CURRENT TENDENCIES 9 



One or two of the favourite doctrines of the school 

 we are considering may be mentioned to illustrate the 

 nature of its claims. The universe, it tells us, is an 

 " organic unity," like an animal or a perfect work of art. 

 By this it means, roughly speaking, that all the different 

 parts fit together and co-operate, and are what they are 

 because of their place in the whole. This belief is some- 

 times advanced dogmatically, while at other times it is 

 defended by certain logical arguments. If it is true, 

 every part of the universe is a microcosm, a miniature 

 reflection of the whole. If we knew ourselves thoroughly, 

 according to this doctrine, we should know everything. 

 Common sense would naturally object that there are 

 people say in China with whom our relations are so 

 indirect and trivial that we cannot infer anything important 

 as to them from any fact about ourselves. If there are 

 living beings in Mars or in more distant parts of the 

 universe, the same argument becomes even stronger. 

 But further, perhaps the whole contents of the space and 

 time in which we live form only one of many universes, 

 each seeming to itself complete. And thus the conception 

 of the necessary unity of all that is resolves itself into 

 the poverty of imagination, and a freer logic emancipates 

 us from the strait-waistcoated benevolent institution 

 which idealism palms off as the totality of being. 



Another very important doctrine held by most, though 

 not all, of the school we are examining is the doctrine 

 that all reality is what is called " mental " or " spiritual," 

 or that, at any rate, all reality is dependent for its existence 

 upon what is mental. This view is often particularised 

 into the form which states that the relation of knower and 

 known is fundamental, and that nothing can exist unless 

 it either knows or is known. Here again the same 

 legislative function is ascribed to a priori argumentation : 



