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TENNEMAM'S
HISTOKY OF PHILOSOPHY.
B
81
T35
A MANUAL
OY THE
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF
TENNEMANN,
BY
THE KEY. AKTHTJK JOHNSON, M.A.
REVISED, ENLARGED, AND CONTINUED,
BY
J. E. MOEELL.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1852.
VI PKEFACE.
The revision of Johnson's text, was, however, only a portion
of the editos's task. Besides having to incorporate the additions
given by Professor Wendt in the last edition of the original
work, he has continued the development of German philosophy
to its latest manifestation, — ' the Will's Phases' of Schopenhauer
and Plancke. He has also given a view of the latest divarica-
tions of the New Hegelian School, as exemplified in Strauss and
Feuerbach. Many valuable additions have been furnished by
Carriere's Buck der Weltweisheit, and some, particularly the sec-
tions on Italian, Russian, and Swedo-Danish philosophy, by
Blakey's History of the Philosophy of Mind.
It remained also for the editor to introduce several systems
which have recently obtained currency in the empire of
thought. Emanuel Swedenborg was a man of too remark-
able a mould, and his system too original, to be overlooked
in a work professing to develope the psychological manifesta-
tions of human nature. The science of Animal Magnetism
too, is now so well authenticated, and has already disclosed
such remarkable phenomena in the spiritual constitution of man,
that it was incumbent on the editor to give some account of it.
The French School of Mystical Socialism which has arisen
within the last twenty or thirty years, claimed especial notice
from the important influence it has exerted on the political
condition of modern Europe. Charles Fourier was a genius of
too rare a flight, and too penetrating a cast, to be altogether
passed over. A short section has been added, insufficient to do
justice to his merits, and perhaps defects. The works of Pierre
Leroux and Comte have also received some little of the notice
which their merits and influence deserve.
Some original matter has been added on the Idealistic and
Inductive or Empirical Schools, which have lately stood forth
and measured their strength in England ; also chapters on the
American contributions to Philosophy, and on the disputed
science of Phrenology.
It has long been the distinction of England to take the lead
in the invention, improvement, and application of whatever is
practical and useful ; but she has, at the same time, laboured
under the reproach that, through a spirit of stolid finality, she
has been dragging in the rear of Continental Europe in the
sublimer walks of science. We trust it will be so no more ; and
that, theoretically as well as practically, she will vindicate her
proper place among the nations.
J. R. M.
A Vocabulary or some principal Kantian and
other Metaphysical Terms.
The most remarkable division of the human mind, in
Kant's system is, that into :
Vernunft. The Intuitional Faculty, or Reason, which he divides
into theoretical and practical, and which gives birth to Ideas,
{Ideen) the highest perceptions of the mind, which are innate,
but stimulated into action by Experience.
Verstand. Understanding or Intellect ; also divided into theore-
tical and practical ; the parent of Conceptions or Notions
(Begriffe), which are the generalizations of Thought, and
mediate representations of things. They are divided into
conceptions derived from Experience, and conceptions de-
rived from the Understanding itself.
Under the operations of the mind we find the following
terms :
Anschauung, rendered, in this edition, by Intuitional and Sensa-
tional Perception, gives immediate representations of things.
Vorstellung. Representation (the Greek (jyavraaia), applies to
Intuitional and Sensational Perceptions, and also to con-
ceptions which are their generalizations.
ErJcenntniss. Cognition, representing the active co-operation of
the Intellect bearing on the object presented by Sensational
and Intuitional Perception.
Gefuhl has been translated Emotion and Feeling.
Wissen. Science ; sometimes Knowledge, but never Cognition.
A marked feature of Kant's, and indeed of all modern
German philosophy, is the division of the universe of things
into Subjective and Objective.
The Subjective implies the internal individual element, in percep-
tion, feeling, and knowledge. It must be referred to its
centre and source ; — Das lch, translated the Ego, I or Me,
implying the Percipient Self-hood.
The Objective is the externally-caused element in our perception
and knowledge, derivable from the Nicht-lch — Non-Ego; or
in plain English, from without.
Vlll VOCABULARY OF KANTIAN TERMS.
Another broad distinction in the Transcendental School is
that between
Das Seyn, translated Esse, or Being, and signifying bare, empty
Existence, admitting of no predicates; and
Das Wesen. Real concrete Existence, or Essence manifested in
Qualified or Conditional Nature.
Das Werden. The Esse in a state of action, i. e. active Exist-
ence ; differing from it as dynamical from static electricity.
Das Absolute, the Absolute, explains itself as the contrast to the
Relative, and implies the Ground and Real Principal and
Basis of all things.
The editor has also been reduced to the necessity of coin-
ing a few words, in order to give an adequate rendering of
the author's thoughts. Thus he has translated —
Denkbarkeit. Thinkableness ; Capacity of being thought.
Erkennt. Cognized ; (a word for which we have the sanction of
Sir William Hamilton.)
Teleologisch = Teleological. The science of the adaptation of means
to ends. Final Causes.
ApodiJctih = Apodiktik. Demonstration.
Pildagogik = Pcedagoqik. The Science of Education.
JEsthetik = JEsthetics. Theory of the Fine Arts.
Propddeutik = Propddeutik. Introductory Preparation
Moment = Momentum. This term was borrowed from Mechanics
by Hegel (See his Wissenschaft der Logik, vol 3, p. 104, ed.
1841). He employs it to denote the two contending forces
which are mutually dependent, and whose contradiction
forms an equation. Hence his formula Esse = Nothing.
Here Esse and Nothing are momentums, giving birth to
Werden, i.e. Existence. Thus the momentum contributes to
the same oneness of operation in contradictory forces that we
see in Mechanics, amidst contrast and diversity, in weight
and distance, in the case of the balance.
Potenz. Potency or degree. (Schelling's term for the Serial
Order).
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Editor's Preface .... .... .... ... .... v
Kantian Vocabulary .... .... .... .... .... vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
On the Character, Extent, Method, Importance, Division, and
Bibliography of the History of Philosophy .... .... .... 1
Preliminary Observations on the Progress of Philosophic Reason 25
PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION,
Containing a rapid Review of the Religious and Philosophical
Opinions of the Oriental Nations, and of the first periods of Gre-
cian Civilization. Hindostan. Thibet. China. The Persians.
Chaldseans. The Egyptians. The Hebrews. The Phoenicians. 34
First Civilization of the Greeks; their Mythical and Poetical
Traditions. Their Practical and Gnomical Wisdom .... .... 47
PART THE FIRST. First Period. (Greek. and Roman
Philosophy.) From Thales to John of Damascus, t. e. from
600 B.C. to the end of the Vlllth Century .... .... .... 51
Chapter I. From Thales to Socrates (First Epoch of Greek Phi-
losophy) .... .... .... .... .... .... 54
1. Speculations of the Ancient Ionians ... .... .... 55
2. Speculations of the Pythagoreans .... .... .... 58
3. Speculations of the Eleatic School .... .... .... 65
4. Heraclitus .... .... .... .... .... 71
5. Speculations of the Atomic School .... .... .... 73
6. Empedocles .... .... .... .... .... 76
7. Others of the Ionian School .... .... .... .... 78
8. Transition to the Second Period of Greek Philosophy. — The
Sophists .... .... .... .... .... .... 81
Chapter II. From Socrates to the end of the Contest between
the Porch and the Academy (Second Epoch of Greek Philosophy) 85
1. Socrates .... .... .... .... .... .... 86
2. Partial Systems of the Socratic School .... .... .... 92
1. Cynics .... .... .... .... .... 92
2. Cyrenaics .... .... .... .... .... 94
3. Pyrrho and Timon .... .... .... .... 96
4. Megaric School .... .... .... .... .... 98
5. Schools of Elis and Eretria .... .... .... 100
X CONTENTS.
PAGE
3. More complete Systems proceeding from the School of
Socrates .... .... .... .... .... .... 101
1. Plato .... .... .... .... 101
2. Aristotle .... .... .... .... .... 112
3. Epicurus .... .... .... .... ... 126
4. Zeno and the Stoics .... .... .... .... 133
5. New Academy .... .... .... .... .... 143
Chapter III. Philosophy among the Romans ; and Neo-Platonism
to the time of John of Damascus (from 60 B.C. to the end of the
Vlllth Century after Christ). Propagation of Grecian Philosophy. 147
1. Cicero .... .... .... .... 152
2. Roman Epicureans .... .... .... .... 153
3. Stoics and Cynics .... .... .... .... .... 154
4. Peripatetics .... .... .... .... .... 158
5. New Pythagoreans .... .... .... .... 159
6. Neo-Platonists .... .... .... .... .... 161
7. Scepticism of the Empiric School .... .... .... 163
8. Philosophic Doctrines of the Jews and Gentiles .... 168
1. Philo of Alexandria .... .... .... .... 170
2. The Cabbalists .... .... .... .... 171
3. The Gnostics .... .... .... .... .... 173
9. Plotinus .... .... .... .... .... 177
10. Porphyry, lamblichus, and Proclus .... .... .... 187
11. Patristic Philosophy. Christian Eclectics .... ..k. 194
PART THE SECOND.— Second Period.— The Middle Ages.
(The Scholastic System.) From the IXth to XVIth Century.
General View of Scholasticism .... .... .... 209
1. First Period of Scholastic Philosophy. From Alcuin to
Anselm .... .... .... .... .... .... 214
2. Second Period. From Roscellin to the end of the Xllth
Century .... .... .... .... .... .... 218
3. Third Period. From Alexander of Hales to Occam .... 224
4. Fourth Period. From Occam to the end of the X Vth Century 243
PART THE THIRD. Third Period. (Decline of the
Scholastic Philosophy.) From the XVth to the end of the
XVIth Century .... .... .... .... .... 250
1. Revival of Letters .... .... .... .... .... 253
2. Renewal of Ancient Systems .... .... .... 255
3. Cabbalism, Magic, and Theosophy .... .... .... 256
1. Raymond Lulli, Cornelius Agrippa, &c. .... .... 261
2. Paracelsus .... .... ....• .... .... 262
3. Cardan .... 263
4. Original Philosophical Systems .... .... .... 270
1. Giordano Bruno .... .... .... .... 273
2. Montaigne, &c .... .... .... .... .... 279
CONTENTS. XI
PAGE
Modern Philosophy. From the XVIIth to the end of the
XVIIIth Century .... .... .... .... .... 281
General Reflections .... .... .... .... .... 281
Rise of Empirical Philosophy .... .... .... ... 284
1. Bacon .... .... .... .... .... 286
2. Campanella .... .... .... .... •••• 287
Various Systems.
1. Grotius .... .... .... .... .... 294
2. Hobbes .... .... .... .... .... 295
3. Lord Herbert of Cherbury .... .... .... 299
4. Mystics .... .... .... .... .... 300
5. Sceptics .... ... .... • •■• .... 303
6. Descartes, and the Systems arising from the Rationalistic
Doctrines .... .... .... .... .... 304
1. Spinoza .... .... .... .... .... 313
2. Malebranche .... .... .... .... .... 318
3. Mystics .... .... .... .... .... 320
4. Sceptics .... .... .... .... ... 323
Empiricism in England and France .... .... .... 324
1. Locke .... .... .... .... .... 325
2. Newton, Clarke, Bishop Berkeley, &c. .... .... 328
3. French Sceptics and their Opponents. Bayle, Le Clerc,
Jacquelot, &c. .... .... .... .... 336
The German School .... .... .... .... .... 338
1. Puffendorf .... .... .... .... .... 338
2. Leibnitz .... .... .... ,.. .... 340
3. Wolf and his Adversaries .... .... .... 353
4. Swedenborg .... .... .... .... .... 366
Other English Philosophers.
Hume, Priestley, Adam Smith, &c .... .... 371
French Empirical School.
The Encyclopedists, Rousseau, Voltaire, Condillac, &c. 377
German Eclectics .... .... .... .... .... 383
Mesmerism .... .... .... .... .... .... 390
Retrospective View of Philosophic Progress .... .... 394
Second Period. From Kant to the Present Time .... 399
Modern German Philosophy.
1. Kant .... .... .... .... .... .... 400
2. Adversaries of Kant's System .... .... .... 409
3. Partisans of Kant .... .... .... .... 411
4. Reinhold .... .... .... .... .... 418
5. Fichte .... .... .... .... .... .... 422
6. Schelling and his School .... .... .... 435
7. Bouterwek, Bardili, &c. .... .... .... 450
8. Jacobi and his School .... .... .... .... 454
9. Schulze .... .... .... .... .... 460
XU CONTENTS.
PAGE
10. Herbart .... .... .... .... .... 462
11. Schleiermacher .... .... .... .... .... 463
12. Krug .... .... .... .... .... .... 465
13. Fries .... .... .... .... .... .... 467
14. Eschenmayer, Wagner, Krause .... .... 470
15. Hegel .... .... .... .... .... 473
16. The Hegelian School. Strauss, Feuerbach, &c. .... 477
17. Schopenhauer, Reiff, and Planck .... .... .... 479
18. Phrenology — Gall and Spurzheim .... .... .... 485
Modern English Philosophy .... .... .... .... 487
Modern French Philosophy. .... .... .... .... 491
1. De Maistre, Victor Cousin, Jouffroy, &c. .... .... 492
2. The Socialists : Fourier, Leroux, Proudhon .... .... 494
Philosophy in other Countries.
1. Italy .... .... .... .... .... .... 496
2. Denmark and Northern Europe .... .... .... 498
3. America .... .... .... .... .... 500
Conclusion .... .... .... .... .... ,... 501
Chronology .... .... .... .... .... .... 503
Index .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 519
A MANUAL
OF THE
HISTOKY OF PHILOSOPHY.
SECTION I. .
The history of philosophy, if treated conformably with
the end in view, implies an enquiry regarding the concep-
tion of the science, coupling with it a view of its contents,
form, and end ; and also of its scope, method, value, and
the various modes in which it may be handled. These
objects, together with the history and literature of the
history of philosophy, combined with some preliminary
remarks on the progress of the philosophizing reason, afford
the contents of a general introduction to the history of
philosophy.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER, EXTENT, METHOD, IMPORTANCE, DIVISION, AND
BIBLIOGRAPHY* OP THE HISTOEY OP PHILOSOPHY.
I. Character oftlie History of Philosophy.
T Ch. Leonh. Eeinhold, On the Character of the History of Philo-
sophy, in the Collection of Fiilleborn; Fasc. I. (12 fasc. Jena, 1791-9).
t Geo. Fred. Dan. Goess, Essay on the Character of the History of
Philosophy, and on the System of Thales, Erlangen, 1794, 8vo., with a
sketch of the proper limits of the History of Philosophy, Leips. 1798, 8vo.
* The titles of the German and French works are in most instances
given in English, although no translation may have been published.
The reader will be governed as to whether the works are English or
Foreign by the places where they are printed.
B
2 GENEBAL INTRODUCTION". [SECT.
t Christ. Aug. Grohmann, On the Character of the History of
Philosophy, Wittenberg, 1797, 8vo.
+ W. G. Tennemann, History of Philosophy, vol. i, Leips. 1798, 8vo.
Dan. Boethius, De idea Historic Philosophise rite formanda, Upsal,
1800, 4to.
t Fred. Aug. Carus, Observations towards a History of Philosophy,
Leips. 1809.
+ Ch. Fred. Bachmann, On Philosophy and its History; three
Academic lectures ; Jena, 1811, 8vo. On the History of Philosophy,
second edition, remodelled, with a dedication to Beinhold, Jena,
1820, 8vo.
f Christ. Aug. Brandis, On the Character of the History of Phi-
losophy, Copenhagen, 1815, 8vo.
*t H. Bitter, Introduction to his History of Philosophy (contained
in vol. i. of Bitter's History of Philosophy, translated by A. J. W.
