NOVEMBEE 4, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



597 



ment which fashioned it. While, therefore, 

 willing to admit that logical processes are 

 vital processes, I am not willing to admit 

 that the problem of logic is radically 

 changed thereby in its formulation or solu- 

 tion, for the vital processes in question 

 have the unique character of knowledge, 

 the content of which is what it claims to 

 be, a system of real implications which 

 existed prior to its discovery. 



In the psychological and biological tend- 

 encies in logic, there is, however, I think, 

 a distinct gain for logical theory. The in- 

 sistence that logical processes are both 

 mental and vital has done much to take 

 them out of the transcendental aloofness 

 from reality in which they have often been 

 placed, especially since Kant. So long as 

 thought and object were so separated that 

 they could never be brought together, and 

 so long as logical processes were conceived 

 wholly in terms of ideas set over against 

 objects, there was no hope of escape from 

 the realm of pure hypothesis and conjec- 

 ture. Locke's axiom that 'the mind, in 

 all its thoughts and reasonings, hath no 

 other immediate object but its own ideas,' 

 an axiom which Kant did so much to 

 sanctify, and which has been the basal 

 principle of the greater part of modern 

 logic and metaphysics, is most certainly 

 subversive of logical theory. The transi- 

 tion from ideas to anything else is ren- 

 dered impossible by it. Now it is just this 

 axiom which the biological tendencies in 

 logic have done so much to destroy. They 

 have insisted, with the greatest right, that 

 logical processes are not set over against 

 their content as idea against object, as ap- 

 pearance against reality, but are processes 

 of reality itself. Just as reality can and 

 does function in a physical or a physiolog- 

 ical way, so also it functions in a logical 

 way. The state we call knowledge becomes, 

 thus, as much a part of the system of 

 things as the state we call chemical com- 



bination. The problem how thought can 

 know anything becomes, therefore, as ir- 

 relevant as the problem how elements can 

 combine at all. The recognition of this is 

 a great gain, and the promise of it most 

 fruitful for both logic and metaphysics. 



But, as I have tried to point out, all this 

 surrendering of pure thought as opposed 

 to pure reality, does not at all necessitate 

 our regarding judgment as a process which 

 makes reality different from what it was 

 before. Of course there is one difference, 

 namely, the logical one; for reality prior 

 to logical processes is unknown. As a re- 

 sult of these processes it becomes known. 

 These processes are, therefore, responsible 

 for a known as distinct from an unknown 

 reality. But what is the transformation 

 which reality undergoes in becoming 

 known? When it becomes known that 

 water seeks its own level,' what change has 

 taken place in the water? It would appear 

 that we must answer, none. The water 

 which seeks its own level has not been 

 transformed into ideas or even into a 

 human experience. It appears to remain, 

 as water, precisely what it was before. 

 The transformation which takes place, takes 

 place in the one who knows, a transforma- 

 tion from ignorance to knowledge. Psy- 

 chology and biology can afford us the nat- 

 ural history of this transformation, but 

 they can not inform us in the least as to 

 why it should have its specific character. 

 That is given and not deduced. The at- 

 tempts to deduce it have, without excep- 

 tion, been futile. That is why we are 

 forced to take it as ultimate in the same 

 way we take as ultimate the specific char- 

 acter of any definite transformation. To 

 my mind, there is needed a fuller and more 

 cordial recognition of this fact. The con- 

 ditions under which we, as individuals, 

 know, are certainly discoverable, just as 

 much as the conditions under which we 

 breathe or digest. And what happens to 



