59i 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 514. 



of smell would have no geometry, but that 

 does not make geometry essentially hypo- 

 thetical, a mere mental construction; for 

 ive have geometry because of the working 

 out of nature's laws. Indeed, instead of 

 issuing in a relativistic metaphysics of 

 knowledge, the doctrine of relativity should 

 issue in the recognition of the finality of 

 knowledge in every case of ascertainably 

 complete adaptation. In other words, 

 adaptation is itself metaphysical in char- 

 acter. Adjustment is always adjustment 

 between things, and yields only what it 

 does yield. The things or elements get into 

 the state which is their adjustment, and 

 this adjustment purports to be their actual 

 and unequivocal ordering in relation to one 

 another. Different conditions might have 

 produced a different ordering, but, again, 

 this ordering would be equally actual and 

 unequivocal, equally the one ordering to 

 issue from them. To suppose or admit that 

 the course of events might have been and 

 might be different, is not at all to suppose 

 or admit that it was or is different; it is, 

 rather, to suppose and admit that we have 

 real knowledge of what that course really 

 was and is. This seems to be very obvious. 

 Yet the evolutionist often thinks that he 

 is not a metaphysician, even when he brings 

 all his conceptions systematically under the 

 conception of evolution. This must be due 

 to some temporary lack of clearness. If 

 evolution is not a metaphysical doctrine 

 when extended to apply to all science, all 

 morality, all logic, in short, all things, then 

 it is quite meaningless for evolutionists to 

 pronounce a metaphysical sentence on 

 logical processes. But if evolution is a 

 metaphysics, then its sentence is meta- 

 physical, and in every case of adjustment 

 or adaptation we have a revelation of the 

 nature of reality in a definite and un- 

 «quivocal form. This conclusion applies tb 

 logical processes as well as to others. The 

 recognition that they are vital processes 



can, therefore, have little significance for 

 these processes in their distinctive char- 

 acter as logical. They are like all other 

 vital processes in that they are vital and 

 subject to evolution. They are unlike all 

 others in that thought is unlike digestion 

 or breathing. To regard logical processes 

 as vital processes does not in any way, 

 therefore, invalidate them as logical pro- 

 cesses or make it superfluous to consider 

 their claim to give us real knowledge of 

 a real world. Indeed, it makes such a con- 

 sideration more necessary and important. 



A second consideration overlooked by the 

 Protagorean tendencies of the day is, that 

 judgment, even if it is instrumental, pur- 

 ports to give us knowledge, that is, it claims 

 to reveal what is independent of the judging 

 process. Perhaps I ought not to say that 

 this consideration is overlooked, but rather 

 that it is denied significance. It is even 

 denied to be essential to judgment. It is 

 claimed that, instead of revealing anything 

 independent of the judging process, judg- 

 ment is just the adjustment and no more. 

 It is a reorganization of experience, an at- 

 tempt at control. All this looks to me like 

 a misstatement of the facts. Judgment 

 claims to be no such thing. It does not 

 function as such a thing. "When I make 

 any judgment, even the simplest, I may 

 make it as the result of tension, because of 

 a demand for reorganization, in order to 

 secure control of experience ; but the judg- 

 ment means for me something quite differ- 

 ent. It means decidedly and unequivo- 

 cally that in reality, apart from the judg- 

 ing process, things exist and operate just 

 as the judgment declares. If it is claimed 

 that this meaning is illusory, I eagerly de- 

 sire to know on what solid ground its illu- 

 soriness can be established. When the 

 conclusion was reached, that gravitation 

 varies directly as the mass and inversely 

 as the square of the distance, it was doubt- 

 less reached in an evolutionary and prag- 



