28 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT, 



22. 



Comruuiiiby 

 between 

 Kant and 

 Plato. 



ligious but likewise of supreme philosophical interest, 

 a revival of the study of Plato went hand in hand ; 

 Leibniz being probably one of the first of the great 

 philosophers of modern times to appreciate the Platonic 

 idealism. Towards the end of the eighteenth century 

 the old problem which was before the mind of Plato 

 received a new expression in the philosophy of Kant, 

 and this expression has dominated most of the great 

 systems of nineteenth century philosophy. Even the 

 positive philosophy in France and the philosophy of Evol- 

 ution in England which, in their great representatives, 

 professed to break with the historical traditions of philo- 

 sophy, as Descartes and Bacon had done before them, 

 have led, through the reaction which they provoked, to a 

 profound appreciation of the form in which this central 

 problem of philosophy presented itself to Plato and 

 Kant.^ Philosophical thought in the nineteenth century 

 indeed not only started from, but, as we shall see, con- 

 tinually reverts to, Kant's statement of the great problem. 



^ This view of Kant's philosophy 

 as belonging to the Platonic tradi- 

 tion is strongly brought out by 

 Fr. Paulsen. "Kant's metaphy- 

 sical conceptions through all their 

 changes remained essentially the 

 same : they consist of an idealism 

 under the directing influence of 

 Leibniz (and Plato)." Paulsen, 

 ' Immanuel Kant,' 4th ed., p. 8'd ; 

 of. also pp. xi, 97. This view has 

 been attacked by some of Paulsen's 

 critics. 



One of the leaders of what is 

 termed in Germany Neokantianisni, 

 a revival of the study of Kant's 

 Wsrk.s, following upon the publica- 

 tion of Kuno Fischer's ' Exposition 

 of Kant's System,' in the 3rd and 4th 

 volumes of his ' History of Modern 



Philosophy' (1860), F. A. Lange, 

 has fully entered upon the influence 

 of Platonism upon subsequent 

 ancient and modern philosophy, and 

 has in his ' History of Materialism ' 

 (Engl, transl. by E. C. Tliomas, in 

 3 vols., 1877, 1880, 1881) denounced 

 it as one of the great errors in 

 philosophic thought. At the same 

 time he recognises its great histori- 

 cal importance and its abiding 

 value from a dififerent point of 

 view, which he places in opposition 

 to the methodical treatment that 

 belongs to science and philosophy. 

 Of this important distinction, which 

 is independently upheld by other 

 thinkei's besides Lange, I shall 

 treat in a later chapter. 



