THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE 297 



with these two opposed things still at war with 

 each other, plus the miracle of their final combina 

 tion. 



When I say that the only way out is to place the 

 whole modern industry of epistemology in relation 

 to the conditions that gave it birth and the func 

 tion it has to fulfil, I mean that the unsatisfactory 

 character of the entire neo-Kantian movement lies 



Iin its assumption that knowledge gives birth to it 

 self and is capable of affording its own justifica 

 tion. The solution that is always sought and 

 never found so long as we deal with knowledge as 

 a self-sufficing purveyor of reality, reveals itself 

 when we conceive of knowledge as a statement of 

 action, that statement being necessary, moreover, 

 to the successful ongoing of action. 



The entire problem of medieval philosophy is 

 that of absorption, of assimilation. The result 

 was the creation of the individual. Hence the prob 

 lem of modern life is that of reconstruction, re 

 form, reorganization. The entire content of ex 

 perience needs to be passed through the alembic 

 of individual agency and realization. The indi 

 vidual is to be the bearer of civilization ; but this 

 involves a remaking of the civilization that he 

 bears. Thus we have the dual question : How can 

 the individual become the organ of corporate ac 

 tion? How can he make over the truth authorita 

 tively embodied in institutions of church and state 



