ABSTRACT
The last two chapters have outlined for us the data of our experience. We have seen its two-sided character as revealing subjective activity and a world of objects. And we have seen that process and structure “appear,” in precisely the same sense, on both sides. They constitute the content of this bi-polar something we call experience. But experience not merely is; it points beyond itself to something more. Not only do entities appear, but they appear to mean something. Yet they often disappoint us in what they appear to be or appear to mean. And this raises the question of the reality of our experience. Historically this question opens out into at least three. Is reality all experience? Is all experience real? Can there be degrees of reality? At this point we may add another question which has not arisen so far. How do we arrive at, and how can we justify, our belief in the reality of minds or selves other than our own? Then, lastly, we can take up the question which is the root of so many of the doubts as to the validity of our knowledge; that of the status of sensa in the world.
