ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to refers something quite different: the logic of the thought-processes whereby man acquires knowledge of reality. The "paradox of dualism" presents no logical problem to the reason that shuns reification. To complete the proposed epistemological supplement to Irving Babbitt and more generally to advance the general theory of knowledge being developed, the idea of dialectical logic needs to be elaborated upon. The thesis to be developed here will counter the belief that dialectical logic must carry some assumption of omniscience. The knowledgeable and intelligent reader knows or senses the presence of much between the lines. One may acknowledge the historical and provisional nature of human knowledge and still transcend, for example, the doctrine of pragmatism. The principle of logical dialectic here explained is never considered by Irving Babbitt, and yet it is fittingly described as the logical-conceptual aspect of that dualism which he regards as the fundamental fact of human existence.