OF KNOWLEDGE. 



385 



other writers, such as Duhamel and Cournot. These 

 latter writings, however, appeared at a time when other 

 interests had already attracted European thought in all 

 the three countries into other channels. 



The conception which we form as to the nature of 

 thought and its possible achievements, the attitude 

 which an age takes up to the problem of knowledge, 

 the natural history of the Logos which it believes in, 

 does not depend so much upon theoretical investigations 

 as upon those kinds of knowledge which are at the time 

 prevalent and active, which are fruitful in new dis- 

 coveries and suggestions, and increase the resources of 

 the human intellect. A new region of knowledge open- 

 ing out new fields of research is more interesting and 



which he insists upon analysis as 

 the true method not only in mathe- 

 matics but also in other sciences. 

 Contemporary with Comte and Du- 

 hamel was A. A. Cournot (1801- 

 1877), a pupil of the Ecole Normale. 

 who, beginning with a mathematical 

 treatise on the ' Theory of Proba- 

 bilities,' published a series of writ- 

 ings all dealing more or less with 

 the methods and fundamental ideas 

 of the various mathematical, his- 

 torical, and economic sciences. 

 Though original, his works had little 

 influence at the time, but his 

 memory has been quite recently 

 revived since a new interest in 

 the various subjects of his re- 

 searches has sprung up (see ' Revue 

 de Metaphysique et de Morale,' 

 1905, pp. 291-543). As eminent 

 and original in physiology as Am- 

 pere in physics, Claude Bernard 

 (1813-1878) produced a great im- 

 pression through his ' Introduction 

 & la Medicine expe"rimentale,' 1865, 

 and ' La Science experimentale,' 

 1878, in which he successfully 

 combated the older vitalism still 



VOL. III. 



prevalent in the medical schools 

 of France without going to the 

 opposite extreme represented by 

 contemporary thinkers in Ger- 

 many and some later biologists 

 in France (see vol. ii. p. 409 of 

 this History, where he is com- 

 pared with Lotze in Germany). 

 The traditional interest which some 

 of the most eminent of scientific 

 thinkers in France have, especially 

 in later life, taken in the funda- 

 mental principles, the philosophy, 

 and the history of their science has 

 been maintained in quite recent 

 times by such foremost thinkers 

 as MM. Henri Poincare, Jules 

 Tannery, Duhem, and others, to 

 some of whose writings I may have 

 occasion to refer in the sequel. It 

 is interesting also to inquire into 

 the causes which gave notoriety to 

 some of these writings, whereas 

 others equally important and 

 original were treated with com- 

 parative neglect. (See Levy-Briihl 

 in ' Revue de Me't et de Mor.,' 1911, 

 p. 292.) 



2 B 



