INTRODUCTORY. 45 



notably in the establishment of the German university 

 system which trained teachers and servants of the State, 

 and which in the philosophical faculty had organised a 

 comprehensive theoretical treatment of all problems of 

 mind, life, and nature alike. It was natural that the 

 problem of knowledge as such should be taken up in a 

 novel and quite general manner and with direct recog- 

 nition of the results of ancient and modern philosophy. 

 This explains the interest and appreciation with which 

 so abstract a work as Kant's philosophy was received. 

 It was purely logical, or rather metaphysical, and it 

 stood in immediate connection with Aristotle, Leibniz, 

 and Hume. The sociological problem was taken up in 

 Germany at a much later period ; but we must not 

 forget that meanwhile an important step in the practical 

 advancement of it had been made in the development of 

 the system of popular as distinguislied from learned 

 education : a contribution to the solution of that problem 

 of the nineteenth century which for a long time was 

 wanting both in England and in France, and the far- 

 reaching consequences of which are only now beginning 

 to be realised. This movement was greatly influenced 

 by the leaders of philosophical thought themselves, by 

 Lessing, Herder, Kant, Schiller, Fichte, Schleiermacher, 

 and Herbart, who inspired the leaders of education and 

 the founders of the many seminaries or training schools 

 for teachers in the elementary schools. 



Looking, then, at the different national interests which 37. 

 promoted philosophical Thought in the three countries, cai, meta^ 



' ^ ^ ° physical. 



we are led to a first division of this great subject which andposiiive 

 is given by the terms, psychological, metaphysical, and 



