10 W. G. Langworthy Taylor 



A little reflection, however, should show that the new and 

 better would have been impossible had it not been preceded 

 by the old, which was itself once novel. Man, as a social 

 being, has been ever toiling to add to knowledge, and has suc- 

 ceeded by virtue of his faculty of reason. 



Logically regarded, reason is the syllogism. Broadly and 

 historically regarded, it is the continued application of the 

 syllogism to the conclusions of former syllogisms. The result 

 ig an addition to what preceded;^ and it is also the truth. 

 This truth must always be relative to the objective facts of 

 history. It is the parallel development of mind; it is parallel 

 to the logic of events. To the more psychic persons, the word 

 is more important than the deed — to the less psychic, the 

 subjective yields in reality to the objective. It is cause as 

 well as effect. Hence, the truth of one set of circumstances is 

 not that of another, and the truth of one age is not that of 

 another. 



Because the truth of to-day is different from that of yester- 

 day, it does not impliedly deny or contradict the truth of 

 yesterday. This is the doctrine of the relativity of truth. 

 Care must be taken to observe that this doctrine does not 

 deny the existence of an ideal trutli — a truth of God rather 

 than of man. The object is clearly to distinguish between 

 these two truths, and to show that science, as an investigator 

 of the actual, is concerned immediately with the latter alone^ 

 All sciences, especially political economy, are founded upon 

 relative truth. Similarly, all structures in biology are com- 

 bined out of cells, the different combinations being relative to 

 different purposes and being arranged in progressive order. 



The relativity of the public point of view of each period be- 

 ing established, its characteristics remain for discussion. In 

 the distribution of products, each individual would gladly 



See Kidd's Social Evoju: ion, per contra. 



172 



