OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 



597 



defining it more clearly and defending it against attacks 

 and misconceptions. 



On the other side the latest important philosophical 

 system in Germany, that of Wilhelm Wundt, came like 

 that of Lotze after its author had published elaborate 

 treatises on special scientific and philosophical subjects. 1 

 If the idea of the unification of knowledge as the task of 

 philosophy was, in its modern form, for the first time 

 clearly defined for English readers by Herbert Spencer, a 

 similar but larger task, that of the unification of thought, 

 was defined quite twenty years earlier for German students 

 by Lotze ; and, though in general unacknowledged, the 

 view which he takes of the task of philosophy is still 

 that which seems to commend itself to thinkers of 

 all shades of opinion alike. 



It will therefore be of use to us if in a review of 

 the different attempts towards unification of thought 

 which the century presents we take our position on the 

 ground prepared by Lotze in the middle of the period, 

 and, looking backward and forward from this position, 

 realise how it differed from the earlier and the later 

 endeavours to perform this highest of philosophical tasks : 

 the unification of thought. And in order to give my 

 readers a clue to the changes and developments which 

 have taken place in the treatment of this central phil- 

 osophical problem, I may at once state that during the 

 earlier part of the century philosophical speculation was 



7. 



Lotze's 



ate position. 



1 Wundt published his ' System ' 

 in the year 1889 at the age of fifty - 

 seven. It had been preceded by 

 physiological, psychological, logical, 

 and ethical treatises beginning with 



the year 1858. All the more im- 

 portant philosophical works of 

 Wundt have been translated into 

 English. 



