THE INTELLECTUALIST CRITERION 131 



wholly amiable trait of reality has to make in what 

 I am here and now concerned with. You might as 

 well quote any other irrelevant fact, such as the 

 height of the Empress of China.&quot; We take an 

 other tack in dealing with the man in question. 

 We call his attention to his specific aim in the situ 

 ation with reference to which he is thinking, and 

 point out the conditions that have to be observed 

 if that aim is to fulfil itself. We show that if he 

 does not observe the conditions imposed by his aim 

 his thinking will go on so wildly as to defeat it 

 self. It is to consistency of means with the end 

 of the concrete activity that we appeal. &quot; Try 

 thinking,&quot; we tell such a man, &quot; experiment with 

 it, taking pains sometimes to have your reasonings 

 consistent with one another, and at other times 

 deliberately introducing inconsistencies ; then see 

 what you get in the two cases and how the result 

 reached is related to your purpose in thinking.&quot; 

 We point out that since that purpose is to reach a 

 settled conclusion, that purpose will be defeated un 

 less the steps of reasoning are kept consistent with 

 one another. We do not appeal from the mere con 

 sistency of the reasoning process the intellectual 

 aspect of the matter to an absolute self-con 

 sistent reality; but we appeal from the material 

 character of the end to be reached to the type of 

 the formal procedure necessary to accomplish it. 

 With all our heart, then, the standard of think- 



