ABSTRACT
EVEN though it may appear very unwise to shirk the task of pushing our rational understanding of the human situation as far as we can take it, the simplest empirical observation is all that is necessary to convince one that there are other aspects of man's mental life which cannot be left out of account. Throughout the whole period of European civilization which, one is almost constrained to say, has just ended, matters of belief have been the central focus around which human life has orientated itself. We regard ourselves as the heirs of a Christian civilization, and for centuries it was accepted without question that the fundamental cultural boundary was between the Believers and the Heathen. Within each realm, the differences which divided men into more or less exclusive and often hostile groups were usually expressed in terms of belief in certain formulated doctrines. Some of the most ferocious of all wars have raged between people who considered that their most important characteristic was a belief in Catholicism or Protestantism, in the Divine Right of Kings, in Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, or some other such ideal.
