OF REALITY. 



487 



34. 



The term 



It is interesting to note that, in the beginning of the 

 second third of the century, the word positive was used 

 by two of the leading thinkers in Europe, probably 

 without knowing of each other's designs and not quite 

 with the same meaning. Schelling in Germany used 

 the word positive as indicating the opposite of negative, "positive 

 by which latter term he characterised that development of 

 idealism which had culminated in Hegel's logical system. 

 Comte in France about the same time introduced the 

 word positive to denote a philosophy which stood in 

 opposition to the whole tendency of idealism. 1 With 

 him positivism meant more nearly what we should call 

 realism. From this point of view he opposes his 

 philosophy to the older metaphysics which he desires to 

 see banished and altogether overcome. For him reality 

 is not a problem but simply a fact, or rather a body of 

 many facts which are connected by certain regularities 

 or laws. All the favourite problems of philosophy of 



1 We owe to Kuno Fischer the 

 bringing together of these two 

 names in the closing paragraph 

 of his great work on Schelling 

 which forms the 7th vol. of his 

 'History of Modern Philosophy.' 

 But he does not proceed to give us 

 a detailed analysis of the latest 

 phase of Schelling's speculation. 

 This has been done in quite recent 

 times. The expectancy with 

 which Schelling was received, ten 

 years after Hegel's death, in Berlin, 

 and which led to the dramatic in- 

 cident of his opening address (15th 

 Nov. 1841) impressive as much 

 through its intense seriousness as 

 through its dignified self-assurance 

 was soon to be disappointed. 

 This disappointment led to a com- 

 plete neglect of philosophy under 



which no great thinker suffered 

 more than Schelling himself. It is 

 again to Prof. Windelband that we 

 are indebted for a renewed interest ; 

 and quite recently there has ap- 

 peared in the 2nd vol. of ' Grosse 

 Denker ' mentioned above, a highly 

 original chapter on Schelling by 

 Dr 0. Braun, including a personal 

 characterisation of him, which I 

 recommend to my readers, especi- 

 ally to those among them who may 

 have been influenced by the sum- 

 mary way in which Mr A. W. 

 Benn disposes of this great figure 

 in modern philosophy in the closing 

 lines of his Review ('Mind,' N.S., 

 vol. xvii. p. 281) of the new edition 

 of ' Schelling's Selected Works,' 

 published by A. Drews (4 vols. , 

 1907). 



