200 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



7. The discussions which centred in the materialistic 



Problems 



fnlhis'"^ controversy referred really to three separate problems 

 which at the time were not kept sufficiently distinct. 

 These problems were familiar to philosophical writers 

 in all the three countries before the middle of the 

 century, but it is useful to note that each of the 

 philosophical literatures had been occupied up to the 

 middle of the century pre-eminently with one out of 

 the three problems. After the middle of the century, 

 and no doubt to a large extent owing to the vehemence 

 with which the controversy had been carried on in 

 Germany, thinkers in each of the three countries found 

 it necessary to take up a definite position with regard to 

 all the three questions involved. In stating separately 

 these questions as they have been more clearly defined in 

 the course of the last fifty years, we shall at the same 

 time acquire some insight into the separate character 

 of French, German, and English thought during the first 

 half of the century. 



To begin with, the older German philosophy of the 



8. eighteenth century had already distinguished two kinds 



Empirical 



and rational of Psychology, i.e., two ways of acquiring knowledge on 

 matters connected with the Soul or the inner life. 

 Calling the doctrine which embraced these subjects 

 " Psychology," ^ it distinguished between Empirical and 



' The term seems to occur for 

 the fir.st time in Germany, where 

 Rudolph Gbckel, or Goclenius 

 (1547-1628), Professor at Marburg, 

 published towards the end of the 

 sixteenth century a work with the 

 title ^TXOAOriA. On this Mr 

 Whittaker remarks: "I have met 

 with the information that ypvxo\n*Yla 



Proclus. The true reading, if I 

 remember rightly, is ^pvxoyovia. 

 Goclenius may have picked up the 

 word — at first or second hand — 

 from Proclus ; for in fact he ap- 

 plies it to the discussions which he 

 has brought together on the old 

 question of ' The generation of 

 the soul.' If this conjecture is 



first occurs in a false reading in i right, it is very curious : the 



