledge cannot be achieved

this

it

assimilates the

aid, yet so

human mind

and so constitutes

this taking over

salvation.

of the conception of knowl-

edge as Contemplative into the dominant religion of

Europe, multitudes were affected who were totally innocent of theoretical philosophy.

There was bequeathed

to generations of thinkers as an unquestioned

idea that knowledge

is

intrinsically

axiom the

a mere beholding

or viewing of reality-l^the spectator conception knowledge.

So deeply engrained was

of

this idea that it

prevailed for centuries after the actual progress of

had demonstrated that knowledge is power to transform the World, and centuries after the practice of effective knowledge had adopted the method of science

experimentation.

Let us turn abruptly from this conception of the measure of true knowledge and the nature of true philos-

ophy days

to the existing practice of knowledge.

Nowa-

a man, say a physicist or chemist, wants to know something, the last thing he does is merely to conif

template.

He

does not look in however earnest and

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL

118

prolonged way upon the object expecting that thereby he will detect

its fixed

and characteristic form.

He

does

not expect any amount of such aloof scrutiny to reveal to

him any

secrets.

He

proceeds to do something, to

bring some energy to bear upon the substance to see

how

it

reacts; he places

it

under unusual conditions in

order to induce some change.

While the astronomer

cannot change the remote stars, even he no longer merely gazes.

If he cannot change the stars themselves, he can

at least

by

lens

and prism change

their light as it

reaches the earth; he can lay traps for discovering

changes which would otherwise escape notice. of taking

denying

Instead

an antagonistic attitude toward change and

it

to the stars because of their divinity and

perfection, he

is

on constant and

alert

watch to

find

some change through which he can form an inference as to the formation of stars

Change

in short is

and systems of

stars.

no longer looked upon as a

fall

from grace, as a lapse from reality or a sign of imperfection of Being. to find

Modern

science

no longer

tries

some fixed form or essence behind each process

of change.

Rather, the experimental method

break down apparent

fixities

and to induce changes.

The form that remains unchanged seed or tree,

is

tries to

to sense, the form of

regarded not as the key to knowledge

of the thing, but as a wall, an obstruction to be broken

down.

Consequently the

scientific

man

experiments with

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

114 this

until

and that agency applied to something begins to

say, something doing.

going on

this

happen

He

;

and that condition

until there

assumes that there

all the time, that there

is

is,

is

as

we

change

movement within

each thing in seeming repose ; and that since the process is

from perception the way to know

veiled

it is

to bring

the thing into novel circumstances until change becomes

In short, the thing which

evident.

paid heed to

is

not what

is

is

to be accepted and

originally given but that

which emerges after the thing has been set under a great variety of circumstances in order to see how

it

behaves.

Now human It

this

nothing

signifies

part of

marks a much more general change

in the

attitude than perhaps appears at first sight.

as

it

it

less

than that the world or any

presents itself at a given time

is

accepted

or acquiesced in only as material for change.

It

is

accepted precisely as the carpenter, say, accepts things as he finds them.

If he took

them as things to be

observed and noted for their own sake, he never would be a carpenter. He would observe, describe, record tho structures, forms

and changes which things

him, and leave the matter there.

exhibit to

If perchance

some of him with a shelter, But what makes the carpenter a

the changes going on should present so

much

builder

the better.

is

the fact that he notes things; not just as

objects in themselves, but with reference to

what he

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL

115

wants to do to them and with them; to the end he has in mind.

Fitness to effect certain special changes

that he wishes to see accomplished

him

in the

wood and

His attention

is

is

what concerns

stones and iron which he observes."

directed to the changes they undergo

and the changes they make other things undergo so that he

may

yield

select that

him his desired

combination of changes which result.

It

is

only by

will

these processes

of active manipulation of things in order to realize his^

purpose that he discovers what the properties of things If he foregoes his

are.

meek and

of a

own purpose and

in the

name

humble subscription to things as they

" really are " refuses to bend things as they " are "

own purpose, he not only never achieves his purpose but he never learns what the things themselves are. They are what they can do and what can be done with to his

—things that can be found by

them,

The outcome

deliberate trying.

of this idea of the right

way

to

know

a profound modification in man's attitude toward the natural world. Under differing social conditions, the is

older or classic conception sometimes bred resignation and submission; sometimes contempt and desire to

escape; sometimes, notably in the case of the Greeks, a keen esthetic curiosity which showed itself in acute

noting of

all

the traits of given objects.

In fact, the

whole conception of knowledge as beholding and noting enjoyis fundamentally an idea connected with esthetic

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

116 raent ful

and appreciation where the environment

and

life is

depreciation where

hard. i

But

life is

beauti-

troubled, nature morose and

which the active conception

in the degree in

of knowledge prevails,

.as

is

serene, and with esthetic repulsion and

and the environment

is

regarded

something that has to be changed in order to be truly

known, men are imbued with courage, with what ^almost be termed an aggressive attitude ture.

may

toward na-

The latter becomes plastic, something to be subhuman uses. ; The moral disposition toward

jected to

change

is

This loses

deeply modified.

its

pathos,

it

ceases to be haunted with melancholy through suggest-

ing only decay and Joss. of

new

possibilities

Change becomes

and ends to be attained;

prophetic of a better future.

Change

progress rather than with lapse and

is

fall.

are going on anyway, the great thing

is

significant it

becomes

associated with

Since changes to learn enough

about them so that we be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Conditions

and events are neither to be acquiesced in

;

fled

from nor passively

they are to be utilized and directed.

They

are cither obstacles to our ends or else means for their

accomplishment.

In a profound sense knowing ceases and becomes practical.

to be contemplative

Unfortunately men, educated men, cultivated men in particular, are still so dominated by the older conception of an aloof

and

self-sufficing reason

and knowledge

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL

117

that they refuse to perceive the import of this doctrine.

They think they are sustaining the cause of

impartial,

thorough-going and disinterested reflection when they maintain the traditional philosophy of intellectualism that

of

is,

knowing as something

enclosed. \jBtit

spectator view of knowledge,

men of an

doctrine which

self-sufficing

and

self-

truth, historic intellectualism, the

in

is

a purely compensatory

intellectual turn

up to console themselves for the actual and

have

built'

social im-

potency of the calling of thought to which they are

Forbidden by conditions and held back by

devoted.

making

lack of courage from

their knowledge a factor

in the determination of the course of events, they have

sought a refuge of complacency in the notion that knowing

is

something too sublime to be contaminated by con-

tact with things of change

transformed

knowing

estheticism.^*

The

and a

into

They have

practice.

morally

irresponsible

true import of the doctrine of the

operative or practical character of knowing, of gence,

is

objective,

l-

objects which science to the things

It

intelli-

means that the structures and

and philosophy

set

up

in contrast

and events of concrete daily experience

do not constitute a realm apart in which rational contemplation

may

rest satisfied

;

it

means that they repre-

sent the selected obstacles, material

means and

ideal

methods of giving direction to that change which

bound to occur anyway,

ir

is

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

118

human disposition toward the world does not mean that man ceases to have ideals, or ceases to be primarily a creature of the imagination. But it This change of

does signify a radical change in the character and function of the ideal realm which '

man

shapes for him-

self, f

In the classic philosophy, the ideal world

tially

a haven in which

of life;

it is

man

finds rest

is

essen-

from the storms

an asylum in which he takes refuge from

the troubles of existence with the calm assurance that it

alone

edge

is

realm

is

supremely

active

is

real.

When

the belief that knowl-

and operative takes hold of men, the ideal

no longer something aloof and separate;

rather that collection of imagined possibilities stimulates

men

to

new

efforts

and realizations.^ It

it is

that still

remains true that the troubles which men undergo are the forces that lead them to project pictures of a better state of things. so that

it

But

the picture of the better

may become an

is

shaped

instrumentality of action,

while in the classic view the Idea belongs ready-made in

a noumenal world.

Hence,

it

is

only an object of

personal aspiration or consolation, while to the modern,

an idea

is

a suggestion of something to be done or of

a way of doing. \

^An

%**"

illustration

Distance

will,

perhaps,

make the

difference

an obstacle, a source of trouble. It separates friends and prevents intercourse. It isolates, clear.

is

and makes contact and mutual understanding

difficult.

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL

119

This state of affairs provokes discontent and restlessness

;

excites the imagination to construct pictures of

it

a state of things where juriously affected

One way

out.

by

human

space.

to pass

is

intercourse

Now

all

abolished and by

is

friends are in perpetual transparent

communication, to pass, I say, from some building to philosophic reflection. will

then be argued,

modern

gives

is

is

It

is

all

trouble

it

" real " in the metaphysical sense

Pure minds, pure

space world; for them distance

considerations.

do not

spirits, is

not.

live in

a

Their relation-

any way

affected

by

Their intercommunication

is

ships in the true world are not in special

it

not, metaphysically

Hence the obstruction and

not after

of reality.

idle castle-

Space, distance,

merely phenomenal ; or, in a more

version, subjective.

speaking, real.

in-

from a mere dream of some

heavenly realm in which distance

some magic

not

is

there are two ways

direct, fluent, unobstructed.

Does the

illustration involve

a caricature of ways of

philosophizing with which we are it is

all

not an absurd caricature, does

it

familiar?

But

if

not suggest that

much of what philosophies have taught about the

ideal

and noumenal or superiorly real world, is after all, only casting a dream into an elaborate dialectic form through the use of a speciously

scientific

terminology?

Practically, the difficulty, the trouble, remains. cally,

however

it

may

Practi-

be "metaphysically," space

is

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

120 still

real:

Again,

—

acts

it

in

man dreams

a definite objectionable way.

of some better

state of things.

From troublesome fact he takes refuge in fantasy. But this time, the refuge does not remain a permanent and remote asylum.

The idea becomes a standpoint from which to examine existing occurrences and to see if there is not among them something which gives a hint of how communicacan be

tion at a distance utilized as

effected,

something to be

a medium of speech at long range.

gestion or fancy though

still

ideal

is

The

sug-

treated as a

possibility capable of realization in the concrete natural

world, not as a superior reality apart from that world.

As

such,

it

becomes a platform from which to scrutinize

natural events. possibility,

tected.

Observed from the point of view of

things

disclose

this

properties hitherto unde-

In the light of these ascertainments, the idea

of some agency for speech at a distance becomes

vague and floating:

it

takes on positive form.

action and reaction goes on.

The

less

This

possibility or idea

is

employed as a method for observing actual existence; and in the light of what is discovered the possibility takes on concrete existence. idea, a fancy,

actual fact.

It becomes less of a mere a wished-for possibility, and more of an

Invention proceeds, and at last we have

the telegraph, the telephone, first through wires, and

then with no artificial medium.

The

concrete environ-

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL ment

is

transformed

idealized in fact

realized

in

the desired direction;

and not merely

through

its

121

own use

in fancy.

The

as a tool or

inspection, experimentation, selection

of concrete natural operations.

it

is

ideal is

method of

and combination

S*

^JLet us pause to take stock of

results.

The

division

of the world into two kinds of Being, one superior, accessible only to reason

and

ideal in nature, the other

inferior, material, changeable, empirical, accessible

to

sense-observation, turns inevitably into the idea that

knowledge

is

contemplative in nature.

contrast between theory

It assumes

and practice which was

the disadvantage of the latter.

But

all

a to

in the actual course

of the development of science, a tremendous change has

come about.

When

be dialectical

and became experimental, knowing became

the practice of knowledge ceased to

preoccupied with changes and the test of knowledge be-

came the

ability to bring

about certain changes.

ing, for the experimental sciences,

Know-

means a certain kind

of intelligently conducted doing; it ceases to be con-

templative and becomes in a true sense practical. this implies that philosophy, unless it

is

Now

to undergo a

complete break with the authorized spirit of science,

must also alter

its

nature.

It

must assume a practical

must become operative and experimental. And we have pointed out what an enormous change this nature;

it

transformation of philosophy entails in the two con-

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

122

ceptions which have played the greatest role in historic

—

philosophizing

the

" ideal " respectively.

*

ceases to be some-

The former

thing ready-made and final;

it

and

the " real "

of

conceptions

becomes that which has

to be accepted as the material of change, as the obstruc-

and the means of certain

tions

The

ideal

specific d££J£ed changes.

and rational also ceased to be a separate

ready-made world incapable of being used as a lever to transform the actual empirical world, a mere asylum

from empirical

deficiencies.

They

represent intelligently

thought-o ut possjbjlitks_gj£_theexistent world which may 'be

used as methods for making over and improving Philosophically speaking, this

is

it.

the great difference

involved in the change from knowledge and philosophy

The change

as contemplative to operative.

mean

does not

the lowering in dignity of philosophy from a lofty

plane to one of gross utilitarianism. the prime functionof philosophy

is

It signifies that

that of rationaliz-

ing the possibilities \i experience, especially collective

human realized

ing

it.

y The scope of this ch ange may be by c onsideri n g how far we are from accomplishIn spite of inventions which enable men to use

experience,

the energies of nature for their purposes, we are

still

far from habitually treating knowledge as the method of active control of nature

to think of

it

and

of experience.

We

tend

after the model of a spectator viewing a

finished picture rather

than after that of the

artist

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL producing the painting. J/Thus there arise tions of epistemology with

of philosophy

123 the ques-

all

which the technical student

and which have made modern philosophy in especial so remote from the understanding of the everyday person and from the results is

and processes of

so

familiar,

science.

For

these questions all spring

from the assumption of a merely beholding mind on one side and a foreign and remote object to be viewed and noted on the other. They ask how a mind and world, subject

and object,

so separate

and independent

can by any possibility come into such relationship to

each other as to make true knowledge possible.

knowing were habitually conceived of as

If

and

active

operative, after the analogy of experiment guided

hypothesis, or of invention guided of some possibility, it first effect

is

by the imagination'

not too much to say that the

would be to emancipate philosophy from

the epistemological puzzles which these all arise

from a conception

now perplex

in knowing,

sumes that to know

upon what

is

to seize

it.

of the relation of

and world, subject and object,

m

by

all

For mind

which asis

already

i

existence. —-

"

Modern philosophic thought has been

so preoccupied

with these puzzles of epistemology and the disputes

between realist and absolutist, that

what would be

idealist,

many

left for

between phenomenalist and

students are at a loss to

philosophy

if

know

there were removed

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

124

both the metaphysical task of distinguishing between the

noumenal and phenomenal worlds and the epistemological task of telling

how a separate subject can know an But would not the elimination of

independent object.

these traditional problems permit philosophy to devote itself it

to a

more

fruitful

Would

and more needed task?

not encourage philosophy to face the great social

moral defects

and troubles from which hum anity

to concentrate its attention

and exact nature of these

upon clearing up the causes and ~upoIi developing a

evils

clear idea of better social possibilities jtro jecting

an idea or

and

suffers,

;

in

short upon

ideal which,|instead of expressing

the notion of another world or spine far-away unrealiz-l

ggsL-wmald be used as a bietjxacLof understandinf and ye ctrf yingyipeciflc socia l ills? | able

This

is

a vague statement.

But note

in

the

first'

place that such a conception of the proper province of

philosophy where

and

idle

it is

epistemology

losophy sketched in the place, note

released

from vain metaphysics

in line

with the origin of phi-

is

first

hour.

how contemporary

And

in the second

society, the world over,

more general and fundamental enlightenment and guidance than it now possesses. I have tried to show that a radical change of the conception of is

in need of

knowledge from contemplative to active

is

the inevitable

way in which inquiry and invention are now conducted. But in claiming this, it must also be result of the

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL

125

conceded, or rather asserted, that so far the change has influenced for the side of

human

dustrial

most part only the more technical

life.

The

sciences

have created new

energies has been indefinitely multiplied. trol of the sources of material

What would

There

con-

is

wealth and prosperity.

once have been miracles are

now

daily

performed with steam and coal and electricity and

and with the human body. optimistic

in-

Man's physical command of natural

arts.

air,

But there are few persons

enough to declare that any similar command

of the forces which control man's social

and moral wel-

fare has been achieved. \

Where

is

the moral progress that corresponds to

our economic accomplishments? direct fruit

The

latter

is

the

of the revolution that has been wrought

But where is there a correspondNot only has the iming human science and art? provement in the method of knowing remained so far

in physical science.

mainly

limited

to technical

and economic matters.

but this progress has brought with disturbances.

of capital

it

serious

new moral

I need only cite the late war, the problem

and labor, the relation of economic

classes,

the fact that while the new science has achieved wonders in medicine and surgery, it has also produced and spread occasions for diseases and weaknesses. These considerations indicate to us how undevelope d are o ur_jglitics, how~crude and primitive our educatio n, how pass ive and

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

126

The causesr emain whi ch brought philoso phy into existence as an attempt to find an intelligent substitute for b lind custom aqd b lind impulse asTguid"es~ to life and conduc t! T he atte mpt has not inert our morals.

been successfully accomplished.

