344 HUMANISM 



XVIII 



(i) Taking these points in order, let us ask what is 

 the nature of an ethical postulate. It is nothing but the 

 affirmation of the cosmic significance of the ideal of Good 

 ness, of our ethical valuation of things. It claims that the 

 universe is not merely a fact, but has a certain value which 

 we call ethical. It is at bottom a moral universe, and 

 potentially resolves itself into an ethical harmony. Now 

 the logical method by which this argument proceeds is 

 this : Given a part, to find the whole ; given a few 

 fragmentary data, to construct therefrom an ideal which 

 may validly be used to interpret the data. It is the 

 same method which is used by the palaeontologist when, 

 from a tooth or a bone, he reconstructs some long-extinct 

 form of life. The question, then, resolves itself into this : 

 Have we the right to assume that our ethical data cohere 

 and may be fitted together into an ethical ideal ? 



And (2), in sustaining this procedure the ethical con 

 sciousness does not stand alone. Its claim is supported 

 by our procedure elsewhere. All the ideals of ultimate 

 value are constituted in the same manner. How do we 

 make good the claim that anything in the universe is 

 beautiful ? We assume that our judgments concerning 

 beauty are not devoid of significance, but may be har 

 monized in an ideal of Beauty to which the nature of 

 things is somehow akin. How do we make good the 

 claim that happiness is possible ? We believe in the 

 prophetic significance of the pleasurable states of con 

 sciousness in our experience, and out of them frame the 

 ideal of Happiness which we assume reality may realize. 



Lastly, how do we make good the claim that the 

 world is knowable ? We assume that its facts somehow 

 cohere, and may be arranged in an orderly system of 

 Truth or Knowledge. In other words, we try to look 

 upon reality as realizing our ideals of Knowledge, Beauty, 

 Goodness and Happiness, and thereby constitute it a 

 cosmos, knowable, beautiful, ethical and delightful. But 

 in each case we are checked by the same obstacles. 

 The ideals certainly do not float on the surface of life. 

 They are not congruous with the raw facts of experience. 



