42 TWO THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE 



contains and affords no common nexus whereby 

 the conceptions or perceptions of one man can 

 be compared or related with those of another. 



Indeed, if Experience were composed solely 

 of sensations, each individual would be an isolated 

 solipsistic unit incapable of rational Discourse or 

 communication with his fellow-men. To cure this 

 defect, Plato offered the ideas universal forms 

 common to the intelligence of every rational being. 

 Not only would they render possible a common 

 Knowledge of Reality the existence of such 

 ideas would necessarily also give permanence, 

 fixity, law, and order to our intellectual activity. 

 Our Knowledge would not be a mere random suc- 

 cession of impressions, but a definitely determined 

 organic unity. 



In all this argument it must be remembered 

 Plato never said or suggested that the intellect of 

 man thus equipped with ideal forms was thereby 

 enabled to become, or did become, the creator of 

 the world by and in which each one believes 

 himself to be surrounded and included. He always 

 distinguished between Idea and Reality, between 

 Thought and Thing. The ideas were types of the 

 forms immanent in things themselves. It has been 

 said by some scholars that he generally distinguished 

 between the two by the employment of distinct 



