OF THE SPIRIT. ^93 



assertion, of disregard of all existing dogmas and 

 authorities, and of the attainment of a higher and more 

 satisfactory life and being by rising beyond the level 

 of prevailing morality to a position above and beyond 

 the present level of existence. This is the well-known 

 doctrine of the Super-man who sacrifices everything and 

 everybody to the attainment of his own ideal, to his 

 own personal self - elevation. While Schopenhauer is 

 systematic, and bases the whole of his practical philosophy 

 upon a theoretical groundwork in immediate connection 

 with the whole course of intellectual philosophy from 

 Descartes to Kant, Nietzsche disdains all systems and 

 opposes all great thinkers, beginning with Socrates. 



Although both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche take up a 74. 



Renewed 



hostile position to traditional beliefs, especially in their interest in 



-•• 1.0 religious 



clerical form, it must be admitted that they have aroused problem, 

 a renewed interest in the religious problem, and that 

 their teachings absorb important elements of Christian 

 doctrine — Schopenhauer by emphasising what have been 

 termed the Cliristian Virtues as distinguished from those 

 of later antiquity, Nietzsche by pointing to the supreme 

 value of individuality, of the personal element. Both 

 also recognise that the ethical problem must be solved 

 through the belief in and the realisation of a new order 

 of things. This new order may, indeed, as they define 

 it, appear paradoxical, a mere caricature, still it cannot 

 be denied that they extol a spirit of other-worldliness. 

 It is, therefore, quite correct and significant when 

 modern historians of religion and philosophy attach 

 considerable importance to these latest creations of 

 philosophical speculation abroad, even if these do little 



