THE EXPERIMENTAL THEORY 97 



logic; for a theory that takes knowledge as it 

 finds it and attempts to give the same kind of an 

 account of it that would be given of any other natu 

 ral function or occurrence. But the mere mention 

 of what might have been only accentuates what is. 

 The things that pass for epistemology all assume 

 that knowledge is not a natural function or event, 

 but a mystery. 



Epistemology starts from the assumption that 

 certain conditions lie back of knowledge. The 

 mystery would be great enough if knowledge were 

 constituted by non-natural conditions back of 

 knowledge, but the mystery is increased by the fact 

 that the conditions are defined so as to be incom 

 patible with knowledge. Hence the primary 

 problem of epistemology is : How is knowledge 

 uberhaupt, knowledge at large, possible? Because 

 of the incompatibility between the concrete occur 

 rence and function of knowledge and the conditions 

 back of it to which it must conform, a second 

 problem arises : How is knowledge in general, 

 knowledge uberhaupt, valid? Hence the complete 

 divorce in contemporary thought between epis 

 temology as theory of knowledge and logic as an 

 account of the specific ways in which particular 

 beliefs that are better than other alternative beliefs 

 regarding the same matters are formed; and also 

 the complete divorce between a naturalistic, a bio 

 logical and social psychology, setting forth how 