Morrison, 4 vols. 8vo. Oxford and London, Bohn, 1838--1846.)
2. Man, from the constitution of his reason, strives after
systematic completeness in his knowledge, and conse-
quently seeks to attain to a science of the ultimate principles
and laivs of nature and freedom, as also of their mutual rela-
tions. In the first instance he is impelled in this course by
a blind instinct, without duly appreciating the problem
and office of reason ; and knows not in what way, by what
means, or to what extent the end is to be attained. Gra-
dually his efforts become more enlightened, and are deter-
mined in accordance with the progressive development of
self-knowledge through the reason. This effort of reflection
is named the act of philosophizing.
3. Various attempts of thinkers result from this endea-
vour to approximate to this Idea of reason, or to realize it in
thought. These attempts differ more or less from each
other as regards their principles, method, logical conse-
quence, their result, and the scope and general character of
their objects. The thinking reason developes itself in con-
formity to its own law in these attempts, which, when they
present themselves in a perfectly scientific form, are entitled
Philosophical Systems. The value of these systems naturally
varies according to the degree of intellectual culture, and to
the point of view of the several speculators, and of the age
in which they lived.
1 Weiller, Kajet. iiber das Verhaltniss der Philos. Versuche zur
Philos. (Schulschrift, 1812) in dem zweit. Bd. der akad. Reden und
Abhandlungen, 1822, 8vo.
2 — 6.] SUBSTANCE OP THE WOEK. 3
4. But the development of human reason is not called
forth without external excitement; it is consequently de-
pendent on external causes, since its activity is either
favoured or impeded by the various impulses it receives
from without.
5. The history of philosophy consists, in fact, in the chro-
nicling of the multifarious efforts to realize this Idea of rea-
son as regards substance and form. It shews how these
efforts sprang from the development of reason, and how
they were promoted or checked by external causes in endea-
vouring to give a footing to philosophy as a science.
6. The material with which the history of philosophy has
to deal is internal and external. The internal or immediate
material comprises, in the first place, the continued applica-
tion of reason to the investigation of the ultimate principles
and laws of Nature and Liberty ; for the act of philosophi-
zing consists in this. And here great distinctions are to be
traced in regard to subject and object,1 to the extensive ap-
plication and intensive force of the philosophizing energy, —
to internal aims and motives (noble or interested) as also to
external causes and occasions. This material comprises,
secondly ; the products of the act of philosophizing, or the
philosophical Opinions, Methods, and Systems, which are quite
as manifold as the efforts from which they proceed. The
reason obtains, through these means, continually, more
genuine materials for philosophy as a science, as well as
rules and principles for the welding of the same into a
scientific whole, besides Maxims to direct our search for
Philosophy. Thirdly, it comprehends the development of the
Meason, as the organ of philosophy, or, in other words, the
impulse of reason to spontaneous research according to fixed
laws, by means of an internal instinct and external occasions.
In this development will be traced the gradual progress
manifested by individuals, by nations, and the thinking
1 The philosophical signification of subject and object, in German
Metaphysics, may be popularly defined as identical with spirit or mind,
i. e. the percipient, and nature, or the thing perceived. In a strict
sense the subject is the Ego, or percipient, which may become its own
object, as the Me, as well as other things. Schelling and Hegel identify
the subject and object (Identittitslehre), but Kant drew a marked line of
separation between them. — See Preface.
B 2
4 GEKEKAL INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
portion of mankind; thus constituting an important anthro-
pological phase of the history of philosophy.
The history of philosophical systems does not amount to a history
of philosophy.
7. The external material consists in those causes, events,
and circumstances, which have exerted an influence on the
development of philosophic reason, and the character of its
produce. Amongst these we may enumerate : first, the
individuality of the philosopher; i. e. the degree, the relation,
and the tendency of their intellectual powers, the sphere of
their thoughts and lives, the interests that governed them,
and even their moral character. Secondly may be noticed,
the influence of external circumstances on this individuality,
such as the character and the degree of mental cultivation
of their respective countries, the prevailing spirit of the age,
and, more remotely perhaps, the climate and constitution of
the country,1 education, political government, religion,2 and
language.3 In the third place we may enumerate the
influence of individuals (through the medium of admiration
and imitation of their example) on the interests, the tendency,
the peculiar objects, the shape, and method of succeeding
researches. This influence is variously modified according to
the intellectual character, to the consideration and celebrity
of the schools that were established, and according to writ-
ings, their form and contents. (Bacon, Locke, Leibnitz.)
8. The form of the history of philosophy consists in the
suitable arrangement of these two classes of materials, so as
to make one scientific whole. Nevertheless, the result is
modified, partly by the end of history in general, and partly
by the special end of the history of philosophy.
9. History, in its most limited sense, is distinguished, as
respects form, from mere annals and memoirs, &c, by the
concatenation of events and their scientific exposition ; i. e.
the laws that govern their development.
1 On the influence of climate and country on thought, see Herder's
Philosophy of the History of Man. An English translation, 2 vols.
8vo., appeared in 1803.
3 For the influence of religion on philosophy, see Pb. v. Schlegel's
Philosophy of History. A translation by Robertson, Bolm, 1850.
Pabst's Der Mensch und seine Geschichte, 8vo. Wien, 1847.
3 For the influence of Language on philosophy, see W. v. Humboldt's
Sprachwissenschaft, 1 vol. 4to. Berlin, 1848.
7 — 13.] EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EACTS. 5
10. To enable the history of philosophy to satisfy an
enlightened curiosity, not merely a vain and idle one, its
object ought to be thoroughly to explore, through its con-
tinual alternations of improvement and declension, the pro-
gress of a philosophic spirit, and the gradual development of
philosophy as a science. This end cannot be attained by a
mere acquaintance with historic facts, but rather by contem-
plating their mutual dependence, and connecting their causes
and effects.
11. The efforts of philosophic reason are internal to the
mind ; but by their publication, and the influence they exert
on the world without, they assume the character and enter
into the combinations of external facts. The facts, therefore,
which form a groundwork for the history of philosophy may
be regarded as both external and internal; because, 1st.
They stand in connection with chronology, as successive or
contemporaneous events. 2dly. They have their external
effects and causes. 3dly. They have their origin in the con-
stitution of the human mind, developing themselves in a
variety of combinations and mutual relations. 4thly. They
have reference to an object of the reason.
12. The formal character, therefore, of a history of philo-
sophy will be modified according to the above four-fold
relation, and by its proper end, which is to demonstrate at
once circumstantially and with a scientific view, the causes
of every revolution, and its consequences.
Observation. The circumstantial account does not consist merely in a
chronological statement of a series of facts, but assumes such a series
as its text and groundwork. It is very compatible with a scientific
character in the history of philosophy; at the same time that it must be
borne in mind, that a history of philosophy is not philosophy itself.
See the work of Grohmann cited above, at the head of § 2.
13. Consequently, the history of philosophy is the science
which details the efforts of the human reason to realise the
idea of philosophy, by exhibiting them in their mutual
dependency : it is a scientific exposition of facts illustrating
the gradual development of philosophy, as a science.
Observation. There is a difference to be observed between the history
of philosophy, and the history of mankind, the history of the cultiva-
tisn of the human understanding, and the history of the sciences. The
biography of philosophers, the examination of their writings, the state-
6 GENEKAL INTRODUCTION. [sECT.
ment of their opinions, and the bibliographical history of philosophy in
general, are either preliminary lights and aids, or constituent parts, of
the history of philosophy.
II. Comprehensiveness and Commencement of the History of
Philosophy.
See, in addition to the works cited above, at the head of § 2, + Bceege
Riisbrigh, on the Antiquity of Philosophy, and the character of this
Science, translated from the Danish into German by J. Amb. Markussen,
Copenh. 1803, 8vo.
14. The history of philosophy does not affect to compre-
hend all the ideas, hypotheses, and caprices which have
found a place in minds addicted to philosophic researches ;
such an attempt would be equally impracticable and unpro-
fitable. The only philosophic opinions which deserve to be
recorded are those which may claim to be so for their
originality, their intrinsic worth, or their influence in their
own and subsequent epochs.
15. It must be granted that philosophy has had a begin-
ning, because it is nothing else than a superior degree of
energy and activity in the reason, which must have been
preceded by an inferior. But it is not necessary that the
history of philosophy should embrace all its first efforts, or
ascend up to the very cradle of our species. This is, in fact,
its point of contact with the history of humanity and of the
human understanding. See the so-called Philosophia ante-
diluviana.
16. No sufficient reason has been alleged to induce a
belief in the existence of a Primitive Philosophic People,
with whom philosophy might be supposed to have com-
menced, and from whom all philosophic knowledge might
have emanated; for an aptness to philosophise is natural
to the human mind, and has not been reserved exclusively
for any one people. The very hypothesis of such a people
would remove only one step farther the question of the
origin of philosophy. Nor must we diguify with the name
of science the symbolical notions of some of the earlier
races, which did not as yet clearly apprehend and grasp
their objects with a full consciousness.
Observation. The idea of a Primitive Philosophic People is founded:
1st. On the hypothesis that all instruction came by revelation. 2ndly.
In the tendency of the understanding to refer correspondent facts to the
14 — 18.] NATIONAL DIFFERENCES. 7
same origin. 3rdly. In the attempt to render certain doctrines more
venerable by their high antiquity. The general cause is to be sought in
the indolence natural to human nature, and the habit of confounding
opinions which have a semblance of philosophy with philosophy itselfl
The writers who have devoted themselves to the critical examination of
history with a theological view, have declared the Hebrews to be the
primitive race; others (like Plessing) the Egyptians; and these last
have recently i^since the writings of Fred. Schlegel), been displaced by
the Hindoos.
17* Although we discover in every people the traces of
philosophic thinking, nevertheless this general disposition
does not appear to have developed itself in all in an equal
degree : nor has philosophy among all attained to the cha-
racter of a science. In general, it seems as if nature em-
ployed the mental cultivation of one nation as the means of
cultivating others, and accorded only to a few the distinction
of originality in philosophizing. Consequently, all nations
have not an equal claim to a place in the history of this
science. The first belongs to those among whom the spirit
of philosophy, originally aided by a slight external impulse,
has felt itself sufficiently strong to advance to independent
researches, and to gain ground in the paths of science ; the
second belongs to such as, without possessing so much origi-
nality and spontaneous exertion, have adopted philosophic
ideas from others, — have made them their own, and thereby
exerted an influence over the destinies of philosophy.
18. The Greeks are the nation whose originality of genius
has created an era in the history of this science. In fact,
although they were dependent for part of their first civiliza-
tion on other nations, and have received from foreigners
certain materials and incitements to the study of philosophy,
we can perceive that they evinced themselves a lively and
sincere interest in the investigations of reason, and among
them this curiosity assumed a scientific character, and im-
parted the same to the language itself. It is among the
Greeks, then, that we find for the first time a truly philo-
sophic spirit united to literature and good taste, and a
a scientific spirit of investigation which centered in the con-
templation of the .Nature of Man ; which direction also was
easily able to lead back the spirit of research from its wan-
derings to the true source of philosophic inquiry — ^vCcOt
ccavibv. To this succeeded the desire of investigating to
8 GE^EEAL INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
the end and consolidating these first bases of study (the
origin this of scepticism) ; and at length ensued the forma-
tion of a philosophic language and method. We have more-
over positive and certain testimonies to enable us to follow,
on grounds altogether historical, the origin and development
of the philosophic literature of this nation. We may add
that the philosophy, and in general, the science of the
Greeks, naturally combine and form a whole with those of
more recent nations.
19. The Orientals, prior to the Greeks in point of anti-
quity and the date of their civilization, never attained to
the same eminence, at least as far as we are enabled to
judge. Their doctrines were constantly invested with the
character of Revelation, diversified by the imagination under
a thousand different aspects. Even among the Hindoos
they wear a form altogether mystical and symbolical. It
was the genius of these nations to clothe in the colours
of the fancy the convictions of the reason, and a certain
number of speculative notions, more or less capriciously
conceived, in order to render them perceptible ; without
troubling themselves to examine the operations of reason
and its principles ; with its movements progressive and
retrograde. The notions respecting the Deity, the world,
and mankind, which these nations incontestably entertained,
were not, with them, the causes nor the consequences of
any true philosophy. Their climate, their political consti-
tution, and despotic governments, with the institution of
castes, were often obstacles to the free development of the
mind. Besides, the history of these nations continues still
to be involved in obscurity ; there is a want of positive and
certain information ; and the relation their intellectual pro-
gress bears to the history of philosophy cannot as yet be
sufficiently ascertained.
Observation. There are some interesting remarks on the Greek and
Oriental characters, and on the causes of their diversity, in the work of
+ J. Aug. Eberhard, entitled the Spirit of Primitive Christianity, vol.
i, p. 63, sqq. What is generally understood by the Barbaric philosophy1?
See Diog. Laert. 1, 1, sqq.
20. The true commencement, therefore, of the history
of philosophy must be sought among the Greeks, and par-
ticularly at that epoch when, by the progress of imagination
19 — 22.] METHOD OF THE WOEK, 9
and understanding, the activity of the reason had attained
a high degree of development : an epoch when the minds
of men, become more independent of religion, poetry, and
politics, applied themselves to the investigation of truth,
and devoted themselves to rational knowledge. This state
of things may be referred to the epoch of Thales. The
different directions and forms which, . in the course of
ages, this spirit of philosophic research assumed, and the
effects of every kind which it produced, derived, through
different channels, from the Greeks to the moderns, consti-
tute the province of the history of philosophy.
Observation. The definition of the true limits of the history of
philosophy has only of late become an object of inquiry; (the system of
ethnography, or partial histories of particular nations opposing itself to
anything like a precise limitation,) and even yet there is nothing satis-
factorily determined on this point ; only Tiedemann would exclude the
Orientals. The reasons assigned on the other hand by f Carus,
Thoughts on the History of Philosophy, p. 143, and + Bachmann, On
Philosophy and its History, and the same author, Dissert. Philos. de
peccatis Tennemanni in historia Philosophise, Jence, 1814, 4to., fail to
prove that they necessarily belong to philosophy. It is true that a
great interest attaches to the investigation of their doctrines, but we
must distinguish well between this and the proper interest of the history
of philosophy. On the whole, it may not be useless to preface the
statement of Greek philosophy by a brief review of the philosophic and
religious opinions of the principal nations who, in a greater or less
degree, have had relations with the Greeks.
III. Method.
Consult, besides the works cited before (§ 2), + Christ. Garve, De
ratione scribendi historiam Philosophise, Lips. 1768, 4to. and Legen-
dorum veterum prsecepta nonnulla et exemplum, Lips. 1770, 4to. both
contained in Fulleborn's Collection, etc. Fasiculi xi, xii.
*f* Geo. Gust. Fulleborn, Plan of a History of Philosophy, in the iv.
Fasc. of his Collection ; and, + What is meant by a representation of
the Spirit of Philosophy? Fasc. v.
+ Christ. Weiss, On the Method of treating the History of Philo-
sophy in the Universities, Leips, 1800.
21. The Method, determined by the end of the science
(§ 10), consists in the rules agreeably to which the materials
ought to be investigated, collected, prepared, and combined
to form a whole.
22. The materials for the history of philosophy may be
either accidentally met with, or methodically investigated.
10 GENERAL INTRODUCTION". [SECT.
In the latter case we ought to inquire especially what are
the authorities, and what should be the procedure of a well-
directed research. The sources to which we may have
recourse are of two sorts ; the works themselves of philoso-
phers which have descended to us ; and the notices afforded
by other writers concerning the lives and the doctrines of
these philosophers; testimonies, the authenticity and pro-
bability of which should be critically examined. The less
that auy philosopher has written, or the less his writings
have been preserved, the more we should seek to collect
information from other authors ; but, at the same time, the
more necessary it becomes to be cautious in our adoption
of such information.1 When only fragments remain, it is
well to consider them not only philosophically but philo-
logically.
