The deeper consciousness has relegated the natural world to a secondary place, and has further shown man that the main object of life includes not only finding a footing against the dangers of natural things, but to plant oneself within a spiritual world of meanings and values.  This cannot be done without an independent and decisive act of the soul.  A meaning of life has now revealed itself beyond that of the “small self.”  This meaning can be reached only through this decisive act of the soul.  This meaning is over-individual in its nature; [p.46] it is a truth, goodness, or beauty, which presents itself as an idea and ideal formed by the experiences of many individuals, at different epochs and in different circumstances.  Thus the individual, in order to realise his own life, must work with material presented in the community.  Such material has been found helpful in the life of the community.  It consists of collective results made up of large numbers of single factors.  These have been tied together in the form of various syntheses.  Such various syntheses comprise a larger meaning than what ordinarily happens from moment to moment in connection with the relation of the individual to the external world or, indeed, within the individual’s own ordinary life.  Many of the isolated, fragmentary experiences of the individual have to give way when tested in the light of any larger synthesis.  If this were not so, no commercial, social, civilised life would be possible at all.  The more real life is now perceived to be that of the larger meaning and value.  The individual, solitary experiences may be legitimate, for they often express wants and needs of the individual which have a certain right to obtain satisfaction.  But the extent and limits of these rights have to be measured by some norm or standard other than themselves, or else each individual will proceed on his own course regardless of the rights of others.  It is the presence of various syntheses which express the [p.47] collective life of the whole—­of each and every individual—­that makes civilisation possible.  Thus, in the very process of civilisation itself, as Eucken points out, there is present a factor which is termed Spiritual, and which is not to be mistaken for a mere flow of cause and effect, or for one mere event following another.  Eucken emphasises this all-important element of the over-individual qualities present in human history.  There is here much which resembles Hegel’s Absolute.  But there is a great difference between the two in the sense that Eucken shows the constant need of spiritual activism on the part of individuals in order to realise and keep alive the norms and standards which have carried our world so far; and there is also the need of contributing something to the values of these through the creation of new qualities within the souls of the individuals themselves.