Page:Philosophical Review Volume 25.djvu/689

No. 5.] contribute, even in the slightest way, which distinguishes between mere faithful performance of routine and work intelligently done for a worthy cause. And in the possibility of such an individualized contribution to the store of values lies the most concrete meaning of freedom. It is not enough to serve a cause already defined; the deeper problem is to work out the significance of the cause itself, as well as to secure its success.

Since it has been pointed out that the idealist theory of the state is an application of the concept of system developed in idealist logic, it should be added that the criticism here given of the idealist state is only an application of criticisms frequently urged against idealist logic. A correct understanding of the operation of intelligence negates the idea of a system which is rational through and through, a system in which an inherent dialectic operates for the extrusion of contradiction and the completion of the system. For idealism the reason is a universally acting principle which both supports the system and creates it; the reason overlaps, perhaps one might even say usurps, the functions of all other mental operations. But no experience ever is rational through and through, because the reason must work by a concentration of attention upon specific problems. Experience grows by the addition and assimilation of details and these assimilations make up the special province of reason. When the reorganization and readjustment have been effected, the achieved system has to lapse into habit. That which was new and difficult becomes commonplace and routine, leaving the reason free to deal with other 'tensions,' as Professor Dewey calls them. Experience presents areas of organization and points of reorganization. And this view gives a clue to the relation between individuals and the social system. Substantially institutions are habits. A way of behaving, a value, is worked out as a modus vivendi among conflicting interests. The problem is essentially the re-adaptation of accepted standards to new ideals and new situations. The solution is to some extent the work of intelligence brought to bear upon the situation by the individuals concerned. But the solution becomes in time, if it succeeds, what Professor de Laguna aptly calls ' the accepted