i34 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



m SEAECH OF TRUTH 1 



By Professor DAVID STARR JORDAN 



STANFORD UNIVERSITY 



A T the January meeting of the Astral Club at Alcalde, Mr. Arthur 

 -*--*- Grimshaw, of Berkeley, the newly appointed science teacher of 

 the Alcalde Union High School read a curious and interesting though 

 revolutionary paper on the ' source of knowledge.' His title was 

 ' What is Truth ?' This paper was highly appreciated by the club as 

 the example of the best results which can be attained on the material 

 plane of thought. The author's failure to rise to the heights of astral 

 conception was however painfully evident. It is plain that in the 

 laboratories where his training was secured all esoteric sources of truth 

 have been ignored. But as the Astral Club of Alcalde, though I say 

 it who should not, is nothing if not open-minded, it shall be the duty 

 of the secretary to transfer to this record the substance of this young 

 man's views on the tests by which truth may be known. 



Mr. Grimshaw began by a discussion of the significance of ' philo- 

 sophic doubt' whereby men question the only things they know to be 

 true, in the hope of proving the reality of things they know are not 

 true. For if you can show that truth and falsehood are identical in 

 the one case, it lends probability to the theory that falsehood is truth 

 in other cases. On this general argument are founded many forms 

 of modern philosophy and of ancient philosophy as well. Mr. Grim- 

 shaw said : 



" What I mean to show is that all truth is truth so far as it goes. The 

 things we know to be real are real and we are not deceived in believing 

 in them. The proof of the reality of an object, the truth of a proposi- 

 tion lies in the fact that we can accept it and translate it into action, 

 into life. If it were not true we could not act upon it. Acts based 

 upon it would sooner or later put an end to existence. 



" The real nature of an object before us may make little importance 

 to us. It may be solid rock or empty vapor, if we choose to let it alone. 

 But the moment we form relations with it its reality becomes a vital 

 matter. If it is a rock or an apple, then rock or apple it is in all its 

 relations. If we view the apple as something essentially different from 

 what it is, there will be similar errors in our thought of other things. 

 If we are deceived as to the rock we shall have unsound notions as to 

 other things. 



1 Being further extracts from the Journal of the Astral Club of Alcalde. 