Is there not reason for

believing tha t the release of philosophy

metaphysics and

of sterile

sterile

from itsourden

epistemology instead

of depriving philosophy of problems and subject-matter

would open a way to questions of the most per plexing andthe most significa nt sort?. Let me specify one problem quite directly suggested

by

It has been pointed

certain points in this lecture.

out that the really fruitful application of the contemplative idea was not in science but in the esthetic It

is

difficult

fine arts

to imagine

except where there

terest in forms tive of

any high development

any use

is

curious and loving in-

and motions of the world quite to which they

field.

of the

may be

irrespec-

And

put.

it is

not too much to say that every people that has attained

a high

esthetic development has been a people in

the contemplative attitude has flourished the Hindoo, the medieval Christian.

—

which

as the Greek,

On the

other hand,

the scientific attitude that has actually proved itself in scientific

progress

tical attitude.

processes.

is,

as has been pointed out, a prac-

It takes forms as disguises for hidden

Its interest in

what can be done with

change

it,

is in

what

to what use

it

it

leads to,

can be put.

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL While

it

127

has brought nature under control, there

something hard and aggressive in

its attitude

is

toward

nature unfavorable to the esthetic enjoyment of the

Surely there

world.

no more

is

significant question be-

fore the world than this question of the possibility

and

meth od of reconciliation o f the attitudes of practical

and contemplative esth etic appreciation.

science

out the former,

man

will

With-

be the sport and victim of

natural forces which he cannot use or control.

With-

out the latter, mankind might become a race of economic

,-

monsters, restlessly driving hard bargains with natufej.

and with one another, bored with putting

it

leisure or capable of'

to use only in ostentatious display and ex-

travagant dissipation. Like other moral questions, this matter

The western

even political.

is

social

and

peoples advanced earlier

on the path of experimental science and

its

tions in control of nature than the oriental.

applicaIt

is

not,

I suppose wholly fanciful, to believe that the latter have

embodied

in their habits of life

tive, esthetic

the former cal.

more of the contempla-

and speculatively

more

religious temper,

of the scientific, industrial

and

and practi-

This difference and others which have grown up

around

it is

pne barrier to easy mutual understanding,

and one source of misunderstanding.

The philosophy

a serious effort to

comprehend these

respective attitudes in their relation

and due balance,

which, then, makes

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

128

could hardly

promote the capacity of peoples to

by one another's experience and to co-operate

profit

more

fail to

effectually with one another in the tasks of fruit-

ful culture.

Indeed,

it is

incredible that the question of the rela-

tion of the " real "

and the "

ideal " should ever have

been thought to be a problem belonging distinctively to philosophy. all

human

ophy

is

in the

The very

fact that this

most

serious of

issues has been taken possession of by philos-

only another proof of the disasters that follow

wake

of regarding

knowledge and

intellect as

Never have the " real " and

something self-sufficient. the " ideal " been so clamorous, so self-assertive, as at the present time.

And

never in the history of the world

have they been so far apart.

The world war was

ried on for purely ideal ends:

and equal

liberty for strong

was carried on by

realistic

—

car-

for humanity, justice

and weak

alike.

means of applied

And

science,

it

by

high explosives, and bombing airplanes and blockading marvels of mechanism that reduced the world well nigh to ruin, so that the serious-minded are concerned for

the perpetuity of those choice values

The peace

tion.

the

name

tions,

settlement

is

we

call civiliza-

loudly proclaimed in

of the ideals that stir man's deepest emo-

but with the most realistic attention to details of

economic advantage distributed in proportion to physical

power to create future disturbances.

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL It

not surprising that some men are brought to

is

regard

129

all

idealism as a mere smoke-screen behind which

the search for material profit carried on,

may

be more effectually

and are converted to the

pretation of history. physical force

" Reality "

materialistic inter-

is

then conceived as

and as sensations of power,

profit

and

enjoyment; any politics that takes account of other factors, save as elements of clever

human

propaganda and for

who have not become realistically enlightened, is based on illusions. But others are equally sure that the real lesson of the war is that humanity took its first great wrong step when control of those

it

beings

entered upon a cultivation of physical science and

an application of the fruits of science to the improve-

ment of the instruments of merce.

They

will sigh for

while the great

fashion, the

few

—industry

life

and com-

the return of the day when,

mass died as they were born elect devoted themselves

in

animal

not to science

and the material decencies and comforts of existence but to " ideal " things, the things of the spirit.

Yet the most obvious conclusion would seem to be the impotency and the harmfulness of any and every ideal that is

that

is,

proclaimed wholesale and in the abstract,

as something in itself apart

from the

detailed

concrete existences whose moving possibilities

it

em-

bodies. The true moral would seem to lie forcing the tragedy of that idealism which

in

en-

believes

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

130 in

a spiritual world which exists in and by

and the tragic need for the most

realistic

itself,

study

of forces and consequences, a study conducted in a more scientifically accurate and complete manner than

that of the professed Real-politik.

For

it is

not truly

or scientific to take short views, to sacrifice the

realistic

future to immediate pressure, to ignore facts and forces

that are disagreeable and to magnify the enduring quality of whatever falls in with immediate desire. is

false that the evils of the situation arise

of ideals

wrong

;

from absence

And

they spring from wrong ideals.

ideals

It

these

have in turn their foundation in the absence

matters of that methodic, systematic, imparcritical, searching inquiry into " real " and opera-

in social tial,

tive conditions

brought

man

which we

call

science

and which has

in the technical realm to the

command

of physical energies.

Philosophy, let

it

be repeated, cannot " solve " the

problem of the relation of the ideal and the is

the standing problem of

lighten the burden of

life.

humanity

But in

it

real.

That

can at

least

dealing with the

problem by emancipating mankind from the errors which philosophy has

itself fostered

—the

existence of

from their movement something new and different, and the existence of

conditions which are real apart into

and reason independent of the possiand physical. For as long

ideals,

spirit

bilities

of the material

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL as

humanity

it will

is

committed to

this radically false bias,

walk forward with blinded eyes and bound

And philosophy can this

131

effect, if it will,

negative task. * It can

make

to takejhajright stepsin_action

limbs.

something more than

it

easier for

by making

it

mankind

clear that

a Sympatheti c^ andjntegraLintelligence brought to bear upon the observation and understanding of concrete* social events

w hich

shall

and

forces,

can form

ideals,

that

is

aims,

not be either illusions or mere emotional

compensations.

^

CHAPTER VI

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION Logic

—

like

oscillation.

philosophy

itself

—

suffers

It is elevated into the

from a curious

supreme and

legisla-

tive science only to fall into the trivial estate of keeper

of such statements as

A

for the syllogistic rules.

is

A

and the

It claims

scholastic verses

power to state the

laws of the ultimate structure of the universe, on the

ground that

it

deals with the laws of thought which are

the laws according to which Reason has formed the world.

Then

it

limits its pretensions to laws of correct

reasoning which

is

correct even though

matter of fact, or even to material

it

leads to no

falsity.

It

is

regarded by the modern objective idealist as the adequate substitute for ancient ontological metaphysics;

but others treat

it

as that branch of rhetoric which

teaches proficiency in argumentation. superficial

compromise

equilibrium

For a time a was

maintained

wherein the logic of formal demonstration which the

Middle Ages

extracted

from Aristotle was

supple-

mented by an inductive logic of discovery of truth that Mill extracted from the practice of scientific men. But 132

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION students of

German

1S3

philosophy, of mathematics, and of

psychology, no matter how another, have

much they attacked one made common cause in attack upon the

orthodox logics both of deductive proof and inductive discovery.

Logical theory presents a scene of chaos.

agreement as to

little

This disagreement

pose.

Take such a

rudimentary matter as the nature of judgment. table authority

can be quoted

;

and judgment

and psychological.

is

nate

;

and

it is

If logical, it

is

the central thing all,

but personal

the primary func-

and inference are subordi-

The

dis-

necessary, and

it is

an after-product from them.

tinction of subject

and predicate

is

though

totally irrelevant; or again, cases, it is

is

not logical at

tion to which both conception

not of great importance.

it is

found in some

Among

hold that the subject-predicate relationship tial,

some hold that judgment

is

those is

them into something

who

essen-

an analysis of some-

thing prior into them, and others assert that synthesis of

Repu-

in behalf of every possible

Judgment

permutation of doctrine. in logic

is

not formal or nominal but

is

the treatment of every topic.

affects

There

subject-matter, scope or pur-

its

else.

it

is

a

Some hold that

always the subject of judgment, and others " Among those that reality " is logically irrelevant. reality is

who deny that judgment cate to subject,

is

who regard

it

the attribution of predias a relation of elements,

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

134

some hold that the relation it

is

" internal," some that

is

" external," and others that

it is

sometimes one

and sometimes the other. Unless logic

is

a matter of some practical account,

and

these contrarieties are so numerous, so extensive,

so irreconcilable that they are ludicrous.

If logic

is

an affair of practical moment, then these inconsistencies i

are serious. intellectual

They

testify to

contemporary logical theory philosophical

all

some deep-lying cause of

disagreement and incoherency. the

is

fact,

ground upon which

and disputes are gath-

differences

How

ered together and focussed.

In

does the modification

in the traditional conception of the relation of experi-

ence and reason, the real

and

ideal affect logic?

It affects, in the first place, the

s

If thought or intelligence

is

nature of logic

itself.

the means of intentional

reconstruction of experience, then logic, as an account of the procedure of thought,

is

not purely formal.

It

not confined to laws of formally correct reasoning

is

apart from truth of subject-matter. contrary,

is

it

Neither, on the

concerned with the inherent thought

structures of the universe, as Hegel's logic would have it

;

nor with the successive approaches of human thought

to this objective thought structure as the logic of Lotze,

Bosanquet, and other epistemological logicians would

have

it.

If thinking

is

the

organization of experience

way is

in

which deliberate

secured, then logic

is

re-

such

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION

185

a clarified and systematized formulation of the pro-1 cedures of thinking as will enable the desired reconstruct, tion to

go on more economically and

language familiar to students, logic

and an art

;

a science so far as

is

In

efficiently.

both a science

gives an organized

it

and tested descriptive account of the way

which

in

thought actually goes on ; an art, so far as on the basis of this description it projects

methods by which future

thinking shall take advantage of the operations that lead to success

Thus

is

and avoid those which

result in failure.

answered the dispute whether logic

Logic

both.

is

based on a

of empirical material.

They have of

definite

Men

all

It

is

and executive supply?

have been thinking for ages.t

observed, inferred, and reasoned in

ways and to

em-

is

pirical or normative, psychological or regulative.

kinds of results.

all

sorts

Anthropology, the

study of the origin of myth, legend and cult

;

linguistics

and grammar ; rhetoric and former logical compositions all tell

us

how men have thought and what have been

the

purposes and consequences of different kinds of thinking.

Psychology, experimental and pathological, makes

important contributions to our knowledge of how thinking goes on and to what effect.

Especially does the

record of the growth of the various sciences afford instruction in those concrete

ways of inquiry and testing

which have led men astray and which have proved ficacious.

Each

science

ef-

from mathematics to history

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

136

exhibits typical fallacious

methods

cious

in

methods and typical

Logical

subject-matters.

special

effica-

theory has thus a large, almost inexhaustible

of

field

empirical study.

The conventional statement that experience only

how men

us

tells

have thought or do think, while logic

concerned with norms, with ludicrously inept.

Some

how men should

sorts of thinking are

think,

is is

shown by

experience to have got nowhere, or worse than nowhere

—

into systematized delusion

proved

in

and mistake.

Others have

manifest experience that they lead to fruitful

and enduring

discoveries.

It

is

precisely in experience

that the different consequences of different methods of

investigation

The

shown.

and ratiocination are

tween an empirical description of what tive

is

and a norma-

account of what should be merely neglects the most

striking fact

namely,

its

about thinking as

it

empirically

is

flagrant exhibition of cases of failure and

—that

success

Any

convincingly

parrot-like repetition of the distinction be-

is,

of good thinking and bad thinking.

one who considers this empirical manifestation

will

not complain of lack of material from which to construct a regulative art.

The more study that

is

given

to empirical records of actual thought, the more ap-

parent becomes

the

connection between the

specific

features of thinking which have produced failure and success.

Out of

this relationship of

cause and

effect

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION

137

grow the norms and

as it is empirically ascertained

regulations of an art of thinking.

Mathematics

is

often cited as an example of purely

normative thinking dependent upon a priori canons and'

But

supra-empirical material.

it is

hard to

who approaches the matter

student

see

how

historically

the

can

avoid the conclusion that the status of mathematics

Men

as empirical as that of metallurgy.

is

began with

counting and measuring things just as they began with

pounding and burning them. speech profoundly has

it,

—not merely

were successful sense,

One

thing, as

in the

common

Certain ways

led to another.

immediately practical

but in the sense of being interesting, of arousing

attention, of exciting attempts at improvement.

present-day mathematical logician structure of mathematics as if

from the logic.

it

may

had sprung

brain of a Zeus whose anatomy

is

But, nevertheless, this very structure

The

present the all at

once

that of pure is

a product

of long historic growth, in which all kinds of experi-

ments have been tried, in which some men have struck out in this direction.and some in that, and in which some exercises

others in

and operations have resulted triumphant clarifications and

in confusion

and

fruitful growths

a history in which matter and methods have been constantly selected pirical success

The

and worked over on the

and

basis of em-

failure.

structure of alleged normative a priori mathe-

•

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

138

matics

is

crowned result of ages of toilsome

in truth the

The

experience.

metallurgist

who should

write on the

most highly developed method of dealing with ores would not, in truth, proceed fines,

.been is

differently.

He

and organizes the methods which

too selects,

in the

a matter of

applied.

past have

maximum of achievement. Logic profound human importance precisely

is

empir-ically

founded and experimentally

So considered, the problem of logical theory

none other than the problem of the possibility of

development and employment of intelligent method inquiries

concerned with deliberate reconstruction

And

experience. cific

that spect

re-

found to yield the

'jbecause it

is

any

to

in general

of

form to add

such a logic has been developed in

mathematics

gent method, logic,

in

only saying again in more spe-

it is

form what has been said while

the

and physical

re-

intelli-

far to seek in moral and

still

is

science,

political affairs.

Assuming, accordingly, this idea of logic without argument, let us proceed to discuss some of its chief features.

First, light

is

thrown by the origin of think-

ing upon a logic which shall be a method of intelligent

guidance of experience.

In

line

with what has already

been said about experience being a matter primarily of behavior, a sensori-motor matter,

ing takes

its

departure from

ence that occasion perplexity

is

the fact that think-

specific conflicts in experi-

and

trouble.

Men

do not,

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION in their

139

natural estate, think when they have no troubles

to cope with,

no

difficulties

A

to overcome.

life

of ease,

of success without effort, would be a thoughtless

and so also would a

of ready omnipotence.

life

who think are beings whose

ings

Be-

hemmed

so

life is

life,

in

and constricted that they cannot directly carry through, a course of action to victorious consummation.

do not tend to think when their

also

are

amid

action,

Men

when they

dictated to them by authority.

difficulties, is

and

Soldiers have difficulties

restrictions in plenty, but

qua soldiers (as Aristotle would say) they are not notorious for being thinkers.

higher up.

The same

is

Thinking

under present economic conditions. thinking only when thinking

way tion.

out, only

when

it is

is

done for them,

too true of most workingmen

is

Difficulties occasion

the imperative or urgent

the indicated road to a solu-

Wherever external authority

reigns, thinking

is

suspected and obnoxious.

Thinking, however, personal solution of

is

not the only way in which a

difficulties is

sought.

As we have

seen, dreams, reveries, emotional idealizations are roads

which are taken to escape the strain of perplexity and conflict.

According to modern psychology, many sys-

tematized delusions and mental disorders, probably hysteria itself, originate

from troublesome tions

throw into

as devices for getting freedom

conflicting factors. relief

some of the

Such consideratraits essential to

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY.

140

The thinking as a way of responding to difficulty. " of the " get rid alluded to do not solutions short-cut conflict

of

it.

and problems; they only get rid of the feeling They cover up consciousness of it. Because the

conflict remains in fact

and

is

evaded in thought,

dis-

orders arise.

The then

is

first

facing the facts

[scrutinizing,

of thinking

distinguishing characteristic

—

inquiry, minute

observation.

and extensive

Nothing has done greater

Tiarm to the successful conduct of the enterprise of thinking (and to the logics which reflect and formulate the undertaking) than the habit of treating observation as something outside of

and prior to thinking, and

thinking as something which can go on in the head with-

out including observation of new facts as part of

Every approximation to such " thinking "

is

itself.

really an

approach to the method of escape and self-delusion just referred to.

It substitutes

an emotionally agreeable and

rationally self-consistent train of meanings for inquiry into the features of the situation which cause the trouble. It leads to that

type of Idealism which has well been

termed intellectual somnambulism.

It creates a class of

" thinkers "

who are remote from practice and hence from testing their thought by application a socially

—

superior and irresponsible class.

This

is

the condition

causing the tragic division of theory and practice, and leading to an unreasonable exaltation of theory on one

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION and an unreasonable contempt for

side

It confirms

current practice in

dead routines just because

it

it

hard

its

141

on the other.

brutalities

and

has transferred thinking

and theory to a separate and nobler region.

Thus has

the idealist conspired with the materialist to keep actual life

impoverished and inequitable.

The facts

isolation of thinking

from confrontation with

encourages that kind of observation which merely

accumulates brute facts, which occupies

itself labori-

ously with mere details, but never inquires into their

meaning it

and consequences

—a

occupation,

safe

made of

never contemplates any use to be

for

the ob-

served facts in determining a plan for changing the situation.

