62 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



had been attained by the philosophical idealism of the 

 age." ^ 



Agreeing in the main — at least in the earlier stages 

 of his philosophical career — with Hegel's dialectic, Weisse 

 nevertheless sees a defect in the latter, inasmuch as 

 Hegel makes too much of the logical form in which the 

 highest content, the Divine Idea, has unfolded itself. 

 According to Weisse, that which unfolds and realises 

 itself in the supreme ends, purposes, or ideals of existence, 

 is the True, the Beautiful, and the Good. These ends are 

 grasped not so much by the human intellect as in the 



^ ' Geschichte der Aesthetik,' p. 

 211. 



Lotze's ' History of Esthetic ' 

 has been unfavourably criticised by 

 Schasler, who evidently had a very 

 imperfect knowledge of Lotze's 

 philosophical position, and who 

 himself believed in the possibility 

 of a further development of the 

 Hegelian position, not only so far 

 as the science of ^Esthetics is con- 

 cerned, but also of Hegel's funda- 

 mental speculative scheme. In rela- 

 tion to this Schasler, in the year 1872, 

 gave expression to au opinion — inde- 

 pendently and about the same time 

 indicated by the Hegelian school in 

 this country— that the programme 

 of Hegel required to be worked out 

 afresh. He admits that the Hegel- 

 ian scheme contained an inherent 

 defect which pi-ovoked two develop- 

 ments, the theosophical (Weisse) 

 and the realistic (Herbart), both 

 of which, according to him, have 

 lost hold of the great truth and 

 governing idea of Hegel. Against 

 these he maintains that the prob- 

 lem of modern philosophy consists 

 in " the truly concrete application 

 of Hegel's method to the regions 

 of the Real, so as to bring them 

 under the domination of the logical 

 notion. This concrete will then — 



but in a higher logically intelligible 

 manner — elevate the Subject-Object 

 of Schelling's ' intellectual sight ' to 

 a truly substantial unity. Such 

 a thoroughgoing regeneration of 

 Hegel's philosophy in all its parts 

 would seem to be the real task of 

 philosophical endeavour in the 

 future ; our special object is to 

 attempt this reconstruction in the 

 province of ^Esthetics ; if this at- 

 tempt should, although only parti- 

 ally, succeed, there is at least the 

 possibility shown that it would also 

 be possible on a large and complete 

 scale" {loc. cit., p. 940, 945 sqq.). 

 Schasler 's treatment of Weisse is 

 also instructive as showing where 

 the real difference between himself 

 and contemporary followers of 

 Hegel (such as Vischer) on the 

 one side and Weisse on the other, 

 really lies. The former had no 

 genuine religious interest, or rather, 

 thej' were apparently contented 

 with a purely philosophic creed ; 

 whereas, on the other side, W'eisse 

 and Lotze recognised the inde- 

 pendence of the religious senti- 

 ment — which W^eisse places above 

 and Lotze outside of the purely 

 philosophical or speculative in- 

 terest. 