23. Besides collecting the propositions of philosophers,
it becomes necessary to study their true sense, their extent,
their origin, and their mutual connection,2 in order to be
enabled to assume the true point of view in which the
philosopher himself stood, and to appreciate the merit of
his labours, without exaggeration, and without injustice.
The means to this end are a perfect acquaintance with his
contemporaries, with the idioms of the language, and the
course of men's ideas at that time ; as well as a comparison
of different authorities and testimonies with a view to ascer-
taining their credibility. In order to attain to a faithful
and true representation of the meaning and the merit of
different philosophical systems, it is indispensably necessary
that we should compare one philosophical doctrine with
analogous ones, whether contemporary or posterior; that
we should determine with care its points of approximation
and divergency ; that we should investigate its place in the
general system of its author, and the manner in which he
appears to have been led to this doctrine; in which par-
ticular, care must be taken to distinguish between internal
principles and external causes.
24. The management of the materials thus critically
1 See H. Kuhnhardt, De fide historicorum recte sestimanda in Hist.
Philosophise. Helmst. 1796, 4to.
2 Apply this, for example, to the nalurm conve?iienter vivere of the
Stoics, and their aKaraX^ca.
23 — 27.] EPOCHS IK PHILOSOPHY. 11
analyzed, demands a particular care in the choice of expres-
sion; particularly in the case of technical terms, which it
is necessary to render with perspicuity ; without, however,
giving them too foreign an air and character, e. g. the egts,
habitus, of Chrysippus. From the connection of these mate-
rials, it will result from that chronological and systematic
dependency of which we have spoken (§ 2), and especially
from their joint relation to the final object and end of the
understanding (§3).
Observation. The particular ends contemplated in such a work may
justify a certain diversity in the manner and method of it; and may
help to resolve the question (according to circumstances) whether it
should be accompanied or not by criticism.
25. In combining these materials into a whole it is neces-
sary to direct an earnest and constant attention to the
development of reason, and to the progressive advancement
of the science of reason. With this view we should establish
points of repose, consisting in divisions and subdivisions,
which ought not merely to enable the reader the better to
glance over the work, but should offer a clearer view of the
whole, and of the mutual relation of its parts.
Observation. The ethnographical method, which prevailed up to the
time of Tiedemann, is useful for a collection of the materials proper for
a general or special history of philosophy; but will not form such a
history itself.
26. Assuming the above principle, it is required, to con-
stitute distinct epochs : 1st. That a sensible progress should
have taken place in the improvement of reason, and that
new lights and new principles should have been introduced
into philosophy itself, influencing the scientific combination
of acquired knowledge. 2dly. That great external events
should have had a powerful and lasting influence over phi-
losophy.1
27. Three principal periods may be defined in the history
of philosophy. Eirst period : Comprising an account of the
free efforts of the lleason to acquire a knowledge of first
principles, and the laws of nature, and freedom of will and
action ; without a clear consciousness of the method most
conducive to such knowledge: — Greek and Roman philoso-
1 Dan. Boethius, De preecipuis Philosophice epochis. Lond. 1800, 4to.
12 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
phy. Second period: Efforts of the Reason towards the
same end, but under the influence of a principle superior
to itself, derived from Revelation : subsequently, an impulse
to free itself from any imposed restraint ; followed by a
fresh subjugation to another arbitrary formulary; a spirit
exclusively dialectic, to which the freer Mysticism opposed
itself: — Philosophy of the Middle Ages. Third period:
[Fresh and independent exertions towards the discovery of
first principles ; and combination of all human knowledge
in a more complete and systematic form ; an epoch remark-
able for the manner in which it has contributed to investi-
gate, found, and define the principles of philosophy as a
science. — Modern Philosophy.
Krug, in his history of Ancient Philosophy, p. 28, admits only two
divisions, those of ancient and modern philosophy. He assumes as the
line of demarcation, the decline of government, manners, arts, and
sciences, during the first five or six centuries of the Christian era.
IV. Importance of this History.
+ Fe. Ant. Zimmermann, Dissertation on the Utility of the History
of Philosophy, Heidelb. 1785, 4to.
+ Geo. Gust. Fulleborn, Some general Deductions from the Hist,
of Philosophy, in his collection, Fasc iv. and, On certain Advantages
resulting from the History of Ancient Philosophy, Fasc. xi.
*h H. Ritter, On the advancement of Philosophy through the His-
tory of Philosophy (a supplement to his work, On the Influence of
Descartes), Leips. 1816, 8vo.
28. If philosophy may claim the highest interest, as the
most elevated of human sciences, its history, for the same
reason, ought to possess a great importance. Whoever is
interested in philosophy ought not to be ignorant of its
history and progress.
29. The history of philosophy, besides, possesses a scien-
tific merit peculiar to itself; it disposes the mind to a free
and independent thought, furnishes it with useful results
respecting the proper method to be followed, renders it
more sensible to its aberrations, with their causes and
consequences, and thereby furnishes a valuable assistance
towards establishing rules 'for a right conduct of the under-
standing, in order to the attainment of new lights, and dis-
covery of fresh paths : sources of information indispensable
2S — 32.] TREATMENT OP THE MATTER. 13
to philosophy, so long as it must be considered as in a pro-
gressive state, and not yet fully matured.
30. The history of philosophy has a connection with all
the other sciences and their history ; more especially with
the history of Eeligion and of Mankind, because Reason is
the basis of all knowledge, and embraces the ultimate end of
all theoretical and practical employment of our faculties.
31. As a department of study, such history may mate-
rially tend to improve the mind, all the powers of which
it exercises in the research and exposition of the different
systems. Nor is it less calculated to influence the habits
of the mind, inasmuch as it teaches the renunciation of
prejudices, modesty in forming an opinion, and tolerance of
the opinions of others ; its tendency is to secure the mind
from exaggerated admiration, and to moderate attachment
to opinions received on the faith of authority.
Observation. On the other hand, has not the study of the history
of philosophy its disadvantages'? What are they, and how do they
present themselves? Indecision and hesitation of judgment, indiffer-
ence to the truth and the value of every rational research, can only be
effects of a light and superficial study, where the diversity of opinions
is the only thing contemplated, without regard had to their principles;
where the difference of doctrines is the only thing attended to, without
ascending to the points of union which they have in common. Here
may be applied what Bacon says of philosophy.
V. Different ways in which the History of Philosophy
may be treated.
32. The history of philosophy divides itself into universal
and particular, according to the extent of the objects which
it may be the author's design to embrace. The first is the
statement, by facts, of the progress of philosophy, con-
sidered as Science in general, in the principal directions,
and the most conspicuous results of the investigations of
reason. This sort of history embraces a consideration of
the principles of all philosophy; the most distinguished
systems of philosophers ; and the progress which they have
enabled the philosophical sciences to make in their several
departments. The second is employed about instances of
the progress of the philosophizing reason confined within
certain limits of time and place ; and limited to certain
particular directions, or certain special objects of philosophy.
14 GENEKAL INTEODTTCTION. [SECT.
Observation. *h Cartjs, Thoughts on the History of Philosophy,
p. 106, defines the universal history of philosophy as, "the natural
history of human reason, its pursuits and productions." But he takes
this definition in so loose a sense, that he gives us, instead of historic
facts, nothing but a meagre and barren abstract of general conclusions.
This way of viewing the matter does not answer the true notion of a
history of philosophy; the second chapter of this general introduction
contains the substance of it.
33. The universal history of philosophy may he presented
in an abridged or a detailed form. The principle of a good
abridgment is to present a review, as complete as possible,
of all the essential subjects of discussion, with a due regard
to perspicuity and brevity. Truth, impartiality, and con-
ciseness are of course requisite.
34. Agreeably to what has been laid down (§ 32), we
may define many kinds of particular histories of philosophy ;
such as, 1st. (From a relation to certain times or places ;)
histories of the philosophy of particular epochs ; e. g. of the
ancients, of the middle ages, or of the moderns ; with nume-
rous subdivisions, embracing histories of the philosophy of
this or that particular nation. 2dly. (From a relation to
certain particular pursuits or special objects of philosophy ;)
histories of systems or schools, or literary questions, taken
separately ; of different philosophical methods ; of the tech-
nical language of philosophy ; histories of certain branches
of philosophy; histories of certain philosophical notions,
principles, or theories. If a particular philosophical history
be limited to one single object, we have then a special
history — a monography.
35. There is an intimate relation between particular and
universal history. The first supplies the other with useful
and various materials ; but the latter, in its turn, developes
general views, and affords lights for the examination and
exposition of the particular details. Consequently, they can
only become perfect when united.
VI. Various Histories of Philosophy :
36. The history of philosophy has not been separately
treated, as a distinct science, by the ancient philosophers.
They have touched upon the subject only while occupied
33 — 36.] YAKIOUS WOEKS ON THE MATTEE. 15
with the statement of their own doctrines, and only so far
as the points they adverted to bore a relation to what they
taught themselves, in which respect the critical judgment
of Aristotle threw a light upon the opinions of his prede-
cessors. A collection of historic documents illustrative of
the gradual development of philosophy, was the first step
towards a history of the science. Even in modern times
the earliest attempt at this sort of history was made in the
form of a compilation, and the model assumed was the work
of Diogenes Laertius. The prevailing notion of the time
was that of a primitive philosophic race (§ 16), and that all
philosophy was derived from revelation ; the ethnographical
method being adopted in the execution, (cf. § 25, obs.)
First period. Bayle awakened a spirit of investigation in
this kind of undertaking ; Jac. Thomasius extended the circle
of study necessary to the same ; and Leibnitz indicated
what the history of philosophy ought to be. Second period.
From Brucker to Tennemann : philology and criticism im-
proved the materials collected; some imperfections in the
works of the preceding age were corrected, and the science
assumed more elevated pretensions. Brucker published
the most complete work yet known, which, by a laborious
assemblage of documents, by the judiciousness of his re-
marks, and particularly by what it contains on the biography
of the philosophers, continues to be useful : but is deficient
in a philosophic spirit. Gurlett and Tiedemann pursued a
better method, and rendered great services to its special
history. From Kant to our own time, a zealous industry
has been applied to its improvement in respect of theory
and method ; and, in consequence of the inquiries which this
new sort of study has suggested, examination has been
made of its proper sources and principles ; documents have
been revised, and their contents more ably stated; under
the influence, more or less sensible, of a philosophical spirit
and system.1 The German nation has done the most for
1 See a review of the principal services rendered to the history of
philosophy since 1780, in the Philosophical Journal of Niethammer,
1795, Nos. viii and ix. Tennemann's Review of the Labours of the
History of Philosophy in the last fifteen years of the eighteenth Cen-
tury, in the Erganzbl. der Allg. Lit. Z. 1801, s. 81 — 147, and Carls,
Hints on the History of Philosophy, Leips. 1809, s. 21—90.
16 GEKEEAL INTKODTJCTION. [SECT.
tliis description of history, as regards both its manner and
its matter ; but there is still occasion for much labour in
this extensive field. We still want an exposition, which
should display the development of philosophy among men,
in its totality, according to its organic connection; and
that should fundamentally pourtray each special original
system as a member of this structure.
VII. Bibliography of the History of Philosophy.
37. Under this head are comprehended the works relative
to the history of philosophy in general and in particular.
We shall particularize the writings on individual subjects,
as they shall come under consideration. The works on
the universal history of philosophy may be arranged under
five heads: (a) Treatises on its Literature and Method,
(b) Collections, (c) Miscellanies, (d) Detailed histories.
(e) Outlines.
(a) Bibliographical Treatises.
J. Jonsius, De scriptoribus Hist. Philosophies, libri iv, Franco/.
1659. — Recogniti et ad prgesentem setatem usque perducti, cura J.
Chr. Dorn, Jen. 1716, 8vo.
*t J. Andr. Ortloff, Bibliographical Manual of the History of
Philosophy, Erlangen, 1798, 8vo. part i (never completed).
N.B. The Treatises on Method have been cited under the preceding
sections.
(b) Collections.
Jac. Thomasti Schediasma historicum, quo varia discutiuntur ad
historiam turn philosophicam turn ecclesiasticam pertinentia. Lips.
1665, 4to. The same work, under this title : Origines historise philos.
et ecclesiast., cura Chr. Thomasii, Hal. 1609, 8vo. ,
J. Franc. Buddei Analecta Historiae Philosophise, Hal. 1706, 8vo.
second edition, 1724, 8vo.
f Acta Philosophorum : by C. A. Heumann, 3 v. 8vo. Hal. 1715-23.
Jac. Bruckeri Otium Yindelicum, sive meletematum flistorico-
philosophicorum triga, Aug. Vind. 1729, 8vo. Miscellanea Historise
philosophicse, litterariEe, criticse, olim sparsim edita, etc. Aug. Vind.
1748, 8vo.
Chr. Ern. le Windheim, Fragmenta historise philosophicse, etc. Erl.
1753, 8vo. With essays of various other authors.
+ Mich. Mismann, Magazine of Philosophy and History, Gotting. et
Lei'ps. 1778-83, 6 vols. 8vo. In this work are many essays translated
from the Academie Eoyale des Inscriptions, etc.
38.] GE^EEAL HISTOEIES OF PHILOSOPHY. 17
+ Geo. Gust. Fuelleborn, Collection of Pieces toward a History of
Philosophy, Zi'dlichau, 1791-99. Fasc. xii, 8vo.
Krug, Symbolae ad Histor. Philosophise, Leips. 1813, 4to. Part i.
+ J. F. Fries, Pieces towards a history of Philosophy, Heidel. Fasc. i.
(c) Miscellanies, containing researches and remarks on
the History of Philosophy.
The true Intellectual System of the Universe, by Ealph Cudworth,
etc. Lond. 1678, folio, second edit., by Birch, 1743, 2 vols. 4to. reprinted
in 4 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1820, again at Oxford, 1829, and with Mosheim's
additions, in 2 vols. 8vo. Land. 1845.
Cudworthi Systema Intellectuale hujus Universi, seu de veris
naturae rerum originibus commentarii, quibus omnis eorum philosophia
qui Deum esse negant, funditus evertitur, Jen. 1733, folio: 2nd edition,
Leyd. 1773, 3 vols. 4to. translated by Mosheim [with the addition of
many learned notes and dissertations by the translator.]
Huetii Demonstratio Evangelica, Par. 1679, fol., often republished.
Dictionnaire historique et critique, par J. Bayle, Itotterd. 1697.
The best editions are the second, revised and enlarged by Marchand,
4 vols, folio, Rotterdam, 1720 ; the third and fifth, with life of the
author, and some additions, by Des Matzeaux, Amst. 1730, and ib.
1740, 4 vols, folio; the fourth, edited by Le Clerc, in 5 vols, folio,
Trevoux, 1734, (printed in a large letter); and the sixth and last, edited
by Beuchot, in 16 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1820. An English translation was
published, London, 1710, in 4 vols, folio, and again in 1734, in 5 vols,
folio. [A continuation was published by J. G. Chaufpie, Amst. 1750,
likewise in 4 vols, folio.]
+ Ern. Platner, Philosophical Aphorisms, with some Principles for
a History of Philosophy, Leips. 1782, 2 vols. 8vo. ; a second edition,
1788-1800. 8vo.
(d) Detailed Histories.
The History of Philosophy, by Thomas Stanley, Lond. 1659, 1687,
and 1701, all in folio, and 1743, 4to. with portrait. Latin translation,
with corrections by Godefr. Olearius, Historia Philos. Lipsioz, 1711,
4to. et Ven. 1733, 4to.
