ABSTRACT
The kind of world which logic assumes is that of propositions denoting states of affairs which are connected by threads of identity, so that we have unity in diversity. Logic cannot be confined to the world of existence—meaning by the latter, actual existence—for science is concerned with the weighing of evidence, and that means with the weighing of rival hypotheses. The association of logic with knowledge, or the theory of knowledge, has been used by writers like Green and other idealists to prove an idealist view of the world—as if knowledge could create the object known. Logic thus becomes an instrument for showing us the number of hypotheses other than those which we have taken for granted. Logic teaches us, therefore, not to undertake vain proofs; it teaches us not to attempt to disprove the beliefs of those who really differ from us in fundamental principles.
