122 THE INTELLECTUALIST CRITERION 



determines the law of thought. Or, as Mr. Brad 

 ley again puts the matter, &quot; In order to think at 

 all you must subject yourself to the standard, a 

 standard which implies an absolute knowledge of 

 reality ; and while you doubt this, you accept it, 

 and obey, while you rebel&quot; (ibid., p. 153). 

 The absolute knowledge referred to is, of course, 

 the knowledge of the thoroughly self-consistent, 

 non-contradictory character of reality. Every 

 reader of Mr. Bradley s book knows how he goes 

 on from this point to supply positive content to 

 reality ; to give an outline sketch of the characters 

 it must possess and the way in which it must possess 

 them in order to maintain its thoroughly self- 

 consistent character. It is, however, only the 

 strictly formal aspect of the matter that I am 

 here concerned with. 



On this side we reach, I think, the heart of the 

 matter by asking, in reference to the first quota 

 tion : Absolute for what? Surely absolute for the 

 process under consideration, that is absolute for 

 thought. But the significance of this absolute for 

 thought is, one may say, &quot; absolutely &quot; (since we 

 are here confessedly in the realm just of thought) 

 determined by the nature of thought itself. Now 

 this nature has been already referred by considera 

 tions &quot; belonging irremovably to truth s proper 

 character,&quot; to the world of appearance and of in 

 ternal discrepancy. Yes, one may say (speaking 



