HUMANISM 225 



for in feeling or in will. Upon the hopelessness and the useless- 

 ness of such a procedure we shall not dwell. 



The word humanism has been used in recent philosophical 

 discussion, in a variety of senses, which our present purpose 

 does not require us to enumerate and distinguish. In its widest 

 sense it includes every attempt or tendency to interpret the 

 macrocosm in terms derived from the analysis of the microcrosm. 

 According to this interpretation, Augustine and Campanella are 

 humanists par excellence. Taken more narrowly, it may denote 

 the pragmatist theory of reality that was outlined in a previous 

 chapter; the theory, namely, that was condensed into the for 

 mula, that the real is the object of interest. We propose to use 

 it here in a sense which must be carefully distinguished from both 

 of these, the rather because in recent controversy it has been 

 closely associated with them. It is the theory that all reality 

 is to some extent man-made, and hence may be to an extent 

 to be discovered only by actual trial modified and controlled by 

 human efforts. 



We shall try to show that this theory has only a very limited 

 controversial significance; that it is wholly unsupported by evi 

 dence and is without possible application; in short, that upon 

 admitted pragmatist principles it is meaningless though not 

 more so than the doctrines which it opposes. 



The most prominent of these is a degenerate Hegelianism, 

 which finds some support in the writings of the master, but 

 really amounts to an exaggeration of his weakest traits accord 

 ing to which the absolute exists complete in the temporal present. 

 In our opinion this view is not worthy of serious discussion, 

 except upon the ground of its supposed wide acceptance by 

 teachers of philosophy; and we believe that most of those to 

 whom it is attributed would upon a direct challenge repudiate it. 

 The absolute of Hegel s philosophy is the evolving universe, not 

 at a single point of time, but conceived as embracing its whole 

 development. What it is now is merely a step toward what it 

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