So far as reality means experienceable reality,
both it and the truths men gain about it are everlastingly in
process of mutation-mutation towards a definite goal, it may be--but
still mutation.
Mathematicians can solve problems with two variables. On the
Newtonian theory, for instance, acceleration varies with distance,
but distance also varies with acceleration. In the realm of truth-
processes facts come independently and determine our beliefs
provisionally. But these beliefs make us act, and as fast as they do
so, they bring into sight or into existence new facts which re-
determine the beliefs accordingly. So the whole coil and ball of
truth, as it rolls up, is the product of a double influence. Truths
emerge from facts; but they dip forward into facts again and add to
them; which facts again create or reveal new truth (the word is
indifferent) and so on indefinitely. The 'facts' themselves
meanwhile are not TRUE. They simply ARE. Truth is the function of
the beliefs that start and terminate among them.
The case is like a snowball's growth, due as it is to the
distribution of the snow on the one hand, and to the successive
pushes of the boys on the other, with these factors co-determining
each other incessantly.
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