ABSTRACT

The metaphysic which towards the beginning of the nineteenth century grew out of the Kantian idealism was a radical criticism of the philosophy which underlay the Enlightenment and the Revolution. The subsequent development of philosophy was not in keeping with the starting-point: although it maintained the absolutely concrete and historical character of thought, it nevertheless sullied its stream by carrying with it the undissolved residue of the old abstract philosophies. Absolutely anti-historical and impersonal, it introduced a new abstract philosophy, a philosophy of ideal forms outside the process of history. The chapter argues that although each philosophy develops on its own special lines, the philosophies of the different countries are all stating the same problems and endeavouring to satisfy the same needs. It describes the decay of classical idealism and the rise of the naturalistic philosophy, and we shall try to discover the cause and the meaning of the double process.