52 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



43. 



Inter- 

 mediate 

 position of 

 philosophy 

 between 

 science and 

 religion. 



Monistic' 

 doctrines. 



But there still remains a large and important section 

 of the philosophical literature of the century in all the 

 three countries which is not covered by the foregoing 

 developments, but into which they all enter. This arises 

 out of the peculiarity of philosophical thought to which 

 I referred in the third part of the general introduction 

 to this history. 



I there tried to show how philosophy occupies an 

 intermediate position between scientific thought which is 

 capable of clear definition and enunciation and that 

 other and opposite region of thought which I have 

 variously termed Individual, Subjective, or Eeligious 

 Thought. In fact, we may say that one of the objects 

 of philosophy has always been to effect a reconciliation 

 between science and religion, or, expressed in difi'erent 

 words, to show the relations between definite and detailed 

 knowledge on the one side and our beliefs and convic- 

 tions on the other. The philosopher is bound to have 

 an eye as much for the latter as for the former. 



Thqre have indeed existed many philosophical attempts 

 to establish what is usually termed the monistic view by 

 starting from one undisputed principle, or from one 

 coherent and self-consistent body of facts, and to dis- 

 countenance any compromise between apparently con- 

 tradictory regions of thought. Especially in the course 

 of the nineteenth century various efforts were made to 



science of reality." Trendelenburg's 

 criticisms, though they influenced 

 several prominent living thinkers, 

 have generally been too little appre- 

 ciated, especially out of Germany. 

 When he wrote, the philosophical 

 miud still hoped for a new con- 



structive efl!brt, and was more easily 

 satisfied by the brilliant construc- 

 tions of Schopenhauer and v. Hart- 

 mann than by the historicism and 

 eclecticism of Trendelenburg or the 

 cautious and circumspect analysis 

 of Lotze. 



