Page:W. H. Chamberlin 1919, The Study of Philosophy.djvu/23

Rh the unity of interacting persons. The view that makes the persons presuppose the brains and not the brains the persons, grows out of a view of life like that which makes an interest depend upon the cognitive aspect of that interest viewed as an idea or object existing prior to and independent of that interest, a view of life which constantly errs by making a concrete reality depend upon an abstract aspect of itself simply because the abstract aspect is more simple and more easily described and reacted to.

For similar reasons we should not hesitate to acknowledge the immediate presence of a superhuman spiritual reality, of a person differing not in kind from man but only in the greater degree of its power, wisdom, and love. Upon this reality we constantly depend. Its energies support our lives and our awareness of the chief aspects of nature. We should not make this concrete, living reality depend upon an abstract aspect of itself, the material or physical world, because this abstract aspect of its life is more simple and more easily described and reacted to by us. In this spiritual reality, or supported by it, we live, and move, and have our being. We should not fail to acknowledge the presence of this spiritual reality which must be recognized by us if we would achieve a concrete view of our lives simply because its constant effectiveness in our lives admits of its seeming to make no difference to our lives. The white corpuscles of our blood are individuals, They can be kept alive in specially prepared liquids outside our bodies. Naturally, however, they live in our blood and supply their needs there as the blood swirls along in its course and varies its movements in automatic response to each change in the thoughts and feelings which preoccupy us, and of which thoughts and feelings the white blood cells can know nothing. As long as these cells live they cannot of course suspect the presence of the intelligence of the man upon which they depend. With men however it is not so. Not being a leukocyte man can suspect the presence of the higher spiritual reality in his environing world, and cannot give a concrete explanation of his life without acknowledging the presence of the spiritual reality preoccupied in interests in his well-being and finding his work and life in creating new life and new opportunities for men.

When viewed most concretely, then, the world-whole of which our lives form a part is a natural federation of lives or persons. Persons of various degrees of intelligence in a natural unity should come to be regarded as the great independent real. Man is not a reality within his skin looking out through the windows of sense upon a world which is foreign to himself. His varying awarenesses of nature are functions of his varying interests, and, since man is coextensive with his interests, much