Thinking which

is

a method of reconstruct-l

ing experience treats observation of facts, on the other

hand, as the indispensable step of defining the problem,

home a

of locating the trouble, of forcing

definite, in-

stead of a merely vague emotional, sense of what the difficulty is

and where

it lies.

It

is

not aimless, random,

miscellaneous, but purposeful, specific the character of the trouble undergone. so to clarify the disturbed

reasonable

When it

is

ways

man appears

merely that he

is

The purpose

is

and confused situation that

of dealing with

the scientific

and limited by

it

may

be suggested.

to observe aimlessly,

so in love with problems as

sources and guides of inquiry, that he

is

striving to turn

up a problem where none appears on the surface: he

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

142 is,

as

we say, hunting for trouble because of the

faction to be

had

coping with

in

satis-

it.

"Specific and wide observation of concrete fact always, then, corresponds not only with a sense of a

but with some vague sense of the meamrngj^i

difficulty,

thejifficulty, that in

of what

is,

subsequent experience.

or prediction of of

what

is

the trouble

is,

signifies

a kind of anticipation

is

We

speak, very truly,

in observing the signs of

what

we are at the same time expecting, fore-

—

in short,

of meaning.

It

imports or

it

coming.

impending trouble, and

casting

problem or

framing an

When

idea,

the trouble

is

becoming aware

not only impending

but completely actual and present, we are overwhelmed.

We do not think, but give way to

depression.

of trouble that occasions thinking

complete and developing,

is

The kind

that which

and where what

is

is in-

found

already in existence can be employed as a sign from

which to infer what

is

likely to come.

When we

intelli-

gently observe, we are, as we say apprehensive, as well as apprehending. still

to come.

We

are on the alert for something

Curiosity, inquiry, investigation, are

rected quite as truly into what as into

what has happened.

the latter

is

an

di-

is

going to happen next

An

intelligent interest in

interest in getting evidence, indications,

symptoms for inferring the former.

Observation

is

diagnosis and diagnosis implies an interest in anticipa-

tion and preparation.

It makes ready in advance an

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION we

attitude of response so that

143

shall not be

caught

unawares.

That which

is

not already in existence, that which

only anticipated and inferred, cannot be observed.

is

It

does not have the status of fact, of something given, a

So far

datum, but of a meaning, an idea. not fancies, framed by emotionalized

as ideas are

memory

for escape

and refuge, they are precisely anticipations of some-| thing

still

to

come aroused by looking

The blacksmith watches

a developing situation. iron, its color is

and texture,

direction

;

symptoms

the scientific

man

;

it

the physician observes

of change in some definite

keeps his attention upon

his laboratory material to get a clue as to what will

The very

happen under certain conditions. observation

is

not an end in

itself

fact that

but a search for

evi-

dence and signs shows that along with observation goes inference,

anticipatory

forecast

—

in

short

an

idea,

thought or conception.

In a more technical context, to see

what

it

would be worth while

light this logical correspondence of observed

and projected idea or meaning throws upon certain traditional philosophical problems and puzzles, includfact

ing that of subject and predicate in judgment, object and subject in knowledge, " real " and " ideal " generally.

But at

this time,

J

his!

to get evidence of what

getting ready to pass into

his patient to detect

into the facts of

we must confine ourselves

to

RECONSTRUCTION IX PHILOSOPHY

144

pointing out that this view of the correlative origin

and function of observed fact and projected idea

in

experience, commits us to some very important conse-

quences concerning the nature of ideas, meanings, conceptions, or whatever

word may be employed to denote

the specifically mental function.

gestions of something that

Because they are sug-

may happen

or eventuate,

they are (as we saw in the case of ideals generally) plat-

forms of response to what

is

The man who

going on.

detects that the cause of his difficulty is

bearing down upon him

may

have

if his

made

is

an automobile

not guaranteed safety

his observation-forecast

too

late.

;

he

But

anticipation-perception comes in season, he has

the basis for doing something which will avert threaten-

ing disaster.

he

f

Because he foresees an impending

may do something

that will lead to the situation

eventuating in some other way.

Wans tion

result,

All intelligent thinking

—

an increment of freedom in action an emancipafatality. " Thought " represents

from chance and

the suggestion of a

way

of response that

from that which would have been followed

is

different

if intelligent

observation had not effected an inference as to the future.

Now

a method of action, a mode of response, intended

to produce a certain result

—that

is,

to enable the black-

smith to give a certain form to his hot iron, the physician to treat the patient so as to facilitate recovery, the

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION scientific

145

experimenter to draw a conclusion which

apply to other cases,

—

tative, uncertain

tested

till

is

will

by the nature of the case ten-

by

The

its results.

signifi-

cance of this fact for the theory of truth will be dis-

cussed below.

Here

theories, systems, sistent

it is

enough to note that notions,

no matter how elaborate and self-con-

they are, must be regarded as hypotheses.

They

are to be accepted as bases of actions which test them,

not as finalities. rigid

To

perceive this fact

dogmas from the world.

It

is

to abolish

to recognize that

is

conceptions, theories and systems of thought are always

open to development through use. lesson that

It

is

we must be on the lookout

to enforce the quite as

much

for indications to alter them as for opportunities to

They

assert them.

As

are tools.

tools, their value resides

in the case of all

not in themselves but in their

capacity to work shown in the consequences of their use.

Nevertheless, inquiry

knowing

is

is

free only

something worth while for

own is

esthetic

and moral

itself,

not self-enclosed and

will

ceived

interest in

final

something having

it

its

Just because knowing

interest.

but

reconstruction of situations, there it

when the

so developed that thinking carries with

is

is

instrumental to

always danger that

be subordinated to maintaining some precon-

purpose or prejudice.

be complete;

it

falls

short.

Then

reflection ceases to

Being precommitted to

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

146

arriving at some special result,

one thing to say that itself,

all

not sincere.

it is

It

is

knowing has an end beyond

and another thing, a thing of a contrary kind, to

say that an act of knowing has a particular end which it is

Much

bound, in advance, to reach.

less is it true

that the instrumental nature of thinking means that

some private, one-sided

exists for the sake of attaining

advantage upon which one has limitation whatever of the end

is

Any in the

It signifies that

it

does not

is

cramped,

itself.

The only

impeded, interfered with.

knowing

set one's heart.

means limitation

growth and movement, but

thinking process attain its full

it

fully stimulated

is

situation in which

one in which the end

is

developed in the process of inquiry and testing. Disinterested and impartial inquiry

meaning that knowing It

means that there

is

self-enclosed

is

is

and

then far from irresponsible.

no particular end

set

up

in

advance so as to shut in the activities of observation, forming of ideas, and application. pated. is

It

is

encouraged

to>

Inquiry

is

emanci-

attend to every fact that

relevant to defining the problem or need, and to follow

up every suggestion that promises a to free inquiry are so

many and

clue.

The

so solid that

barriers

mankind

is

to be congratulated that the very act of investigation

is

capable of

itself

becoming a delightful and absorbing

pursuit, capable of enlisting on its side man's sporting instincts.

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION

147

Just in the degree in which thought ceases to be held'

down

to ends fixed

grows up.

of labor

nant

social custom, a social division

Investigation has become a domi-

occupation for some persons.

life

ficially,

by

Only super-

however, does this confirm the idea that theory

They

and knowledge are ends in themselves.

tively speaking, ends in themselves for

But these persons represent a

are, rela-

some persons.

social division of labor

:

and their specialization can be trusted only when such persons are in unobstructed co-operation with other social occupations, sensitive to

others' problems

and

transmitting results to them for wider application in action.

When

ticularly

engaged

ing

is

this social relationship of persons par-

in carrying

on the enterprise of know-

forgotten and the class becomes isolated, inquiry

loses stimulus

and purpose.

It degenerates into sterile

busy work carried

specialization, a kind of intellectual

Details are heaped

on by socially absent-minded men.

up

in the

name

of science, and abstruse dialectical de-

Then the occupation is " under the lofty name of devotion to own sake. But when the path of true

velopments of systems occur.

" rationalized truth for

its

science

retaken these things are brushed aside and

is

They turn out

forgotten. ings of vain

antee social

of

to

have been the toy-|

The only guar-

and irresponsible men. disinterested

impartial,

sensitiveness

of

the

inquiry

inquirer

to

the

is

the

needs

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

148

'and

problems

of

those

whom he

with

is

asso-

ciated.

As

the

instrumental theory

is

favorable to high

esteem for impartial and disinterested inquiry, so, con-

trary to the impressions of some critics, store

upon the apparatus of deduction.

it

It

is

sets

much

a strange

notion that because one says that the cognitive value of conceptions, definitions, generalizations, classifications

and the development of consecutive implications self-resident, that therefore

is

not

one makes light of the de-

and necesThe instrumental theory only attempts to state

ductive function, or denies its fruitfulness sity.

with some scrupulousness where the value

and to prevent It says that

its

is

found

being sought in the wrong place.

knowing begins with

specific observations

that define the problem and ends with specific observations that test a hypothesis for its solution.

But that

the idea, the meaning, which the original observations

suggest and the final ones test, itself requires careful scrutiny and prolonged development, the theory would be the last to deny.

agency, that

it is

To say

that a locomotive

is

an

intermediate between a need in experi-

ence and

its satisfaction, is not to depreciate the worth of careful and elaborate construction of the locomotive, or the need of subsidiary tools and processes that are

devoted to introducing improvements into

its

structure.

One would rather say that because the locomotive

is

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION

149

intermediary in experience, not primary and not it

is

much care

impossible to devote too

to

final,

con-

its

structive development.

Such a deductive science as mathematics represents

That a method

the perfecting of method.

cerned with

should present

it

own account

itself as

to those con-

an end on

:

;

its

no more surprising than that there

is

for making any tool.

should be a distinct business

Rarely are those who invent and perfect a tool those,

who employ

it.

There

indeed, one

is,

marked

difference

between the physical and the intellectual instrumental-

The development of

ity.

any immediately

perfecting the method sils

of civilization

the latter runs far beyond

visible use.

may

by

The

itself is

artistic interest in

strong

But from the practical standpoint

art.

—as the uten-

themselves become works of finest this difference

shows that the advantage as an instrumentality

Just because

the side of the intellectual tool.

is

a highly generalized tool,

it

is

adaptation to unforeseen uses.

the

more

is

prepared

emergencies,

in

advance for

flexible

all sorts

till

it

in

The

of intellectual

and when the new problem occurs

not have to wait

it is

It can be employed in

dealing with problems that were not anticipated.

mind

not

it is

formed with a special application in mind, because

on

it

does

can get a special instrument

ready.

More

definitely, abstraction

is

indispensable

if

one

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

150

experience

to be

is

applicable in other experiences.

Every concrete experience itself,

called

Taken

non-reduplicable.

yields

it

in its totality

no instruction,

it

abstraction means

something

Take n_by

throws no

it

is

extract ed.

it is

What

light.

some phase of

that

it

is is

gives in grasping

it

itself, it is

a mangled frag-

whole from which

me£tj3_pc^u^sub*titirt^-4arjh^jivm

But viewed

;

in its full concreteness,

selected for~the sake of the aid else.

unique

is

tele ologj cally or

pr actically,

represents the only waj[_jn__whichone experience can

it

be_madeof an y value for anolher

—the

only

which something enlightening can be secured.

way

in

What

is

called false or vicious abstractionism signifies that the

function of the detached fragment

is

forgotten and neg-

lected, so that it is esteemed barely in itself as some-

thing of a higher order than the concrete from which tionally, not

it

muddy and

was wrenched.

structurally

and

irregular

Looked at func-

statically,

abstraction

means that something has been released from one experience for transfer to another.

Abstraction

is

liberation.

The more theoretical, the more abstract, an abstraction, or the farther away it is from anything experienced in its

concreteness, the better fitted

any one of the later

present themselves.

physics were

it

is

to

indefinite variety of things

deal with

that

may

Ancient mathematics and

much nearer the gross concrete experiFor that very reason they were

ence than are modern.

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION more impotent trol over

in affording

any

151

insight into

and con-

such concretes as present themselves

in

new

and unexpected forms. Abstraction and generalization have always been recognized as close kin.

It

and positive

the negative

may

be said that they are

sides of the

same function.

Abstraction sets free some factor so that Generalizatio n

used.

extends. It is

is

I t is alway s in

may

is

some sense a leap

in the dark.

these other cases are individual

The

the concrete bird. to the bat,

and

Since

and concrete they must

trait of flying

This abstraction

it is

in

extracted from one concrete can

be fruitfully extended to another individual case.

be dissimilar.

be

I t carries over and

the use.

There can be no assurance

an adventure.

advance that what

it

is

is

detached from

then carried over

expected in view of the application

of the quality to have some of the other traits of the bird.

This

trivial

instance indicates the essence of

and

also illustrates the riskiness of the

generalization,

proceeding.

It transfers, extends, applies, a result of

some former experience to the reception and interpretation of

a new one.

Deductive processes

define, delimit,

purify and set in order the conceptions through which this enriching

and

directive

operation

is

carried on,

but thev cannot, however perfect, guarantee the outcome.

*

.,

<^' ,v

The pragmatic

,

.

.

value of organization

.

is

so conspicu-

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

152

ously enforced in contemporary

life

that

hardly seems

it

necessary to dwell upon the instrumental significance of

and systematization. When the existence of qualitative and fixed species was denied to be the supreme object of knowledge, classification was often classification

regarded, especially by the empirical school, as merely a linguistic device.

It

was convenient for memory and

communication to have words that sum up a number of particulars.

Classes were supposed to exist only in

Later, ideas were recognized as

speech.

tium quid between things and words.

a kind of

Classes were

teral-

lowed to exist in the mind as purely mental things.

The

critical disposition of empiricism is well exemplified

here.

To

courage a

assign any objectivity to classes was to enbelief in eternal species

and occult

essences

and to strengthen the arms of a decadent and obnoxious science

— a point of view

well illustrated in Locke.

General ideas are useful in economizing

effort, enabling

us to condense particular experiences into simpler and

more

easily carried bunches

identify

and making

easier to

new observations.

So far nominalism and conceptualism that

it

kinds

exist

only

on the right track.

in

words

—the

theory

or in ideas

It emphasized the

—was

teleological

character of systems and classifications, that they exist for the sake of

But

this

economy and

efficiency in

reaching ends.

truth was perverted into a false notion, because

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION the active

and doing

side of experience

158

was denied or

many

Concrete things have ways of acting, as

ignored.

ways of acting as they have points of interaction with other things.

One thing

in the presence of

is

callous, unresponsive, inert

some other things

it is alert,

;

eager,

and on the aggressive with respect to other things; a third case,

it is

receptive, docile.

Now

different

may

of behaving, in spite of their endless diversity,

classed together in view of end.

No

common

sensible person tries to

relationship to

do everything.

has certain main interests and leading aims

an aim

is

be

an

He

by which

To

he makes his behavior coherent and effective.

basis

in

ways

have

Thus a

to limit, select, concentrate, group.

furnished for selecting and organizing things

is

according as their ways of acting are related to carrying forward pursuit. ently

Cherry trees

will

be differ-

grouped by woodworkers, orchardists,

scientists

different

and merry-makers.

classification is

the

artists,

execution of

purposes different ways of acting and re-

acting on the part of trees

of ends

To

may

are important.

Each

be equally sound when the difference

borne in mind.

Nevertheless there

is

a genuine objective standard for

the goodness of special classifications.

One

will further

the cabinetmaker in reaching his end while another will

hamper him. in carrying

One

classification will assist the botanist

on fruitfully

his

work of

inquiry,

and an-

154

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY The

other will retard and confuse him.

teleological

theory of classification does not therefore commit us to the notion that classes are purely verbal or purely

Organization

mental.

is

no more merely nominal or

mental in any art, including the art of inquiry, than it

is

in

The

a department store or railway system.

necessity

of

execution

objective

supplies

criteria.

Things have to be sorted out and arranged so that their

ends.

grouping

promote

will

successful

Convenience, economy and

action

for

are

the

efficiency

bases of classification, but these things are not restricted to verbal

inner

consciousness;

They must take

At

communication with others nor to

the same

they

concern

objective

action.

effect in the world.

time,

a classification

is

not a bare

transcript or duplicate of some finished and done-for

arrangement pre-existing in nature.

It

is

rather a

repertory of weapons for attack upon the future and the unknown.

For

success, the details of past knowl-

edge must be reduced from bare facts to meanings, the fewer, simpler

and more extensive the

must be broad enough

in scope to

better.

They

prepare inquiry to

cope with any phenomenon however unexpected.

They

must be arranged so as not to overlap, for otherwise

when they are applied to new events they interfere and produce confusion. In order that there may be ease and economy

of

movement

in dealing with

the

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION

155

enormous diversity of occurrences that present themselves,

we must be able to move promptly and

from one tool of attack to another.

definitely

In other words,

our various classes and kinds must be themselves classified in cific.

graded

from the larger to the more

series

There must not only be

streets,

spe-

but the streets

must be laid out with reference to facilitating pa ssage from any one tn «.ny nthpr

Cla ssification tra nsforms

a wildernes s of by -waya

ivrpnyi'pnr»n

sys tem

ordered

in inquir y.

to take foresight f or the future selve s in

advance to meet

it

As soon

well-

as

men beg in

and to prepare them -

effectively

ously, the deductive operations in Importance.

