VAIHINGER, HANS

(1852-1933) professor at Halle; Neo-Kantian . Wrote The Philosophy of As-If . All abstract ideas are useful fictions that serve as instruments of the will to live. Knowledge is a means of orientation, prediction, and control in a world of sensations. "Because our conceptual world is a product of the real world, it cannot be a reflection of the real world." Knowledge does not reveal reality but helps us cope with it.