OF KNOWLEDGE. 417 



the present connection it is of interest for us to note 

 that Eenouvier, from an entirely different beginning, 

 combats the attempt to lay down any one principle by 

 which all our knowledge is governed. A complete 71. 

 unification of knowledge on the purely scientific basis is on Discon- 



tinuity. 



not possible. 



This contention finds in Eenouvier's System a char- 

 acteristic expression. He attacks the law of Continuity 

 which, since the time of Leibniz, has played such an 

 important part in modern Thought. According to 

 Eenouvier, we are everywhere confronted with discon- 

 tinuities, with new beginnings, with breaks in what we 

 would fain consider the orderly development of things. 



The period during which, under the sway of the ideas 

 of uniformity and continuity, science has made its 

 enormous strides, will be followed by a new era of 

 philosophical thought, by a new conception in which the 

 idea of personality will be utilised for the explanation 72. 



. . T 1 T • • ^^'^ Person- 



and interpretation, as opposed to the description and aiity. 

 construction, of the phenomenal world. 



The essence of personality is to be found in our indi- 

 vidual experience and in the process of willing. The 

 Will affords by analogy the key to the deeper explana- 

 tion of everything. 



With this conception Eenouvier touches another and 

 prominent development of modern Thought, which, no 

 less than the three developments already mentioned, 

 emphasises the dualism which everywhere surrounds us. 

 The movement I refer to centres on the Continent in 

 the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. It was 

 prepared independently by the study of the ethical 



VOL. III. 2 D 



