ABSTRACT
The impression left by French philosophy is one of a much greater richness and variety as compared with German. French philosophy is a young philosophy. If one recalls the condition of philosophy in France about 1840, one can hardly believe it possible that so many changes should have taken place in so short a time. For in spite of the efforts of many thinkers the Kantian philosophy remained unknown in France until about 1860, at least in its inner significance. The dawn of positivism, put an end to the old eclectic philosophy: its epitaph was written in 1857 by Taine’s satirical pen. The new system thus formed owes its structure to the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz, which attempted to embrace spirit and nature in a larger synthesis, but it owed something to Maine de Biran, whose dynamism was an effort to correct the over-mechanical and rigid character of Leibniz’ synthesis.
