PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



4. 



Creative 

 aiifl critical 

 eras. 



jective mind," and the " absolute " are only a few 

 examples of the many now familiar words which have 

 been introduced by philosophical thinkers into our every- 

 day speech. Among the latest creations of the philo- 

 sophical genius we may count the terms " unconscious " 

 and " unknowable," and more than all " natural selection," 

 the " survival of the fittest," and many other terms 

 which are peculiar to the doctrine of " Evolution." 



The representatives of the creative era of philosophical 

 thought which terminated with the second third of the 

 nineteenth century have been succeeded by a large class 

 of thinkers whose principal task seems to be not so 

 much to put forward new ideas and brilliant generalis- 

 ations as to survey critically and impartially the inherit- 

 ance of the past, to put into order the abundant supply 

 of new words and terms which it contains, to reduce 

 each to its legitimate meaning, defining the limits of its 

 usage, and by so doing to promote that unity of thought 

 and harmony of expression of which the loss was fre- 

 quently threatened by the extreme emphasis, not to say 

 the vehemence, with which many of those new ideas were 

 put forth at the moments of their birth. A foremost 

 representative of this later form of philosophical thought 

 is Hermann Lotze,^ who, in a manner following Herliart 



■* As I shall, for various reasons 

 which will become evident in the 

 sequel, refer to Lotsie's philosophy 

 as a kind of central point of refer- 

 encefor the niovementof philosophi- 

 cal thought during the century, I 

 give here a list of his more import- 

 ant vyorks. Lotze was born in 

 1817 and died in 1881. His 

 activity as a teacher is connected 



with the University of Gottingen, 

 and his name will always be 

 associated with some of the 

 most illustrious professors at that 

 University. See, inter alia, Mr 

 Haldane's Address, "Universities 

 and National Life" (1910), p. 24, 

 &c. 



'Metaphysik'(1841). 



' Allgemeine Pathologie and 



