OF REALITY. 



431 



In the present instance I propose to use the word 7. 



Necessity of 



Metaphysics to denote all those investigations and dis- the word. 

 cussions which refer to the problem of Reality. It is 

 the central problem of philosophy, a problem not treated 

 specially and prominently by any other branch of philo- 

 sophic thought nor in any one of the different sciences. 

 It is true that the metaphysic of the schools used to be 

 divided into three distinct parts : of these the first, 

 termed Ontology, dealt with Being or Eeality in 

 general ; whilst the second, termed Cosmology, dealt 

 with the Universe or the outer world ; and the third, 

 termed Psychology, dealt with the Soul or the inner world. 

 As it is now generally admitted that questions referring 

 to the outer world, to nature and to the Universe, can- 

 not be answered except on the foundation of natural 

 knowledge, nor those referring to the inner world or the 

 Soul otherwise than on the basis of Empirical Psy- 

 chology, there remains as the specific problem of Meta- 

 physics and the central problem of Philosophy, the 

 question concerning Reality, or, what we may call real. 1 



though the formal task of philo- 

 sophy is defined by Wundt (p. 133), 

 as likewise by Paulsen (see his 

 'Einleitung in die Philosophic,' 

 p. 2), very much in the words 

 used by Lotze fifty years ago (see 

 Lotze, ' Diktate, &c. ,' ' Logik,' p. 

 85). The view that Metaphysics 

 and Philosophy have not only the 

 formal problem of the unification 

 of knowledge to solve, but that 

 they have to interpret reality, to 

 show the meaning of things, and 

 that they, therefore, find their 

 ultimate ground in Ethics an idea 

 contained already in Lotze's ' Meta- 

 physi'k' of the year 1841 (p. 329) 

 is not referred to in this most re- 



cent deliverance of a leading repre- 

 sentative of German philosophical 

 thought. 



1 The earlier work of Lotze on 

 ' Metaphysik ' published in the year 

 1841 is'purely ontological, and deals, 

 in three sections, with Reality, with 

 Appearance, and with the Validity 

 of Knowledge. This work was fol- 

 lowed by a Treatise on Logic (1843). 

 The substance of both these earlier 

 Treatises, which preceded the physio- 

 logical, psychological, and anthropo- 

 logical writings of Lotze, through 

 which he became known in wider 

 circles, was incorporated after an 

 interval of thirty years in his 

 ' System of Philosophy ' published 



