Reality, we naturally think,
stands ready-made and complete, and our intellects supervene with
the one simple duty of describing it as it is already. But may not
our descriptions, Lotze asks, be themselves important additions to
reality? And may not previous reality itself be there, far less for
the purpose of reappearing unaltered in our knowledge, than for the
very purpose of stimulating our minds to such additions as shall
enhance the universe's total value. "Die erhohung des vorgefundenen
daseins" is a phrase used by Professor Eucken somewhere, which
reminds one of this suggestion by the great Lotze.
It is identically our pragmatistic conception. In our cognitive as
well as in our active life we are creative. We ADD, both to the
subject and to the predicate part of reality. The world stands
really malleable, waiting to receive its final touches at our hands.
Like the kingdom of heaven, it suffers human violence willingly. Man
ENGENDERS truths upon it.
No one can deny that such a role would add both to our dignity and
to our responsibility as thinkers. To some of us it proves a most
inspiring notion. Signer Papini, the leader of italian pragmatism,
grows fairly dithyrambic over the view that it opens, of man's
divinely-creative functions.
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