OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 655 



philosophy of science. We have then, if we confine 

 ourselves to Germany, three supreme interests, each 

 demanding philosophical recognition and treatment 

 i.e., systematic or unifying thought. These problems are 

 the problem of religion, the problem of science, and 

 the problem of society. 



Although none of these problems, as stated in these 

 terms, is identical with the main philosophical problem, 

 each of them has alternately been made the central 

 problem ; other problems, such as I have treated of in 

 the body of this work, having filled circumjacent positions. 

 This corresponds to the various prevailing interests of 

 recent times, as expressed by the general development 

 of philosophical thought. Among those thinkers who 

 experience the necessity of arriving at some compre- 

 hensive view, at some theory of life, there will always 

 be in the first line those who take a distinctly religious 

 view, believing that only in this way can the supreme 

 philosophical problem, as well as all collateral problems, 

 be brought nearer to a solution. There are, secondly, 

 those who have received their training and spent their 

 lives in scientific or exact research, and are impressed 

 with the general mechanical order which pervades the 

 universe. To them the unifying idea of thought is 

 what they term the " Laws of nature." And there are, 

 lastly, those who find the chief object of interest nearer 

 at hand, in human society. This leads them on to the 

 idea of Humanity as the highest conception that human 

 beings are capable of. For the first class of thinkers se. 



Three 



the problem of philosophy is essentially theocentric or classes of 

 religious ; for the second, it is essentially scientific ; for 



