OF SOCIETY. 



479 



the spirit of patriotism and giving it a high tone and 

 great aims. 



Schelling took, among all these thinkers, the smallest 

 interest in social problems, but he had a very high, 

 perhaps an exaggerated, idea of the mission of Poetry 

 and Art, agreeing on this point with Schiller, with 

 whom he otherwise had little in common. But all 

 these thinkers after Kant had a common interest in 

 historical development, for they had come not only 

 under the influence of Kant, but also, through Herder, 

 under the influence of Leibniz and Lessing, and they 

 combined to push into the foreground one side of the 

 great social problem, the history of Culture or of 

 Humanity. Herder had, as I stated before, made 

 a beginning in this direction. 



The contributions of Fichte originated in his desire to 

 understand the age he lived in, to expose its weaknesses 

 and shortcomings, and to educate a younger generation 

 to a better comprehension of its tasks and duties. 

 But neither Fichte nor Schiller possessed sufficient 

 learning to deal adequately with the subject. In 

 this respect Hegel was far superior to them. He had 40. 

 a true historical sense,^ and influenced a very large 



^ Among the four great idealistic 

 philosophers in Germany it is in- 

 teresting to note how, with Kant 

 and Hegel, the systematic arrange- 

 ment and the respective dialectical 

 methods emerge only after a lengthy 

 period of preparation. The genesis 

 and maturation of these final pro- 

 ducts of intense thought have 

 accordingly formed special subjects 

 of study with historians of jihilo- 

 sophy. On the other side, both 

 Fichte and Schelhng start at once 



with more or less systematic at- 

 tempts which they develop, modify 

 and elaborate, as it were, before 

 the eyes of the public. And this 

 gradual development is really more 

 interesting and important than the 

 latest expositions which, witli 

 Fichte, remained unfinished, and 

 with Schelling were distinctly dis- 

 appointing. The Neokantian litei-a- 

 ture is rich in expositions of tlie 

 different phases of Kantian thought 

 prior to the publication of the 



