APPENDIX E 



REPLY TO CRITICISMS BY MR. J. M. E. McTAGGARTi 



I AM much indebted to my reviewer for the care and 

 the penetration with which he has considered my theory ; 

 and yet I notice some important respects in which he has 

 failed to take my meaning. These I must set forth with 

 all possible clearness, in the hope of preventing further 

 misunderstanding ; and then I shall have to reply to the 

 objections which he raises (or, perhaps rather, the diffi- 

 culties which he suggests) in connexion with my view. 



FREEDOM, PERFECTION, GOD, AND THE PROOF OF GOD, IN 



THE SYSTEM 



Judging by his other published writings, as well as by 

 his review, I may fairly assume that Mr. McTaggart is in 

 agreement with me in holding to an idealistic pluralism, 

 the theory of an Eternal Society of many minds, each abso- 

 lutely real. It is well to note, in setting out to comment 

 on his criticisms, that there is a head under which his 

 views and mine might correctly be brought into collocation 

 with the views of our Oxford colleagues, with those of 

 Professor James, with those of the late Thomas Davidson, 

 and even with those of more pronounced individualists, — 

 I mean the head of pluralism : in one way or another, we 

 all hold out for manifold realities that are all alike indis- 



1 Reprinted, with some trifling changes, from MinJ, April, 1903. 

 Mr. McTaggart'- leu^vv may be fiiund in Mind, July, 1902. 



420 



