PHILOSOPHY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 195 



development of philosophy in the eighteenth century. In a yet 

 more unusual way the same event defines the beginning of the philo- 

 sophical development of the nineteenth century. The proposal is, 

 therefore, not artificial, but in accordance with the truth of history, 

 if we consider the problems, movements, results, and present con- 

 dition of this development, so far as the fulfillment of our general 

 purpose is concerned, in the light of the critical philosophy of Kant. 

 This purpose may then be further defined in the following way : to 

 trace the history of the evolution of critical and reflective thought 

 over the more ultimate problems of Nature and of human life, in 

 the Western World during the last hundred years, and from the 

 standpoint of the conclusions, both negative and positive, which 

 are best embodied in the works of the philosopher of Kdnigsberg. 

 This purpose we shall try to fulfill in these four divisions of our theme : 

 (1) A statement of the problems of philosophy as they were given over 

 to the nineteenth century by the Kantian Critique; (2) a brief 

 description of the lines of movement along which the attempts at 

 the improved solution of these problems have proceeded, and of the 

 principal influences contributing to these attempts; (3) a sum- 

 mary of the principal results of these movements - - the items, so to 

 say, of progress in philosophy which may be credited to the last cen- 

 tury; and finally, (4) a survey of the present state of these pro- 

 blems as they are now to be handed down by the nineteenth to the 

 twentieth century. Truly an immensely difficult, if not an impos- 

 sible task, is involved in this purpose! 



I. The problems which the critical philosophy undertook defini- 

 tively to solve may be divided into three classes. The first is the 

 epistemological problem, or the problem offered by human know- 

 ledge its essential nature, its fixed limitations, if such there be, 

 and its ontological validity. It was this problem which Kant brought 

 to the front in such a manner that certain subsequent writers on 

 philosophy have claimed it to be, not only the primary and most 

 important branch of philosophical discipline, but to comprise the 

 sum-total of what human reflection and critical thought can suc- 

 cessfully compass. "We call philosophy self-knowledge," says one 

 of these writers. "The theory of knowledge is the true prima philo- 

 sophia," says another. Kant himself regarded it as the most im- 

 perative demand of reason to establish a science that shall "deter- 

 mine a priori the possibility, the principles, and the extent of all 

 cognitions." The burden of the epistemological problem has pressed 

 heavily upon the thought of the nineteenth century; the different 

 attitudes toward this problem, and its different alleged solutions, 

 have been most influential factors in determining the philosophical 

 discussions, divisions, schools, and permanent or transitory achieve- 

 ments of the century. 



