THE 1NTELLECTUALIST CRITERION 133 



these predicaments that being &quot; in a hole,&quot; in 

 difficulty, is the fundamental &quot; predicament &quot; of in 

 telligence. Suppose when effort is made in a brute 

 way to remove these oppositions and to secure an 

 arrangement of things which means satisfaction, 

 fulfilment, happiness, that the method of brute at 

 tack, of trying directly to force warrings into 

 peace fails; suppose then an effort to effect the 

 transformation by an indirect method by inquiry 

 into the disordered state of affairs and by framing 

 views, conceptions, of what the situation would be 

 like were it reduced to harmonious order. Finally, 

 suppose that upon this basis a plan of action 

 is worked out, and that this plan, when carried into 

 overt effect, succeeds infinitely better than the 

 brute method of attack in bringing about the de 

 sired consummation. Suppose again this indirec 

 tion of activity is precisely what we mean by think 

 ing. Would it not hold that harmony is the end 

 and the test of thinking? that observations are per 

 tinent and ideas correct just in so far as, overtly 

 acted upon, they succeed in removing the unde 

 sirable, the inconsistent. 



But, it is said, the very process of thinking makes 

 a certain assumption regarding the nature of real 

 ity, viz., that reality is self-consistent. This state 

 ment puts the end for the beginning. The assump 

 tion is not that &quot; reality &quot; is self-consistent, but 

 that by thinking it may, for some special purpose, 