Histoire critique de la Philosophic, ou Ton traite de son Origine, de
ses Progres, et des diverses Revolutions qui lui sont arrivees jusqu'a
notre temps, par M. D*** (Andr. Fr. Boureau Deslandes), Paris,
1731-36, 3 vols. Another Edition, Amsterd. 3 vols. 8vo.
+ J. J. Brucker, Questions on the History of Philosophy, Ulm,
1731-36. 7 vols. 12mo. with a Supplement, 1737, 12mo.
J. Bruckeri Historica critica Philosophise, Lips. 1742-44, 5 vols. 4to.
(to which is usually added the supplementary volume published in 1767,)
a new edition without alterations, but augmented by a Supplement.
1766-67, 6 vols. 4to. An English Abridgment by W. Enfield, History
of Philosophy from the earliest times, etc. Lond. 1791, 2 vols. 4to.,
again in 8vo. 2 vols.
Agatgpisto Cromaziano (Appiano Buonafede), Delia Istoria e della
C
18 GENEBAL INTEODTJCTIOtf. [SECT.
indole di ogni Filosofia, Lucca, 1766--71, 5 vols. 8vo. Again Venice,
1 782-83, 6 vols. 8vo, For the continuation of this work, see §
38 (a).
+ History of Philosophy for Amateurs, by J. Christ. Adelung,
Leips. 1786--87, second edition, 1809, 3 vols. 8vo.
t J. G. Buhle, History of Philosophical Reason, Lew go, 1793,
8vo. vol. I. Instead of this work which he did not continue, Buhle
published f A Compendium of the History of Philosophy, and a critical
Bibliography of this Science, Gbtting. 1796-1804, 8 vols. 8vo. We
may here add the work cited in § 38, on Modern Philosophy, which is
preceded by a Review of the Ancient Systems of Philosophy up to the
fifteenth century.
+ G. Gottlieb Tennemann, History of Philosophy, Leips. 1798-
1819, 11 vols. 8vo. One vol. of second edition published by A.
Wendt, 1828.
Degerando, Histoire compared des Systemes de la Philosophic,
1804, 3 vols. 8vo., seconde edition, augmentee, 4 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1822. A German translation by Tennemann, Marburg, 1806--7,
2 vols. 8vo.
+ J. Henr. Mart. Ernesti, An Encyclopedic Manual of General
Hist, of Philos. and its Bibliography, Lemgo, 1807, 8vo.
t Fred. Aug. Carus, Hints for a Hist, of Philos. Leips. 1809,2 vols.
8vo. (in the fourth volume of his posthumous works).
f E. G. Steck, the History of Philosophy, vol. I, Riga, 1805, 8vo.
+ C. J. H. Windischmann, Die Philosophic im Fortgang der
Weltgeschichte, Bonn, 1827, 8vo.
Carriere, Das Buch der Weltweisheit, 2 Th., Leipzig, 1851.
H. Ritter's Geschichte der Philosophic, 9 v. Hamburgh, 1838-50.
Marbach, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Philosophic, 1838.
(e) Outlines.
Omitting the sketches of the History of Philosophy,
which, since the time of Buddeus, may be found at the head
of many Manuals of Philosophy, we shall merely notice the
following abstracts :
Geo. Hornii Historia Philosophica, Lugd. Bat. 1655, 4to.
Laur. Reinharti Compend. Hist. Philosoph. Lips. 1724, 8vo.
Jo. Gott. Heineccii Element. Hist. Philosophicae, Berol. 1743, 8vo.
f J. Brucker, Abridgment of his Questions on the History of Phi-
losophy, Ulm, 1736, 12mo. with additions, 1737; under the title of
Elements of the Hist, of Philosophy, Ulm, 1751, 8vo.
t J. Bruckeri Institutiones Hist. Philosophies, Lips. 1747, 8vo.
second edit. 1756, third edit, by Fr. Gottl. Born, Leips. 1790, 8vo.
t C. G. W. Lodtmann, Brief Sketch of the History of Philosophy,
Helmst. 1754, 8vo.
Formey, Abrege de l'Histoire de la Philosophic, Amstd. 1760, 8vo.
38.] GENERAL HISTORIES OF PHILOSOPHY. 19
f Fr. Ant. Buesching, Sketch of the History of Philosophy, Berlin,
1772-74, 2 vols. 8vo.
+ Christ. Meiners, Sketch of the History of Philosophy, Lemgo,
1786, 8vo. second edition, 1789.
+ Jo. Gurlitt, Sketch of the Hist, of Philosophy, Leips. 1786, 8vo.
t Fr. Xav. Gmeiner, Literary History of the Origin and Progress
of Philosophy, and of its Sects and Systems, Greiz, 1788-89, 11 vols. 8vo.
+ J. Aug. Eberhard, General History of Philosophy, Halle, 1788,
second edit. 1796, 8vo. Abstract of a general History, Halle, 1794, 8vo.
+ Geo. Socher, Historical Sketch of the Systems of Philosophy from
the Greeks to Kant, Munich, 1802, 8vo.
t Fred. Ast, Sketch of the History of Philosophy, Landshut,
1807, 8vo.
+ Ch. Aug. Schaller, Manual of the History of Philosophical Dis-
coveries, etc. forming the . second part of the Magaz. fiir Verstande-
slibungen, Halle, 1809, 8vo.
t Ph. L. Snell, Brief Sketch of the History of Philosophy : Part
first, History of Ancient Philosophy, Geissen, 1813, 8vo. Part second,
History of the Philosophy of the Middle Ages, Ibid. 1819, 8vo.
f Weiller, Sketch of the History of Philosophy, Munich, 1813, 8vo.
+ Jos. Hillebrand, History and Methodical Systems of Philosophy,
forming the second part of his Introduction to Philosophy, Heidelberg,
1819, 8vo.
G. H. Lewis, Biographical History of Philosophy, London, 1845.
An Epitome of the History of Philosophy, translated from the
French by C. S. Henry, New York, 1843, 2 vols.
+ A. T. Rixner, Manual of the History of Philosophy, 3 vols. Salz.
1822-23, 8vo.
+ L. Hamerskold, Outlines of the History of Philosophy from the
earliest times to the present, Stockholm, 1822, 8vo.
Reinhold, Manual of the History of Philosophy, Ancient and
Modern, 3 vols. 8vo. Gotha, 1828-30.
Reinhold, Geschichte der Philosophic, nach den Hauptmomenten
ihrer Entwickelung, 2 vols. 1845.
Reinhold, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Philosophic, 1836.
Schwegler, Geschichte der Philosophic, 1847.
Bayrhoffer, Idee und Geschichte der Philosophic, 1838.
Hegel's Vorlesungen liber die Geschichte der Philosophic, 3 vols,
herausgegeben von Michelet (1838), 1840, ff.
Sigwart, Die Propedeutik der Geschichte der Philosophic, oder liber
•den Begriff, die Methode und den Anfang der Geschichte der Philo-
sophic, 1840.
38. Works on the history of philosophy in detail : classed
according to the distinctions given in § 34.
I. (a) Histories of particular epochs.
t W. Traug. Krug, History of Ancient Philosophy, particularly
among the Greeks and Romans, Leips. 1827, 8vo. second edition.
c 2
20 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
+ Christoph. Meiners, Memoirs towards a History of the Opinions
prevalent during the first centuries after the birth of Jesus Christ,
Leips. 1782, 8vo.
Agatofisto Cromaziano (Appiano Buonafede), Delia ristaurazione
di ogni Filosofia nei secoli xv, xvi, xvii. This work may be considered
as a sequel of one by the same author, mentioned in the preceding §.
Venice, 1789, 8vo. t A German translation, with corrections and
additions, by Ch. Heydenreich, Leips. 1791-92, 2 vols. 8vo.
f J. Gottl. Buhle, History of Modern Philosophy from the revival
of Letters, Gotting. 1800-5, 6 vols. 8vo. Cf. § 37 (d).
f A. Kayssler, Memoirs towards a Critical History of Modern
Philosophy, Halle, 1804, large 8vo.
t Ch. Fred. Bachmann, On the Philosophy of our own Times,
Jena, 1816, 8vo.
+ K. J. H. Windischmann, Critical Reflections upon the fate of
Philosophy in modern times, and the commencement of a new era,
Franco/. 1825, 8vo.
Brandis, Geschichte der Griechisch-Romischen Philosophic, 2 vols.
8vo. Lips. 1835-44.
Brandis, Handbuch der Geschichte der Griechisch-Romischen
Philosophic
(b) Histories of the Philosophy of particular nations.
(For writings on the philosophy of the most ancient nations, see
below § 68, and following.)
Ciceronis Historia Philosophise antiquae ; ex omnibus illius scriptis
collegit, etc. Frid. Gedike, Berl. 1782 ; second edition, 1801, 8vo.
+ Fr. Vict. Lebrecht Plessing, Historical and Philosophical Re-
searches on the Opinions, the Theology, and Philosophy of the most
Ancient Nations, and particularly of the Greeks up to the time of
Aristotle, Elbing. 1785, part the first, 8vo.
T Fr. Vict. Lebrecht Plessing, Memnonium, or Researches to
elucidate the Mysteries of Antiquity, Leips. 1787, 2 vols. 8vo.
+ Fr. Vict. Lebrecht Plessing, Researches to illustrate the
Philosophy of the most remote Antiquity, Leips. 1788,2 vols. 8vo.
Berchetti, Filosofia deglr antichi popoli, Perugia, 1812, 8vo.
T Chr. Meiners, History of the Origin, the Progress, and the
Decline of the Sciences in Greece and Rome, Lemgo, 1781-82, 2 vols.
8vo. (incomplete.)
The Philosophy of Ancient Greece investigated, by W. Anderson,
Lond. 1791, 4to.
(Fr. de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon,) Abrgge des Vies des
Anciens Philosophes, etc. Paris, 1795, 8vo. 1796, 12mo.
Deffendente Sacchi, Storia della Filosofia Greca, Pavia, 1818--20,
4 vols. 8vo. (Brought down to the times of the Sophists.)
+ G. Fred. Dan. Goess, The Science of education on the Principles
of the Greeks and Romans, Anspach, 1801, 8vo.
Paganinus Gaudentius, De Philosophise apud Romanos origine et
38.] HISTOBY OF SPECIAL BRANCHES. 21
progressu, Pisa, 1643, 4to. Eeprinted in the Nova rariorum Collectio,
Fasc. ii, iii, Halce, 1717.
J. L. Blessig, Diss, de Origine Philosophiae apud Romanos,
Strasburg, 1770, 4to.
II. (a) Histories of different Philosophical Methods,
Systems, and Schools.
J. Gerh. Yossii De Philosophy et Philosophorum sectis lib. ii, Hag.
Com. 1658, 4to ; contin. atque supplementa adjecit Jo. J AC. a Ryssel,
Lips. 1690, 4to., again Jenoz, 1705, 4to.
t C. Fr. St^eudlin, History and Spirit of Scepticism, principally
in relation to Morals and Religion, Lips. 1794-95,2 vols. 8vo.
Imman. Zeender, De notione et generibus Scepticismi et hodierna
praesertim ejus ratione, Bern. 1795, 8vo.
(For writings relative to particular schools of philosophy, see the
places wherein these schools are mentioned.)
(b) History of the Philosophical Sciences in detail.
B. T. (Bas. Terzi) Storia critica delle Opinioni Filosofiche, etc.
intorno all' anima. Padova, 1776-78, 8vo.
+ Fr. Aug. Carus, History of Philosophy, Leips. 1808 (third vol. of
his posthumous works).
* * *
Pet. Gassendi, De Origine et varietate Logieae, opp. torn. I.
Ger. Jo. Vossii De Natura et Constitutione Logieae, etc. Hag. Com.
1658.
Jo. Alb. Fabricii Specimen elenchticum Historic Logicee, Hamb.
1699, 4to.
Joh. Ge. Walch, Historia Logieae, in his Parerga Academica, p. 453,
sqq. Leips. 1721, 8vo.
Joach. Geo. Daries, Meditationes in Logicas veterum. Appendix
to his Via ad Yeritatem, Jena, 1755,* 8vo.
+ Fuelleborn, Brief History of Logic among the Greeks, in his
Collection, Fasc. iv. No. 4.
J. Gottlieb Buhle, De veterum Philosophorum Grsecorum ante
Aristotelem conaminibus in arte Logica invenienda et perficienda. In
the Commentatt. Soc. Goetting. torn. x.
* * *
f W. L. G. von Eberstein, Attempt at a History of Logic and
Metaphysics among the Germans, from the time of Leibnitz to the
present day, Halle, 1794-99, 2 vols. 8vo.
* * *
Jac. Thomasit, Hist, varise fortunae, quam disciplina Metaphysica
jam sub Aristotele, jam sub scholasticis, jam sub recentioribus experta
est ; at the head of his Erotemata Metaphysica, Lips. 1705, 8vo.
Sam. Fred. Buchner, Historia Metaphysices, Wittemb. 1723, 8vo.
Lud. R. Wachlin, Diss, de progressu Philos. Theoreticee, sec. xviii,
Lugd. 1796, 4to.
22 GEXEEAL INTE0DTJCTI02J-. [SECT.
B. T. (Bazil. Terzi) Storia criticca delle Opinioni Filosof. etc.
intorno alia Cosmologia, Pad. 1788, 8vo. torn. I.
t Dietrich Tiedemann, Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, Marburg,
1791--97, with a table, 7 vols. 8vo. brought down to Berkeley.
+ Result of Philosophical Researches on the Nature of Human
Knowledge, from Plato to Kant, by Th. Aug. Suabedissen. A prize
composition. Marburg, 1808, 8vo.
f Prize Compositions on the Question : What has been the Progress
of Metaphysics in Germany, from the time of Leibnitz and Wolf? by
J. Christ. Schwab, Ch, Leonh. Reinhold, J. H. Abicht, Berlin,
1798. 8vo.
Fred. Ancillon, Melanges de Litterature et de Philosophic, 2 vols.
Paris, 1809, 8vo.
* 5ft *
De Burigny, Histoire de la Philosophic payenne, ou Sentimens des
Philosophes et des peuples payens, etc. sur Dieu, sur l'ame, et sur les
devoirs de l'homme, La Haye, 1723, 2 vols. 12mo. The same work,
under the title of La Theologie payenne, etc. Paris, 1753, 2 vols. 12mo.
+ J. Achates Fel. Bielke, History of Natural Theology, Leips. et
Zelle, 1742, 8vo. A new History of Human Reason, Part first, 1749,
Part second, 1752, 4to. Zelle.
+ Mich. Fr. Leistikow, Memoir towards a History of Natural
Theology, Jena, 1750, 4 to.
+ J. Ge. Alb. Kipping, Essay towards a Philosophical History of
Natural Theology, Brunswick, 1761, Part first, 8vo,
f Chr. F. Polz, History of Natural Theology (in his Natural
Theology), Jena, 1777, 4to.
f Ph. Christ. Reinhard, Sketch of a History of the Origin and
Development of Religious Opinions, Jena, 1794, 8vo.
f Imman. Berger, History of Religious Philosophy, Berlin, 1800,
8vo. and Reflections on the Philosophy of Ecclesiastical History, in
St^eudlin's Beytr. Book iv. Fasc. 5 (1798).
* # *
Chr. Godefr. Ewerbeck, Super doctrinas de moribus Historia, ejus
fontibus, conscribendi ratione et utilitate, Halle, 1787, 8vo.
+ Geo. Sam. Francke, Answer to the Question proposed by the
Scientific Society of Copenhagen : Quinam sunt notabiliores gradus per
quos philosophia practica, ex quo tempore systematice pertractari ccepit,
in eum quern hodie obtinet statum pervenerif? Altona, 1801, 8vo.
Nic. Hieron. Gundling, Historia Philos. Moralis, Pars, i, Hal.
1706, 4to.