—j»te—a

road s, promoting transportation

of

and communication

in

and

an d prosper-

their results gain

In every practical enterprise there are

goods to be produced, and whatever eliminates wasted material and promotes economy and efficiency of pro-

duction

is

precious.

Little time

is

left to

speak of the account of

the',

nature of truth given by the experimental and functional type of logic.

cause this account

is

This

is less

completely a corollary from the If the view held as to

nature of thinking and ideas. the latter

is

to be regretted be-

understood, the conception of truth

lows as a matter of course.

If

it

any attempt to present the theory of truth to be confusing,

and the theory

fol-

be not understood,

itself to

is

bound

seem arbi-

imj RECONSTRUCTION frarj and absurd.

IN PHILOSOPHY

If ideas, meanings, conceptions,

notions, theories, systems are instrumental to

an active

reorganization of the given environment, to a removal

some

of

and value

lies in

they succeed in their

office,

their validity ilf

and perplexity, then the

specific trouble

valid, good, true.

accomplishing this work.

they are

if

sound,

reliable,

If they fail to clear

to eliminate defects,

test of

up

confusion,

they increase confusion, uncer-

tainty and evil when they are acted upon, then are they

Con firmation, corroboratio n, verification lie in Handsome is that handsome does.

false.

--

works^consequences.

By

their fruits shall ye

us truly

ance

is

true

is

—demonstrated capacity

precisely

" truly "

is

tive, true,

That which

know them.

what

is

mean t by truth

guides

for such

gaiK-

The adverb

.

more fundamental than either the adjec-

An

or the noun, truth.

Now an

way, a mod e of acting.

adverb expresses a

idea or conception

is

a claim or injunction or plan to act in a certain way as the

way

to arrive at the clea ring

situation.

When

acted upon

it

o ur end or is

guides us truly or falsely;

away from

of activity induced by

hyp othesis

truth pf

it.

is

specific

t hat

it,

it lies all its

works

is

it

is

leads us to

dynamic function

Its active,

the all-important thing about

T he

up of a

the claim or pretension or plan

and

in the quality

truth and falsity.

the

true

on e:

and

an abstract noun applie d to the collection

cases,

actuaja-^jmaaseeji^ ancl~~desir^d,

that

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION confirmation

receive

and

works

their

in

157 conse-j '

quences.

So wholly does the worth of

this conception of truth

depend upon the correctness of the prior account of thinking that

it

more

is

profitable to consider

expound

the conception gives offence than to

Part of the reason why

own account.

found so obnoxious in its statement.

is

doubtless

Too

it

why

on

its

has been

it

novelty and defects

its

often, for example,

has been thought of as satisfaction,

it

when truth

has been thought

of as merely emotional satisfaction, a private comfort,

But

a meeting of purely personal need. tion in question

the satisfac-

means a satisfaction of the needs and

conditions of the problem out of which the idea, the

purpose and method of action, public and objective conditions. ulated

mean

profit

heart.

makes

is

It includes

not to be manip-

by whim or personal idiosyncrasy.

when truth to

arises.

It

is

defined as utility, it

utility

often thought

for some purely personal end, some

upon which a particular

So repulsive it

is

Again

is

individual has set his

a conception of truth which

a mere tool of private ambition and ag-

grandizement, that the wonder

is

that critics have

attributed such a notion to sane men. fact, truth as utility

means

service in

As matter

of

making just that

contribution to reorganization in experience that th e idea or theory claims to be able to make.

The

usefulness

158

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

of a road

is

not measured by the degree in which

to the purposes of a highwayman.

lends itself

measured by whether a means of easy

and

communication.

it

is

actually functions as a road, as

effective public transportation

and

so with the serviceableness of

And

it

It

an

idea or hypothesis as a measure of its truth. superficial misunderstand-

Turning from such rather ings,

we

find, I think,

the chief obstacle to the recep-

tion of this notion of truth in an inheritance from the classic tradition that

men's minds.

has become so deeply engrained in

In just the degree in which existence

is

divided into two realms, a higher one of perfect being

and a lower one of seeming, phenomenal, reality, truth

made

and

falsity are

thought of as

fixed,

static properties of things themselves.

Reality

is

deficient

ready-

Supreme

true Being, inferior and imperfect Reality

false Being.

It

makes claims to Reality which

not substantiate.

It

is

unworthy of trust and

it

is

can-

deceitful, fraudulent, inherently belief.

Beliefs are false not be-

cause they mislead us; they are not mistaken ways of thinking.

They are

false because they

here to false existences or subsistences.

admit and adOther notions

—

are true because they do have to do with true Being

with

full

and ultimate Reality.

Such a notion

the back of the head of every one

who has,

lies

at

in however

an indirect way, been a recipient of the ancient and medieval tradition.

This view

is

radically challenged

by

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION

159

the pragmatic conception of truth,

and the impossibility

of reconciliation or compromise

I think, the cause of

the shock occasioned

is,

by the newer theory.

This contrast, however, constitutes the importance of the

new theory as well as the unconscious obstruction

The

to its acceptance.

older conception worked out

practically to identify truth with authoritative

dogma.

A

growth

society that chiefly esteems order, that finds

t

painful and change disturbing, inevitably seeks for a fixed

body of superior truths upon which

It looks

backward, to something already

and sanction of

for the source

upon what

•eventual,

truth.

may

depend.

in existence,

It falls

back

antecedent, prior, original, a priori, for

is

Th e

assurance.

fear.

it

thought of looking ahead, toward

the',

toward consequences, creates uneasiness and

It disturbs the sense of rest that

is

attached to

theideas of fixed Truth already in existence.

It puts

a jieavy burden of responsibility upon us for sear ch, unremitting hypotheses

observation,

and thoroughgoing

m atter s men cific

development

t esting.

of

In physical

have slowly grown accustomed

in all s pe-

beliefs to ide ntifying the true with the ver ified.

But they

still

hesitate to recognize the implication of

this identification

from

scrupulous

it.

For

and to derive the

while

commonplace that

it is

definition of truth

nominally agreed upon as a

definitions

ought to spring from con-

crete and specific cases rather than be invented in the

\

160

empty

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY and imposed upon particulars, there

air

strange unwillingness to act upon the truth.

To

means_the

njenthe

maxim

is

a

in defining

generalize thp rprngnition that th e true

verified

and means nothing_else-places upon

r esponsibility for surrend ering political

and

moral dogmas^ and subjecting to the test o f" consequences their most

irejud ices.

Such a change

involves a great change in the seat of authority

methods of decision fruits of the

newer

lowing lectures.

in society.

Some

and the

of them, as

first

logic, will be considered in the fol-

CHAPTER

VII

RECONSTRUCTION IN MORAL CONCEPTIONS The

impact of the alteration in methods of

thinking

upon moral

ideas

is,

Goods, ends are multiplied. principles,

general,

in

scientific

obvious.

Rules are softened into

and principles are modified into methods of

u nderstanding.

theory

Ethical

began

among

the

Greeks as an attempt to find a regulation for the conduct of

life

which should have a rational basis and

purpose instead of being derived from custom.

But

reason as a substitute for custom was under the obligation of supplying objects

custom had been.

to discover

some

and_supreme law.

by the notion that

its

business

fin al

end or good or some ultimate

This

is

the diversity of theories. is

fixed as those of

Ethical theory ever since has been'

singularly hypnotized is

and laws as

common element among* Some have held that the end the

loyalty or obedience to a higher power or authority

and they have variously found

this higher principle in

Divine Will, the will of the secular ruler, the maintenance of institutions in which the purpose of superiors is

embodied, and the rational consciousness of duty. But

they have differed from one another because there was 161

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

162

one point in which they were agreed

is

impossible

conformity to law-giving power,

to locate morality in it

a single and final

Others have asserted that' it

source of law.

and that

:

must be sought

in ends that are goods.

And

some have sought the good in self-realization, some holiness, sible

some

in happiness,

some

aggregate of pleasures.

in the greatest pos-

And

yet these schools

have agreed in the assumption that there fixed

and

final

They have been

good.

in

a single,

is

able

to

dis-

pute with one another only because of their common premise.

The

question arises whether the

fusion and conflict

way

out of the con-

not to go to the root of the

is

matter by questioning this common ejement. belief in the single, final

ceived as

Is not the

and ultimate (whether con-

good or as authoritative law) an

product of that feudal organization which

is

intellectual

disappear-

ing historically and of that belief in a bounded, ordered cosmos, wherein rest

is

higher than motion, which has

disappeared from natural science?

It has been

re-

peatedly suggested that the present limit of intellectual reconstruction

lies in

the fact that

it

has not as yet

been seriously applied in the moral and social disciplines.

Would not

precisely that

this

we advance

further application demand to a belief in a plurality of

changing, moving, individualized goods and ends, and to a belief that principles, criteria, laws are intellectual

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION

163

instruments for analyzing individual or unique situations ?

The blunt

assertion that every moral situation

unique situation having

its

own

irreplaceable good

seem not merely blunt but preposterous. established tradition teaches that

irregularity of special cases which

it

is

is

For the

precisely the

makes necessary the

guidance of conduct by universals, and that the sence of the virtuous disposition

a

may

es-

willingness to sub-

is

ordinate every particular case to adjudication by a It would then follow that submission

fixed principle.

of

a generic end and law to determination by the

concrete situation entails complete confusion and unrestrained licentiousness.

pragmatic

rule,

and

of the idea ask for

Let

us, however, follow the

meaning

in order to discover the

its

consequence s.

ingly turns out that the

primary

Then

surpris-*

it

significance of the

unique and morally ultimate character of the concrete situation

is

to

transfer

morality to intelligence. bility; it

only locates

it.

the

weight and burden of

It does not destroy responsi-

A

moral situation

is

one in

which judgment and choice are required antecedently to overt action.

—that

is

It has to be searched for.

flicting desires

needed

of the situation

to say the action needed to satisfy

self-evident.

is

The practical meaning

is

it

—

is

not

There are con-

and alternative apparent goods.

What

to find the right course of action, the right

^

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY Hence, inquiry

good. detailed

is

makeup of the

exacted: observation of the

diverse factors; clarification of

into

analysis

situation;

what

is

its

obscure; dis-

counting of the more insistent and vivid traits

;

tracing

the consequences of the various modes of action that

suggest themselves

;

regarding the decision reached as

hypothetical and tentative until the anticipated or sup-

posed consequences which led to

its

squared with actual consequences. telligence.

Our moral

failures

adoption have been

This inquiry

in-

go back to some weak-

ness of disposition, some absence of sympathy, sided bias that

is

some one-

makes us perform the judgment of the

concrete case carelessly or perversely.

Wide sympathy,

keen sensitiveness, persistence in the face of the disagreeable, balance of interests enabling us to undertake

the work of analysis and decision intelligently are the distinctively

moral

traits

—the

virtues or moral excel-,

lencies.

It

issue

is

worth noting once more that the underlying

is,

after

all,

only the same as that which has been

already threshed out in physical inquiry.

long seemed as

if

There too

it

rational assurance and demonstration

could be attained only

if we began with universal conand subsumed particular cases under them. The men who initiated the methods of inquiry that are

ceptions

now everywhere adopted were denounced

in their day (and sincerely) as subverters of truth and foes of

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION If they have

science.

won

in the end, it

165 because, as

is

has already been pointed out, the method of universals

confirmed prejudices and sanctioned ideas that had

gained currency irrespective of evidence for them placing the initial and final weight

upon the

In the end,

while

individual

case, stimulated painstaking inquiry into facts

amination of principles.

;

and ex-

loss of eternal

truths was more than compensated for in the accession

The

of quotidian facts.

and

up

fixed definitions

for

loss of the

system of superior

and kinds was more than made

by the growing system

and laws we are only"

of hypotheses

After

used in classifying facts.

all,

then,

pleading for the adoption in moral reflection of the

proved to make for security,

logic that has been

strin-

gency and fertility in passing judgments upon physical

phenomena.

And

the reason

method in spite of

the

is

operation

of

the same.

The

old

nominal and esthetic worship

discouraged reason,

reason

of

its

scrupulous

because

and

it

hindered

unremitting

in-

quiry.

More moral

definitely, the transfer of the

life

from following

rules or pursuing fixed ends

over to the detection of the special case

burden of the'

ills

that need remedy in a

and the formation of plans and methods for

dealing with them, eliminates the causes which have

kept moral theory controversial, and which have also kept it remote from helpful contact with the exigencies

166

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

of practice.

The theory

of fixed ends inevitably leads

thought into the bog of disputes that cannot be settled. If there is it?

is

To

summum bonum,

one

consider this

problem

one supreme end, what to place ourselves in

is

the midst of controversies that are as acute

were two thousand years ago. ingly

now

as they

Suppose we take a seem-

more empirical view, and say that while there

not a single end, there also are not as

many

is

as there are

specific situations that require amelioration;

but there

are a number of such natural goods as health, wealth,

honor or good name, friendship, esthetic appreciation, learning and such moral goods as justice, temperance,

What

benevolence, etc. of

way when

or who

is

to decide the right

these ends conflict with one another, as they

are sure to do?

Shall

we resort

to the

method that

once brought such disrepute upon the whole business of ethics: Casuistry?

what Bentham well

Or

shall

we have recourse

called the ipse dixit

to

method: the

arbitrary preference of this or that person for this or

that end?

Or

shall

we be forced to arrange them

all in

an order of degrees from the highest good down to the least precious?

Again we

find ourselves in the middle

of unreconciled disputes with no indication of the

way

out.

Meantime, the special moral perplexities where the aid of intelligence

is

required go unenlightened.

We

cannot seek or attain health/ wealth, learning, justice

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION or kindness in general.

Action

is

always

And

crete, individualized, unique.

167

specific, con-

consequently judg-

ments as to acts to be performed must be similarly

To

specific. is

say that a

man

seeks health or justice

only to say that he seeks to live healthily or justly.

These things, like truth, are adverbial. fiers

of action in special cases.

or justly '

It varies

is

a matter which

How

differs

They

are modi-

to live healthily

with every person.

with his past experience, his opportunities, his

temperamental and acquired weaknesses and

Not man

in general

but a particular

some particular disability aims to

man

abilities.

suffering

from

live healthily,

and

consequently health cannot mean for him exactly what

means for any other mortal.

Healthy

living

is

it

not some-

thing to be attained by itself apart from other ways of

A man needs

living.

from

of his

to be healthy in his

life,

not apart

mean except the aggregate pursuits and activities? A man who aims at

it,

and what does

life

health as a distinct end becomes a valetudinarian, or a fanatic, or

a mechanical performer of

exercises, or

an

athlete so one-sided that his pursuit of bodily develop-

ment realize

"When

endeavor

to

a so-called end does not temper and color

all

injures

his

heart.

the

is

portioned out into strips and

fractions. Certain acts

and times are devoted to getting

other activities,

life

health, others to cultivating religion, others to seeking

learning, to being a

good

citizen,

a devotee of

fine

art

— EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

168

and so on. ordinating

This all

the only logical alternative to sub-

aims to the accomplishment of one alone

This

fanaticism.

is

is

out of fashion at present, but who

can say how much of distraction and dissipation in

and how much of

its

hard and narrow rigidity realize that

outcome of men's failure to has

its

all

life,

the

each situation

own unique end and that the whole personality Surely, once more, what a

should be concerned with it?

man

is

needs

is to live healthily,

the activities of his

and

that

life

it

this result so affects

cannot be set up as

a separate and independent good. Nevertheless the general notions of health, disease, justice, artistic culture are of great

however, because this or that case

importance: Not,

may

haustively under a single head and

be brought exspecific traits

its

shut out, but because generalized science provides a

man

as physician and artist

and

citizen,

with questions

to ask, investigations to make, and enables him to

understand the meaning of what he degree in which a physician uses his science, no matter

is

how

sees.

an artist

Just in the

in his

work he

extensive and accurate,

to furnish him with tools of inquiry into the individual case,

and with methods of forecasting a method of

dealing with

how great

it.

Just in the degree in which, no matter

his learning,

he subordinates the individual

case to some classification of diseases and some generic rule of treatment, he sinks to the level of the routine

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION His intelligence and

mechanic.

dogmatic, instead of free and

Moral goods and ends

The

to be done.

his action

169

become

rigid,

flexible.

exist only

when something has

fact that something has to be done

proves that there are deficiencies, evils in the existent

This

situation.

never

is

ill is

just the specific

ill

an exact duplicate of anything

that

It

it is.

Conse-

else.

quently the good of the situation has to be discovered,

projected and attained on the basis of the exact defect

and trouble to be

rectified.

injected into the situation

It cannot intelligently be

from without.

Yet

it is

the

part of wisdom to compare different cases, to gather together the

ills

from which humanity

suffers,

and to

generalize the corresponding goods into classes. Health, wealth,

industry,

temperance,

amiability,

courtesy,

learning, esthetic capacity, initiative, courage, patience, enterprise,

thoroughness and a multitude of other gen-

eralized ends are

of

this

acknowledged as goods.

systematization

is

intellectual

Classifications suggest possible traits to

But

the value

or

analytic.

be on the look-

out for in studying a particular case; they suggest

methods of action to be tried in removing the inferred causes of in

ill.

