The view which I have here outlined may be regarded as one to which
man is led as it were spontaneously, as soon as he begins to reflect
about his relation to the world. He then finds himself caught in a
system of thoughts which dissolves for him as fast as he frames it. The
thoughts which form this system are such that the purely theoretical
refutation of them does not exhaust our task. We have to live through
them, in order to understand the confusion into which they lead us,
and to find the way out. They must figure in any discussion of the
relation of man to the world, not for the sake of refuting others
whom one believes to be holding mistaken views about this relation,
but because it is necessary to understand the confusion in which
all first efforts at reflection about such a relation are apt to
issue. One needs to learn by experience how to refute oneself with
respect to these first reflections. This is the point of view from
which the arguments of the preceding chapter are to be understood.
Whoever tries to work out for himself a theory of the relation of man
to the world, becomes aware of the fact that he creates this relation,
at least in part, by forming ideas about the things and events in the
world. In consequence, his attention is deflected from what exists
outside in the world and directed towards his inner world, the realm
of his ideas. He begins to say to himself, It is impossible for me
to stand in relation to any thing or event, unless an idea appears
in me. From this fact, once noticed, it is but a step to the theory:
all that I experience is only my ideas; of the existence of a world
outside I know only in so far as it is an idea in me. With this theory,
man abandons the standpoint of Naïve Realism which he occupies prior
to all reflection about his relation to the world. So long as he
stands there, he believes that he is dealing with real things, but
reflection about himself drives him away from this position. Reflection
does not reveal to his gaze a real world such as naïve consciousness
claims to have before it. Reflection reveals to him only his ideas;
they interpose themselves between his own nature and a supposedly
real world, such as the naïve point of view confidently affirms. The
interposition of the world of ideas prevents man from perceiving any
longer such a real world. He must suppose that he is blind to such
a reality. Thus arises the concept of a "thing-in-itself" which is
inaccessible to knowledge. So long as we consider only the relation
to the world into which man appears to enter through the stream of his
ideas, we can hardly avoid framing this type of theory. Yet we cannot
remain at the point of view of Naïve Realism except at the price
of closing our minds artificially to the desire for knowledge. The
existence of this desire for knowledge about the relation of man to
the world proves that the naïve point of view must be abandoned. If
the naïve point of view yielded anything which we could acknowledge
as truth, we could not experience this desire. But mere abandonment
of the naïve point of view does not lead to any other view which
we could regard as true, so long as we retain, without noticing
it, the type of theory which the naïve point of view imposes on
us. This is the mistake made by the man who says, I experience only
my ideas, and though I think that I am dealing with real things, I am
actually conscious of nothing but my ideas of real things. I must,
therefore, suppose that genuine realities, "things-in-themselves,"
exist only outside the boundary of my consciousness; that they are
inaccessible to my immediate knowledge; but that they somehow come
into contact with me and influence me so as to make a world of ideas
arise in me. Whoever thinks thus, duplicates in thought the world
before him by adding another. But, strictly he ought to begin his
whole theorising over again with regard to this second world. For
the unknown "thing-in-itself," in its relation to man's own nature,
is conceived in exactly the same way as is the known thing of the
naïvely realistic point of view. There is only one way of escaping
from the confusion into which one falls, by critical reflection on
this naïve point of view. This is to observe that, at the very heart
of everything we can experience, be it within the mind or outside
in the world of perception, there is something which does not share
the fate of an idea interposing itself between the real event and the
contemplating mind. This something is thinking. With regard to thinking
we can maintain the point of view of Naïve Realism. If we mistakenly
abandon it, it is only because we have learnt that we must abandon
it for other mental activities, but overlook that what we have found
to be true for other activities, does not apply to thinking. When we
realise this, we gain access to the further insight that, in thinking
and through thinking, man necessarily comes to know the very thing to
which he appears to blind himself by interposing between the world and
himself the stream of his ideas. A critic highly esteemed by the author
of this book has objected that this discussion of thinking stops at
a naïvely realistic theory of thinking, as shown by the fact that the
real world and the world of ideas are held to be identical. However,
the author believes himself to have shown in this very discussion
that the validity of "Naïve Realism," as applied to thinking, results
inevitably from an unprejudiced study of thinking; and that Naïve
Realism, in so far as it is invalid for other mental activities,
is overcome through the recognition of the true nature of thinking.