rather than
sense. But although sense and reason are distinct, they must also be
identical. They must be divergent streams flowing from one source. And
this means that a philosophy which considers the absolute reality to
be reason must exhibit sense as a lower form of reason. Because Plato
fails to see the identity of sense and reason, as well as their
difference, his philosophy becomes a continual fruitless effort to
overreach the dualism thus generated.

Thus the answer to our first question, whether the theory of Ideas
explains the world of things, must be {240} answered in the negative.
Let us pass on to the second test. Is the principle of Ideas a
self-explanatory principle? Such a principle must be understood purely
out of itself. It must not be a principle, like that of the
materialist, which merely reduces the whole universe to an ultimate
mysterious fact. For even if it be shown that the reason of everything
is matter, it is still open to us to ask what the reason of matter is.
We cannot see any reason why matter should exist. It is a mere fact,
which dogmatically forces itself upon our consciousness without giving
any reason for itself. Our principle must be such that we cannot ask a
further reason of it. It must be its own reason, and so in itself
satisfy the demand for a final explanation. Now there is only one such
principle in the world, namely, reason itself. You can ask the reason
of everything else in the world. You can ask the reason of the sun,
the moon, stars, the soul, God, or the devil. But you cannot ask the
reason of reason, because reason is its own reason. Let us put the
same thought in another way. When we demand the explanation of
anything, what do we mean by explanation? What is it we want? Do we
not mean that the thing appears to us irrational, and we want it shown
that it is rational? When this is done, we say it is explained. Think,
for example, of what is called the problem of evil. People often talk
of it as the problem of the "origin of evil," as if what we want to
know is, how evil began. But even if we knew this, it would not
explain anything. Suppose that evil began because someone ate an
apple. Does this make the matter any clearer? Do we feel that all our
difficulties about the existence of evil are solved? No. This is {241}
not what we want to know. The difficulty is that evil appears to us
something irrational. The problem can only be solved by showing us
that somehow, in spite