54 The Concept of Method 



Theory of Knowledge has depended upon which of the elements 

 has been considered to be active and which passive. The oriental 

 type of mind exalted the activity of the not-self, the object, the 

 environment ; the occidental has emphasised and still emphasises 

 the activity of the self, the subject, the individual: a view which 

 found its completest expression in the synthetic unity of apper- 

 ception which lies at the basis of the Kantian philosophy. Evo- 

 lution seems to afford Epistemology the necessary two elements 

 which logical analysis has so widely separated ; and this funda- 

 mental relation between these two mutually necessary factors is 

 further strengthened when considered from the point of view of 

 Idealism. 



It is an important argument in favor of the validity of the 

 evolutionary theory that it not only falls in so well with the gen- 

 eral trend of epistemological inquiry, but that it adds to it much 

 more fundamental significance from the theoretical point of 

 view, as well as at the same time broadening its relations on the 

 practical side. 



One thing more must be borne in mind : from the philosophical 

 standpoint. Evolution cannot be interpreted otherwise than 

 teleologically. Evolution is teleology made manifest in the cosmic 

 process. It is because some thinkers fail to take this view of 

 evolution that they fail to justify the ways of God to man and 

 beast. In every sense of the term, it is a narrow interpretation 

 of teleology which confines itself to those series of phenomena 

 which we interpret anthropomorphically as " the struggle for 

 existence," or which goes farther only to find no God because it 

 imagines that it can find no freedom. It is the old fallacy of 

 jumping at conclusions in the dark, and the old desire to draw the 

 whole curve somehow, even though its outline be drawn half 

 false, or drawn before its direction and sweep are fully realised 

 in part. 



It is here maintained, on the contrary, that Evolution cannot 

 be conceived without teleology, for Evolution is considered as a 

 rational process of cosmical organisation. Teleology gives in 

 human terms the interpretation of this process, and it therefore 

 complements the contribution made by science to human knowl- 

 edge and belief, by placing these scientific facts in their necessary 

 causal relations to one another, and by showing their organic 



