INTRODUCTORY. 37 



of the word has been carried out have, in many in- 

 stances, led to problems for which the exact or math- 

 ematical methods do not suffice. The question still 

 awaits a universally approved answer : " Where and 

 how can the thinking mind grasp the whole of that 

 region which we broadly define as the life of the 

 mind ? " Many ways and many answers have 

 suggested themselves. The history of Philosophical 

 Thought is mainly concerned with tracing and explain- 

 ing them. 



Having thus arrived at a crude definition of the task 

 which the history of philosophical Thought has to fulfil, 

 the question arises how the whole subject can be con- 

 veniently grouped and divided. The courses of philoso- 

 phical Thought have been so numerous and intricate, 

 crossing and recrossing each other so frequently, that the 

 historian has no little difficulty in choosing a starting- 

 point. Histories of philosophy have indeed been written . 3 - 



Histories of 



in great number. 1 They have generally taken up the P hilos P h y- 



1 By far the greater part of the | come upon a second period of phil- 

 work has been done by German ' osophical historiography in the more 



historians, among whom during the 

 nineteenth century the most prom- 

 inent are H. Ritter (' Geschichte 

 der Philosophic,' 12 vols., 1836-53, 

 of which several parts have been 

 republished), Chr. Aug. Brandis 

 (' Handbuch der Geschichte der 

 Griechisch- Romischen Philosophic, ' 

 1835-60, and a smaller work in 2 

 vols., 1862-64), J. E. Erdmann 

 ( ' Versuch einer Wissenschaftl. 

 Darstellung der neuer. Philos.,' 

 1834 - 53). After these pioneer 

 works, written under the influence 

 of Schleiermacher and Hegel, had 

 to some extent cleared the ground, 

 laid bare the sources and amassed an 

 enormous amount of material, we 



comprehensive and finished works 

 of E. Zeller ('Die Philosophic der 

 Griechen,' 3 vols., 1844-52, and sub- 

 sequent editions much enlarged), 

 Kuno Fischer (' Geschichte der 

 neuern Philosophic, ' 8 vols., 1854- 

 99), and a new work by Erdmann 

 (2 vols., 1865, and subsequent edi- 

 tions) embracing the whole history 

 of Philosophy. The three last- 

 mentioned works are all inspired 

 by the Hegelian philosophy, from 

 the stricter formulae of which the 

 authors have gradually emancipated 

 themselves, most of all Zeller, who 

 was much influenced by Strauss 

 and, together with him, by modern 

 scientific notions. After these 



