100 THE EXPERIMENTAL THEORY 



(as indicated above) all possible experiences of 

 success and of failure, and deliberately instituting 

 cases which will throw light on the specific em 

 pirical causes of success and failure. 



Now it so happens that when the facts of error 

 were consciously generalized and formulated, 

 namely in Greek thought, such a technique of spe 

 cific inquiry and rectification did not exist in fact, 

 it hardly could come into existence until after error 

 had been seized upon as constituting a funda 

 mental anomaly. Hence the method just outlined 

 of dealing with the situation was impossible. We 

 can imagine disconsolate ghosts willing to postpone 

 any professed solution of the difficulty till subse 

 quent generations have thrown more light on the 

 question itself; we can hardly imagine passionate 

 human beings exercising such reserve. At all 

 events, Greek thought provided what seemed a sat 

 isfactory way out: there are two orders of ex 

 istence, one permanent and complete, the noumenal 

 region, to which alone the characteristic of Being 

 is properly applicable, the other transitory, phe 

 nomenal, sensible, a region of non-Being, or at 

 least of mere Coming-to-be, a region in which Be 

 ing is hopelessly mixed with non-Being, with the 

 unreal. The former alone is the domain of knowl 

 edge, of truth ; the latter is the territory of opinion, 

 confusion, and error. In short, the contrast with- 

 m experience of the cases in which things sue- 



