86 THE AIM AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD. 



spirit of the whole of our previous argument to admit at mis 

 point the Objectivity, in our own sense, of a concept 

 which is quite obviously an hypothesis imported like other 

 ..hypotheses which we have seen and have yet to see into the 

 ' undoubtedly Objective data simply in order to render them 

 intelligible. Yet at the same time an hypothesis which is 

 instinctively adopted by everyone to whom the data are 

 'presented is something so very much like the Objective form 

 of synthesis that constitutes other Objective elements into a 

 " thing "* that its case seems to have a right to special 

 consideration. 



Ft would appear that justice is done to its claims by the 

 admission that it is a postulate which has reference, strictly, not 

 to truth, but to action. It is true 1 that in the sense explained 

 in 5 a thing may not absurdly be said to have at the same 

 place and the same time many not-identical hotn.esses, but for 

 practical -especially for social purposes the recognition that 

 this is so would be highly inconvenient. For such purposes 

 the richness and many coloured variety of the actual primary 

 facts must be replaced by an artificial simplicity ; a result 

 which is reached by the instinctive hypothesis of a " same 

 representative value " which is attributed to the diverse 

 Objective presentations. The innumerable hotnesses perceived 

 around the body are conceived to represent, or to have 

 reference to, a " state of the body itself " which, since it is 

 independent of perception, is truly the same for all. This 

 postulate which we may call the postulate of " pragmatic 

 objectivity" performs then, a function somewhat analogous 

 to that of the Kantian categories ; it makes certain kinds of 

 social activity possible which without it could hardly take 

 place. 



It is possible that we have here a not unhappy example of 

 many cases in which a distinction may profitably be made 



* Supra, p. 17. 