+ Gottleib Stolle, History of Heathen Morality, Jena, 1714, 4to.
+ J. Barbeyrac, Preface to his French translation of the Jus
Natura of Puffendorf, Basle, 1732, 4to. containing a History of Morals
and Natural Right.
George England, Inquiry into the Morals of the Ancients, Lond.
1757, 4to.
38.] HISTORY OP IDEAS AND OPINIONS. 23
+ Christ. Meiners, General and Critical History of Ancient and
Modern Ethics, Gotting. 1800--1, Part second, 8vo.
+ C. Fr. St^eudlin, History of the Philosophy of Hebrew and
Christian Morals, Hanover, 1805, 8vo., and History of Moral Philo-
sophy, Hanover, 1823, 8vo.
t Leop. von Henning, Principles of Ethics, historically developed,
Berl. 1824, 8vo.
t J. Christ. F. Metster, On the Reasons of the Disagreement
among Philosophers with respect to the Fundamental Principles of
Moral Philosophy, at the same time that they agree on particular
points of the same, 1812, 8vo.
Sir James Macintosh's Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical
Philosophy, 8vo. 1836.
* * *
Jac. Fr. Ludovici, Delineatio Historic Juris Divini Naturalis et
Positivi Universalis, Halle, 1701, second edition, 1714, 8vo.
Jo. Franc. Buddei, Hist. Jur. Naturalis, in his Selectis Jur. Nat.
et g. Cal. 1717, 8vo.
Chr. Thomasii, Paulo plenior Historia Juris Naturalis, Halm,
1719, 4to.
f Adr. Fr. Glafey, Complete History of the Eights of Eeason,
second edition, corrected, Leips. 1759, 4to.
+ J. J. Schmauss, History of Natural Right (in the first book of his
New System), Gotting. 1753, 8vo.
Essay on the History of Natural Right, Lond. 1757, 8vo.
G. Christ. Gebaur, Nova Juris Naturalis Historia quam auxit
Ericus Christ. Cleveshal, Wetzlar, 1774, 8vo.
f G. Henrici, Hints to Establish the Doctrine of Right on a Scien-
tific Foundation, Hanover, 1809-10,. Part second, 8vo. The history is
in the first part.
(d) History of Particular Ideas, Principles, and Doctrines.
f Christ. God. Bardili, Epochs of the principal Philosophical
Opinions. Part first, Halle, 1788, 8vo.
Chr. Fr. Polz, Fasciculus commentationum Metaphysicarum quse
continent historiam, dogmata atque controversias dijudicatas de primis
principiis, Jena, 1757, 4to.
Ch. Batteux, Histoire des Causes premieres, Paris, 1769, 2 vols.
8vo. A German translation by J. J. Engel, Leips. 1773, 8vo. new
edition, Halberst. 1792, 8vo.
Historia philosophica Doctrine de Ideis (by J. J. Brucker), Augsb.
1723, 8vo. Cf. Miscell. Hist. Phil. p. 50. sqq.
Guil. Gotthilf Salzmann, Commentatio in qua historia doctrine de
fontibus et ortu cognitionis humanae ita conscripta est, ut illorum
potissimum ratio habita sit quse Plato, Aristoteles, Cartesius, Lockius,
Leibnitius, et Kantius de his fontibus probare studuerunt, Gotting.
1821, 4to.
* * *
24 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
Christoph. Meiners, Historia doctrinae de vero Deo, Lemgo, 1780,
8vo. translated into German by Meusching.
(G. Frid. Creuzer,) Philosophorum veterum loci de providentia
divina, itemque de fato, emendantur, explicantur, Heidelb. 1806, 4to.
* * *
Jenktni Thomasii (Philips), Hist. Atheismi breviter delineata, Bas.
1709 ; Alt, 1713, Ed. auct. Lond. 1716, 8vo.
Jac. Fr. Buddei, Theses Theolog. de Atheismo et Superstitione,
Jena, 1717, 8vo. afterwards in German, 1723, 8vo.
Jac. Frid. Reimanni, Historia Universalis Atheismi et Atheorum,
etc. Hildes. 1725, 8vo.
* * *
J. Gottleib Buhle, De ortu et progressu Pantheismi inde a
Xenophane Colophonio primo ejus auctore usque ad Spinozam Comm.
(In the Commentt. Soc. Reg. Gbtting. vol. x. p. 157.)
* * *
Hugo Grotius, Philosophorum sententiae de Fato et de eo quod in
nostra est potestate, Amst. 1648, 12mo.
t J. C. Gunther Werdermann, Attempt at a History of Opinions
respecting Fate and Free Will ; from the most Ancient Times to the
most recent Philosophers, Leips. 1793, 8vo.
* * *
Jos. Priestley, History of the Philosophical Doctrine concerning the
Origin of the Soul, and the Nature of Matter. In his Disquisitions
relating to matter and Spirit, Lond. 1777, 8vo.
sfc * *
Joach. Oporini, Historia critica de Immortalitate Mortalium. Hamb.
1735, 8vo.
+ Adam W. Franzen, Critical History of the Doctrine of the
Immortality of the Soul, before the Birth of our Lord, Litbeck,
1747, 8vo.
J. Frid. Qqitm Historia succincta dogmatis de vita eterna, Lub.
1770, 4to.
+ Chr. W. Flugge, History of the Belief in the Immortality of Man,
and a Resurrection, etc. Leips. 1794-95, two parts, 8vo.
*f* Essays towards an Historical and Critical Examination of the
Doctrines and Opinions of the principal Modern Philosophers, re-
specting the Immortality of the Human Soul, Altona, 1796, 8vo.
Dan. Wyttenbach, de questione, Quae fuerit veterum Philosophorum
inde a Thalete et Pythagora ad Senecam usque sententia de vita et
statu animarum post mortem corporis'? 1783.
Struve, Hist, doctrinae Graecorum ac Romanorum philosophorum de
statu animarum post mortem, Altona, 1803.
t C. Phil. Conz, History of the Hypothesis of the wandering State
of Souls, Konigsb. 1791, 8vo.
* * *
Stellini, De ortu et progressu morum atque opinionum ad mores
pertinentium specimen, in his Dissertat. Padua, 1764, 4to.
39 — 40-] REASON AND UNDERSTANDING. 25
+ Christ. Garve, Treatise on the different Principles of Moral
Philosophy, from Aristotle to the present time, Breslau, 1798, 8vo.
And, in continuation of this work, Special Considerations on the most
general Principles of Moral Philosophy, Ibid. 1798, 8vo.
t G. Drewes, Conclusions of Philosophical Reason on the Principles
of Morality, Leips. 1797, two parts, 8vo.
+ C. C. E. Schmid, History of the Doctrine of Indifference, in his
work entitled 'Adiaphora,' Jena, 1809, 8vo.
+ Car. Fried. St^eudlin, History of the Doctrine of the Morality of
the Drama, Gott. 1823.
f Gottleib Hufeland, Essay on the Principles of Natural Right,
Leips. 1785, 8vo.
+ J. C. F. Melster, On Oaths, according to the Principles of Pure
Reason, a prize composition, Leips. and Zullichau, 1810, 4to. Another
prize composition of the same author, On the Diversity of Opinion
among Philosophers with regard to the Fundamental Principles of
Morality and Natural Right, Ibid. 1812, 4to.
* * *
f Mich. Hissmann, History of the Doctrine of the Association of
Ideas, Gotting. 1776, 8vo.
t The same subject, at greater length, J. G. E. Maas, Essay on the
Imagination, second edition, Halle, 1795, 8vo. And in his preceding
work ; Paralipomena ad historiam Doctrinae de Associatione Idearum,
Hal. 1787, 8vo.
For the remainder, see the treatises on the different philosophical
sciences in particular.
CHAPTER II.
SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROGRESS OF
PHILOSOPHIC REASON.
30. The human mind is the inmost basis of the acts and
of the changes which constitute the inner life of man, and
these phenomena are subject to the laws of the human
mind. It is from without that the first impressions of the
human mind are derived ; on these it speculates at first
instinctively and blindly, till having attained to a conscious-
ness of itself, it becomes capable of developing itself freely
and with reflection. The act of philosophizing (§ 2) is the
offspring of reason directed by its natural thirst for know-
ledge, and this reason is united to the other faculties of the
human mind by the most intimate relation.
40. To know, is to have a representation of a determinate
object, or the consciousness of a perception and of its relation
26 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
to something determinate, and distinct from the represen-
tation itself. Cognition implies two terms, the subjective
and the objective, the thing that can be perceived imme-
diately, and the subject to which the apperception is refer-
able. Sensational Perception, Intuition, and Thought, also
form a part of knowing ; in sensational perception, we re-
present to ourselves the object such as it is furnished to us
by our feelings ; in thought, this object of sensation becomes
complicated by the addition of notions and judgments, and
this complexity becomes connected with a superior unity by
means of ideas and principles.
41. The faculty of thinking is manifested as Understand-
ing and as Reason. The understanding prompts and enables
us to learn and discover the reasons, causes, and conditions
of our conceptions, of our sensations, of our wishes or
desires, and of the objects to which they refer. It is the
reason that enables us to attend to primary axioms, causes,
and conditions ; this faculty has the tendency of attracting
all knowledge to its highest principle which is independent
of every other principle. The understanding chalks out
the rules for the conduct of our will ; the reason submits
all those rules to a supreme rule which prescribes the abso-
lute form, and the highest aim of the free action. Finally,
it is thought that establishes unity, connection, and harmony
in all our knowledges, whether speculative or practical.
Remark. A great schism exists among philosophers as regards the
idea of reason, and its connexion with the understanding. According
to some, it is a purely formal faculty ; and according to others it is at
once a material and formal, a speculative and practical mode of know-
ing. See the Programme of Bachmann on the confusion of words and
of ideas among the German philosophers, in relation with the Under-
standing and the Reason. Jena, 1814, in 4 to ; and several works occa-
sioned by the discussion between Jacobi and Schelling. The distinction
between the Eeason and Understanding has been clearly shown to the
English student in the writings of Coleridge, and more recently in the
philosophical works of Mr. J. D. Morell. It will suffice here to give a
popular definition of the Reason as the Intuitional Faculty, the foun-
tain of first truths, axioms, and self-evident propositions. The Under-
standing may be defined as the logical faculty which compares, classifies,
and draws conclusions from the objects presented to it by the Reason,
the Senses, and the Imagination. (See Coleridge's Table-Talk, J. D.
Morell's Philosophy of Religion, and the Preface, by the Editor).
42. By reflection and abstraction we are able to distin-
41 44.] OBJECTS OF PHILOSOPHY. 27
guish between what is originally existing in our cognition,
feeling, and desire, from the material upon which these
energies exert their influence ; and it is only in the former
that a satisfactory answer can be obtained to all the
problems presented to philosophy for solution by reason.
For the material presented to us is accidental, variable, and
indefinable ; whereas philosophy is rational cognition, which
has for its object the highest and first principles of know-
ledge, and the universal and necessary principles, laws, and
aims of things, as they are determined by the original con-
formation of the mind.
43. Every cognition is a subjective state contained within
the consciousness ; and as such, a subjective reality belongs
to it. The conviction that it also has an objective reality
reposes, in all cognition acquired from experience, on a
feeling by which we perceive a something as immediately
and outwardly existing, to which this cognition must be
referred. The objects of philosophy are not to be found
in the sphere of immediate perceptions, they are only
matters of thought. But since a knowledge of these is
derived from the essential constitution of the human mind
(§ 42), in their universality and necessity may be found the
evidence and certainty of their having not only subjective
but also objective reality. We are forced as rational beings
to admit that as objective and true which combines with
what is real in our consciousness as a fundamental principle.
Observation. These remarks of Tenneman, though probably con-
clusive in the eyes of the disciple of Kant, will be regarded as obsolete
and inconclusive by those who are familiar with the systems of Fichte,
Schelling, and Hegel. The Identity Philosophy (Identitats lehre) of
Schelling and Hegel's Pantheistic Idealism, by identifying the Subject
and Object, have directed thought into new channels, and trespassed
beyond the landmarks of the Kantian critique. (See Stallo's General
Principles of the Philosophy of Nature, New York, 1841).
44. Philosophy, as a science, aims at a systematic
knowledge of the conditions, reasons, and primary laws of
all knowledge. Such a system ought to present a complete
development of the principles of the human mind, and a
perfect deduction of all that results from them, without
lacuna or omission. Without this, it must be impossible
to establish a theory of human knowledge which may be
complete, solid, and connected through all its parts.
28 GENERAL INTRODUCTION". [SECT.
45. All knowledge ought to be placed on a firm foun-
dation, and cemented into a harmonious structure by philo-
sophy. It follows that philosophy itself must lay a well-
founded claim to truth and certainty. Consequently, all
true cognitions demand a proof, i.e., a deduction from a
higher source of knowledge, saving the highest of all, which
cannot be proved, but can only be indicated (by a dissection
of the faculty of cognition) as that which is originally and
immediately true in its necessary connection with what is
conditional and derived. Philosophy then, as a science, is
founded on something directly true or certain, and the
complete oneness and agreement of what is derived with
that which is true per se. In the reason lies the ultimate
source of all certainty, and a system of principles and
derived knowledges which is true in itself and through its
internal harmony.1
46. But before the Reason can arrive at such a compre-
hension of itself, it must pass through many intermediate
degrees of development and improvement ; and in this tran-
sition-state, being as yet ignorant of the ultimate principle
of knowledge, and not seeking it in that direction in which
alone it can be found (viz. in the mind instead of external
objects, in the subject instead of the object?) ends in mis-
taking for it something inferior and subordinate ; pursues
certainty beyond the limits of reason ; commits innumerable
errors in the demonstration of philosophical knowledge ;
pretends to investigate matters beyond its range ; and thus
ends in conflict with itself.
47. The development of Reason (§ 46 et § 4), implies that
of the other faculties of the mind (§ 49). There can be no
doubt that the reason begins to dawn as soon as the deve-
lopment of the other faculties commences. But it is
requisite for the other powers of our mind to be in full
play, in order for the action of the reason to be complete,
and accompanied by consciousness and liberty ; and it is only
at length that the reason determines its own sphere, its
direction, and its proper constitution.
48. This last development, which takes place according to
a similar process in small as well as great matters, implies
1 The reader must bear in mind that Tenneman was a Rationalist of
Kant's school— hence this assumption.
45 — 52.] DEVELOPMENT OF KEASON. 29
a principle of activity, and moreover certain particular
causes. There is an instinct in man that inclines him to
exert his reason ; at the same time, this reason is under the
influence of various internal causes that occasion its passage
through an infinite number of modifications and of degrees,
which at one extremity proceed to the ultimate limits of
activity, and at the other terminate in inaction.
49. The reflective activity which, when properly culti-
vated, we call Philosophy (§ 2), presupposes in its turn
attention, reflection, and abstraction. These are faculties
which manifest themselves in various degrees, proportioned
to the diversity of intellectual powers.
50. The causes which influence the development of reason
are : the constitution of the human mind ; certain desires,
doubts, sentiments, and representations of the mind; ac-
quired knowledge ; curiosity ; emulation, resulting from the
number and the diversity of persons engaged in the same
pursuit ; the influence of genius ; example ; encouragement ;
and the free communication of thought.
51. Previously to the scientific investigation of the prin-
ciples, the laws, and the ends of phenomena presented to it,
the human mind in some sort imagines, or, as it were,
divines them ; and this imagination conforms itself to the
laws of the fancy ; assimilating and personifying. It is thus
that man, in a state of nature, conceives of all things as
living and resembling himself. There is vaguely presented
to his thoughts a world of spirits, at first without laws;
afterwards, under the empire of a law foreign and external
(Fate.) He conceives an idea of unity and harmony, less at
first in the internal world than the external; less in the
whole than the parts ; less by strict thought than by a
poetic creation (his fancy externalizing the divinations of
his reason) ; and thus advances from a capricious indulgence
of the imagination to the exercise of legitimate thought.
