340 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



33. 

 Locke and 

 Kant. 



Leibniz had given to Locke's sensationalism in the 

 ' Nouveaux Essais ' published in 1765.^ It is probable 

 that the study of the latter helped to give to Kant's 

 speculation its peculiar and characteristic form. 



From the Introductions to their respective works 

 which treat of the theory of Knowledge, the 'Essay' 

 of Locke and the first ' Critique ' of Kant, we learn that 

 both thinkers were led to their investigations by the 

 desire to explain and possibly to aid in settling differ- 

 ences of opinion which they met with among thinking 

 persons and in the teaching of the schools. But these 

 differences were, with Locke, enclosed in a narrower 

 circle — we may say they were Confessional differences. 

 During the period of more than two generations which 



^ This opens out an interesting 

 historical question, which may be 

 somewhat difFerently answered ac- 

 cording as our interest lies in 

 the development of thought or in 

 that of Kant's own ideas. Kant 

 was wont to compare the revolu- 

 tion in Thought, which he sug- 

 gested, to that worked by Coper- 

 nicus in physical astronomy. As 

 the latter had changed the centre 

 of the universe from the earth to 

 the sun, so Kant proposed to change 

 the centre of Ideology from the exter- 

 nal world of experience and science 

 to the internal active principle of 

 the human intellect. But this 

 was indicated already in Leibniz's 

 formula. Historians of the Kantian 

 philosophy tell us, as Kant did 

 himself, of a turning-point in his 

 speculations, and assign this to a 

 period somewhere about 1769 or 

 1770, This is represented some- 

 times as a kind of awakening out 

 of his dogmatic slumbers, and is 

 then connected with the influence 

 of Hume {e.g., by Paulsen), some- 



times as a continuous develop- 

 ment under various influences, that 

 of Rousseau being also specially 

 mentioned. This view of the con- 

 tinuity in Kant's development is 

 mainly represented by Prof. Hoff- 

 ding in his interesting articles in 

 the seventh volume of the ' Archiv 

 fiir Geschichte der Philosophie' 

 (1894). Neither he nor F. Paulsen 

 ('Immanuel Kant') refers to the 

 fact that the ' Nouveaux Essais ' 

 of Leibniz were made known 

 to the world in 1765, just before 

 the time when the Coperuican 

 change in Kant's views was being 

 established. This is brought out by 

 Prof. Windelband in an article in 

 the ' Vierteljahrsschrift fiir wissen- 

 schaftliche Philosophie' (1876), 

 and referred to in his works on his- 

 tory of Philosophy, quoted above. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that 

 Hotfding in his important Discus- 

 sion does not refer to Windelband's 

 article ; Paulsen mentions it only 

 incidentally, and attaches little 

 importance to it. 



