The volume, which comprises the Gifford Lectures for 1929, is a study of the relations
between knowledge and action. It begins with a genetic analysis of the considerations that
have led philosophers to seek certainty (escape from peril, alliance with religious systems,
etc.), expounds in some detail the dynamics of scientific knowing, and derives therefrom a
generalized theory of the function of ideas in the world. The final chapters are given to the
bearing of the instrumental theory upon values and ethical theory in general, and to a …

Art in the larger sense of that word, perhaps more than anything else, has, at certain times,
given the social group the most intimate and most spiritual aspect of its personality.
Remember the older Parthenon dishonored by the Persians, the cathedrals of Ely and of
Lincoln, and any delicate old New England meeting-house of to-day. And if you have seen it,
remember particularly the little church at the home in England of William Penn.^