They

are tools of insight

;

their value

promoting an individualized response in the

is

indi-

vidual situation.

Morals

is

not a catalogue of acts nor a set of rules

to be applied like drugstore prescriptions or cook-book

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

170

The need

"recipes.

of inquiry

in

morals

for specific methods

is

and of contrivance: Methods of inquiry to and evils; methods of contrivance to

locate difficulties

form plans to be used as working hypotheses with them.

And

in dealing

the pragmatic import of the logic

of individualized situations, each having its

own

irre-

placeable good

and

tion of theory

from preoccupation with general con-

principle,

is

to transfer the atten-

ceptions to the problem of developing effective methods of inquiry.

Two

ethical consequences of great

moment should

be

The belief

in fixed values has bred a division

of ends into intrinsic

and instrumental, of those that

remarked.

are really worth while in themselves of importance only as it is

means to

and those that

intrinsic goods.

often thought to be the very beginning of wisdom,

of moral discrimination, to

make

this distinction.

lectically, the distinction is interesting less. is

are

Indeed,

But carried

tragic.

into practice

Historically,

justification of a

it

it

Dia-

and seems harm-

has an import that

has been the source and

hard and fast difference between

ideal

goods on one side and material goods on the other.

At present those who would be

liberal conceive intrinsic

goods as esthetic in nature rather than as exclusively religious or as intellectually contemplative. effect is the same.

But

the

So-called intrinsic goods, whether

religious or esthetic, are divorced

from those

interests

MOEAL RECONSTRUCTION

which because of their constancy and

daily life

of

171

urgency form the preoccupation of the great mass. Aristotle used this distinction to declare that slaves the

and

working class though they are necessary for the

state

—the

—are

commonweal

That which

cannot command either

it

;

or moral attention and respect.

becomes unworthy whenever sically

it.

regarded as merely instrumental must

is

approach drudgery tual, artistic

not constituents of

lacking worth.

Anything

thought of as intrin-

it is

So men

intellec-

of " ideal " interests have

way

of neglect and escape. " The urgency and pressure of lower " ends have been

chosen for the most part the

covered

up by

polite conventions.

Or, they have been

relegated to a baser class of mortals in order that the

few might be free to attend to the goods that are really or intrinsically

worth

This withdrawal,

while.

name of higher ends, has

left,

for

in the

mankind at large and

especially for energetic " practical " people the lower activities in

No

complete command.

one can possibly estimate how much of the ob-

noxious materialism and brutality of our economic

life

due to the fact that economic ends have been

re-

is

garded as merely instrumental. nized to be as intrinsic

and

When

they are recog-

final in their place as

any

others, then it will be seen that they are capable of idealization,

and that

must acquire

ideal

if life is

and

to be worth while, they

intrinsic value.

Esthetic, re-

172

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

ligious

and other "

ideal " ends are

now

thin and meagre

or else idle and luxurious because of the separation from " instrumental " or economic ends. Only in connection

with the latter can they be woven into the texture of daily

life

and made substantial and pervasive.

The

van-

ity and irresponsibility of values that are merely final

and not

also in turn

means to the enrichment of other

occupations of life ought to be obvious. But now the doctrine of " higher " ends gives aid, comfort and sup-

port to every socially isolated and socially irrespon-

and

sible scholar, specialist, esthete

his calling

is

from

The moral

observation by others and by himself. ficiency of the calling

It pro-

religionist.

and irresponsibility of

tects the vanity

de-

transformed into a cause of

admiration and gratulation.

The all

other generic change

lies

in doing

away once

for

with the traditional distinction between moral goods,

like the virtues,

and natural goods

security, art, science

under discussion

is

like.

of view

it.

Some excel-

and endeavored to abolish

character as of value only beeause

they promote natural goods.

that

The point

gone so far as to regard moral

lencies, qualities of

logic

economic

not the only one which has deplored

this rigid distinction

schools have even

and the

like health,

But the experimental

when carried into morals makes every quality judged to be good according as it contributes

is

to amelioration of existing

ills.

And

in so doing, it

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION

17S

meaning of natural science. When said and done in criticism of present social de-

enforces the moral all is

may

one

ficiencies,

culty does not

lie

wonder whether the root

well

in the separation of natural

When physics,

moral science.

and

chemistry, biology, medi-

contribute to the detection of concrete

cine,

diffi-

human

woes and to the development of plans for remedying

them and relieving the human estate, they become moral they become part of the apparatus of moral inquiry or science.

The

didactic

and pedantic;

tory tone. its

latter then loses its peculiar flavor of the

But the gain

is

its

is

science.

divorce from humanity;

humanistic in quality.

called truth for its

It

is

it

something to

way

and

specialized

own

sake, but with the

be pursued not in a technical

what

shrillness as well as

not confined to the side of moral

Natural science loses itself

and

and horta-

It gains agencies that are efficacious.

vagueness.

becomes

its ultra-moralistic

It loses its thinness

for

sense of its social bearing, its intellectual indispensableness.

It

is

technical only in the sense that

the technique of social

When

the

provides

and moral engineering.

the consciousness of science

nated with

it

is

fully

impreg-

of human value, the now weighs h uman ity_down,

consciousness

greatest dualism which

the split between the materi al, the mechanica l^thejcjentific

and the moral and

forces that

now waver

ideal will be destroyed.

Human

because of this division will be

174

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

unified

and

reinforced.

as ends are not thought

As long

of as individualized according to specific needs and opportunities, the

mind

be content with abstrac-

will

tions, and the adequate stimulus to the moral or social

use

natural

of

lacking.

science

and historical data

But when attention

is

will

be

concentrated upon the

diversified concretes, recourse to all intellectual materials

needed to clear up the special cases will be imperative.

At

the same time that morals are things

intelligence,

intellectual

made

to focus in

are moralized.

The

vexatious and wasteful conflict between naturalism and

humanism These First ,

:

is

terminated.

general

considerations

may

be

amplified.

Inquiry, discovery take the same place in morals

that they have

come to occupy

validation, demonstration

ter of consequences. in ethics,

in sciences of nature,

become experimental, a mat-!

Reason, always an honorific term

becomes actualized in the methods by which

the needs and conditions, the obstacles and resources, of situations are scrutinized in detail,

and

Remote and

plans of improvement are worked out. abstract generalities promote

" anticipations of nature."

jumping at

Bad

intelligent

conclusions,

consequences are then

deplored as due to natural perversity and untoward fate.

But

situation

shifting the issue to analysis

makes inquiry obligatory and

tion of consequences imperative.

No

"of

a specific

alert observa-

past decision nor

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION old principle can ever be wholly relied

No amount

course of action.

its

upon to justify a

of pains taken in form-

ing a purpose in a definite case

quences of

175

is

final; the conse-

adoption must be carefully noted, and

f

purpose held only as a working hypothesis until results confirm

its

Mistakes are no longer either

Tightness.

mere unavoidable accidents to be mourned or moral sins to be expiated

and forgiven.

wrong methods of using

They

intelligence

are lessons in

and instructions

They

as to a better course in the future.

are indica-

tions of the need of revision, development, readjust-

Ends

ment.

grow,

Man

improved.

is

standards

of

judgment

are

under just as much obligation to

develop his most advanced standards and ideals as to use conscientiously those which he already possesses.

Moral

life is

protected from falling into formalism and

rigid repetition.

It

is

rendered

flexible, vital,

growing.

In the second place, every case where moral action

is

required becomes of equal moral importance and urgency,

with every other.

If the need and deficiencies of a

specific situation indicate

improvement of health as the

end and good, then for that^ situation health

mate and supreme good. thing thing

It

else. is

a

final

and

It

is

the ulti-

intrinsic value.

The same

true of improvement of economic status, of

making a demands

is

is

no means to some-

living, of attending to business

—

all

and family

of the things which under the sanction of

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

176

have been rendered of secondary and merely instrumental value, and so relatively base and unimfixed ends

portant.

Anything that

and good at

all is

a given situation

in

of equal worth, rank

is

an end

and dignity with

every other good of any other situation, and deserves the

same

We

intelligent attention.'

note thirdly the effect in destroying the roots of

We are so

Phariseeism.

accustomed to thinking of

as deliberate hypocrisy that we overlook

The

premises.

this

its intellectual

conception which looks for the end of

action within the circumstances of the actual situation will not have the cases.

When

same measure of judgment for

one factor of the situation

is

all

a person of

trained mind and large resources, more will be expected

than with a person of backward mind and uncultured experience.

The absurdity

of applying the same stand-

ard of moral judgment to savage peoples that

is

used

with civilized will be apparent. I No individual or group will

be judged by whether they come

of some fixed result, but

are moving.

by the

The bad man

is

up

to or fall short

direction in which they

the

man who no

matter

how good he has been is beginning to deteriorate, to grow less good. The good man is the man who no matter how morally unworthy he has been is moving to become

better.

Such a conception makes one severe

judging himself and humane in judging others. excludes

that

arrogance which always

in

It

accompanies

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION

177

judgment based on degree of approximation to

fixed

ends.

In the fourth place, the process of growth, of in?

provement and progress, rather than the static outcome

and

result,

becomes the significant thing. \Not health

as an end fixed once

and for

all,

but the needed im-

provement in health—'a continual process

and good.

The end

be reached.

It

is

is

—

the end

is

no longer a terminus or

limit to

the active process of transforming

the existent situation./

Not

perfection as a final goal,

but the ever-enduring process, of perfecting, maturing, refining is the

aim

in living.

perance, justice, like health,

/

Honesty, industry, tem-

wealth and learning, are

not goods to be possessed as they would be pressed fixed ends to be attained.

They

of change in J:he quality of experience.^ is

the only moral " end." / Although the bearing of this idea

of evil

mism evil

is

Growth

upon

itself

upon the problem

too vast to be here discussed,

ceases to be is

they ex-

and the controversy between optimism and

while to touch

and

if

are d irections

it superficially.

it

may

pessi-

be worth

The problem

a theological and metaphysical

of i

one,

perceived to be the practical problem of reducing,

alleviating, as far as

Philosophy

is

may

be removing, the evils of

no longer under obligation

genious methods for proving that

evils

j

life. J

to find in-

are only ap-

parent, not real, or to elaborate schemes for explaining

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

178

them away "sumes

worse yet, for justifying them.

or,

another obligation:

however humble a way

—That

of contributing in

to methods that will assist us

in

Pessimism

is

In declaring that the world

is

discovering the causes of humanity's a"

paralyzing doctrine.

makes

evil wholesale, it

It as-

ills.

futile all efforts to discover the

remediable causes of specific evils and thereby destroys at the root every attempt to

happier.

make the world

sequence of the attempt to explain

an

equally

After

evil

is,

however,

the optimism that says that the world

all,

all

If this

is

the best

what would a world which was fundamentally

like?

Meliorism

is

the belief that the specific

conditions which exist at one

moment, be they com-

paratively bad or comparatively good, in any event

means of good and the obstructions to

realization,

It arouses confidence

able hopefulness as optimism does not. in declaring that reality tends to

cretely exist. live

their

and to put forth endeavor for the improve-

ment of conditions.

who

may

It encourages intelligence to study the

be bettered. positive

is

worlds might be regarded

as the most cynical of pessimisms.

bad be

away,

incubus.

already the best possible of

possible,

better and

Wholesale optimism, which has been the con-

good

is

make us

It

and a reason-

For

the latter

already realized in ultimate

gloss over the evils that con-

becomes too readily the creed of those

at ease, in comfort, of those

who have been

sue-

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION cessful in obtaining this world's rewards.

optimism makes the men who hold

y

179

Too

callous

it

readily

and blind

to the sufferings of the less fortunate, or ready to find

the cause of troubles of others in their personal viciousness.

It thus co-operates with pessimism, in spite of

the extreme nominal differences between the two, in

benumbing sympathetic insight and It beckons

in reform.

intelligent

men away from

effort

the world of

and change into the calm of the absolute and

relativity eternal.

The import

many of these changes

of

focusses in the idea of happiness.

been the

made

most

in

moral attitude

Happiness has often

the object of the moralists' contempt.

Yet

ascetic moralist has usually restored the idea

under some other name, such as

of happiness

bliss.

Goodness without happiness, valor and virtue without satisfaction, ends without conscious

enjoyment

—these

things are as intolerable practically as they are self-

contradictory in conception. Happiness

a bare possession a happiness

;

it is

unworthy

selfishness

moralists have so bitterly condemned, or labelled bliss, relief

from

an

all

only the most

not, however,

not a fixed attainment.

either the

is

is

it is,

Such which even

if

insipid tedium, a millennium of ease in

struggle and labor.

It could satisfy

delicate of molly-coddles.

found only in success

;

Happiness

is

but success means succeeding,

getting forward, moving in advance.

It is _an jjCtjye

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

180

Accordingly

process, not a passive outcome.

it

in-

eludes the overcoming of obstacles, the elimination ot

sources of defect

and

Esthetic sensitiveness and

ill;

enjoyment are a large constituent

in

any worthy happi-

But the esthetic appreciation which is totally separated from renewal of spirit, from re-creation of mind and purification of emotion is a weak and sickly ness.

thing, destined to speedy death

That

from starvation.

the renewal and re-creation come unconsciously not by set intention

Upon

but makes them the more genuine.

marked the

the whole, utilitarianism has

in the transition

from the

goods to that which merits.

It

generalities,

is

classic

now

theory of ends and

possible.

It

had

definite

upon getting away from vague

insisted

and down to the

subordinated law to

best

specific

and concrete.

human achievement

ordinating humanity to external law.

It

instead of subIt taught that

made for man and not man for institupromoted all issues of reform. It made moral good natural, humane, in touch with the institutions are

tions;

it

actively

natural goods of worldly morality.

life.

It opposed unearthly and other

Above

all, it

acclimatized in

human

imagination the idea of social welfare as a supreme

But

it

was

still

test.

profoundly affected in fundamental

points by old ways of thinking. idea of a fixed, final

It never questioned the

and supreme end.

It only ques-

tioned the current notions as to the nature of this

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION

181

end; and then inserted pleasure and the greatest possible

aggregate of pleasures in the position of the fixed

end.

Such a point of view treats concrete specific interests

activities

and

not as worth while in themselves, or as

constituents of happiness, but as mere external means to

getting pleasures.

The upholders

of the old tradition

could therefore easily accuse utilitarianism of making not only virtue but art, poetry, religion and the state into

mere

its

means of attaining sensuous enjoy-

Since pleasure was an outcome, a result valuable

ments.

on

servile

own account independently

that achieve

of the active processes

happiness was a thing to be possessed

it,

The

and held onto.

exaggerated at the expense of the creative.

was of importance not because of the invention <

man were

acquisitive instincts of

Production

intrinsic

worth of

and reshaping the world, but because

its

external results feed pleasure.

Like every theory that

and

making the end passive

sets

up

fixed

and possessive,

Labor

was

it

an

final

made

aims, in

all active

unavoidable

operations mere tools.

evil

to

be

minimized.

(,

L

Security in possession was the chief thing practically.

Material ^oinfofF^nd ease were magnified in contrast with the pains and risk of experimental creation.

These

deficiencies,

under certain conceivable condi-

might have remained merely theoretical. But the disposition of the times and the interests of those who

tions,

'

KECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

182

propagated the utilitarian ideas, endowed them with In spite of the power of the

[jpower for social harm.

new

ideas in attacking old social abuses, there were

elements in the teaching which operated or protected to

The reforming

sanction new social abuses.

shown

in criticism of the evils inherited

system of feudalism,

But

evils

from the

class

economic, legal and political.

the new economic order of capitalism that was

superseding feudalism brought it,

was

zeal

and some of these

up or

defend.

session of

ills

own

its

social evils with

utilitarianism tended to cover

The emphasis upon

acquisition and pos-

enjoyments took on an untoward color

in

connection with the contemporary enormous desire for

wealth and the enjoyments

it

makes

If utilitarianism did not actively

economic materialism,

it

possible.

promote the new

had no means of combating

it.

Its general spirit of subordinating productive activity

to the bare product

was indirectly favorable to the

cause of an unadorned commercialism.

In spite of

its

interest in a thoroughly social aim, utilitarianism fos-

tered a

new

class

interest,

that of the capitalistic

property-owning interests, provided only property was obtained through free competition and not by govern-

mental favor.

The

stress

that

Bentham put on

se-

curity tended to consecrate the legal institution of

private property provided only certain legal abuses in

connection

with

its

acquisition

and

transfer

were

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION Beati possidentes

abolished.

—provided

183

possessions had

been obtained in accord with the rules of the competitive

game

—without, Thus

government.

that

extraneous favors from

is,

utilitarianism gave intellectual con-

firmation to all those tendencies which

make " business "

not a means of social service and an opportunity for

personal growth in creative power but a

way

means of private enjoyments.

lating the

ethics thus afford

of accumu-

Utilitarian

a remarkable example of the need

of philosophic reconstruction which these lectures have

been presenting.

