600 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



have received definite expression in the words of language, 

 we have become accustomed to use them without first in- 

 vestigating their foundation, their meaning, or the limits 

 of their validity. In this way both common life and 

 science make use of the conceptions of ' cause and effect,' 

 ' matter and force,' ' end and means,' ' freedom and neces- 

 sity,' ' body and soul,' &c. ; and in consequence of the 

 absence of that investigation they entangle themselves 

 very frequently in contradictions, inasmuch as they are 

 unable to define the region of validity of these fre- 

 quently opposite assumptions. We may then formally 

 define the task of philosophy as the endeavour to im- 



pnilosophy. 



part unity and consistency to the scattered thoughts of 

 general culture : to follow them into their first pre- 

 suppositions as well as into their ultimate conse- 

 quences, to connect them all together, to remove their 

 contradictions and to combine them to a comprehen- 

 sive view of the world and of life ; mainly, however, 

 to make those conceptions which in science and practice 

 serve as principles the subject of a special examination 

 with the object of determining the limits of their 

 validity. Philosophy is partly the name for an in- 

 vestigation which is carried on to this purpose, partly 

 the systematic exposition of the results arrived at." 



After his definition, of which the foregoing is a 

 somewhat free rendering, Lotze proceeds to discuss the 

 questions of the unity, the method, and the principle 

 of philosophical reasoning. He maintains that the 

 desire for unity and the search after one unifying 

 principle has been frequently exaggerated ; for the 

 unity of principle is in itself a mere assumption. But 



