150 THE INTELLECTUALIST CRITERION 



through location of a problem can a solution be 

 conceived ; only in reference to the intent of finding 

 a solution can the elements of a problem be 

 selected and interpreted. ,In origin and in destiny, 

 this correlative determination of existence and 

 meaning is tentative and experimental. The aim 

 of the subject of the judgment is not to include all 

 possible reality, but to select those elements of a 

 reality that are useful in locating the source and 

 nature of the difficulty in hand. The aim of the 

 predicate is not to bunch all possible meaning and 

 refer it in one final act indiscriminately to all ex 

 istence, but to state the standpoint and method 

 through which the difficulty of the particular situa 

 tion may most effectively be dealt with. The selec 

 tion of what is relevant to the characterization of 

 the problem and the projection of the method of 

 dealing with it are theoretic, hypothetic, intel 

 lectual: that is, they are tentative ways of view 

 ing the matter for the sake of guiding, economiz 

 ing, and freeing the activities through which it may 

 really be dealt with. 



3. The criterion of the worth of the idea is thus 

 the capacity of the idea (as a definition of the end 

 or outcome in terms of what is likely to be service 

 able as a method) to operate in fulfilling the object 

 for the sake of which it was projected. Capacity 

 of operation in this fashion is the test, measure, or 

 criterion of truth. Hence the criterion is practi- 



