APPENDIX E
REPLY TO CRITICISMS BY MR. J. M. E. McTAGGART[1]
I am much indebted to my reviewer for the care and
the penetration with which he has considered my theory;
and yet I notice some important respects in which he has
failed to take my meaning. These I must set forth with
all possible clearness, in the hope of preventing further
misunderstanding; and then I shall have to reply to the
objections which he raises (or, perhaps rather, the
difficulties which he suggests) in connexion with my view.
I
FREEDOM, PERFECTION, GOD, AND THE PROOF OF GOD, IN THE SYSTEM
Judging by his other published writings, as well as by his review, I may fairly assume that Mr. McTaggart is in agreement with me in holding to an idealistic pluralism, the theory of an Eternal Society of many minds, each absolutely real. It is well to note, in setting out to comment on his criticisms, that there is a head under which his views and mine might correctly be brought into collocation with the views of our Oxford colleagues, with those of Professor James, with those of the late Thomas Davidson, and even with those of more pronounced individualists, — I mean the head of pluralism: in one way or another, we all hold out for manifold realities that are all alike indis-
- ↑ Reprinted, with some trifling changes, from Mind, April, 1903. Mr. McTaggart’s review may be found in Mind, July, 1902.
