Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/92

VI. DISCUSSIONS. EXISTENCE AND CONTENT. BOTH in the Principles of Logic and in Appearance and Reality, Mr. R H. Bradley has demonstrated the fundamental importance for Logic and Metaphysics of the problem involved in the relation of "existence" to " content". In it fee keynote to his own system of thought is to be found : with it T. H. Green, in his treatment of "feeling" and "relation" vainly strove: Kant, himself, under the caption of "Sensibility" and "Understanding" found there the pivotal points of the theory of knowledge. In continuing the investigation of this problem we shall assume several positions advanced by Idealistic philosophy. (1) Reality can be stated, and consequently has meaning, only in terms of Experience. (2) By Experience is meant not the mere private and limited Experience of any finite individual but the absolute medium to which investigation of the final structure of Reality leads us. (3) Knowledge is the instrument by which Reality is definitely determined for us. As Mr. Bradley's formulation of the problem is recent and most exact, we shall use his treatment as the starting-point of our own investigation. His difficulty may be stated thus. The recognition that Reality and Experience are identical leaves us entirely in the sphere of indeterminate existence. We know that Reality is found in every aspect of experience, but its determinate character- istics are not thus revealed to us. Reflexion upon "existence" is required before its indeterminateness is reduced to the defi- niteness and coherency of "content". But "content," however determinate, is constructive. Its meaning is embodied in abstract universal ideas. Knowledge therefore is essentially a process of substituting general symbols for the concreteness and fulness of immediate experience. Furthermore "content" is always frag- mentary and is developed piecemeal. Accordingly, to Mr. Bradley's mind Knowledge appears to mutilate the given Real. Were it even thinkable that Knowledge could overcome its fragmentary nature, the difficulty would remain that "content" is altogether abstract and general. Knowledge is hopelessly infected, constitu- tionally diseased. The difficulty is fundamental, involving every aspect of meaning from the simplest to the most complex. No