52. The development of the Reason begins with the reli-
gious feeling. The more that man by reflection extends and
enlarges the sphere of his consciousness, the more he elevates
himself, with regard to the object of his veneration, from
feeling to perception and intuition, and from notions to
general ideas. The human mind seeks the evidence of its
religious belief, first of all without, in the object; subse-
quently within, in the rational subject.
30 GENERAL mTEODTTCTICKN'. [SECT.
53. It is thus that man advances, from a state of con-
sciousness, obscure and imperfect, to an enlightened know-
ledge ; from poetry to thinking ; from faith to science ; from
individual to universal. It it thus that, guided by an ob-
scure sentiment of truth, of harmony, of analogy, he pro-
secutes the pursuit of something certain and necessary; to
which may be referred all the points of belief which have
attracted, his attention ; and which may establish the cer-
tainty of them. It is thus that he attempts philosophy,
at first to satisfy his own mind ; afterwards, with a more
general view, for the advancement of Reason itself. In the
natural order of her progress, Philosophy apprehends at first
the complex objects of the world without, which are of a
nature to excite in a lively manner its attention; subse-
quently, it advances by degrees to objects more difficult of
apprehension, more obscure, more internal, and more simple.
Observation. This progress may be observed to obtain in a greater
or less degree, and with different modifications, among all nations.
There is, however, this difference, that only a few have elevated the
subjective thinking of the human mind to the rank of a scientific
philosophy ; — whence proceeds this difference ?
54. Philosophy, when it has assumed a scientific cha-
racter, has a tendency, by the investigation of causes, of
the laws, and the ultimate ends of things, to constitute
human knowledge as an integral system, independent, and
fundamentally established (§ 2 and 44). Such is the task
of reason in philosophy ; but we must also distinguish the
differences which exist in its aim, method, and results.
55. As to its aim, philosophy may be influenced by a
solitary and partial curiosity, confined to one point of view,
or stimulated by a more liberal and scientific interest, at
once practical and theoretical. As to method, it proceeds,
on general topics, either from principles to consequences
(the synthetic order) ; or from consequences to principles
(the analytic order) ; and, in special matter, as far as
relates to the starting point of its researches, it advances,
either from a complete and profound inquiry into the
nature of our faculties of cognition to the knowledge itself
of things ; or from the assumed knowledge of things to
the theory of knowledge. This last method of proceeding
is called, since the time of Kant, the Dogmatic method, or
Dogmatism ; the other, the Critical method.
53 — 59.] STTPEBNATUKALISM AND SCEPTICISM. 31
56. The non-critical philosophy has for its aim to esta-
blish certain points of doctrine (dogmata) from a blind trust
in the reason, or to destroy the dogmatic opinions of others
from a blind mistrust of the reason ; in which latter case it
has the tendency, as it does not substitute other principles
for those which it removes, to establish uncertainty and
doubt as most consistent with reason. The first of these
two schools ends in dogmatism positive; the second in
scepticism, or dogmatism negative.
Remark. Dogmatism follows a true idea of reason by a false path.
The sceptic attacks the faith of the dogmatist, and endeavours to
establish a methodical ignorance, by means of which he destroys that
idea of reason. Thus there is truth and error in both doctrines.
See Christ. Weiss, De Scepticismi causis atque natura. Lips. 1801,
4to.; Adolph Siedler, De Scepticismo commentatio, Halle, 1827; and
the works above indicated, § 38, II.
57. Dogmatism pretends, either that human reason is, of
itself, capable of attaining to a knowledge of the laws and
the nature of things ; or that it cannot attain thereto with-
out a superior instruction and guidance. The first of these
doctrines is Naturalism, or Rationalism, in its most extended
signification ; the other is Supernaturalism.
58. Rationalism, in the most extended signification of the
word, proceeds sometimes upon knowledge, sometimes (like
that of Jacohi) upon belief;- and either demonstrates the esse
(das Seyn)oi our representations and knowledge, by the reality
of the objects; or, contrariwise, the esse of the objects, by
the certainty of the impressions. In the first of these cases
we have Realism, which takes for its principle the reality of
things ; in the second case we have Idealism, which takes
our representations as the original things. Several philo-
sophical systems, on the other hand, maintain an original
oneness of knowing and being, a view which they sometimes
present chiefly in a speculative form) such as the system of
Absolute Identity), whilst at other times they represent or
assume it as a psychological fact, like the system of Critical
Synthetism, and other dualistic views.
59. Dogmatism, with reference to the means of acquiring
knowledge, is either Sensationalism or Rationalism in a
more restricted sense; or compounded of both (either by
blending them, — intellectual perception, — or without any
32 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
mixture). As far as relates to the origin of knowledge,
dogmatism becomes either JEmpirism, or Nbologism; or com-
pounded of both. Lastly, with reference to the number of
fundamental principles, it becomes Dualism or Monism ; and
to this last description belong both Materialism and Spiritu-
alism, as well as the system of Absolute Identity.
60. Supernaturalism not only asserts that the Deity is
the real basis of all that exists, but also the source of all
truth by revelation ; thus referring all knowledge to a super-
natural source, unattainable by the steps of science. There
are diversities in this system, according to the manner in
which revelation is considered relatively to its subject or its
object ; as universal or particular ; and as superior or sub-
ordinate to reason ; or co-ordinate with it.
Observation. Supernaturalism has this in common with Scepticism,
that it lays great stress on the false pretensions and the inefficiency of
the reason. But by having recourse to a supernaturalist medium, it
easily falls into a dogmatism of another kind.
61. Scepticism is opposed to Dogmatism, inasmuch as it
seeks to diminish the confidence of reason in the success of
its efforts, it uses as arguments the errors which are often
with justice imputed to dogmatism, or alleges certain
formal propositions of its own, relative to the end and the
principles of knowledge. It is, therefore, the perpetual
antagonist of dogmatism ; but in disputing the pretensions
to which knowledge lays claim, it proceeds even to deny its
existence and destroy it altogether. Scepticism is some-
times universal, sometimes particular, and has been the
precursor of the critical method, which leads to the true
science of reason.
62. The result of philosophizing research is philosophy;
and there can be only one philosophy, which is that ideal of
the science reason perpetually aims at (§ 2). But the
various attempts of individual thinkers to attain thereto have
given occasion to a number of systems, which approximate
this ideal object and each other in proportion to the degree
of the development in the knowledge they evince of the
reason, — the true end and principles of philosophy, — to the
extent of information they convey, — the validity of the rea-
soning they contain, and the accuracy of their technical
language (cf. § 3).
60 — 65.] YAEIOTJS PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS. 33
Observation. Until a more complete examination of the powers
of the reason shall have been instituted, and a more extensive
analysis of the faculty of knowledge, systems of philosophy must
inevitably contain a mixture of universal and particular, of true and
false, of determinate and indeterminate, of objective and subjective. All
these qualities suffer increments, blendings, and divisions, in various
degrees, during the process of their propagation and diffusion, (e. g.,
Plato's Innate Ideas).
63. These different systems are opposed to each other
and to scepticism. The consequence has been a contest
which we see carried on with a greater or less degree of
ardour, maintained by the love of truth, and too frequently
also by private interests and passions ; until at last either
indifference, or a revolution in the direction of reason, or
the acuteness of logicians and critics, put an end to it for
the time, and introduced a more liberal system of inquiry.
64. More than one system has figured upon the stage in
various dresses, and certain philosophical questions have
frequently been repeated under different forms. These
apparent reiterations do not, however, prove that philosophy
has been retarded in its progress ; the repetition of old
ideas does not render its advance towards new ones more
tardy, but only more sure. By this very circumstance
analysis is rendered more exact and more complete ; and
the search after unity, consistency, and perfection, more
accurate and profound. The ideal of the science is more
completely grasped, and better appreciated ; errors and un-
founded theories are more cautiously avoided.
65. But, with all these retrogradations and moments of
apparent relaxation, advancement is impossible except by
the aid of a sustained zeal for philosophical investigation.
This science demands a perpetual agitation of doubts and
discussions ; of controversy between dogmatism and scep-
ticism, between the partizans of ancient systems and of
modern ideas.
34 [sect.
PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION.
EAPID EEVIEW OF THE KELIGIOTTS AND PHILOSOPHICAL
OPINIONS OP THE ORIENTAL NATIONS, AND OP THE
FIRST PERIODS OP GRECIAN CIVILIZATION.
To this head belong the works on the religions and the
discoveries of the East at large ; some of which, for example
those of Plessing, have been noticed above, § 38 ; see,
besides, the mythological treatises, such as :
+ Fr. Creuzer, Symbolical and Mythological System of the An-
cients, etc. 4 vols. Leips. and Darmstadt, 1810-12, second edition,
1820 (and following years), 5 vols. 8vo. 4 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1843.
f J. Gorres, History of the Fables of the Asiatic World, 2 vols.
Heidelb. 1810, 8vo.
f J. J. Wagner, Ideas towards an Universal Mythology of the
Ancient World, Frankfort on the M. 1808, 8vo.
f J. G. Rhode, On the Age and Merit of certain Records of Oriental
Antiquity, Berlin, 1817-18. And Memoirs towards illustrating the
science of Antiquities, No. I, Berlin, 1819, No. II, 1820, 8vo.
Particularly a dissertation in No. I, on the most Ancient Religious
Systems of the East.
L. C. Baur, Symbolical and Mythological Systems, 2 parts, Stuttg.
1825, 8vo.
66. Instruction was in part conveyed by the nations of
Asia to the Greeks ; and the latter had gone through many
gradations of intellectual improvement before the epoch
when a philosophical spirit was awakened among them.
Accordingly, it may not be foreign to our purpose to give
a rapid sketch of the religious and philosophical opinions
of the oriental nations, as well as of the first advances of
intellectual improvement among the Greeks, in order to be
enabled to estimate, at least generally, the influence which
the former may have had over Grecian genius in its infancy;
and consequently over philosophy itself, in its manner as well
as its matter. The Hindoos, the Persians, the Chaldeans,
the Egyptians, and the Phoenicians, are the principal nations
with whom the Greeks have had any intercourse.1
1 On the general character of thought in the East, see above, § 19.
67.] PAETICULAE INTRODUCTION. 35
Hindostan.
Authorities : The sacred books of the Hindoos, the Schasters, and
particularly the Vedams, whereto belong the Upanishadas (fragments
of the Oupnefchat), and the Puranams, to which belong* the ancient
national poems : Ramayana (Serampore, 1806--10, 3 vols. 4to. a new
edition by A. W. Schlegel), — Mahabharata — and the Dersanas.
The Ezour-Vedam, or Ancient Commentary on the Vedam, con-
taining the digest of the religious and philosophical opinions of the
Indians, translated from the Sanscrit by a Brahmin • revised and pub-
lished, with preliminary observations, notes, and illustrations, Yverdun,
1778, 2 vols. 12mo. (The introduction On the wisdom of the Hindoos
is by Sainte-Croix.) See Schlegel, Biblio. ind. t. II, p. 50.
Bhaguat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Chrishna and Ardjoon, in eighteen
lectures, with notes, translated from the original Sanscrit by Ch.
"VVilkins, Lond. 1785, 4to. Aug. Will, von Schlegel has given a
new edition of this work : Bhagavad-Gita, i.e. Sigtt'zowv jjeXog, sive
Almi Crishnee et Arjunae colloquium de rebus divinis, Bharatiae epi-
sodium; text, rec, adnotat. crit. et interpret, lat. adjecit. Bounce,
1846, royal 8vo.
Bagavadam, ou Doctrine Divine; ouvrage Indien Canonique sur
l'Etre Supreme, les Dieux, les Geans, les Hommes, les diverses parties
de l'Univers (par Opsonvtlle), Paris, 1788, 8vo.
Oupneck'hat, seu theologia et philosophia indica; edid. Anquetil
Du Perron, Argentov. 18 01 --2, 2 vols. 4to.
Will, von Humboldt, On the Episode of the Mahabharata, known
by the name of Bhagavad-Gita. Berlin, 1826. And the article of
Hegel in the Journal of Berlin for scientific criticism, 1827.
Munava Dharmasastra, or Laws of Menu, translated by Sir W.
Jones, London, 1796.
Ambertkend, a work on the Nature of the Soul ; an account of it by
De Guignes, in the M6m. de TAcad. des Inscript. torn. XXVI.
The Moon of Intelligence and the Knowledge of the Spirit, trans-
lated into English by Taylor, 1812, 8vo.
f Remmohon-Roy, Jena, 1817.
Ctesle Indicorum fragmenta; Strabo; Arrianus De Exped. Alex-
andri; Palladius De gentibus Indiae et Brachmanibus ; Ambrosius
De moribus Brachmanum, et alius anonymus de iisdem, junctim editi
cura Ed. Biss^ei, Lond. 1668, 4to.
Specimen sapientise Indorum veterum, Greece ex cod. Hoist, cum
vers. Lat. ed. Seb. Gpr. Stark, Berol. 1697, 8vo.
Alex. Dow, History of Hindostan, from the earliest account of time
to the death of Akbar, translated from the Persian of Muhammed
Casim Ferishta, Lond. 1768, 3 vols. 4to. (With a learned Disserta-
tion prefixed, concerning the Language, Manners, and Customs of the
Hindoos).
J. Jac. Holwell, Interesting historical Events relative to the
i> 2
36 PAETICULAR INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
Provinces of Bengal and the Empire of Hindostan, Lond. 1766,
3 vols. 8vo.
Sinner, Essai sur les dogmes de la Metempsychose et du Purgatoire,
enseignes par les Brahmins de l'lndostan, Berne, 1771, 8vo.
Asiatic Researches, Calcutta; from 1788; 20 vols. 4to. (in 1851).
The Dissertations and Miscellanies relative to the History of the
Antiquities, Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia, by Sir W. Jones
and others, have been extracted from the last volumes of the foregoing
collection, Lond. 1792--8, 4 vols. 8vo.
Systema Brachmanicum liturgicum, mythologicum, civile, ex monu-
mentis Indicis museei Borgiani Velitris dissertationibus historico-criticis
illustravit Fb. Paulinus a S. Bartholomjeo, Romas, 1791, 4to.
+ Various Dissertations in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscript.
by Thom. Maurice, and Mignot (Memoirs on the ancient Philosophers
of India, in vol. XXXI. ), and De Guignes (Inquiry respecting the
Philosophers called Samaneans), vol. XXVI.
+ J. Ith, Moral Doctrine of the Brahmins, or The Religion of the
Hindoos, Berl. and Leips. 1794, 8vo.
+ Fr. Schlegel, On the Language and Wisdom of the Hindoos,
Heidelb. 1808, 8vo.
Polier, Mythologie des Hindous, torn. I et II, Paris, 1809, 8vo.
+ Fr. Mayer, Universal Dictionary of Mythology. The first vol.
only has appeared. By the same author : Brahma, or the Religion of
the Hindoos, Leips. 1818, 8vo.
W. Ward, A View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the
Hindoos, Lond. 1817-20, 4 vols. Particularly vol. IV.
Bohlen, Das alte Indien.
Colebrooke, Trans. R. As. Soc. 1. 2. 7. etc.
T A. H. L. Heeren, On the Indians : (Suppl. to the third edition of
his work, Ideen ilber die Politik, etc. s. 444), Gotting. 1815-27, 8vo.
(In Bohn's translation of Heeren's Asia, vol. 2).
T Nic. Muller, Opinions, Arts, and Sciences of the ancient Hin-
doos, Mentz, 1822, 8vo.
Launjuinais, La Religion des Indous selon les Vedah, ou Analyse
de l'Oupnek'hat publie par Anq. du Perron, Paris, 1823, 8vo. See
also his Memoirs on the Literature, Philosophy, etc. of the Hindoos.
