ABSTRACT
In his History of the Philosophy of Later Times Höffding declares that there are two intellectual currents characteristic of the nineteenth century: romanticism and positivism, the former starting from the ideal of thought, the latter from that which is based on fact. This division is undoubtedly in accordance with the actual course of events dominating the whole world of culture; the contrast indicated is discerned no less clearly in the development of biology. The romantic conception of nature that prevailed at the beginning of the century saw the true reality in an idea, of which the actual lifeforms were merely modifications; they sought therefore for a primary form or archetype, with which the living forms were compared, as was done, each in his own way, by Goethe, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and R. Owen, the last-mentioned still as late as towards the middle of the century. By that time an entirely different conception of natural phenomena had already appeared, which fought its way year by year into the general consciousness; although champions of the old ideal still survived far into the latter half of the century, nevertheless it may be claimed that the victory of the new conception was already fully confirmed by the beginning of the sixties. Opposition to the old concept first came from the social and political spheres, after which it took in its stride the scientific and literary world. Its original home, therefore, was in the two countries in which public life manifested the greatest mobility — France and England. It was not until later, and then under different forms, that it appeared in Germany and Scandinavia.
