INTRODUCTORY. 69 



occupy us in the sequel. The second tendency is 

 perhaps more prominent, and in the eyes of many 

 thinking persons more promising. Allured by the enor- 

 mous progress and the stupendous triumphs of the 

 Natural Sciences, thinkers of the last generation have 

 attempted to remodel the whole of philosophy according 

 to the methods of science. The word science in France 55. 



"Scientific 



and England has acquired a larger meaning than it used Piiiio-_ 

 to have in the earlier part of the century. We now 

 hear much of the scientific treatment of philosophical 

 problems. Definite well marked-off provinces have been 

 separated from the whole realm of philosophy and placed, 

 as it were, under special management ; thus in psycho- 

 logy, logic, and ethics, more or less successful attempts 

 have been made to establish independent and self-con- 

 sistent doctrines upon the basis of a small number of 

 self-evident principles which, just as in the various 

 Natural Sciences, enable a large amount of empirical 

 material to be described, arrangetl, and methodically ex- 

 pounded. Even in Germany, where philosophy has always 

 ranked as a Science in that larger sense of methodical 

 Thought which is conveyed by the term " Wissenschaft," 

 the last twenty-five years have witnessed the growth of 

 an " exact " or " scientific " philosophy,^ an attempt, the 



^ In 1861 the first number of the served, through his influence in the 

 ' Zeitschrif t fur exacte Philosophic ' 

 (edited by Allihn, Ziller, and Fliigel, 

 pupils of Herbart) appeared, and 

 was continued till 1875, and with 

 certain changes up to 1896. Its 

 programme was to explain clearly 

 the proper tasks of philosophy 

 and of the separate philosophical 

 eciences, &c. Latterly the memory 

 of Herbart has been mainly pre- 



sphere of education, in the ' Zeit- 

 schrift fiir Philosophic und Piida- 

 gogik' (since 1894). In 1877 

 Avenarius started the ' Vierteljahrs- 

 schrift fiir Wisscnschaftliche Philo- 

 sophic ' with the professed object 

 of founding Philosophy as a science 

 upon experience -alone without 

 specifically or narrowly defining 

 this term. 



