186 BELIEFS AND EXISTENCES 



of a discredited mind. And, in general, epistemol- 

 ogy, in relegating human thinking as inquiry to a 

 merely phenomenal region, makes concrete approx 

 imation and conformity to objectivity hopeless. 

 Even if it did square itself up to and by &quot; reality &quot; 

 it never could be sure of it. The ancient myth of 

 Tantalus and his effort to drink the water before 

 him seems to be ingeniously prophetic of modern 

 epistemology. The thirstier, the needier of truth 

 the human mind, and the intenser the efforts put 

 forth to slake itself in the ocean of being just 

 beyond the edge of consciousness, the more surely 

 the living waters of truth recede ! 



When such self-confessed sterility is joined with 

 consistent derogation of all the special results of 

 the special sciences, some one is sure to raise the cry 

 of &quot; dog in the manger,&quot; or of &quot; sour grapes.&quot; A 

 revision of the theory of thinking, of inquiry, would 

 seem to be inevitable ; a revision which should cease 

 trying to construe knowledge as an attempted ap 

 proximation to a reproduction of reality under con 

 ditions that condemn it in advance to failure ; a 

 revision which should start frankly from the fact 

 of thinking as inquiring, and purely external re 

 alities as terms in inquiries, and which should con 

 strue validity, objectivity, truth, and the test and 

 system of truths, on the basis of what they actu 

 ally mean and do within inquiry. 



Such a standpoint promises ample revenge for 



