58 ALOIS IlIEHL 



ity, as Descartes showed, are nothing else than 

 human knowledge, and this is always one and 

 the same, however different the objects to 

 which it may be applied — just as the light of 

 the sun is one and the same however different 

 the things on which it shines. We have indeed 

 ceased to believe in the possibility of a sys- 

 tem of all knowledge which can be rounded off 

 at any one moment. We have even ceased to 

 desire this possibility. Its realization would 

 seem to us like the extinction, the very death, 

 of the motive to knowledge. But in giving up 

 the idea of a system in the sense of a work 

 which, once accomplished, had only to be 

 learnt and passed on, we do not necessarily 

 relinquish system in the sense of a tendency. 

 All real knowledge is distinguished from mere 

 knowledge of fact by its inherent inclination 

 for system. It is here that the significance of a 

 theory of knowledge, the significance of a uni- 

 versal doctrine of science, comes into view. 

 Historically too this central philosophical dis- 

 cipline made its appearance and developed as 

 a consequence and demand of the age of the 

 special sciences. Science as such has become 



