738 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



its attention to these methods themselves and showed 

 their essential inadequacy for philosophical purposes, 

 thus preparing the way for a different treatment. A 

 conviction that this is necessary constitutes perhaps the 

 only feature common to all the more important philo- 

 sophical writings of the present age, and will, if it 

 succeeds in finding clear and definite expression, con- 

 stitute a real advance in philosophical thought. That 

 such a new position must be gained was already clearly 

 before the mind of some of the great thinkers in the 

 beginning of the century, but their attempts though 

 eminently suggestive were premature, and could not 

 stand against the rising tide of naturalistic thought 

 which flooded the whole of philosophical literature in 

 the middle of the century. 

 5. Dealing now somewhat more closely with the first 



Scientific . ° "^ . 



methods. phase in the change of modern thought, I must remind 

 my readers that most of the pioneers of modern phil- 

 osophy were thinkers impressed by the new scientific 

 methods. Some of them occupy even a foremost place in 

 the history of science itself. Among the latter Descartes 

 and Leibniz stand out prominently as representatives and 

 inventors in the most advanced regions of mathematical 

 thought. Others, such as Bacon and Spinoza, recom- 

 mended scientific methods — the former the experimental, 

 the latter the mathematical — for the purposes of philo- 

 sophical inquiry. 



Locke proposed to analyse the processes of "human 

 understanding " by following the lead of the natural 

 sciences and investigating origins, dealing with ideas as 

 the elements of thought and knowledge. This led to 



