98 THE EXPERIMENTAL THEORY 



the function of knowledge is evolved out of other 

 natural activities, and epistemology as an account 

 of how knowledge is possible anyhow. 



It is out of the question to set forth in this place 

 in detail the contrast between transcendental epis 

 temology and an experimental theory of knowl 

 edge. It may assist the understanding of the lat 

 ter, however, if I point out, baldly and briefly, how, 

 out of the distinctively empirical situation, there 

 arise those assumptions which make knowledge a 

 mystery, and hence a topic for a peculiar branch 

 of philosophizing. 



As just pointed out, epistemology makes the 

 possibility of knowledge a problem, because it 

 assumes back of knowledge conditions incompatible 

 with the obvious traits of knowledge as it em 

 pirically exists. These assumptions are that the 

 organ or instrument of knowledge is not a natural 

 object, but some ready-made state of mind or con 

 sciousness, something purely &quot; subjective,&quot; a pecu 

 liar kind of existence which lives, moves, and has 

 its being in a realm different from things to be 

 known; and that the ultimate goal and content 

 of knowledge is a fixed, ready-made thing which 

 has no organic connections with the origin, pur 

 pose, and growth of the attempt to know it, some 

 kind of Ding-an-sich or absolute, extra-empirical 

 &quot;Reality.&quot; &quot; 



(1) It is not difficult to see at what point in 



