ABSTRACT
The thinkers included in this section, it must be noticed, do not form a definite school or follow a definite tendency. When we include them under the title of ‘the older realism’, we are simply pointing to the fact that they are connected historically or in doctrine with the later or New Realism, which will be discussed in the next section. Nor are they in general connected with one another, seeing that they have no common philosophical descent, nor have they, as New Realism has, a common opponent to whom they have to show a common front. As they have issued from various camps, so they stand in opposition to varipus opponents, and the standpoints and interests which they adopt from time to time are diverse. They have a certain connection with each other, though only an external one, insomuch as they can all be brought under the common designation of one of the many variants of realistic thinking, and also because most of them have passed through an idealistic position (principally Kantian criticism), or at least have been more or less strongly influenced by it. It is just this last circumstance which shows most plainly their distance in time and in opinions from the representatives of the younger group who for the most part have made no such transit. In the latter we have the appearance of a new element of thought, in the former the resumption and prolongation of old threads. However, each of the following thinkers must tell his own tale.