Up

to a certain point,

it

reflected the

meaning of modern thought and aspirations.

But

it

down by fundamental ideas of that very order which it thought it had completely left behind: was

The

still

tied

idea of a fixed

diversity of

and

single end lying

human needs and

beyond the

acts rendered utilitarian-

ism incapable of being an adequate representative of the

modern

spirit.

It has to be

emancipation from If a few it is

its

.

reconstructed through

inherited elements.

words are added upon the topic of education,

only for the sake of suggesting that the educative |

process

is all

one with the moral process, since the latter

a continuous passage of experience from worse to Education has been traditionally thought of as better.

<

is

preparation: as learning, acquiring certain things because they will later be useful. The end is remote, and education

is

getting ready,

is

a preliminary to some-

?

i J

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

184

thing more important to happen later on. only a preparation for adult

janother

life,

Childhood

and adult

life

is

for

Always the future, not the present, has

life.

ibeen the significant thing in education: Acquisition of

knowledge and

for future use and enjoyment;

skill

formation of habits required later in

good

and pursuit of

citizenship

life in business,

Education

science.

is

thought of also as something needed by some human beings merely because of their dependence

We

upon

others.

are born ignorant, unversed, unskilled, immature,

and consequently

in

a state of

social dependence.

struction, training, moral discipline are processes

In-

by

which the mature, the adult, gradually raise the helpless

The

to the point where they can look out for themselves.

is to grow into the independby means of the guidance of those who have already attained it. Thus the process of

business of childhood

ence of adulthood

education as the main business of

life

ends when the

young have arrived at emancipation from

social de-

pendence.

These two

ideas, generally

plicitly reasoned out,

assumed but rarely ex-

contravene the conception that

growing, or the continuous reconstruction of experience, is

the only end.

a person, he is

If at whatever period

is still

we choose'tcTtake

in process of growth, then education

not, save as a by-product, a preparation for some-

thing coming later. Getting from the present the degree

MORAL RECONSTRUCTION and kind of growth there is

is in it is

185

education.

a constant function, independent of age.

This

jThe best

thing that can be said about any special process of education, like that of the formal school period, it

renders

its

that

is

subject capable of further education:

more sensitive to conditions of growth and more able to take advantage of them. (Acquisition of

skill,

possession

of knowledge, attainment of culture are not ends

marks of growth and means to

are

The

its continuing.

contrast usually assumed between the period

of education as one of social dependence as one of social independence does

over fine

and over that man

is

and of maturity

harm.

We

repeat

a social animal, and then con-

the significance of this statement to the sphere in

which sociality usually seems least evident,

The heart of the

sociality of

man

idea of education as preparation fixed limit of

untruth. the

they

:

young

growth are two

is

politics.

The

in education.

and of adulthood as a

sides of the

same obnoxious

If the moral business of the adult as well as is

a growing and developing

experience, then

the instruction that comes from social dependencies and

interdependencies are as important for the adult as for the child. rest of

Moral independence

for the adult means ar-

growth, isolation means induration.

We

exag-

gerate the intellectual dependence of childhood so that children are too

much kept

in leading strings,

we exaggerate the independence of adult

life

and then

from

inti-

186

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

macy of

contacts and communication with others.

When

the identity of the moral process with the processes of specific

growth

is

realized,

the more conscious

formal education of childhood

most economical and

efficient

and reorganization, and

will

social advance

also be evident that the

the institutions; of adult

test of all

be seen to be the

means of

it will

and

life is their effect in

Government, business,

furthering continued education.

art, religion, all social institutions have a meaning, a

That purpose is to set free and to develop the human individuals without respect to race,

purpose.

capacities of sex, class

or economic status.

And

saying that the test of their value

is

this is all one with

the extent to which

they educate every individual into the full stature of possibility.

Democracy has many meanings, but

has a moral meaning,

supreme

it is

found

his

if it

in resolving that the

test of all political institutions

and

industrial

arrangements shall be the contribution they make to the all-around growth of every

member

of society,

i

CHAPTER

VIII

RECONSTRUCTION AS AFFECTING SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY How

can philosophic change seriously

As

philosophy?

affect social

far as fundamentals are concerned,

every view and combination appears to have been for-

mulated already. this

Society

is

composed of individuals;

obvious and basic fact no philosophy, whatever

these three alternatives

of individuals

;

ways of living

:

its

Hence

pretensions to novelty, can question or alter.

Society must exist for the sake

dr individuals must have their ends and set for

them by' society; or

else society

and individuals are correlative, organic, to one another, society requiring the service

viduals

and

Beyond these three conceivable. cludes

many

and subordination of

indi-

at the same time existing to serve them. views,

none seems to be

logically

Moreover, while each of the three types subspecies and variations within

itself,

in-

yet

the changes seem to have been so thoroughly rung that

at most only minor variations are

Especially would

conception meets vidualistic

all

it

now

possible.

seem true that the " organic "

the objections to the extreme indi-

and extreme

socialistic theories, avoiding the 187

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

188

Just because so-

errors alike of Plato and Bentham. ciety

is

composed of individuals,

it

would seem that

indi-

viduals and the associative relations that hold them to-

Without strong

gether must be of coequal importance.

and competent individuals, the bonds and

ties

that form

Apart from

society have nothing to lay hold on.

asso-

ciations with one another, individuals are isolated from

one another and fade and wither ; or are opposed to one

another and their conflicts injure individual development.

Law,

state, church, family, friendship, industrial

association, these

and other

institutions

and arrange-

ments are necessary in order that individuals

and

find their specific capacities

out their aid and support

human

and

may grow

functions_.-.,With-

life is,

as

Hobbes

said,

brutish, solitary, nasty.

We

plunge into the heart of the matter, by asserting

that these various theories suffer from a

They are

all

under which

we want

defect.

committed to the logic of general notions

specific situations are to

light

common

upon

is this

this or that concrete

be brought.

What

or that group of individuals,

human

being, this or that special

institution or social arrangement.

For such a

logic of

inquiry, the traditionally accepted logic substitutes dis-

cussion of the meaning of concepts and their dialectical relationship to one another.

The

terms of the state, the individual tions as such, society in general.

;

discussion goes on in

the nature of institu-

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

189

We need guidance in dealing with particular perplexities in

domestic

and are met by

life,

dissertations on the

Family or by assertions of the sacredness of individual

We

Personality.

want

institution of private

to

know about

property as

the worth of the

it

operates under

given conditions of definite time and place.

theft, or is

meet

with that of Hegel that the realization of

the end of

all institutions,

as the expression of cal

We

Proudhon that property generally

with the reply of

nature

is

is

will

and that private ownership

mastery of personality over physi-

a necessary element in such realization.

Both answers may have a certain suggestiveness nection with specific situations.

not proffered for what they

>But

may

in con-

the conceptions are

be worth in connection

with special historic phenomena.

They

are general

answers supposed to have a universal meaning that covers and dominates all particulars. /-Hence they

not assist inquiry. mentalities to be

They

They are not

They

do

instru-'

in clarifying con-

are ready-made principles

imposed upon particulars in order to determine

their nature.

They

tell

want to know about some that

it.

employed and tested

crete social difficulties.

to be

close

what

is

us about the state when we state.

But

the implication

is

said about the state applies to any state

happen to wish to know about, i-*-"" In transferring the issue from concrete situations

that we

definitions

and conceptual deductions, the

to

effect, espe-'

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

190 >

cially of the organic theory,

is

to supply the apparatus

for intellectual justification of the established order.

Those most interested

in practical social

progress and

the emancipation of groups from oppression have turned

a cold shoulder to the organic theory. the intention, of

German

The

not

effect, if

idealism as applied in social

philosophy was to provide a bulwark for the mainte-

nance of the radical ideas

political status

quo against the

tide of

coming from revolutionary France.

Al-

though Hegel asserted in explicit form that the end of

and

states

institutions

the freedom of sian

Was

all,

is

to further the realization of

was to consecrate the Prus-

his effect

State and to enshrine bureaucratic absolutism. this

apologetic tendency

accidental,

or did

it

spring from something in the logic of the notions that

were employed ?

Surely the latter.

If

individual, rather than

we talk about the about

state

and the

this or that political or-

ganization and this or that group of needy and suffering

human

beings, the tendency

prestige, the

is

to throw the glamor

notion, over the concrete situation

up the

defects of the latter

ous reforms.

and thereby to cover

and disguise the need of

The meanings which Quite properly so

logic of rigid universals

seri-

are found in the gen-

eral notions are injected into the particulars that

under them.

and

meaning and value attached to the general

if

come

we once grant

the

under which the concrete cases

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

191

have to be subsumed in order to be understood and explained.

Again, the tendency of the organic point of view to minimize the significance of specific conflicts.

the individual

and the state or

is

Since

social institution are

but

two sides of the same reality, since they are already reconciled in principle

and conception, the

particular case can be but apparent. the individual

conflict in

any

Since in theory

and the state are reciprocally necessary

and helpful to one another, why pay much attention to the fact that in this state

are suffering

their interests

state to

conflict

cannot be in conflict with those of the

which they belong ; the opposition

and

ficial

a whole group of individuals In " reality "

from oppressive conditions ?

casual.

only superCapital and labor cannot " really "

because each

is

is

an organic necessity to the

and both to the organized community as a whole. There cannot " really " be any sex-problem because men

other,

and women are indispensable both to one another and to the state.

In his day, Aristotle could easily employ

the logic of general concepts superior to individuals to

show that the institution of slavery was in the interests both of the state and of the slave class. tention is

is

Even

to divert attention from special situations.

istic

if

not to justify the existing order the

the ineffect

Rational-

logic formerly made men careless in observation of

the concrete in physical philosophy.

It

now operates to

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

192

depress and retard observation in specific social phe-

nomena.

social philosopher, dwelling in the region

The

of his concepts, " solves " problems by showing the relationship of ideas, instead of helping

men

solve prob-

lems in the concrete by supplying them hypotheses to be

used and tested in projects of reform.

Meanwhile, of course, the concrete troubles and

evils

They are not magically waived out of existence The region of because in theory society is organic. remain.

concrete

difficulties,

where the assistance of intelligent

method for tentative plans for experimentation gently needed, operate.

is

is

ur-

precisely where intelligence fails to

In this region of the specific and concrete, men

are thrown back upon the crudest empiricism, upon short-sighted opportunism forces.

and the matching of brute

In theory, the particulars are

all

neatly dis-

posed of; they come under their appropriate heading

and category; they are labelled and go into an orderly pigeon-hole in a systematic filing cabinet, labelled political science or sociology.

But

in empirical fact they

remain as perplexing, confused and unorganized as they

So they are dealt with not by even an

were before. endeavor at

scientific

method but by blind

rule

of

thumb, citation of precedents, considerations of immediate advantage, smoothing things over, use of coercive force and the clash of personal ambitions. still

survives

;

it

The world

has therefore got on somehow

:

—so

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY much cannot he out

The method

denied.

and competition of

selfishnesses

many improvements.

less exists

But

193

of trial and error

has somehow wrought social theory neverthe-

as an idle luxury rather than as a guiding

method of inquiry and planning. 'In the question of methods concerned with reconstruction of special situations rather

than in any refinements

in the general con-i

cepts of institution, individuality, state, freedom, law, order, progress, etc., lies the true impact of philosophical reconstruction.

I

Consider the conception of the individual individualistic

school of

The

self.

England and France

in

the,

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was empirical in inIt based its individualism, philosophically speak-

tent.

ing,

upon the

belief that individuals are alone real, that

classes and organizations are secondary and derived. They are artificial, while individuals are natural. In

what way then can individualism be said to come under the animadversions that have been passed? defect

was that

To

say the

this school overlooked those connections

with other persons which are a part of the constitution of every individual

nately it

is

true as far as

it

goes ; but unfortu-

rarely goes beyond the point of just that

wholesale justification of institutions which has been criticized.

The. real difficulty

is

that the individual

is

as something given, something already there.

regarded Conse-

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

194

quently, he can only be something to be catered to, some-

thing whose pleasures are to be magnified and possessions multiplied.

When

the individual

is

taken as some-

thing given already, anything that can be done to him

or for him sions

it

can only be by way of external impres-

and belongings: sensations of pleasure and pain,

Now it is

comforts, securities.

ments, laws, institutions are

that

man

made human

for man, rather than

for them; that they are means and

is

agencies of

true that social arrange-

made

welfare and progress.

But they

are

not means for obtaining something for individuals, not even happiness ;___They are means of c reatin g indi viduals.

Only

in the physical sense

that to the senses are separate original datum. sense

of physical bodies

is

Individuality in a social

something to be wrought out.

is

individuality

tive, inventiveness,

It

and moral

means

are not gifts, but achievements.

and conduct.

And

These

As achievements, they

are not absolute but relative to the use that of them.

initia-

varied resourcefulness, assumption

of responsibility in choice of belief

made

an

is

to be

this use varies with the environ-

ment.

The import

of this conception comes out in consider-

ing the fortunes of the idea of self-interest.

All

mem-

bers of the empirical school emphasized this idea.

was the tained

sole motive of

mankind.

It

Virtue was to be at-

by making benevolent action

profitable to the

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY individual

arrangements were to be reformed so

social

;

195

that egoism and altruistic consideration of others would be identified.

backward

Moralists of the opposite school were not

in pointing out the evils of

any theory that

reduced both morals and political science to means of calculating self-interest.

Consequently they threw the

whole idea of interest overboard as obnoxious to morals.

The

effect of this reaction

of authority

and

play of interest

was to strengthen the cause

When the what remains? What

political obscurantism.

is

eliminated,

concrete moving forces can be found?

Those who iden-

the self with something ready-made and

tified

terest with acquisition of pleasure

and

its

in-

profit took the

most effective means possible to reinstate the logic of abstract conceptions of law, justice, sovereignty, free-

dom,

etc.

—

all

of those vague general ideas that for

all

their seeming rigidity can be manipulated by any clever

politician to cover

up

his designs

seem the better cause.

and to make the worse

Interests are specific and dy-

namic ; they are the natural terms of any concrete social thinking.

But they are damned beyond recovery when

they are identified with the things of a petty selfishness.

They can be employed self is

as vital terms only

when the

seen to be in process, and interest to be

name for whatever

is

concerned in furthering

its

a

move-

ment.

The same

logic applies to the old dispute of whether

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

196

reform should start with the individual or with institutions. When the self is regarded as something complete within

itself,

then

it is

readily argued that only internal

moralistic changes are of importance in general reform. Institutional changes are said to be merely external.

They may add

conveniences and comforts to

life,

but

they cannot effect moral improvements. (The result to throw the burden for social improvement upon will in its

most impossible formj? Moreover, social and Individuals are led

economic passivity are encouraged.

to concentrate in moral introspection vices

and

is

free-

virtues,

upon

their

own

and to neglect the character of the

Morals withdraw from active concern

environment.

with detailed economic and political conditions.

Let us

perfect ourselves within, and in due season changes in society will

come of themselves

is

the teaching.

And

while saints are engaged in introspection, burly sinners

run the world. active process

But when it is

self-hood

is

perceived to be an

also seen that social modifications are

the only means of the creation of changed personalities. •Institutions are viewed in their educative effect:

/reference to the types of individuals they foster.

terest in individual moral improvement ^interest in objective

—with

The

and the

in-

social

reform of economic and political

conditions are identified.

And

inquiry into the meaning

of social arrangements gets definite point and direction.

We

are led to ask what the specific stimulating, foster-

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

197

ing and nurturing power of each specific social arrange-

ment may

The

be.

and morals

is

old-time separation between politics

abolished at

its

root.

Consequently we cannot be satisfied with the general statement that society and the state

The

individual.

question

is

is

organic to the

one of specific causations.

Just what response does this social arrangement, poor economic,

litical

evoke,

and what

effect

does

have upon the disposition of those who engage in

Does

release capacity?

it

If so,

how widely?

it

it?

Among

a few, with a corresponding depression in others, or in

way ?

an extensive and equitable

it

becomes a power, or

its

Is the capacity which

some coherent way, so that

set free also directed in

is

manifestation spasmodic and

Since responses are of an indefinite di-

capricious?

versity of kind, these inquiries have to be detailed

Are men's senses rendered more

specific.

sitive

by

and

delicately sen-

and appreciative, or are they blunted and dulled

this

and that form of

social organization ?

Are

their

minds trained so that the hands are more deft and cunning?

Is curiosity

quality

:

is it

awakened or blunted?

surfaces of things or

is

ing into their meaning? well as the

What

is its

merely esthetic, dwelling on the forms and it

also

an

intellectual search-

Such questions

more obvious ones about the

as these (as qualities con-

ventionally labelled moral), become the- starting-points

of inquiries about every institution of the community

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

198

when

recognized that individuality

it is

given but life.

is

not originally

created under the influences of associated

is

Like utilitarianism, the theory subjects every form

of organization to continual scrutiny and criticism.

But instead

of leading us to ask

what

it

does in the

way

of causing pains and pleasures to individuals already in existence, it inquires

capacities

What

what

is

done to release

specific

and co-ordinate them into working powers.

sort of individuals are created?

The waste

of mental energy due to conducting discus-

sion of social affairs in terms of conceptual generalities is

astonishing.

