Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/96

 82 S. F. MACLENNAN I EXISTENCE AND CONTENT. at any given moment control the realisation of just the experiences which we desire or anticipate. The criterion, as will be seen, lies in the transformation of anticipation into direct experience. Knowledge in its essence is thus essentially concrete. With Bradley we may agree that the development of ideas is a substi- tution of the abstract for the concrete, of the partial for the more complete, of the cold and bloodless for the warm and vital. But in addition we recognise that, as symbols, ideas constantly and as part of their inherent purpose carry us back to the concrete and the individual. That they succeed in their purpose (as is evidenced by every moment's experience and by science) is the justification of their existence. Knowledge is thus set upon an entirely new plane. When we ask concerning truth and falsity, we are no longer referred to an all-inclusive Whole, be it concrete or abstract, but to the relation of anticipations and conditions. Meaning no longer sets up on its own account, but performs the more modest function of regulating activity and of mediating de- terminate experiences. When it has shown exactly what experi- ences may be legitimately anticipated through the operation of such or such conditions, it has done its work. That new puzzles are constantly appearing in no way invalidates the general principle, and therefore the question of the ultimate content of Reality becomes of no moment whatever. That Knowledge has developed means that in the process of time mankind has become increasingly aware of possible experiences and of their conditions. That Knowledge will develop, means that mankind will continue to extend the range of legitimate anticipation and to develop more precisely the connexions between conditions and their out- comes. That mankind can thus determine its sense of Eeality is the proof of the real value and nature of Knowledge. The search for an impossible all-inclusive Whole becomes uninteresting and useless : the development of Knowledge resolves itself into the dif- ferentiation of effective instruments of experiential control : their organisation into systems means increase of power, ease of move- ment, enrichment of individual experience. Meaning is inherently regulative : Reality is revealed to us ever in new forms. To search for a final statement is to change regulative principles into constitutive entities, and thus to destroy their significance. " Content " must therefore remain as a dynamically developing instrument of mediation between the terms of equally developing " existences ". Reality is found in both terms, but is made deter- minate in the process. S. F. MACLENNAN.