THE RATIONALE OF PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 749 



general Introduction. According to this view, Philo- 

 sophy proper or Metaphysics gives no new knowledge, 

 but is merely an attempt to reconcile opinions gained 

 by very different processes of thought and observation ; 

 by the rigid methods of science on the one side and the 

 demands of practical life on the other. 



This critical or judicial attitude of philosophy was 

 prepared by Locke and Hume in this country and clearly 

 stated by Kant ; but the great change which the latter 

 introduced, together with the new world of creative 

 mental activity in the region of poetry and art, gave, 

 in Germany, a renewed impetus to constructive thought, 

 and pushed aside for a generation the continuance of 

 the critical work and judicial sifting which Kant had 

 initiated. From this point of view Lotze is the true 

 heir of the Kantian bequest ; but in several directions 

 he extended the foundation of the Kantian argument 

 and gave it a freer movement. 



Eeplying to Hume's doubts, Kant had taken up the 

 position that, whatever force these may have, the human 

 mind is undoubtedly in possession of experience and scien- 

 tific knowledge, and that our philosophy of the mind must 

 contain an explanation of this phenomenon ; further, the 

 human mind is also in possession of a definite moral law, 

 and this fact must also throw light on its constitution. 

 Lotze defines the same position somewhat more fully ; 

 on the one side, he says, we have the region of facts 

 and scientific conception, on the other we have an equally 

 real world of moral, sesthetical, and religious demand and 

 belief. The two regions play an equal part in human 



