PART I
THE CONCEPTION OF REALITY
The conception of Reality is one which philosophical writers of all schools and tendencies must face and consider.[1] In the present day, when popular philosophy is largely under the influence of more or less decidedly agnostic traditions, it is customary to make light of attempts to say anything positive about the Absolute; but it is all the more popular to say: “Oh, we modern men, discarding the fantasies of the past, rejecting a priori constructions, trusting solely to experience, — we seek, in our philosophy, for the Real.” “And the Real,” one continues, “is not something that metaphysical dreaming can make out. It is something forced upon us by the irresistible compulsion of experience. We know regarding it, not its ultimate structure, but its appearances in our individual experience. Ultimate truth is a dream of the philosophers.”
In the argument with which this debate opened, I attempted some dealing with just such relatively
- ↑ Throughout the whole following discussion the reader may notice, from time to time, the influence of various special discussions that occur in Mr. Bradley’s Appearance and Reality. I acknowledge this influence the more readily in view of the fact that after all, as will appear, I often dissent from Mr. Bradley’s conclusions. But there is space only for this general acknowledgment.