How

physician progress

if

far would the biologist and the

when the subject of respiration

under consideration, discussion confined

itself to

is

bandy-

ing back and forth the concepts of organ and organism

—

If for

be

known and understood by

example one school thought respiration could

it occurs in

insisting

upon the fact that

an individual body and therefore

is

an

" individual " phenomenon, while an opposite school

in-

sisted that it is simply one function in organic inter-

action with others and can be therefore only

known or understood

by reference to other functions taken

an equally general or wholesale way? is

equally true and equally futile.

specific

tures

inquiries into

Each

What

in

proposition is

needed

is

a multitude of specific struc-

and interactions.

Not only does the solemn

reiteration of categories of individual

and organic or

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY whole not further these

social

quiries,

but

it

checks them.

pompous and sonorous is

as inevitable as

enough that

it is

if cells

definite

199

and detailed

in-

It detains thought within

generalities wherein controversy

incapable of solution.

were not

It

is

true

in vital interaction with

one another, they could neither conflict nor co-operate.

But the fact of the existence of an " organic "

social

group, instead of answering any questions merely marks the fact that questions exist: Just what conflicts and

what co-operations occur, and what are causes

their specific

But because of

and consequences?

the persist-

ence within social philosophy of the order of ideas that

has been expelled from natural philosophy, even sociologists take conflict or co-operation as general categories

upon which

to base their science,

and condescend

pirical facts only for illustrations. chief

" problem "

by a thick ciety?

As

a purely dialectical one, covered up

quilt of empirical anthropological

torical citations

How

the problem

is

is

:

How

and

his-

do individuals unite to form

are individuals socially controlled? justly called dialectical because

from antecedent " social."

em-

to

a rule, their

conceptions

Just as "individual"

is

of

it

so-

And

springs

" individual "

not one thing, but

and

is

a

blanket term for the immense variety of specific reactions, habits, dispositions

and powers of human nature

that are evoked, and confirmed under the influences of

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

200

associated

life,

so with the term " social."

one word, but infinitely

ways

in

many

things.

Society

is

It covers all the

which by associating together men share their

experiences,

and build up common interests and aims;

street gangs, schools for burglary, clans, social cliques,

trades unions, joint stock corporations, villages and international alliances.

The new method

takes effect in

substituting inquiry into these specific, changing and relative facts (relative to

problems and purposes, not

metaphysically relative) for solemn manipulation of general notions.

Strangely enough, the current conception of the state is

a case in point.

For one

classic order of fixed species

order

is

the attempt of

direct influence of the

arranged in hierarchical

German

political philosophy in

the nineteenth century to enumerate a definite

of institutions, each having its

own

number

and iman order of " evoessential

mutable meaning; to arrange them in lution " which corresponds with the dignity and rank of the respective meanings.

The National State was

placed at the top as the consummation and culmination,

and

also the basis of all other institutions.

Hegel

is

a striking example of this industry, but he

far from the only one.

Many who

is

have bitterly quar-

with him, have only differed as to the details of the " evolution " or as to the particular meaning to be relled

attributed

as

essential Begriff

to

some one of the

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

201

The quarrel has been

enumerated institutions.

bitter

only because the underlying premises were the same.

Particularly have even

more widely

sole

schools of thought, varying

in respect to

agreed upon the state.

many final

method and conclusion,

consummating position of the

They may not go

as far as Hegel in making the

meaning of history to be the evolution of National

Territorial States, each of which embodies the prior

form of the

the State

and consequently

essential

more than

meaning or conception of

displaces

it,

until

we arrive

at that triumph of historical evolution, the Prussian

But they do not

State.

question the unique and su-

preme position of the State in the social hierarchy. Indeed that conception has hardened into unquestionable

dogma under

the

title

of sovereignty.

There can be no doubt of the tremendously important role

played by the modern territorial national

The formation of these modern

political history.

were the tion,

but

first

a large

France, Great Britain, Spain

peoples to attain nationalistic organiza-

in the nineteenth

lowed by Japan,

century their example was

Germany and

number of smaller

garia, etc.

state.

states has been the centre of

fol-

Italy, to say nothing of

states, Greece, Servia, Bul-

As everybody knows, one

of the most im-

portant phases of the recent world war was the struggle to complete the nationalistic

erection

movement, resulting

of Bohemia, Poland,

etc.,

into

in the

independent

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

202 states,

and the accession of Armenia, Palestine,

etc.,

to

the rank of candidates.

The struggle for the supremacy of the State over other forms of organization was directed against the power

of

minor

districts,

provinces,

principalities,

among

feudal lords as

against the dispersion of power well as, in

some countries, against the pretensions of an The " State " represents the

ecclesiastic potentate.

conspicuous culmination of the great movement of social integration and consolidation taking place in the last

few centuries, tremendously accelerated by the concentrating and combining forces of steam ad electricity.

Naturally, inevitably, the students of political science

have been preoccupied with

this

nomenon, and their intellectual rected to

its

great historic phe-

activities

systematic formulation.

have been

di-

Because the con-

temporary progressive movement was to establish the unified state against the inertia of

rivals for power, political

dogma

of the sovereignty of the

theory developed the i

minor social units

and against the ambitions of

national state, internally and externally.

As its

the work of integration and consolidation reaches

climax, the question arises, however, whether the na-

tional state, once it

is

firmly established

struggling against strong foes,

is

and no longer

not just an instru-

mentality for promoting and protecting other and more

voluntary forms of association, rather than a supreme

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY end in

Two

in itself.

actual

203

phenomena may be pointed to

support of an affirmative answer.

Along with the

development of the larger, more inclusive and more unified

organization of the state has gone the emancipation

from

of individuals

restrictions

and servitudes previ-

ously imposed

by custom and

dividuals freed

from external and coercive bonds have not

remained isolated. bine d

in

n ew

class status.

But

the in-

Social molecules have at once recom-

associations

and organizations.

Compul-

sory associations have been replaced by voluntary ones

by those more amenable to human

rigid organizations

choice

and purposes

What upon

—more

directly changeable at will.

one side looks like a movement toward in-

dividualism, turns out to be really a

multiplying

all

kinds

and

varieties

movement toward of associations:

Political parties, industrial corporations, scientific

and

artistic organizations, trade unions, churches, schools,

clubs

and

societies

without number, for the cultivation of

every conceivable interest that

men have in common. As

number and importance, the state tends become more and more a regulator and adjuster

they develop in to

among them;

defining the limits of their actions, pre-

venting and settling conflicts.

" supremacy " approximates that of the conductor of an orchestra, who makes no music himself but Its

who harmonizes the it

activities of those

who

in

producing

are doing the thing intrinsically worth while.

The

204

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

state

remains highly important

consists

more and more

in its

—but

its

importance

power to foster and coOnly

ordinate the activities of voluntary groupings.

nominally

is it

sake of which

in all

the other societies

and organizations

Groupings for promoting the diversity of goods

exist.

that

any modern community the end for the

men share have become

They

the real social units.

occupy the place which traditional theory has claimed either for

and

mere isolated individuals or for the supreme organization.

single political

Pluralism

is

well

ordained in present political practice and demands a modification of hierarchical

[combination of

human

tribution of value to

and monistic theory. Every

life

has for that reason

iunique and ultimate worth. into a

own

forces that adds its

own

It cannot be degraded

means to glorify the State.

increased demoralization of

its

con-

war

is

One reason that

it

for the

forces the

State into an abnormally supreme position. /

The other

jplaim of

concrete fact

is

the opposition between the

independent sovereignty in behalf of the terri-

torial national state and the

growth of

int ernational

^nd_what h ave well be en called Jjanajtational

The weal and woe that of others.

of

any modern

state is

Weakness, disorder,

bound lip with

false principles on

the part of any state are not confined within daries. is

They spread and

interests.

infect other states.

its

boun-

The same

true of economic, artistic and scientific advances.

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

205

Moreover the voluntary associations just spoken not coincide with political boundaries.

of

do

Associations of

mathematicians, chemists, astronomers ; business corporations, labor organizations, churches are trans-national

because the interests they represent are worldwide.

such ways as these, internationalism

is

In

not an aspiration

Yet

but a fact, not a sentimental ideal but a force. these interests are cut across

and thrown out of gear by

the traditional doctrine of exclusive national sovereignty.

It

is

the vogue of this doctrine, or dogma,

that presents the strongest barrier to the effective for-

mation of an international mind which alone agrees with the moving forces of present-day labor, commerce, '

science, art

and

religion.

-^Society^as was said,

is

many

associations not a single

Society means association

organization.

;

coming

to-

gether in joint intercourse and action for the better realization of

any form of experience which

mented and confirmed by being shared. are as

many

is

aug-

Hence there

associations as there are goods which are

enhanced by being mutually communicated and participated in. And these are literally indefinite in number. Indeed, capacity to endure publicity and communication is

the test

good

is

sisted

by which

it is

decided whether a pretended

Moralists have always in-

genuine or spurious.

upon the fact that good

just private, particular.

is

universal, objective, not

But too

often, like Plato,

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

206

they have been content with a metaphysical universality or, like

Communi-

Kant, with a logical universality.

cation, sharing, joint participation are the only actual

We

ways of universalizing the moral law and end. sisted at the last

hour upon the unique character of

But

ievery intrinsic good.

proposition

in-

the counterpart

of

this

that the situation in which a good

is

is

not one of transient sensations

[consciously realized

is

lor private appetites

but one of sharing and communi-

cation

—

public, social.

Even

communes with

the hermit

gods or spirits; even misery loves company; and the

J

most extreme some

or

selfishness includes a

partner

to

share

in

band of followers

the

attained

good.

Universalization means socialization, the extension of the

area

and

range

of

those

who

share

a

in

good, *

"i

The increasing acknowledgment that goods

exist

and

endure only through being communicated and that association

is

the means of conjoint sharing

lies

back of the

modern sense of humanity and democracy.

|,It is the

saving salt in altruism and philanthropy, which with-

out this factor degenerate into moral condescension and

moral interference, taking the form of trying to regulate the affairs of others

under the guise of doing them

good or of conferring upon them some right as

if

were a gift of charity.VTt follows that organization never an end in

itself.

It

is

it is

a means of promoting asso-

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

207

elation, of multiplying effective points of contact be-

tween persons, directing their intercourse into the modes of greatest f ruitfulness.

The tendency to treat organization is

as an end in itself

responsible for all the exaggerated theories in which

are subordinated to

individuals

which

is

given the noble

name of

emotions,

To

common)

values

are

society.

Society

ways that

process of associating in such ideas,

some institution to

The

individual

is

';

and

made';

both the individual*

and the institutionally organized may truly be said be subordinate.

the

experiences,!

transmitted

this active process,

is

to,

subordinate because^

except in and through communication of experience

from and to others, he remains dumb, merely

Only in association with

a brute animal.

fellows does',

he become a conscious centre of experience. tion,

which

ever

it

becomes

Statejj'is also

subordinate

static, rigid, institutionalized when-)

not employed to facilitate and enrich the

it is

tacts of

Organiza-

what traditional theory has generally

is

meant by the term(Society or because

sentient,

human

con-,'

beings with one another.

The long-time controversy between law and freedom

is

rights and dutiesJ

another version of the

strife

the Individual and Society as fixed concepts.

between

Freedom

for an individual means growth, ready change when modification It

is

signifies

required.

an active process, that of

release

of

j

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

208

capacity from whatever hems

But

it in.

since society

can develop only as new resources are put at its disposal, it is absurd to suppose that freedom has positive significance for individuality but negative social

Society

interests.

against accident only

when

is

strong,

all its

meaning

forceful,

for

stable

members can function

Such functioning cannot

to the limit of their capacity.

be achieved without allowing a leeway of experimentation

beyond the

A

custom.

regularity

limits

certain

likely to

is

of established and sanctioned

amount of overt confusion and

accompany the granting of the

margin of liberty without which capacity cannot

But

itself.

thing

is

ir-

find

socially as well as scientifically the great

not to avoid mistakes but to have them take

place under conditions such that they can be utilized to increase intelligence in the future. If British liberal social philosophy tended, true to the spirit of its atomistic empiricism, to

make freedom and

the exercise of rights ends in themselves, the remedy

is

not to be found in recourse to a philosophy of fixed obligations

German

and authoritative law such as characterized

political thinking.

demonstrated,

is

menace to the groups. final test.

But In

The

dangerous

latter, as events

because

of

its

have

implicit

free self-determination of other social

it is

also

weak internally when put to the

its hostility

to the free experimentation

and power of choice of the individual

in determining

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

209

social affairs, it limits the capacity of

many

or most

individuals to share effectively in social operations, and

thereby deprives society of the its

and power vidual

in

initiative,

vigor and endurance.

all

of collective efficiency

and use of the diversity of

liberation

is

capacities

contribution of

full

The best guarantee

members.

planning,

indi-

foresight,

Personality must be educated,

and personality cannot be educated by confining

its

operations to technical and specialized things, or to the less

important relationships of

comes only when there

is

Full education!

life.

a responsible share on the part)

of each person, in proportion to capacity, in shaping; the aims

belongs. It

and

policies of the social

This fact

groups to which

fixes the significance of

he'

democracy.

cannot be conceived as a sectarian or racial thing nor

some form of government which

as a consecration of

has already attained constitutional sanction.

human nature

a name for the fact that

when

its

is

It

women form groups

—

governments, churches, principle holds as

families,

identification of

racy which ever, based

is

industrial

much

and so

on.

of one form of association, does in government.

it

democracy with

responsible for most of

upon

men and

companies,

scientific associations

say in industry and commerce, as

The

but

elements take part in directing things which

are common, things for the sake of which

The

is

developed only

political

democ-

its failures is,

the traditional ideas which

how-

make

the

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

210

individual

and the

state

ready-made

entities in

them-

selves.

As

the new ideas find adequate expression in social

they will be absorbed into a moral background, and

life,

willthe ideas and

belief sV themselves

be deepened and

They

be unconsciously transmitted and sustained. color the imagination

They

fections.

will

and temper the

desires

and

will

af-

not form a set of ideas to be ex-

pounded, reasoned out and argumentatively supported, but

be a spontaneous way of envisaging

will

they will take on religious value. will

be revivified because

it will

The

life.

Then

religious spirit

be in harmony with men's

unquestioned scientific beliefs and their ordinary day-

by-day

social activities.

timid, half-concealed

It will not be obliged to lead a

and half-apologetic

tied to scientific ideas

and

will the ideas

and

because

social creeds that are con-

But

tinuously eaten into and broken down.

intensified

life

beliefs themselves be

especially

deepened and

because spontaneously fed by emotion and

translated into imaginative vision and fine art, while

they are fort,

now maintained by more or

by deliberate

reflection,

less conscious ef-

by taking thought.

They

are technical and abstract just because they are not as yet carried as matter of course

by imagination and

feelings.

We began by pointing out that arose when

intellectual

European philosophy

methods and

scientific

results

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY moved away from

social traditions

211

which had consoli-

dated and embodied the fruits of spontaneous desire and It was pointed out that philosophy

had ever

had the problem of adjusting the dry,

thin and

fancy. since

meagre sisting

scientific

standpoint with the obstinately per-

body of warm and abounding imaginative

beliefs.

Conceptions of possibility, progress, free movement and infinitely diversified

modern

science.

opportunity have been suggested by

But

until they have displaced

from

imagination the heritage of the immutable and the oncefor-all

ordered and systematized, the ideas of mech-

anism and matter

will lie like

a dead weight upon the

emotions, paralyzing religion and distorting art. the liberation of capacity

organization

and

When

no longer seems a menace to

established

institutions,

something

that cannot be avoided practically and yet something that

is

a threat to conservation of the most precious

values of the past,

when the liberating of human capacity

operates as a socially creative force, art will not be a

luxury, a stranger to the daily occupations of making

a living.

Making a

living economically speaking, will

be at one with making a

life

that

is

worth

living.

And

when the emotional force, the mystic force one might say, of communication, of the miracle of shared life

and shared experience

spontaneously

felt,

the hard-

and crudeness of contemporary life will be bathed the light that never was on land or sea.

ness in

is

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

212

Poetry, art, religion are precious things.

They can-

not be maintained by lingering in the past and futilely wishing to restore what the movement of events in

and

science, industry

They are

politics has destroyed.

an out-flowering of thought and desires that unconsciously converge into a disposition of imagination as a result of thousands

and thousands of daily episodes and

They cannot be willed into existence or The wind of the spirit bloweth coerced into being. where it listeth and the kingdom of God in such things But while it is imdoes not come with observation. contact.

possible to retain

and recover by deliberate

volition old

sources of religion and art that have been discredited, is

it

possible to expedite the development of the vital

Not

sources of a religion and art that are yet to be.

indeed by action directly aimed at their production, but

by substituting

faith in the active tendencies of the

day

for dread and dislike of them, and by the courage of intelligence

to

follow

changes direct us. |

because intelligence

whither

We are weak is

social

today

and

scientific

in ideal

matters

The

divorced from aspiration.

bare force of circumstance compels us onwards in the daily detail of our beliefs

and

acts,

thoughts and desires turn backwards,

phy

shall

made

f

When

philoso-

have co-operated with the course of events and

clear

science

but our deeper

and coherent the meaning of the daily

and emotion

detail,

will interpenetrate, practice

and

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY imagination will

will

embrace.

and

life.

