BY H. WILDON CARR
HONORARY D.LITT., DURHAM
LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
67 LONG ACRE, W.C., AND EDINBURGH
NEW YORK: DODGE PUBLISHING CO.
PREFACE
A problem of philosophy is completely different from aproblem of science. In science we accept our subject-matteras it is presented in unanalysed experience; inphilosophy we examine the first principles and ultimatequestions that concern conscious experience itself. Theproblem of truth is a problem of philosophy. It is nota problem of merely historical interest, but a presentproblem—a living controversy, the issue of which isundecided. Its present interest may be said to centreround the doctrine of pragmatism, which some fifteenyears ago began to challenge the generally acceptedprinciples of philosophy. In expounding this problemof truth, my main purpose has been to make clear tothe reader the nature of a problem of philosophy andto disclose the secret of its interest. My book presumesno previous study of philosophy nor special knowledgeof its problems. The theories that I have shown inconflict on this question are, each of them, held bysome of the leaders of philosophy. In presenting them,therefore, I have tried to let the full dialectical forceof the argument appear. I have indicated my ownview, that the direction in which the solution lies is inthe new conception of life and the theory of knowledgegiven to us in the philosophy of Bergson. If I amright, the solution is not, like pragmatism, a doctrine ofthe nature of truth, but a theory of knowledge in which{vi}the dilemma in regard to truth does not arise. But, asalways in philosophy, the solution of one problem is theemergence of another. There is no finality.
My grateful acknowledgment is due to my friendProfessor S. Alexander, who kindly read my manuscriptand assisted me with most valuable suggestions, andalso to my friend Dr. T. Percy Nunn for a similarservice.
H. WILDON CARR.
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS
II. APPEARANCE AND REALITY
III. THE LOGICAL THEORIES
IV. THE ABSOLUTE
V. PRAGMATISM
VI. UTILITY
VII. ILLUSION
VIII. THE PROBLEM OF ERROR
IX. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH
The progress of physical science leads to the continualdiscovery of complexity in what is first apprehended assimple. The atom of hydrogen, so long accepted as theideal limit of simplicity, is now suspected to be not thelowest unit in the scale of elements, and it is no longerconceived, as it used to be, as structureless, but asan individual system, comparable to a solar system,of electrical components preserving an equilibriump