56 TWO THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE 



than a helpful stepping-stone to the true 

 answer. 



In recent years various forms of opportunist 

 philosophies under the names of Pragmatism, 

 Pluralism, etc., have endeavoured to elude the 

 pressure of the dilemma and to solace mankind for 

 the failure of Kantianism by advising them to accept 

 Experience as it is. But though such a counsel 

 of resignation may in a popular sense of the term 

 be regarded as philosophical it can hardly be accepted 

 as a solution. 



We find, then, that since man first began to 

 inquire reflectively upon the nature of his cognitive 

 faculty his speculation has followed one or other 

 of tAvo great lines or divisions of theory, neither of 

 which has been found to afford intellectual satis- 

 faction. 



We have (1 ) the theory that seeks in some way or 

 other to derive the real constituents of Science 

 from the constitution of the cognitive faculty 

 itself. To this theory, which has inspired one 

 whole stream of speculation from Plato to Hegel, 

 there are at least two absolutely fatal objections. 



(a) It fails altogether to account for the sensible 

 presentation which however fluent and unstable 