+ Othm. Franks, On the Hindoos, and their Literature, etc. Leips.
1826, 8vo.
+ J. G. Rhode, on the same subject, Leips. 1827, 2 vols. 8vo.
67. The Hindoos early distinguished themselves for arts,
industry, civilization, and science ; but the commencement
of their history is, even yet, involved in great obscurity, and
lost in the wildest traditions and chronological pretensions.
Nothing has, even yet, been positively decided on the ques-
tion whether their civilization and sciences be indigenous or
derived from others ; nor yet, whether they may not have
67.] PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION. 37
blended certain ideas and representations either directly or
indirectly borrowed from foreign nations, with others which
were properly their own. The same uncertainty prevails
with respect to the age attributable to their sacred books.
Of the four castes into which the nation is divided, the
first consists of the priests (Brahmins); subdivided into a
great number of sects, and modified by various revolutions.
The compulsory emigration of many Brahminical tribes has
carried their religious opinions into the adjacent countries
of Siam, China, and Tartary.
The highest object of the Hindoo religion is the Deity,
regarded as an absolute Unity escaping the grasp of the
human understanding. Originally, he reposed in the con-
templation of himself; subsequently, his creative word has
caused all things to proceed from him, by a succession of
continual emanations. As creator, he is named Brahma ;
as the preserving power, Vishnou ; as the destroyer and
renovator of the forms of matter, Siva. These three rela-
tions of the divine being constitute the Trinity (Timourti)
of the Hindoos. The innumerable transformations of Vish-
nou, or incarnations of the divine being, form the principal
subject of their sacred books. All things return to unity
or to Brahma, and the highest good consists in the union
with Brahma, a union that is compassed by means of a
contemplation of unity, without action and without move-
ment. Connected with this doctrine of emanation is that
of the pre-existenee of souls ; their derivation from the
divine nature ; their immortality ; their fall ; and the puri-
fication of fallen spirits by successive migrations through
the corporeal world. — (Doctrine of the migration of souls,
or Metempsychosis).
Subsequently, the religion and philosophy of the Hindoos
was split into two sects — of Brahmism and Buddhism. In
consequence of this we find, both in their sacred books and
among the Brahmins, the greatest discrepancy of opinion to
prevail respecting God, the world, and the soul : that is to
say, we find both realism and idealism; theism and atheism;
materialism and spiritualism: they contain, moreover, a de-
velopment of the system of absolute identity. These doc-
trines are for the most part propounded in the form of
instruction, delivered by men professing to be enlightened
33 PARTICULAR INTRODUCTTOK. [SECT.
from above.1 They are shrouded by a veil of poetical tales
and inventions, displaying an acute and profound intellect,
but having rather the tendency to go forth than to retire
into itself. After all, the true systematic and scientific
genius of philosophy must not be expected in these works.
Their books of moral precepts have a character of nobleness
and gentleness which belongs to the race; and are, in a
great measure, framed in accordance with the doctrine of the
migration of souls. In the religion of Buddha, to which
belong the Schamans, the Talapoins, and the Bonzes, the
supreme felicity of God, and of the human soul, is made to
consist in a state of absolute indifference and inaction.
The most important modern authorities on Indian philo-
sophy are : —
Colebkooke. Transactions of the Koyal Asiatic Society, vol. I, p.
19--43, 92-118, 439-466, 542-579; vol. II, p. 1-39, &c.
Windischmann, Die Philosophic im Fortgang der Weltgeschichte.
Kennedy. Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, v. 3, p. 412, &c.
Thibet.
Besides some works enumerated % 66, consult Alphabetum Tibet-
anuni, auct. Aug. Ant. Georgio, Romce, 1762, 8vo. Mayer has given
an extract from it in his Lexicon.
f P. S. Pallas, Collection of Historical details respecting the
Mogul nations, Petersburgli, 1776-1803, 4to.
f Klaproth, Travels in the neighbourhood of Caucasus in 1807-8,
2 vols. 8vo, Halle, 1812-14. Translated into French, 2 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1823. An English translation, 4to. 1814.
+ Hullmann, Critical Researches respecting the Lamaic Religion,
Berlin, 1796, 8vo.
68. Like the Hindoos, the Thibetians believe in a God
who reveals himself in a threefold relation and form ; and
suppose a great number of transformations of this deity,
principally in his second character. They have, besides,
various traditions respecting the origin of all things ; re-
specting spirits, and their descent into the visible world;
also with regard to the different epochs of the world, and
the migration of souls.
Chinese.
Sinensis imperii Libri Classici Sex e Sinico idiomate in Lat. trad.
a P. Franc. Noel, Prag. 1711, 4to.
1 See, concerning the Gymnosophists, Cic. Tusc. Y, 27 ; concerning
Menou-Capila, Buddha, Calanus, Cic. de Div. I, 23; Tusc. II, 22.
68 — 69.] PAETICULAR INTRODUCTION. 39
t The Chou-King, one of the sacred books of the Chinese, translated
by Father Gaubil, revised and compared with the Chinese by M. de
Guignes ; with a notice concerning Y-King, another sacred book of the
Chinese, Paris, 1770, 4to.
f A Treatise on some points of the Chinese Religion, by Father
Longobard. Furthermore, A Treatise on some important points
relative to the Mission to China, by Father Sainte-Marie ; with
Letters of M. de Leibnitz on the Chinese Philosophy. These three
works are contained in Leibnitznii Epist., ed. Kortholt, 2 vols.
The works of Confucius and of his disciples, by Schott, 1st. p., Halle,
8vo. 1826.
Historia Philosophize Sinensis. Brunswick, 1727, 4to.
Meng-Tseu, vel Mincium, inter sinenses philosophos, Confucio
proximum, edidit P. Stanislas Julien, pt. 1, Lutet. Parisior. 8vo.
1824.
Abel Remusat, On Laotseu, (Asiatic Journal, July 1823, Paris)
Klaproth's Memoirs relating to Asia, in the Asiatisches Magazin,
from 1810.
Schott's Article on Chinese Literature, in the Encyclopaedia of
Gruber and Ersch, 16th. vol.
Windischmann, 1st. part of the 1st. vol. of his work : On philosophy
in the development of Universal History.
Confucius, Sinarum Philosophus, sive scientia Sinensis Lat. exposita
studio et op. Prosperi Juonetta, Christ. Herdtrich, Franc. Rouge-
mont, Phil. Couplet, P. P. Soc. Jesu, Paris. 1687, folio.
Geo. Bern. Bilfingeri, Specimen doctrinse veterum Sinarum moralis
et practicse, Franco/. 1724, 8vo.
Chr. Wolfii, Oratio de Sinarum philosophic practica, Franco/. 1726.
Third edition, with notes of Langius, Hal. 1736, 4to.
J. De Bened. Carpzovii, Memcius seu Mentius Sinensium post Con-
fucium Philosophus, Lips. 1725, 8vo.
De Pauw, Recherches philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois,
Berlin, 1775, 2 vols.
Stuhr, Religions of China and Systems of Indian Philosophy, Berlin,
1835.
Memoires concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences, les Arts, les Moeurs,
les Usages des Chinois, par les Missionnaires de Pekin (Amyot et
d'autres), Paris, 1776--61, 4 vols.
Cf. the Dissertations of De Guignes and others, in the Memoires de
l'Acad. des-Inscript. vol. XXV, XXVII, XXXVI, XXXVIII.
The works of Confucius, containing the original text, with a trans-
lation by Marshman, Seram,pore, 1809, 4to.
Klaproth, Memoires Relatifs a l'Asie (Asiat. Mag. from 1810).
Morrison, On Chinese Literature (in the Asiatic Journal).
69. The most ancient religion of the Chinese was simple
and patriarchal. Fo is considered as the founder of their
religious worship. They adored, originally, Heaven (Lian ;)
and the Supreme Master (Schang-Di), with inferior spirits
40 PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
or geni. Superstitious imaginations connected with astro-
logy, demons, and magic, were introduced at the fall of
the Empire under the Dscheu dynasty. Lao-Kiun or Lao-
Tsee, founded a religious sect, which calls the essence of
all things Dao or Reason,1 and whose members follow an
epicurean life. Kong-fu-tzee (Confucius), whose father was
a mandarin of the kingdom of Lo, collected, about the year
550 B.C., the traditions of Fo and of Lao-Dsee, per-
fected their religion and laws, and good maxims of morality
founded on the social and domestic life of the nation. He
so entirely confined himself to practical things, that not a
single doctrine respecting the deity and immortality, is to be
traced in his writings. His style is extremely laconic. His
school was very numerous. The most eminent of his disci-
ples was Dsu-tze. Meng-dsu (Mencius) gave a greater
extension to the doctrines of Confucius. A great number of
ideas passed from India and Thibet into China ; hence arose
the Chinese Buddhism, which became mingled with the old
popular religion. Scientific culture has remained stationary
in China for ages. Why ? — (The Japanese follow analogous
doctrines).
Persians.
Authorities : The Sacred Scriptures, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle,
Diodorus Siculus, Xenophon Cyrop., Strabo, Plutarch, Aoyia tov Xwpo-
avrpov, or Chaldean Oracles ; the same, with additions, by Fr.
Pateicius, Nova de Universis Philosophia, Venet. 1595. fol. ; and also
published by Stanley, in his Philosophia Orientalis (cum notis
Clerici).
Thom,e Hyde, Historia Religionis veterum Persarum eorumque
Magorum, Oxonii, 170O--4; new edition, 1760.
Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre, contenant les Idees theologiques,
physiques, et morales, de ce Legislateur, les Cer6monies du culte Reli-
gieux qu'il a etabli, etc., traduit en Francais sur l'original Zend, avec
des remarques, et accompagne de plusieurs traitgs propres a gclaircir les
matieres qui en sont l'objet; par M. Anquetil Du Perron, Paris,
1711, 4to.
f Anquetil and Foucher, Memoirs on the Person, the Writings, and
the Philosophical System of Zoroaster; in the Memoires de lAcad. des
Inscript. XXVII, p. 257 and sqq.; XXX, XXXI, XXXIV, XXXVII,
XXXIX, XL; and in the Memoires de Litterature, vol. XXX and
XXXV.
1 According to some, this last is the Buddha of the Hindoos, and the
same with the Sommona-Codom of the Siamese Cf. Bayle, art.
P Sommona Codom."
70.] PAETICULAR INTRODUCTION. 41
[Jones], A Letter to M. A du P , containing a Critique on
his translation of the works attributed to Zoroaster, Lond, 1771, 8vo.
C. P. Meinees, De Zoroastris Vita, Institutis, Doctrina, et Libris ; In
the Nov. Comment. Soc. Scient. Gotting. vol. VIII, IX : and Comm. de
variis religionum Persarum conversionibus ; in the Comment. Soc.
Gotting, 1780, ci. phil. I, 45, et. sqq. ; II, 19, sqq. ; and, concerning
Zoroaster, in the BibJioth. Philos. torn. IV, p. 2.
T. Ch. Tyschen, Commentat. de Religionem Zoroastricarum apud
exteras gentes vestigiis ; In the Nov. Comm. Soc. Scient. Gott. torn.
XI, XII.
The Dessatib, or Sacred writings of the ancient Persian prophets,
Bombay, 1808, 8vo.
Heidelberg Jahrbuch, 1823 : Febr. article, by Hammer. Leips. Liter.
1822, p. 156. Tholuck, Journal des Savants, 1823 ; Art. "De Sacy."
The Schah-nameh of Firdusi, in the work of Gorres ; The Book of
the heroes of Iran, 2 vol. Berlin, 1819 ; 8vo.
Hammer, Journal of Vienna, vols. 8, 9, 10, 1820; Rask, On the
antiquity and authenticity of the Zend-Avesta ; the German translation
by Hagen, Berlin, 1826.
+ J. G. Rhode, The Sacred Tradition ; or, A complete System of the
Religion of the ancient Bactrians, Medes, and Persians, or the people of
Zend, Franc/, on the Maine, 1820, 8vo. Particularly p. 453 and sqq. ;
and the works of the same author enumerated § Q6.
Asiatic Researches, vol. VIII and IX.
On the Authenticity of the books of Zend consult also, + Buhle,
Manual of the History of Philosophy ; f Zoega, Dissertations published
by Wklcker; Valentia, Travels; and Erskine, Dissertation on the
Parsees, in the second vol. of the Literary Society of Bombay.
70. The religion of the ancient Persians (Parsees) was
the worship of fire or of the elements, in which fire was
symbolical of the Deity. At a later period, in the time of
the Greeks, the ancient worship was changed into the
adoration of the stars (Sabeism), especially of the sun and
of the morning-star. This religion was distinguished by a
simple and majestic character ; its priests were called Magi.
Zoroaster (Serduscht) , a Mede by birth, reformed the reli-
gion of the Medes, which, originally confined to the worship
of fire, had been modified to the worship of the sun and the
planets. This worship survives to the present day in India
among the Parsees, who were driven oat of Persia by the
Mahometans ; and who pretend to be still in possession of
the sacred books of Zoroaster. This philosopher lived in
the time of Guschtasb (Darius Hystaspes). He asserts the
existence of a supreme being, all-powerful and eternal
(Zeruane Akerene, i. e. infinite time,) from whom have
42 PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
eternally proceeded, by his creative word (Honqfer), two
principles, Ormuzd and Ahriman; Ormuzd (Oromasdes) ,
being pure and infinite Light, Wisdom, and Perfection, the
Creator of every good thing; Ahriman the principle of
darkness and evil, opposed to Ormuzd, either originally, or
in consequence of his fall. To this belief are attached fables
respecting the conflicting efforts and creations of these two
powers ; on the universal dominion ultimately reserved for
the good principle, and the return of Ahriman during four
periods, each of which is to last three thousand years ; — on
the good and the evil spirits (Amshaspands, Izeds, Ferfers,1
and Dives), and their differences of sex and rank; — on the
souls of men (Ferfers), which, created by Ormuzd before
their union with the body, have their habitation in the
heavens ; and which ultimately, according as in this world
they have served Ormuzd or Ahriman, pass after death into
the dwellings of the blessed, or are precipitated into obscu-
rity:— finally, respecting the future resurrection of the
bodies of the wicked after the victory of Ormuzd and the
restoration of all things. Such, with some ascetic precepts,
are the leading subjects of their sacred books. The doc-
trines of Zoroaster had an extensive influence, owing to the
principles of demonology and magic.
Chaldeans.
Authorities : The Scriptures, Diodorus Siculus, II, 29 ; Strabo, XVI,
p. 739, ed. Casaub.; Sext. Emp. adv. Math. lib. Y ; Cic. de Div. I, 1,
41 ; II, 46, sqq.
Berosi Chaldaica, in the work of Scaliger, De Emendatione tem-
porum ; and in Fabric. Bibl. gr. t. XIV, p. 175; and the work itself
(probably not authentic >, entitled, Antiquitates totius Orbis; published
in Fr. Jo. Annii Antiquitat. Varr. vol. XVII, Romce, 1798 (and
subsequently).
+ Aug. L. Schlozer, On the Chaldeans, in the Repertory of Biblical
Literature, published by Eichhorn, vol. VIII and X.
Stanleii Philosophia Orientalis in Clerici opp. Philos.
*j" Fr. Munter, Religion of the Babylonians, Oopenh. 1827, 4to.
Jo. Jac. Wagner's Works before referred to.
