114 PERSONALITY 



this activity in relation to human organic 

 needs. For certain purposes this abstraction 

 from reality is useful ; but we must be clear 

 that it is an abstraction from reality, and that 

 in considering the nature of personality we 

 cannot make any such abstraction. The 

 apparent self-existent things in the form in 

 which they appear to us are themselves the 

 creation of our own thought are machinery 

 which we have made for our own purposes. 

 The parts of this machinery may appear to 

 exist independently of one another; but all 

 are determined as parts, however imperfect, 

 which we have made for our own purposes. 

 Their imperfection is our own imperfection ; 

 for they are part of ourselves, and belong to 

 our personality. We have made them in 

 order to use them for certain purposes, and 

 we do so use them. In scientific work we 

 are not simply studying passively something 

 which is apart from and independent of us : 

 our real aim is just as much practical as that 

 of any ordinary workman. He has to study 

 things just as we do, and our study of them 

 is only part of the gaining control of them, 

 just as in his case. Our theories are practical 



