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INTRODUCTION
appearance of the Universe.
The independent standing, whether of a physical nature or of a past which pre-exists for history, once again is not ultimate. These facts are ideal constructions most legitimate and necessary, and yet their separate life begins and ends with a selection and sundering made in the undivided whole,
On the one side the creations of the intellect everywhere are real. The substantiated terms and relations, into which analysis breaks up the continuity of the given, are no mere errors or simple instruments. They cannot fall somewhere outside or fail positively to qualify the Universe. And the idea that by discarding these figments of the understanding we are to gain reality, is a mistake now long since refuted; for it is only through such distinction and discretion that it is possible to reach knowledge progressively more living and individual. On the other side these constructions, however, inclusive, are not independent truths. They are real only so far as subordinate and as relative to individual totality. And even in life it is only when I forget higher experience that I can anywhere accept for all purposes as final the partial and abstracted products whether of a science or of a presumptous
'common sense.'
GOPIPURA, SURAT,
6th June 1943
CXXI
On the one hand it is entire Reality alone which matters. On the other hand every single thing, so far as it matters is so far real, real in its own place and degree, and according as more or less it contains and carries out the in-dwelling character of the concrete whole. But there is nothing anywhere in the world which, taken barely in its own right and unconditionally, has importance and is real. And one main work of philosophy is to show that, where there is isolation and abstraction, there is everywhere, so far as this abstraction forgets itself, unreality and error."
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H. R. KAPADIA
