vm CONCEPTUAL RECONSTRUCTION 137 



talising process. Separated from the living function of 

 co-ordinating experience it hardens into a shell which is 

 the more empty in proportion as its outlines are more 

 rigid. It crystallises its contents, and indeed any dis- 

 tinguishable element of its content, into an independent 

 object, and takes that object as it stands for something real. 

 Hence it endeavours to separate what are really nothing 

 but distinguishable aspects of one whole. Conversely, it 

 merges into one concepts which though essentially diverse 

 resemble one another under one aspect. It confronts the 

 world of experience with dilemmas demanding that it 

 should conform absolutely or not conform at all to concepts 

 which are in fact derived only from partial characters of 

 experience, and are never given except as qualifying or 

 intertwined with others. Lastly, it crystallises fluidity 

 and movement into separate elements with gulfs between 

 them, wherein true movement is lost. 



The first pair of these tendencies may be illustrated 

 from the history of the concept of Identity. As a point 

 of view from which to correlate experience this term has 

 two distinct roots. It serves to hold together the object 

 that has many attributes, that appears in different times 

 and places, that undergoes certain changes and exhibits 

 various forms of behaviour. As such it may be more 

 definitely expressed by the term numerical identity or 

 Unity. But the concept of Identity also applies to the 

 several manifestations of an unchanging character, that is 

 to say, to all the elements of experience which present an 

 exact resemblance to one another. As soon as the concept 

 is cut off from the experience to which it refers a blending 

 of these meanings occurs. The two concepts collapse into 

 the element which they have in common the notion of a 

 unitary centre of different contexts and the character is 

 thought of as an individual entity which persists and is 

 numerically one through all its manifestations. This con- 

 fusion is made into the logical basis of generalisation. 

 The difficulty of arguing from case to case disappears, it is 

 thought, for what truly belongs to the concept in any one 

 instance belongs to it as a unity once and for all, and to 

 deny it in any other case would be mere contradiction. 



