48 



INTRODUCTION. 



25. 

 Herbert 



and have almost dislodged systematic philosophy, England 

 has for the first time in her history produced a system of 

 philosophy that of Mr Herbert Spencer ; and this with 

 firsTEn"^-^^ the distinct imderstanding that the object of philosophy 

 has pro- "^^ is the Unification of knowledge.-^ It is a remarkable fact, 

 system of which will occupy our close attention hereafter, that the 

 unifying principle in this system is historical, a process 

 of development now specially known under the term 

 Evolution. This system forms in a certain way a con- 

 trast to the last great system in German philosophy, that 

 of Hermann Lotze. Whereas in all systems of evolution 

 the unity of things is historical, and has to be sought in 

 their common origin, Lotze emphasises the truth that 

 unity must be a living presence, a principle which ex- 

 ists in individual things, not merely a link which con- 

 nects them by proximity in time or space. His object 

 is to answer the question. How can the human mind 

 represent to itself such a living unity, in what ideas 



26. 

 Definition 

 of Lotze's 

 system. 



^ See G. H. Lewes (' Problems 

 of Life and Mind,' 1st ed., vol. i. 

 p. 84), who says: "The absence 

 of a philosophy in England dur- 

 ing the last two hundred years 

 has been a serious defect in her 

 culture. Science she has had, 

 and poetry and literature, rivalling 

 when not surpassing those of other 

 nations. But a philosopliy she has 

 not had, in spite of jshilosophic 

 thinkers of epoch - making power. 

 Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, 

 have produced essays, not systems. 

 There has been no noteworthy at- 

 tempt to give a conception of the 

 world, of man, and of society, 

 wrought out with systematic har- 

 monising of principles. There has 

 not been an effort to systematise 

 the scattered labours of isolated 



thinkers. Mr Herbert Spencer is 

 now for the first time deliberately 

 making the attempt to found a 

 philosophy." And in his 'History 

 of Philosophy' (3d ed., vol. ii. p. 

 653) the same author says : " Mr 

 Spencer alone of British thinkers 

 has organised a system of philos- 

 ophy." Croom Robertson would 

 take exception to this in favour 

 of Hobbes, " who attemiDted a task 

 which no other adherent of the 

 ' mechanical philosophy ' conceived 

 nothing less than such a univer- 

 sal construction of human know- 

 ledge as would bring Society and 

 Man within the same principles of 

 scientific explanation as were found 

 applicable to the world of Nature " 

 (Ency. Brit., 9th ed. , vol. xii. p. 

 39). 