To

further this

revelation of the meanings of the cur-

rent course of events

phy

Poetry and religious feeling

be the unforced flowers of

articulation

213

is

the task and problem of philoso-

in days of transition.

INDEX

INDEX Absolute reality, 23, 27 Absolutism, 97, 190; and, 99 Abstract definition, 20 Abstractions, 149-150, 174 Absurdities, 10 Achievements, 194 Action, kind of,, 80 Adult life, 185, 186 America, 41

his day, 29-30; experience, 97-

Kant

" knowledge is power," of ideas, 29 Being, perfect, 111 Being and non-being, 107 Beliefs and facts, 12 Bentham, 166, 182, 188 Bergson, 71 Berkeley, 50 Biology, 75, 84

98 29; ;

summary

Amoeba, 91

Bliss, 111, 112

Animals,

Bosanquet, 134 Bradley, 107 Bruno, 66

dramatisation in primitive life of man, 4 Antiquity, 33 Apprehension, 142 Aquinas, 55, 106 Argumentation, 31, 132 Aristotle, 13, 17, 19, 55; Bacon's charge against, 30-31, 36 distinction in ends, 171; experience, 79, 80; forms, 105 on change, 107; on philosophy as contemplation, 109, 110 on slavery, 191; theory of the state, 44; ultimate reality, 106 Art, 34, 103, 211, 212 Artisan, 15; knowledge, 110 Associations, 205 ; voluntary,

203

Astronomers, 65, 113 Astronomy, 75 Athenians, 13, 19 Augustine, St., Ill Authority, 48, 139, 195; 161; seat of,

160.

final,

See also

Final good

Bacon,

Francis, 28, 81, 97; criticism of the learning of

Business, 41, 43, 183 Butler, Bishop, 21 Capital, 43 Capital and labour, 191 Capitalism, 41, 182 Castes, material, 69 Casuistry, 166 Causation, 63 Causes, 59, 60 Certainty, 21, 22 Change, ancient idea of, 57; existing view, 113; law of the universe, 61; Plato and Aristotle on, 107; progress and, 116 Chemistry, 75 Child life, 91-92, 184 Christian mediaeval philosophy, 17, 19 Christian theology, 111 Church, 47; universal, 45 Classes, 75, 152, 155; in ancient conception of world, 59

217

the the

INDEX

218

conception of philosophy, 17, 22, 24, 74, 105 Classification, 152, 169 Common sense, 100 Communication at a distance, 118, 120 Comte, Auguste, 10 Conceptions, 81, 144, 145; reconstruction in, moral, 161; truth, 156 Concrete cases, in morals, 161; in social philosophy, 188 Concreteness, 150 Condillac, 81 Conduct, 80; right course, 163 Conflict, 108, 138, 140; of ends, 166 Conscience, 46 Consequences, investigating, 163-164 Conservatism, 18, 33, 40, 100 Constant, 61 Contemplation, 109, 111 Contract theory of the state, 45 Control, 42, 64 Co-operation in research, 37 Cosmogonies and cosmologies, 9 Cosmology, 70, 75 Craftsmen, 12, 13 Criteria, 77 Crusades, 39 Cults, 8; consolidation, 9 Custom, 17, 161 Classic

Development, Aristotle's use of term, 57, 58 Diagnosis, 142 Direction, 176 Disagreeable, 103 Discipline, 103, 104, 184

Discord, 108 Discovery, contacts of 16th and 17th centuries, 39; demonstration vs., 32; logic of, 31, 33; moral, 174 Distance, 118-119, 120 Doctrines, 8; consolidation, 9 Dogma, 145, 159

Dreams, 119, 120, 139; world Dualism, 173 Duties and rights, 207

of, 7

Earth, ancient conception, 55; relation to universe, 66 Economic ends, 171-172 Education, 125, 183, 209 Efficient cause, 59, 60 Emotion, 103, 210 Empirical and rational, 81, 87

Darwin, 75

Empiricists, 78, 82 Ends, conflicting, 166; fixed, 70; intrinsic and instrumental, 170, 172-173; means and, 7273; values, 175 English empiricism, 99 Environment, 10; life and, 84 Epistemology, 49, 70, 123, 126 Errors, 35 Esthetic and practical, 66 Estheticism, 115-116, 117, 180; science and, reconciling, 127

Deduction, 148 Delusions, 139

Ether, 55, 66 Ethical theory, 161

Dante, 55

Democracy,

47,

186,

206;

of

facts, 66; significance, 209 Demonstration, 20, 21, 31; discovery vs., 32 Descartes, 50

Desires, 110, 104 Details, 141

111;

frustration,

Europe, nationalistic movement, 201; social cause of intellectual revolution in 16th and 17th centuries, 38-39 Evil, problem of, 177 Evolution, in Aristotle, 58; of the state, 200-201 Existence, two realms, 22

INDEX Experience, 32; as a guide in science and moral life, 78 basis of old notion of, 79 changed conceptions, 77 classic notion and modern, 81; combined doing and suffering, 86; evil result of unimaginative of, conception 100-101; Greek, 79; modern appeal to, 48; new conception, 83; Plato, 92; principles and, 94-95;

self -regulative, 48; true " stuff " of, 91

Experimental method, 13 Experimentation, 42 Exploration, 39, 40

219

General notions, in morals, 161 in social philosophy, 188 Generalities, 174; social affairs and, 198 Generalisations, 10, 151

Geology, 75

German

political philosophy, 200, 208-209 German rationalism, 99 Germans, system, order, docility,

98-99

Germany, 19 God, 10, 109 Golden Age, 48 Good. See Final good Goodness, 179 Greeks,

Facing

9, 13, 19, 66, 67, 126; ethical theory, 161; religion, 105; science and arts, 93

facts, 140, 141, 143

Facts, 10, 98 Falsity, 158 Family principle, 189; world at large, 61-62 Fanaticism, 168

Growth, 184; of knowledge, 31; moral, 177 in

the

Fancy. See Imagination Fear, 40 Feudalism, 43, 45; of the universe in ancient conception, 59, 61-62 Fighting, 15 Final cause, 59, 60, 68 Final good, 161-162, 183; existence of a single good questioned, 162 Fine arts, 126 Finite, 107 Finite and infinite, 66 Fire, 11, 56, 86

Fixed ends, 165 Flux, 57, 108

Free

will,

Freedom,

59, 60 Aristotle, 105

and,

207;

re-

ligious, 46 Future, 48

Future aim

201 History of philosophy, 25 Hobbes, 88, 188

Homo faber, 71 Human aims, 42, Human life,

43 "real"

and

Humanity, 206

196

law

Helvetius, 81 Hierarchical order, 59 "Higher" ends, 172 Hindoos, 126 conception, Hegel's History,

"ideal," a live issue, 128 Humanism and naturalism, 174

Formal cause,

Forms of

Happiness, 179 Healthy living, 166, 167, 177 Heavens, ancient conception, 56 Hegel, 19, 106, 189, 190; conception of the state, 200, 201 logic, 134

Hume,

50, 83, 89 Hypotheses, 22, 145

Hysteria, 139 of philosophy, 26

Ideal,

changed conceptions, 103;

220

INDEX

problem of relation to the 130; real and, a human issue, 128 Ideal realm, classic and modern conceptions contrasted, 118 Idealism, 129 ; epistemological, 4)9, 51; theological, SO; tragic kind, 129-130 Ideality, one with reality, 111; philosophic conception, 106 Ideas of Plato, 105 Idols, 36 Ills, 169; philosophy and, 177178 Imagination, 211; empirical knowledge and, 73, 74; reshaping power, 103, 106 Independence, 110; social, 185 India, 41 Individual, 36, 45, 51; concept as something given, 193; in social and moral sense, 194; social and, 199; state and, 190, 191 Individualism, 50; political, 45, 46; religious, 46; religious real,

and moral, 46 Induction, 34 Industrial revolution and scientific revolution, 38, 41 Industry, movements, 47; science and, 38, 41, 42 Infinite, 66, 67 Initiative 46, 209 Innate ideas, 35, 82 Inquiry, 174; free, 146; impartial, 147; methods in moral ills, 170 Insincerity, 20 Instability, 107 Institutions, 196; true startingpoints of inquiry about, 197 Instrumental ends, 171 Intellect, 6 Intellectual somnambulism, 140 Intellectualism, 117 Intelligence, 36, 51; as inquiry

into

consequences,

163-164;

definition, 96 Interest, 194-195 International interests, 204, 205 Intrinsic good, 170, 206

Introspection, 196 Invention, 39, 42, 49, 122 Investigation, 147 Ipse dixit method, 166 Irresponsibility, 97

James, William, 21; Pragmatism, 38 Judea, 9 Judgment, 133; moral, 176; standards, 175 83, 98, 206; his philosophy and German character, 98-99 Kinship, 62 Knowledge, conception as beholding, 115; degrees, 108; empirical as organ of imagination, 73, 74; existing practice, 112; modern view of right way to get it, 113; posi-

Kant, 50,

tive, 12; positive vs. tradition,

"

16; practical and operative, 121, 122; sensations and, 87, 88, 89; spectator conception, 112, 117 Knowledge is power," 29, 42, 51

Law,

61, 64; freedom and, 207; reason and, 98. See also Final

good Learning, Bacon's three kinds, 29 Licentiousness, 163 Life, 167, 211; environment and, 84-85

Literary culture, 39 Locke, 35, 50, 81, 89, 152; philosophic empiricism, 82 Logic, a science and an art, 135; apparatus, 20, 21; character, 132, 134; importance,

INDEX 138; in morals and politics, 138; inconsistencies, 134; new, 36; of discovery, 33; of discovery vs. that oft argumentation, 31; theory, chaotic state, 133 Logical system, 9 Lotze, 134

Making a living, 211 Man, perfectibility, 49; primitive, 4, 5; savage and civilized, 85; tool-maker, 71

Marcus Aurelius, 106 Materialism, SO, 70, 73, 171, 182

Mathematics, 137, 149 Matter, 72, 211

Morals, 126, 169; politics and, 197

National state, 200; end or instrument, 202-203; r61e of the modern, 201 Nationalistic movement, 201 Natural Science. See under Science

Naturalism and humanism, 174 Nature, contrast of ancient and

modern

conceptions, 53-64 inquiry into, 32, 37, 48, 49; loss of poetry when considered as mechanism, 69; pro-

found change tude

Means and ends, 72-73 Mechanics, 67, 69; Greeks and, 67 Mechanism, 211 Mechanisation of nature, 71-72 Mediaeval Christianity, 17, 19, 126 Meliorism, 178 Memory, 1, 6, 103; emotional character, 2; individual and group, 8; primitive, 3 Metaphysics, 17, 124, 126 Methods, 149; social philosophy, 193; true, 32

Middle Ages, 47,

64, 132 Military art, 15 Mill, J. S., 132 Mind, pure, 111 Miracles, 125 Mistakes, 175 Modern thought, 52; Bacon as founder, 28; early, 49, 50.

See also Thought

in

man's

atti-

value 115; of mechanisation, 71-72; web imposed on, 35-36 Neglect, 97 Neo-Platonism, 111 to,

New

World, 39 Non-being, 107

Noumenal

reality,

23

Nous, 36 Obliviscence of the disagreeable, 103 Observation, 140 Optimism, 178 Opportunity, 211 Organic society, 187 Organisms, 86 Organisation, 206-207 Oriental nations, 127 Origin of philosophies, 5, 18, 24, 25

Pantheon, Greek, 105

Mohammedans, 39 Moral ends, 169 Moral life, 165 science. Moral

221

Past, 212 Perfectibility of

See

under

Science Morality, pragmatic rule, 163; standard of judgment, 176

mankind, 49

Perfection, 177 Personality, 47, 189, 209 Persuasion, 31 Pessimism, 178 Phariseeism, 176

INDEX

222 Phenomenal

reality,

Pure reason, 78

23

Philosophy, emancipation, 123; function, 111, 122; future aim and scope, 26; hard and fast alternatives of English and German schools, 99-100; history, 25; opportunities, 49; origin, 5, 18, 24, 25; practical nature, 121; proper province, 24, 124 work, 18 Physician, 168 Physics, 75 Plato, 13, 14, 17, 19, 188, 205; dramatic sense, 15; experience,

79,

92;

ideas,

ideal

realm, 105; on change, 107; social arts, 94; ultimate reality, 106 Pleasure, 181 Plotinus, 106 Pluralism, 204 Poetry, 7, 8, 103, 212 Political changes, 43 Political organisation, 44 Politics, 125; morals and, 197;

movements, 47 Possession of knowledge, 31 Potentiality, Aristotle's use of term, 57, 58

Practical and esthetic, 66

Pragmatism, 38 Pretensions, 21 Primitive man, 4 Principles, 81, 163; criteria of experience, 48 Probability, 21 Production, 181 Progress, 42, 48, 116, 211: Bacon and, 32, 34; economic and moral, contrast, 125 Proof, 20 Property, 182, 189 Protestantism, 46 Proudhon, 189 Prussian State, 190, 201 Psychology, 83, 135; change In, 84; malicious, 82

Questioning, quiry

17.

See also In-

Radicalism, 18, 19, 100 Rank, 63 Rationalism, 97; rigidity, 98 Rationalists, 87, 88, 89 Rationalisation, 97, 102 Real, changed conceptions, 103; ideal and, a human issue, 128; problem of relation to the ideal, 130 Reality, 23, 27; classic conception, 105; nomenal vs. phenomenal, 23; ultimate, 106; ultimate, one with ideality, 111 Reason, 83, 174; as a faculty separate from experience, 95; as re-adjusting intelligence, 96; changed conceptions, 77

Reasoning, 32 Reconstruction

of

philosophy,

52;

essential, 51; historical factors, 28; in moral conceptions, 161; scientific factor, 53; social philosophy and, 187; specific present problem,

43; value of a solution of the dilemma ofi reason and experience, 101 Re-creation, 51, 180

Reform,

starting179, 180; point, 196 Relativity of sensations, 88 Religion, 103, 211, 212; move-

ments, 47 Religious freedom, 46 Religious spirit, 210 Renaissance, 29 Research, co-operative, 42; 37 Responsibility, 163 Revolution of thought, 60 Rights and duties, 207

INDEX Rome, 9 Ruler and

subject,

44;

in

nature, 64 Rules of conduct, 165 Sailors,

H

Salvation, 112

Santayana, George, on Locke, 82 Satisfaction, 157 Savage, 85, 176 Scholasticism, 30 Science, 14, 23; advance in, 53; co-operative pursuit, 37 estheticism and, reconciling, 127; human value, 173; industry and, 38, 41, 42; natural, 42, 48 ; open world of, 61 origin, 12; picture of universe, 64-65; relation to experience, 95; separation of natural and moral, 17.3; socalled, 36; traditional, 30 Scientific revolution, 53 Self-delusion, 140 Self-interest, 194-195 Sensations, 84; as points of readjustment, 89; relativity, 88 Senses, 84, 87 Sentimentalism, 73 Shakespeare, 94

Slavery, 191 Social belief, 26 Social development, 43 Social evils, 182. See also Ills Social philosophy, reconstruction, 187; reconstructive impact, 193 Social unit, real, 204 Social welfare, 180 Sociality,

185

200, 205; defect of usual theories about, 188; individuals and, three views, 187-188; philosophy and, 124 Socrates, 14, 17 Soldiers, 139 Sophists, 13, 14 Society,

223

Space, 118-119, 120 Spinoza, 106 Standards, 175 State,

Aristotle's theory, 44; contract theory, •15; current conception, 200; importance, 204; individual and, 190, 191; modern, 44; origin, 44; su-

premacy, 202, 203 Subject and ruler, 44; in nature, 64 Success, 179 Suggestions, 3,

Summum

7

6,

Conum.

See

Final

good Supernaturalism, 47 System, 98, 99 Telegraph, 120 Telephone, 120 Terminology, 21 Theories, 156

144,

145;

validity,

Theory and practice, 140 Things as they are, 115 Thinking, habits, 74, 75.

See

Thought Thomas, St. See Aquinas. Thought, 117; good and bad also

thinking, 136; instrumental nature, 145-146; its origin in kinds, difficulties, 138-139; 135; logic and, 134; place, 96; systems, 145 Tolerance, 46 Tradition, 14; positive knowledge vs., 16 Transitoriousness, 106 Travel, 39, 40 Trouble, 138, 140 Truth, as utility, 157; defining, 159-160; logical conception, 156-157; old and new, 33, 34; pragmatic conception, 156, 159; test of, nature of, 155, 166; why the modern conception is offensive, 157, 158

224

INDEX

Unity, 108 Universal, 64 Universe, closed conception, 54 defects, Utilitarianism, 181 merit, 180; need of reconstruction, 183 Utility, 157

Valves, 15

War, 204 War, world,

lesson, 129; nationalistic phase, 201 ; " real

and "ideal" in, 128 Wealth, 40, 42, 125

Wind, 11 Work, 181 Workingmen, 139 World, closed and open conceptions, 54, 60-61; modern

Verification, 156 Virtues, 164

conception as material for change, 114; nomenal and

Vision, 21

phenomenal, 23