598 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



primarily occupied in seeking and establishing the right 

 Principle of unification, that in the middle of the century 

 it was more definitely occupied with the Method of uni- 

 fication, and that towards the end of the period, when 

 both the principle and the method of unification had 

 become doubtful or uncertain, the need and Purpose 

 of a unification of thought made itself more and more 

 felt. The necessity of arriving at some firm and con- 

 sistent view of the world and life, — what we may term 

 a reasoned creed, — seems to have impressed itself in 

 proportion as the leading idea of such a creed and the 

 method of arriving at it have become imcertain and un- 

 settled. These remarks apply more fully to German 

 philosophical thought^ than to that of other countries. 



^ A very practical proof of this 

 condition of thought will be found 

 in the publication of a volume 

 entitled 'Weltanschauung' (1911). 

 It has the sub-title ' Philosophy and 

 Religion,' and contains ten quite 

 independent Discourses on the 

 former and nine on the latter 

 subject, testifying to the interest 

 which both subjects command at 

 the present day, but also to the 

 want of agreement in what is 

 offered to satisfy it. Although 

 only one of the contributors. Prof. 

 Carl Giittler, mentions the name 

 of Lotze, we are told in the Preface 

 (p. xi) by Dr Frischeisen-Kohler 

 that the object even of specialists 

 in the mental sciences is not con- 

 fined to description and calculation, 

 but must lead on to an understand- 

 ing of the facts and events they 

 liave to deal with, and these are 

 exactly the words with which Lotze 

 concludes the first volume of his 

 ' System ' (1874, p. 597). To what 

 extent the volume in question rep- 

 resents, or is under the influence 



of, the teaching of Dilthey, who 

 contributes the first lengthy Dis- 

 course with the title ' Die Typen 

 der Weltanschauung,' is not easy 

 to determine. The preface cer- 

 tainly breathes the spirit which per- 

 meates all Dilthey's later writings, 

 notably the discourse on the 

 ' Foundation of the Mental Sciences ' 

 quoted in the last chapter (Trans. 

 Berl. Acad., 1910), and the full 

 explanation and illustrations given 

 there on the difference between 

 description and understanding of 

 facts and events. The latter is 

 occupied with the reference of 

 all creations in the mental world, 

 termed cultural systems, to the 

 mind of the individual man 

 and of mankind. Whereas the 

 natural sciences detach as much 

 as possible the objects of their 

 research from their connection 

 with their subjective origin, the 

 mental or philosophical sciences 

 are mainly intent upon bringing 

 out this subjective factor. Lotze 

 in the passage referred to considers 



