28 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



ligious but likewise of supreme philosophical interest, 

 a revival of the study of Plato went hand in hand ; 

 Leibniz being probably one of the first of the great 

 philosophers of modern times to appreciate the Platonic 

 idealism. Towards the end of the eighteenth century 

 the old problem which was before the mind of Plato 

 received a new expression in the philosophy of Kant, 

 and this expression has dominated most of the great 

 systems of nineteenth century philosophy. Even the 

 positive philosophy in France and the philosophy of Evol- 

 ution in England which, in their great representatives, 

 professed to break with the historical traditions of philo- 

 sophy, as Descartes and Bacon had done before them, 

 have led, through the reaction which they provoked, to a 

 profound appreciation of the form in which this central 

 22. problem of philosophy presented itself to Plato and 



Community 



between Kant. Philosophical thought in the nineteenth century 

 piato. indeed not only started from, but, as we shall see, con- 

 tinually reverts to, Kant's statement of the great problem. 



1 This view of Kant's philosophy Philosophy ' (1860), F. A. Lange, 



as belonging to the Platonic tradi- has fully entered upon the influence 



tion is strongly brought out by of Platonism upon subsequent 



Fr. Paulsen. "Kant's metaphy- ancient and modern philosophy, and 



sical conceptions through all their has in his ' History of Materialism ' 



changes remained essentially the i (Engl. transl. by E. C. Thomas, in 



.same: they consist of an idealism I 3 vols. , 1877, 1880, 1881) denounced 



under the directing influence of it as one of the great errors in 



Leibniz (and Plato)." Paulsen, philosophic thought. At the same 



' Immanuel Kant,' 4th ed., p. 83 ; time he recognises its great histori- 



cf. also pp. xi, 97. This view has I cal importance and its abiding 



been attacked by some of Paulsen's 

 critics. 



One of the leaders of what is 

 termed in Germany Neokantianism, 

 a revival of the study of Kant's 

 Works, following upon the publica- 

 tion of Kuno Fischer's ' Exposition 

 of Kant's System,' in the 3rd and 4th 

 volumes of his ' History of Modern 



value from a different point of 

 view, which he places in opposition 

 to the methodical treatment that 

 belongs to science and philosophy. 

 Of this important distinction, which 

 is independently upheld by other 

 thinkers besides Lange, I shall 

 treat in a later chapter. 



