OF KNOWLEDGE. 



347 



Sophies of Locke and even of Leibniz, but as an active 

 principle. Knowledge is not merely collected, arranged, 

 and abstracted, it is essentially also created by the 

 human mind, or, as Kant said, by human Eeason. 



It is not only in the Kantian theory of knowledge 

 that we find a novel treatment of these three main points 

 — the nature of time and space, the difference of appear- 

 ance and reality, and the formative or active principle of 

 the human intellect; even thinkers who, like Comte, 

 Mill, and Herbert Spencer, elaborated their theories inde- 

 pendently, have eventually arrived at conclusions which 

 were more or less in harmony with views explained or 

 indicated by Kant himself.^ His philosophy, and as 



^ Among the contemporaries and 

 early critics of Kant three deserve 

 notice as dealing specially with the 

 theory of Knowledge and connect- 

 ing or contrasting Kant's doctrine 

 with earlier speculation. Gottlob 

 Ernst Schulze (1761-1823) wrote 

 under the name (with its sceptical 

 suggestion) of Aenesidemus (1792). 

 He shows that the critical philosophy 

 does not solve the problem left over 

 by Hume ; for, according to Kant, 

 causality, being a necessary form of 

 thought and applicable only to 

 things of experience, is not appli- 

 cable to the " Thing in itself," to 

 that which transcends expei'ience. 

 The new philosophy thus contains 

 an inherent contradiction, and the 

 great problem of knowledge remains 

 where Hume left it. Salomon 

 Maimon (1754-1800) came from 

 the Jewish religion through great 

 vicissitudes of life and thought to 

 study Kant's philosophy, after 

 having become acquainted with 

 the works of Spinoza, Leibniz, 

 Locke, and Hume. He attempted 

 to remodel the Kantian theory of 

 knowledge by doing away with the 



unknowable "Thing in itself," and 

 reducing the evident difference as 

 to clearness and certainty of know- 

 ledge to that indicated already by 

 Leibniz in his doctrine of the petites 

 perceptions. Kant had a high 

 opinion of Maimon's ability, and 

 went even the length of saying 

 that he was the one of his followers 

 who had understood him best. 

 The best and most concise of his 

 writings is considered to be that 

 on the ' Categories of Aristotle ' 

 (1794). It is interesting to note 

 that he undertook to write a philo- 

 sophical dictionary, evidently re- 

 cognising the important part which 

 verbal terms play in philosophy. 

 The third and most constructive 

 among the earlier critics is Jacob 

 Sigismund Beck (1761-1842), who 

 led on to three important develop- 

 ments of philosophic thought, to 

 Fichte, Herbart, and Schopenhauer. 

 He likewise rejected the Kantian 

 solution as contained in the doctrine 

 of the "Thing in itself." "He 

 found the only possible position 

 from which the critical philosophy 

 could be judged in this, that what 



