io HUMANISM i 



itself and apart from our interests ; if such a thing there 

 were, it could not be known, nor rationally believed in. 



For our interests impose the conditions under which 

 alone Reality can be revealed. Only such aspects of 

 Reality can be revealed as are (i) knowable and 

 (2) objects of an actual desire, and consequent attempt, 

 to know. All other realities or aspects of Reality, which 

 there is no attempt to know, necessarily remain unknown, 

 and for us unreal, because there is no one to look for 

 them. Reality, therefore, and the knowledge thereof, 

 essentially presuppose a definitely directed effort to know. 

 And, like other efforts, this effort is purposive ; it is neces 

 sarily inspired by the conception of some good ( end ) 

 at which it aims. Neither the question of Fact, therefore, 

 nor the question of Knowledge can be raised without 

 raising also the question of Value. Our Facts when 

 analysed turn out to be Values, and the conception of 

 Value therefore becomes more ultimate than that of 

 Fact Our valuations thus pervade our whole experience, 

 and affect whatever fact, whatever knowledge we 

 consent to recognize. If, then, there is no knowing without 

 valuing, if knowledge is a form of Value, or, in other 

 words, a factor in a Good, Lotze s anticipation * has 

 been fully realized, and the foundations of metaphysics 

 have actually been found to lie in ethics. 



In this way the ultimate question for philosophy 

 becomes What is Reality for one aiming at knowing 

 what ? Real means, real for what purpose ? to what 

 end ? in what use ? in what context ? in preference to 

 what alternative belief? The answers always come Tin 

 terms of the will to know which puts the question. This 

 at once yields a simple and beautiful explanation of the 

 different accounts of Reality which are given in the 

 various sciences and philosophies. The purpose of the 

 questions being different, so is their purport, and so must 

 be the answers. For the direction of our effort, itself 

 determined by our desires and will to know, enters as a 

 necessary and ineradicable factor into whatever revelation 



1 Metaphysics (Eng. Tr. ), ii. p. 319. 



