The
case, they will say, resembles that of sexual
love. Originating in the animal need of getting
another generation born, this passion has developed
secondarily such imperious spiritual
needs that, if you ask why another generation
ought to be born at all, the answer is: 'Chiefly
98
that love may go on.' Just so with our intellect:
it originated as a practical means of serving
life; but it has developed incidentally the
function of understanding absolute truth; and
life itself now seems to be given chiefly as a
means by which that function may be prosecuted.
But truth and the understanding of it
lie among the abstracts and universals, so the
intellect now carries on its higher business
wholly in this region, without any need of
redescending into pure experience again.
If the contrasted tendencies which I thus
designate as naturalistic and rationalistic are
not recognized by the reader, perhaps an example
will make them more concrete. Mr.
Bradley, for instance, is an ultra-rationalist.
He admits that our intellect is primarily practical,
but says that, for philosophers,the practical
need is simply Truth. Truth, moreover,
must be assumed 'consistent.
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