164 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



r 



5. 



The philo- 

 sophical 

 faculty. 



The Univer- 

 sity of Got- 

 tingen. 



tical protection and influence ; it acquired through the 

 statutes of governments or special foundations larger and 

 better secured means of subsistence ; it substituted the 

 vernacular for the Latin tongue. The circle of studies, 

 though from early times professedly all-embracing, did 

 not become worthily filled up and cultivated with equal 

 and impartial care till the fourth faculty, the philoso- 

 phical faculty, was properly developed. Theology, law, 

 and medicine conduct their studies for practical ends 

 and purposes ; the two former especially were frequently 

 liable to be used merely for the ends of the Church or the 

 State ; but the philosophical faculty embraces all those 

 studies which aim at establishing truth, be this defined 

 as merely formal or as real, as belonging to method or 

 to knowledge. We can assign a definite date to the 

 firm establishment of the " libertas philosophandi," and 

 the professed introduction of the " libertas docendi " in 

 the university programme ^ namely, the opening (in 

 1734) of the University of Gottingen (inaugurated in 

 1737). " The foundation stone," says Professor Paulsen, 

 " of the academic constitution is the ' libertas docendi.' 

 On this point Von Miinchhausen, whom we may call the 

 real founder of the university, and his two advisers, 

 Mosheim, the theologian of Helmstadt, and Bohmer, the 

 jurist of Halle, were agreed. All ' inquisitiones,' so writes 

 the former, choke the powers ' ingeniorum,' and spoil the 

 beginnings of a learned society. He advises above all 

 that the greatest care should be used in the equipment 

 of the theological faculty. Accordingly Miinchhausen 

 laid his eye upon men whose teaching led neither to 



^ Paulsen, ' Geschichte des gelehrten Unterrichts,' p. 424, &c. 



