CHAPTER VII 



THE TWO ORDERS 



(i) THE problem of thought in its higher phases, whether as 

 Philosophy or as Science, as Religion or as Art, is one of 

 Reconstruction. The origin and nature of this problem 

 only becomes fully intelligible in the light of the theory 

 of evolution. That the deliverances of ordinary percep- 

 tion and the inferences of common sense should possess a 

 certain validity and yet provide a very inadequate basis for 

 a final interpretation of reality is in general terms perfectly 

 intelligible to the evolutionist. For the student of mental 

 evolution, perception and thought are alike functions of a 

 structure which has grown up under the conditions of 

 survival. What is generally necessary to such structures 

 is merely that they should answer their purpose, and their 

 purpose or rather their function is that of preserving 

 the stock. For this it is necessary at bottom that they 

 should induce suitable motor responses to changes of the 

 environment. One way in which this might be done is 

 certainly by the growth of a structure whose function 

 should consist precisely in cognition in knowing what 

 the environment is, how it changes, and how it is going 

 to change. But (a) this is not the only possible method 

 of adjustment. The study of reflex action and of instinct 

 yields overwhelming evidence that behaviour may be 

 adjusted to the requirements of the organism in accordance 

 with changes of the environment without knowledge 

 on the part of the organism of what it is doing or why it 

 is doing it. It is thus at least possible that there should 

 be a point to point correspondence between changes in the 



