72 



INTRODUCTION. 



21. 

 Threefold 

 considera- 

 tion of 

 thought : 

 scientific, 

 philosophi- 

 cal, indi- 

 vidual. 



the progress of applied science, these theories must them- 

 selves change and develop. Now it may be generally 

 . stated that it is the task of philosophy to take note of 

 these different ways by which the strict methods of science 

 are applied and made useful, or by which personal and 

 individual convictions are brought to bear upon practical 

 questions which are not only of personal but of general in- 

 terest and importance. It does not follow that philosophy 

 must necessarily construct a complete system ; but it is a 

 natural and frequent occurrence that the occupation with 

 a great number of detached theories or aspects of thought 

 generates the desire to bring them into harmony and to 

 unite them in a connected whole. Thus the enterprise 

 which was originally purely critical and preparatory, and 

 undertaken merely as a means to an end, may lead to the 

 formation of a general and all-embracing view of things 

 i.e., to a philosophical system. 



From whichever side we approach the matter, we are 

 thus always led to a threefold consideration of thought, 

 as scientific, as individual, and as philosophical. An at- 

 tempt in which any of these three aspects were neglected 

 could have no value in an account of the thought of our 

 age. There have indeed been schools of thought which 

 identified science with philosophy, or which maintained 

 that no independence belonged to religious, personal, or 

 individual thought, inasmuch as this was merely of a 

 derived character. Though such theories may have ex- 

 erted considerable influence, they have as a whole failed,^ 



This can be said of Hegelian- 

 ism as well as of Comtism. In the 

 former it was a favourite doctrine 

 that philosophy was the higher 

 wisdom compared with religion and 



art. See Hegel, ' Geschichte der 

 Philosophic ' (Werke, vol. xv. p. 

 684) : " The highest aim and inter- 

 est of philosophy is to reconcile 

 thought, the idea, with reality. 



