OF REALITY. 



521 



period ; it may be said that it attracted and satisfied 

 for a time all the popular taste that existed for 

 metaphysics in Germany ; but it is only fair to add that 

 it also kept this vanishing interest alive. Hartmann 

 also belongs to that small number of independent and 

 original thinkers who have devoted the whole of their 

 life and strength to the elaboration and defence of their 

 philosophic creed, who have led solitary lives and did not 

 gain reputation either as academic teachers or through the 

 application of their abstract ideas to practical questions. 1 

 In this respect he resembles Schopenhauer in Germany 

 and Herbert Spencer in England, but differs from Comte 

 in France and from Mill, who were prompted by a lively 

 interest in social, economic, and political questions. 



Nevertheless we cannot say that Hartmann made a 



1 The importance of Eduard von 

 Hartmann (1842-1906) in the his- 

 tory of Thought is twofold. His 

 early celebrity, referred to in the 

 text, was based on the philosophy 

 of the " Unconscious," as Spencer's 

 is, to a large extent, based on the 

 philosophy of the " Unknowable. " 

 But in Hartmann's case his earliest 

 work has gradually receded into 

 the background, and a more per- 

 manent place in the history of 

 Thought is being gradually won 

 for him through the influence of 

 his later writings. Among these 

 the ' Phanomenologie des sittlichen 

 Bewusstseins ' (1st ed. , 1879) and 

 his ' Kategorienlehre ' (1896) are of 

 special interest, inasmuch as they 

 contribute, critically and construc- 

 tively, much that is valuable for 

 the discussion and solution of two 

 problems which occupy a prominent 

 place in philosophical speculation at 

 the present moment. The first of 

 these is the logical or epistemolog- 

 ical problem referred to above 



(chap. i. p. 72), to arrange in 

 scientific order the original forms 

 of thought through which the 

 human mind ascends from the 

 position of common - sense to the 

 higher regions of speculative 

 thought and spiritual insight a 

 task begun by Aristotle, taken up 

 again by Kant in modern times, 

 triumphantly solved by Hegel, and 

 since his time more carefully and 

 circumspectly handled in Germany 

 by Lotze, Trendelenburg, Hart- 

 mann, and others ; in France by 

 Renouvier ; in this country by 

 Bradley, Bosanquet, Haldane, and 

 others. The second is the ethical 

 problem, notably the question to 

 what extent a system of morality 

 and rules of conduct can be elabor- 

 ated independently, or whether a 

 religious or metaphysical founda- 

 tion is required. In connection 

 with this problem we shall have 

 to deal with Hartmann's position 

 in a later chapter. 



