jects, if one may make use of the word in this connection, which 

 correspond to the concept, the latter still retaining the place w r hich 

 Socrates had given them ? Then there would be first, individual 

 sensible things, secondly, concepts, obtained by analysis, and 

 thirdly, the suprasensible Ideas (objects) corresponding to the 

 concepts. Such an interpretation would save Plato from attempt- 

 ing the impossible task of hypostasizing concepts, it would also give 

 him credit for having seen, as, for example, Kant did centuries 

 later, that the experience of the individual is constantly demanding 

 completion, a completion which is in part realized by the positing 

 of certain Rational Ideas, to use the Kantian phrase. Religion 

 always has ventured upon this task; science follows the same 

 method, for part of its aim was seen to consist in the positing in its 

 theories of that which was accepted a"s explaining the given facts. 

 Plato had behind him a religious background which certainly 

 influenced him tremendously, he too was well aware of the methods 

 employed in the' particular disciplines of his day and, in his en- 

 deavours to understand these and human experience in all its 

 relations, it would be a most natural thing for him to emphasize 

 these Ideas, which were not concepts nor obtained as the latter were, 

 but which were predicated as completions of that experience. No 

 doubt, the language that he used was open to misconstruction and, 

 probably, yes certainly, the Platonic schools did not grasp the 

 significance of the procedure of their master, if indeed, Plato himself 

 fully realized it, but it seems at least a reasonable interpretation to 

 place upon his writings and one much more in accord with the re- 

 markable genius of the man who, for so many centuries now, has in 

 great part shaped and moulded the thought of the Western world. 



Under any circumstances, Plato's teaching is not so different 

 from that of modern science as might be supposed, for he never 

 forgets the importance of concepts. Even though, at times, his 

 poetic temperament tends to make him soar above the things of 

 sense, yet he still realizes that the hard, brute facts of this mundane 

 world are the starting-point of investigation. However much he 

 may love to contemplate Ideas, yet he does not blind his eyes to the 

 necessity for an explanation of the things of sense, and furthermore, 

 in the very positing of his suprasensible Ideas, he still, it would 

 seem, is pursuing a method which science, throughout its long his- 



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