OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 671 



grown stronger, and which in the present age has found 

 a cliaracteristic title. 



Most of the philosophies of the latter part of the 46. 

 century may be termed voluntaristic, in opposition to ^'['^'|',f ® 

 the essentially intellectualistic philosophies of the 

 earlier part of the century. In fixing upon the Will, 

 or the active principle in human nature, as indicative 

 of the true nature of all Eeality, so far as it is acces- 

 sible and intelligible to us, Schopenhauer took up the 

 philosophical problem in the form in which he con- 

 ceived that Kant had left it in his first ' Critique.' 

 The problem defined there, which had received 

 clearer and clearer expression since the time of 

 Descartes, is the problem of " the Thing in itself," — 

 the X which represents the Eeal in opposition to the 

 merely apparent or phenomenal nature of things. 

 Whereas all the other followers of Kant tried to get 

 over the dualism left in his system by getting rid of 

 this unknowable Something, Schopenhauer sees the only 

 possible step in advance in giving a direct answer to 

 the question. What is it ? And the answer is found 

 by resorting to a method which is common to him with 

 other and opposite thinkers ; it is through introspection 

 and by analogy that we arrive at this answer. Not 

 the world of the senses nor that of the intellect, but 

 our consciousness of an active principle in us, which 

 we call the Will, gives us an indication of the source 

 and essence of all Eeality. In pointing to this he 

 expresses with more emphasis and in a one - sided 

 manner what others had urged before him. He at 

 the same time reintroduces into philosophical thought 



