THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE 287 



Hence the conception of progress as a rul 

 ing idea ; the conception of the individual as 

 the source and standard of rights ; and the problem 

 of knowledge, were all born together. Given the 

 freed individual, who feels called upon to create a 

 new heaven and a new earth, and who feels himself 

 gifted with the power to perform the task to which 

 he is called: and the demand for science, for a 

 method of discovering and verifying truth, becomes 

 imperious. The individual is henceforth to supply 

 control, law, and not simply stimulation and initia 

 tion. What does this mean but that instead of 

 any longer receiving or assimilating truth, he is 

 now to search for and create it? Having no 

 longer the truth imposed by authority to rely upon, 

 there is no resource save to secure the authority 

 of truth. The possibility of getting at and utiliz 

 ing this truth becomes therefore the underlying 

 and conditioning problem of modern life. Strange 

 as it may sound, the question which was formulated 

 by Kant as that of the possibility of knowledge, 

 is the fundamental political problem of modern 

 life. 



Science and metaphysics or philosophy, though 

 seeming often to be at war, with their respective 

 adherents often throwing jibes and slurs at each 

 other, are really the most intimate allies. The 

 philosophic movement is simply the coming to con 

 sciousness of this claim of the individual to be able 



