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THE FOUR HISTORICAL CONCEPTIONS OF BEING
Our situation, then, is, in substance, this: We have our internal meanings. We develop them in inner experience. There they get presented as something of universal value, but always in fragments. They, therefore, so far dissatisfy. We conceive of the Other wherein these meanings shall get some sort of final fulfilment. We view our ideas as shadows or imitations of this Other; and we make judgments as to how well they represent it. When we study the universally expressible aspects of Reality, we get the sense, — no matter at present how, — that, in such cases as those of the judgment 2 + 2 = 4, we can, in idea, predetermine the constitution of the external object. But if we look closer, we see that no
