40 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



In the earlier volumes of this history it was, of 

 course, not my intention to give anything like an ex- 

 haustive record of scientific discoveries : I referred to 

 these only in the way of illustration, or to the extent 

 that they reacted upon Scientific Thought. So also in 

 the present case, I shall only refer to special philo- 

 sophical theories or systematic attempts as instances 

 in and by which these permanent ideas have found 

 expression which has survived writers and systems of 

 philosophy alike. As we saw that the scientific activity 

 of the century resulted in the firm establishment of a 

 small number of leading conceptions, so I shall now 

 endeavour to show how the huge and frequently con- 

 flicting philosophical literature has left behind it a small 



main thesis being defined as the 

 conviction that the world is not 

 only a fact, but has also a mean- 

 ing. Without this latter addition 

 philosophy remains unphilosophical, 

 " standing in the midst of the 

 darkness and thicket of facts, what 

 Bacon termed the silva silvarum, 

 the forest of forests." See vol. viii. 

 p. 1176, kc. Prominent in Kuno 

 Fischer's History are the intimate 

 relations which he establishes be- 

 tween philosophical idealism and 

 the classical and romantic litera- 

 ture of Germany, of which he has 

 a thorough knowledge and a 

 unique conception, being popularly 

 quite as well known through his 

 writings in literary criticism as 

 through his ' History of Philoso- 

 phy." Among his followers and 

 pupils a recognition of this inti- 

 mate connection of thought with 

 literature and life is still more 

 conspicuous. More than any other 

 German historian has Fischer re- 

 fused to recognise that other 

 modern countries have elaborated 

 philosophies of their own. In fact. 



whenever important foreign names 

 are mentioned it is only in con- 

 trast to the dominating current 

 of Hegelian thought, or, as for 

 instance with Darwin, as special 

 examples of the Hegelian idea of 

 development ; besides, important 

 movements, even in German phil- 

 osophy, are almost entirely omitted, 

 as notably the great movement 

 in religious philosophy which has 

 its origin in Schleiermacher. In 

 consequence of these omissions 

 Kuno Fischer's History, though an 

 inspiring work, is hardly a safe 

 guide through the labyrinth of 

 philosophical thought in Western 

 Europe during the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. It is interesting to note 

 that Erdmann likewise closes his 

 ' History of Modern Philosophy ' 

 with an even more elaborate ap- 

 preciation of Lotze's views. In 

 this respect both Fischer and Erd- 

 mann form a contrast to Zeller, 

 who in his ' History of German 

 Philosophy ' (Munich, 1873) has 

 only a slight and quite inadequate 

 reference to Lotze. 



