542 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



" What is the truly Eeal," form the beginning or the 

 end of philosophical thought ? Is it the requisite or the 

 result of all philosophical reasoning ? Those who affirm 

 the latter, who start profes'sedly without bias and pre- 

 judice, looking at the world around and within them in 

 an impartial spirit, and hope to arrive, by patient analysis 

 and by lengthened trains of reasoning, at a final result 

 or highest abstraction, would fain offer the latter as their 

 solution of the problem of Eeality. These philosophers 

 63.! may be called Phenomenists. Opposed to them stands 



Phenomen- "^ '- '■ 



ontoioeists ^'^other class of thinkers who are convinced of the 

 necessity of first attaining a definite standpoint, a fixed 

 centre of reference, a fundamental conviction in the light 

 of which to gain an understanding and an interpretation 

 of the many-sided appearances in the worlds of nature 

 and mind, of society and history. For them philosophy 

 only begins when at least a preliminary answer is given 

 to the question. What is the truly Real ? This class of 

 thinkers may be termed Ontologists. Both classes of 

 thinkers are represented in this country and abroad. 

 Professor Wundt of Leipzig is probably the foremost 

 living representative of the former, Mr Bradley of the 

 latter class of thinkers. The former class is, apparently, 

 at the end of the century, in the ascendant in Germany, 

 the latter in this country.^ 



^ The opinion expressed in the 

 text, which was written six years 

 ago, is, so far as British Thought is 

 concerned, confirmed by the appear- 

 ance, since the end of the century, 

 of several important works dealing 

 with the ontological problem, and 

 notably by the publication in 

 the current year (1912) of James 



Ward's Second Series of GifiFord 

 Lectures (1907-10) : ' The Realm 

 of Ends, or Pluralism and Theism,' 

 and Mr Bernard Bosanquet's 

 Gifford Lectures (1911-12) : ' The 

 Principle of Individuality and 

 Value. ' So far as German Thought 

 is concerned, a revival of the meta- 

 physical interest is unmistakable. 



