The second point may be illustrated in several ways. In everyday life
anticipation and realization are inseparable from the nature and use of
ideas. "Hat" means anticipation of protection to the head and the
tendency toward setting in motion the conditions appropriate to the
realization of this anticipation. The same factors are evident in the
boy's definition of a knife as "something to whittle with." Again it is
maintained that intelligence is an essential factor in human
self-consciousness. By this is meant that human beings are universally
aware in some degree of what they are about. And this awareness consists
in understanding the meaning of their actions, of forecasting the
outcome of various kinds of activity, of apprehending beforehand the
conditions connected with determinate results. Within this sphere we
speak of certain men as being pre-eminently intelligent, meaning that
for such men outcomes are previewed and connected with their appropriate
conditions far beyond the range of ordinary foresight. Finally,
scientific intelligence is essentially of this kind. It aims at
understanding the varying types of process which operate in nature and
thus at possessing itself of information with reference to results to be
expected under determinate conditions. For example, the knowledge
acquired in his researches by Louis Pasteur enabled him to predict the
life or death of animals inoculated with charbon virus according as they
had or had not been vaccinated previously. His information, in other
words, became an instrument for the control and eradication of the
disease. And what is true of this case is true of all science. To the
scientist ideas are "working hypotheses" and have their value only as
they enable him to predict, and to control. And while it is true that
the scientist usually overlooks the so-called _practical_ value of his
discoveries, it is none the less true that in due time the inventor
follows the investigator. The investigator is content to construct and
show the truth of his idea. The inventor assumes the truth of the
investigator's work and carries his idea as a constructive principle
into the complications of life. To both men "knowledge is power,"
although the "power" may be realized in connection with different
interests. But if this be true, ideas can no longer be regarded as
copies in individual experience of some pre-existing reality. They are
rather instruments for transforming and directing experience, by way of
constructing anticipations and the conditions appropriate to their
realization. Herein also consists their truth or falsity. The true idea
is reliable, carrying us from anticipation to realization; the false
idea is unreliable, and fails in bringing the promised result.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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