608 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



analysis of the methods of thought which had become 

 current and useful in the mathematical and physical 

 sciences. Whewell's ' History of the Inductive Sciences ' 

 was likewise translated into German. The translation of 

 both these standard works was undertaken, not in the 

 interest of pure philosophy, but by men of science in a 

 scientific interest. 



In addition to this influence of English philosophy of 

 science must be mentioned Beneke's study of English 

 psychology. But though Beneke was a philosopher, his 

 writings did not during his lifetime receive due appre- 

 ciation by contemporary thinkers in Germany, but had 

 to wait till the Neo-Kantian movement of thought had 

 gained strength from other sources. The most important 

 other influence which worked in the same direction was the 

 fresh life infused into psychological studies by the new 

 12. science of physiology, notably of the physiology of the 



Influence of 



physiology, senses. This had its centre in the labours of Johannes 

 Miiller, which had an international influence, giving rise 

 to important researches in all the three countries. 



In Germany it was notably through Muller's great 

 disciple Helmholtz, through E. H. Weber, through 

 Lotze, Fechner, and Wundt, that these physiological 

 researches gained their revolutionising influence upon 

 philosophical thought. But in the hands of by far the 

 larger number of philosophical students and scholars 

 these fruitful and promising researches led away from 

 the main philosophical problem, with the result that 

 instead of a unification a disintegration of thought set 

 in, with apparently little prospect of the discovery of 

 any unifying principle which should bring together 



