OF NATURE. 



593 



36. 



The ideal 



But on the whole the ideal view of the problem 

 of nature was gradually losing its hold of the thinking pi 

 mind, and has had to give way to the purely naturalistic i^t!c? atural " 

 view, which limits itself to describing and calculating 

 natural phenomena and to the elaboration of a system 

 of conceptions by which this can be most conveniently 

 and completely effected. The philosophical task is then 

 reduced to a criticism of these conceptions, fixing their 

 logical definitions and the range of their applicability 

 and usefulness ; and this with the further distinct object 

 of showing whether the more complicated phenomena of 

 life, mind, and society can be described and interpreted in 

 terms of those fundamental conceptions which have done 

 such eminent service in the exact sciences ; or whether, 

 on the other hand, a new principle will have to be in- 

 troduced in order to make these phenomena intelligible, 

 As stated above, this task had, in the middle of the 

 century, been already approached more or less method- 

 ically and in a narrower or wider sense by such writers 



1906, two articles which he has 

 reprinted under the title ' Das 

 Lebenswerk Eduard von Hart- 

 mann's,' and which together with 

 Hartmann's own summary just 

 mentioned may be recommended 

 as an introduction to Hartmann's 

 philosophy. Prof. Windelband in 

 his ' History of Philosophy ' gives 

 the following summary of Hart- 

 mann's view: "That higher con- 

 sciousness which is termed the 

 Unconscious, and which is supposed 

 to form the common living back- 

 ground of all conscious individuals, 

 Hartmann tries to trace as the 

 active essence of all processes 

 in physical and mental life : it 

 takes the place alike of Schopen- 



VOL. III. 



hauer's and Schelling's ' Will in 

 nature,' of the vital force of earlier 

 physiology, and of the entelechies of 

 the system of evolution. It unfolds 

 itself above all in the teleological 

 connections of organic life. In this 

 respect Hartmann has also very 

 effectually combated materialism, 

 inasmuch as his doctrine points 

 everywhere to the uniting spiritual 

 and living "ground of things : he 

 for this purpose employs in the 

 happiest way a great wealth of 

 natural knowledge, although he 

 deceived himself when he thought 

 that his speculative results were 

 gained by inductive methods " (4th 

 German ed., 1907, p. 542). 



2 P 



