MONISM 



ophy which vStill controls the German universities 

 watches every door with jealous eyes, and has an es- 

 pecial concern to keep out modern biology. OOicial 

 German philosophy is still for the most part taken up 

 with a mediaeval metaphysic and the dualism of Kant, 

 the openly dogmatic character of which it greets as 

 "criticism." In the course of the forty years during 

 which I have taught as ordinary professor of zoology at 

 Jena I have had occasion to assist at several hundred 

 examinations of doctors, teachers, etc., in which dis- 

 tinguished representatives of philosophy were examiners. 

 I saw that nearly always the chief stress was laid on a 

 kind of conceptual gymnastics and self-observation, 

 and on the correct knowledge of the innumerable errors 

 which the (mainly dualistic) leaders of ancient and 

 modern philosophy have left us in their vast literature. 

 The central feature of the whole scheme is Kant's theory 

 of knowledge, the defects and one-sidedness of which I 

 have treated in the first and nineteenth chapters. In 

 psychology a most extensive knowledge of psychic pow- 

 ers on the basis of the introspective method is demanded ; 

 the physiological analysis of the "soul" and the ana- 

 tomic study of the phronema are carefully avoided, as 

 are also the comparative and genetic study of the mind. 

 Many of our metaphysicians go even farther and regard 

 philosophy as a separate science — a sublime "mental 

 science," quite independent of the common empirical 

 sciences. One is tempted to quote the saying of Schop- 

 enhauer: "It is a sure sign of a philosopher that he is 

 not a professor of philosophy." In my opinion, every 

 educated and thoughtful man who strives to form a 

 definite view of life is a philosopher. As queen of the 

 sciences, philosoy)hy has the great task of combiiiing 

 the general results of the other sciences, and of bringing 

 their ravs of light to a focus as in a concave mirror. 

 The various tendencies of thought that arise in such num- 



45.^ 



