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attempt objectively to examine that desire or belief with reference to its truth. It is the opinion of some writers that much, if not most, human thinking has been of this sort. John Dewey, for example, holds that substantially the entire history of philosophy from Plato on has been such rationalization in support of preëxisting moral and religious beliefs.^[1] Robinson^[2] has given popular expression to this view.
Every thoughtful person is conscious of how profoundly he is influenced by desires and beliefs originating in his physical organism or his early training. Rationalization of these desires and beliefs is a subtle foe to the philosophical spirit; but men like Dewey and Robinson appear to overlook the fact that wholesale rejection is just as undiscriminating as wholesale acceptance. Rationalization of our desires is certainly not worse than rationalization of our antipathies; and many are falling prey to the latter. The philosophical spirit should shun all mere rationalization, and should examine not all our beliefs alone, but also their hidden foundations in the light of experience as a whole. A belief that survives this test is a belief worth having.

Whatever, then, is thoughtless or unreasonable or is mere rationalization is unphilosophical; but it does not follow from this that all that is thoughtful and truly reasonable is philosophical. Science is not identical with philosophy; and the scientific spirit is in some respects to be distinguished from the philosophical. Science and philosophy are alike

1. ↑ Cf. Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, Chapter I.
2. ↑ The Mind in the Making, p. 41.