71. The Chaldeans were devoted to the worship of the
stars and to astrology : the nature of their climate and their
country disposing them to it. The worship of the stars was
1 These have been compared to the Ideas of the Platonists.
71.] PAKTICTTLAK INTKODTTCTIOtf. 43
revived by them and widely disseminated, even subsequently
to the Christian era, under the name of Sabeism. The
learned caste, which appropriated to itself the appellation of
Chaldeans, had collected a certain number of astrological
facts, and carried to a great length the delusive science of
astrology. Under the empire of the Persians, this caste
lost much of its credit, through the influence of the Magi,
and ceased to attempt anything but common-place tricks of
divination. The cosmogony of Berosus,1 and the pretended
Chaldean oracles (allowed to be apocryphal), are evidently
the productions of another age and country. The principal
divinity of this nation was called Bel. The fables related of
him by the pretended Berosus do not deserve recital.
^Egyptians.
Authorities : Books of Moses, Herodotus, lib. II, Manethonis iEgyp-
tiaca et Apotelesuiatica (fragments of dubious authority), Diodorus
Siculus (with Heyne's Observations in the Comm. Soc. Gott, V, VI,
VII), Plutarchi Isis et Osiris,. Porphyrius De Abstinently, Jamblichus
De Mysteriis iEgyptiorum, cum ep. Porphyrii ed. Th. Gale, Oxon.
1678, fob, Horapollinis Hieroglyphica, Gr. et Lat. ed. De Pauw, Traj.
1727, 4to., Hermes Trismegistus in Franc. Pateicii nova de Universis
Philosophia, etc. Ferrar. 1591.
Fr. And. Stroth, iEgyptiaca, seu Veterum Scriptorum de reb,
iEgypti commentarii et fragmenta, Gotha, 1 782-83, 2 vols. 8vo.
Athan. Kircheri, (Edipus iEgyptiacus, Romce, 1652--54, folio, et
Obeliscus Pamphilius, Ibid. 1656, folio.
Jablonski, Pantheon iEgyptiacum, Franc/, ad Viadrim, 1750-52,
3 vols. 8vo.
Conrad. Adami Comm. de sapientia, eruditione, atque inventis
iEgyptiorum. (In his Exercitatt. Exegett. p. 95, sqq).
t C.A. Heumann, On the Philosophy of the Ancient Egyptians; in
his Acta Philosophorum, II, 659, sqq.
De Pauw, Recherches Philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les
Chinois, Berlin, 1773, 2 vols. 8vo. (An English translation, 2 vols.
8vo. 1795.
T J. C. Meiners, Essay on the History of the Religion of the
Ancients, particularly the Egyptians, Gotting. 1775, 8vo. On the
Worship of Animals, in his Philosophical Miscellanies, part I, p. 180;
and several treatises by the same in the Comm. Soc. Gotting. 1780-
89-90.
t F. V. Lebrecht Plessing, Osiris and Socrates, Berl. and Strals.
1783, 8vo. cf. above § 38.
+ C. P. Moritz, Symbolical Wisdom of the Egyptians, etc. Berlin,
1793, 8vo.
1 A contemporary of Alexander the Great.
41 PAKTICULAB INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
+ P. J. S. Yog el, Essay on the Eeligion of the Ancient Egyptians
and Greeks, Nilrnberg, 1793, 4to.
Jos. Crristoph. Gatterer, De Theogonia\ iEgyptiorum ad Hero-
dotum, in Comm. Soc. Gotting. vol. V et VII. De Metempsychosi,
immortalitatis animorum symbolo iEgyptiaco, vol. IX.
+ Creuzer, Religions of Antiquity (cited above, at the head of
§ 66), et Commentatt. Herodotese, c. II.
Heeren, Ideen, etc. second part, second edition. (In Bonn's trans-
lation of Heeren's Asia, pp. 249, and seq.)
Seyffarth, Rudimenta Hieroglyphices, 1826, etc.
Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, History of the Ancient Egyptians, 5 vols.
8vo. 1847.
Bunsen, JEg.yptens Lage in der Weltgeschichte, 1844. (Egypt's
place in History, translated by Cottrell, vol. 1, 8vo. 1850.)
The Rev. John Kenfick, Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs, 2 vols.
8vo ; and Herodotus, books ii and iii (the Egypt), with notes and dis-
sertations, 8vo. 1841.
Sharpe's Early History of Egypt, 8vo. 1848.
See also the following works on Egypt ; Denon's Egypt; Belzoni;
Gau; Minutoli, etc.; Pfaff's Hieroglyphica, Numb. 1824, 8vo. ; the
great work of the French Commission, by order of Napoleon ; the work
of Rosellini, and various recent works bn Egypt.
72. The Egyptians were a nation highly remarkable for
the antiquity of their civilization, and the originality of all
their social system. Their priests, who formed a separate
caste, were the sole depositaries of the secrets of certain
sacred books written in hieroglyphics.1 It is very difficult
to determine with certainty, owing to the want of existing
records, in what consisted their mysterious knowledge {Eso-
teric doctrine) . It probably had a reference to the popular
religion (Exoteric doctrine), which authorised the worship
of the constellations (Saheism) ; and that of certain animals
(Fetischism) , as symbolical of the former; of certain deified
heroes (Thaut or Thot, Hermes, Horus) ; and lastly, main-
tained the doctrine of the Metempsychosis.2 Their divinities
Isis and Osiris, represented two principles, male and female.
The peculiar character of the country seems to have given
rise to, and encouraged, as the principal sciences of the
Egyptians, geometry and astronomy ; to which were united
astrology and other superstitions, highly popular with the
1 See f Heeren, Thoughts on the Policy, Commerce, etc. of the
Ancients (in Heeren's Works, Bohn's translation, 6 vols. 8vo.) ; and
the articles of the New Literary Journal of Leipsic, 1816, Nos. I and
II, on the recent attempts to explain the hieroglyphics.
2 Herod. II, c. 123.
72.] PAETICULAE INTKODTTCTIOtf. 45
people at large. It is impossible to define with accuracy
the progress which the priests may have made in the above
sciences ; but, previous to their intercourse with the Greeks,
we cannot conclude them to have been possessed of any
high degree of mental cultivation.
After the foundation of the Grra?co-Egyptian kingdom, the
civilization of the two races was combined ; and this circum-
stance renders yet more difficult any explanation of the
mysteries of the ancient esoteric doctrines, and the former
habits of the original inhabitants.
The Hebrews.
See the books of the Old Testament : the Introductions to the Old
Testament by Eichhorst, De Welte, and others; and the Commen-
taries on each book, as for instance those on Job, Proverbs, and the
Prophets in general.
Flavii Josephi Opera, ed. Haverkamp. Amstel. 1726, 2 vols, folio.
Philonis Juelei Opera, ed. Mangey, 2 vols, fob Lond. 1742.
Jos. Fr. Budd^ei, Introd. ad Histor. Philos. Hebraeor. Halce, 1702,
8vo. Edit, emendata, 1721.
t Fried. Andr. Walther, History of the Philosophy of the Ancient
Hebrews, Gott. 1750, 4to.
W. Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, new edition, Lond.
1756, 5 vols. 8vo. Supplement, 1788, 8vo.
+ Jos. Fr. Jerusalem, Letters on the Books and the Philosophy of
Moses, Brunswick, 1762, 8vo. and 1783.
+ Jos. Dav. Michaelis, The Mosaic Law, Francf. on the M. 1770-
1775, 6 vols. 8vo. New edition, 1775 and 1803.
J, F. Klenker, Writings of Solomon, 3 vols. 8vo., Riga, 1778-86.
Doctrine of Jesus the son of Sirach, expounded by Linde, with a
treatise of H. Niemeyer, Leipz. 1782 ; second edition, 1795.
+ W. A. Teller, Theodice of the first Ages, etc. Jena, 1802, 8vo.
+ C. A. Lindemann, On the Book of Job, Wittenb. 1811, 8vo.
Jul. Frid. Winzer, De Philos. Morali in libro Sapientiee, quae
vocatur Salomonis, exposita, Viteb. 1811, 4to.
C. Frid. Staudlin, Comment, de Prophetar. Hebraeor. Doctrinal
Morali, Gott. 1798, 4to.
+ J. Jahn's Bibl. Archaeology, Vienna, 1796; second edition,
1817-18.
t Laz. Ben David, On the Eeligion of the Hebrews before Moses,
Berlin, 1812, 8vo.
+ Phil. Buttmann, Dissertation on the two first Mythi of the Mosaic
History, etc. in the Berliner Monatsschrift, 1804, Nos. Ill and IV;
and 1811, No. III.
+ Phil. Buttmann, On the Mythos of the Deluge, Berlin, 1812, Bvo.
Umbreit. Koheleth scepticus De Summo Bono, Gotting. 1820, 8vo.
Jost's Geschichte der Israeliten.
40 PARTICTJLAB INTRODUCTION. [SECT,
73. The Hebrews or Israelites have transmitted to us, in
their sacred writings, which belong to different periods, the
most ancient philosophical dogmas on the creation of the
world, on the providence that governs it, and on the origin of
sin by the fall of the first man : lastly, they have traced out a
very distinct system of monotheism. The writings of Moses
contain ideas and maxims of wisdom, but no system. The
book of Job is a didactic poem. Their kings, David and
Solomon, were men of great experience and of great practical
wisdom. They, as well as the prophets, have treated chiefly
of morality under gnomical and sententious forms. But
it was only at a later period that the Jews attended to
philosophy properly so called. (See § 195.)
The Phoenicians.
Sanchoniatho, and the authors who wrote upon him. Fragments of
Books attributed to him in Euseb. Prseparat. Evangel. I, 10.
Sanchoniatho, Phajnician History, translated from the first book of
Eusebius, etc. with a continuation, etc. by Eratosthenes Cyrenaeus ;
with historical and chronological remarks by R. Cumberland, Lond.
1720, 8vo.
H. Dodwell's Appendix concerning Sanchoniathon's Phoenician
History, Lond. 1691, 8vo.
D. J. Baier, De Phcenicibus eorumque studiis et inventis, Jena,
1709, 4to.
J. Mich. Weinrich, De Phoenicum Litteratura, Meininga, 1744, 4to.
See also + Heeren (Ideen, etc. I, 2), and f Munter, Religion of the
Carthaginians, Copenh. 1821, with + Bellermann, On the Phoenician
and Punic Coinage, Berlin, 1812-16.
74. The Phoenicians, a commercial people, served, through
their continual intercourse with other nations, to dissemi-
nate widely a knowledge of the discoveries effected in the
arts and sciences. Nevertheless, their mercantile habits
restricted1 their own knowledge to the maritime art and the
mathematics. The history and the doctrines of Sancho-
niatho2 and of Ochus (Mochus, Moschus), are, at the pre-
sent time, matters of much dispute. The cosmogonies
attributed to them, as well as the popular religion of the
Phoenicians, are eminently material. Posidonius, the Stoic,
cites Moschus as the first inventor of the doctrine of atoms.
See Sext. Empir. adv. Mathem. IX, 363; and Steabo,
Geog. XVI, p. 757.
1 Plato, De Repub. IV, p. 359. 2 About 1200 B.C (i).
73—75.] PABTICULAR INTEODUCTION. 47
75. First Civilization of the Greeks, their Mythical and
Poetical Traditions.
See, above, § 38, 1, b.
De Pauw, Kecherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs, Berlin, 1787,
4 vols. 8vo. (An English translation, 2 vols. 8vo. 1793).
f Barthelemy, Yoyage du Jeune Anacharsis en Grece.
Muller's History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, 2 vols. 8vo.
Oxford, 1830.
f J. D. Hartmann, Essay towards a History of the Civilization of
the principal Nations of Greece, Lemgo, 1796, 1800, 2 vols. 8vo.
Christ. Gottlob Heyne, De causis Mythorum veterum Physicis, in
Opusc. Acad. torn. I.
+ C. Fr. Creuzer, Symbolik (above § 66).
4 F. W. J. Schelling, On the Mythi, Traditions, and Philosophical
Maxims of the first epochs of the World; in the Memorabilien of
Paulus, No. Y.
t H. E. G. Paulus, Chaos a Poetic Fable, and not an Era of
physical cosmology. In his Memorabilien, No. Y.
T Fr. Ast, On the Chaos of the Greeks, in the Journal of Arts and
Science, 1808, vol. I, part 2.
Greece was gradually rescued from barbarism, and ad-
vanced to a state of civilization, by the means of foreigners.
Colonies from Egypt, Phoenicia, and Phrygia, introduced
inventions and arts, such as agriculture, music, religious
hymns, fabulous poems, and mysteries. It cannot be doubted
that, in like manner, a great number of religious opinions
and ideas must have migrated from Egypt to Greece. The
only question is the degree of influence we should allow to
these adventitious materials, the manner in which they
became naturalized in their new country, and how far they
were lost, or not, in the civilization and mental culture
which they contributed to form. It is true that the Greeks
possessed not only a rare aptitude for civilisation, but also a
high degree of mental originality, the consequence of which
necessarily was, that whatever inventions and ideas they
acquired from foreign nations speedily assumed among them
a new and original character; the more so, because there
was no sacerdotal race, no division into castes, no despotic
authority to obstruct the advances of society, the develop-
ment of the mental powers, and the perfectibility of the
mind's products.
The religion of the Greeks, notwithstanding the sensible
forms which it assumed in most of its mythi (the meaning
of which was indeterminate), presented a substance to
48 PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
engage and exercise the curiosity of the human mind. The
poets laid hold on these materials, and employed them with
genial Art. By these latter a sort of aesthetic-spiritual
culture was established, which served as an introduction to
scientific culture. Among those who in this respect exerted
the greatest influence, was Orpheus ,J by his religious hymns,
his imaginations respecting cosmogony ; by the introduction
of mysteries, and by certain moral precepts.2 Musceus, by
his poetic description of the region of the dead, — Homer,3
by his national epic poems, which present us with a lively
aud faithful picture of the manners of ancient Greece,
and contain besides a multitude of mythological recitals,4
1 About 1250 B.C (?).
2 Editions of Orpheus; those of Eschenbach, Traj. ad Rhen. 1689;
Gesner, Lips. 1764; Schneider. Jena, 1803; Hermann, Lips. 1805.
De Orpheo atque de Mysteriis iEgyptiorum, auctore K. Lycke,
HafnicB, 1786, 8vo. Cf. Jos. Gottlob Schneider, Analecta Critica,
Trajecti ad Viadrim, 1777, 8vo. (Ease. I, sec. 4.) Wagner, Mythol.
sec. 344, sqq.
C. A. Lobeck, De Carminibus Orphicis, Diss. I, Regiomont. 1824.
G. H. Bothe, Orpheus Poetarum Graecorum antiquissimus, Gotting.
1825.
On the Mysteries, see Euseb. Praepar. Evan. II, 3, p. 61 ; Meiner's
Yerm. Phil. Schriften, Th, III, § 164, ff; S. Croix, Recherches Hist,
et Critiques sur les Mysteres, 2nd edition, ed. De Sacy, 2 vols, Paris,
1817; Ouvarof, Essay on the Mysteries of Eleusis, Strasbourg, 1816;
and Lobeck, De Mysteriorum Graecorum Argumentis, Diss. I, III,
Regiomont. 1820, 4to; with the Mythological works of Creuzer, Baur,
and Voss, mentioned above.
3 About 1000 B.C (1).
4 Chr. Glob. Heyne, De Origine et Causis Eabularum Homeri-
carum. Nov. Comment. Soc. Scient. Gott. vol. VII.
+ J. F. Rothe, On Homer's Idea of a Supreme Deity, Gorlitz,
1768, 4to.
C. Bottiger, Quam vim ad religionis cultum habuerit Homeri lectio
apud Graecos? Guben. 1790.
C. Guil. Halbkart, Psychologia Homerica, Zullichau, 1796, 8vo.
K. H. "VV. Volcker, On the ■tyvxn and t'idwXov of the Iliad and
Odyssey, etc. Giessen, 1825, 4to.
Fr. Guil. Sturz, De Vestigiis Doctrinae de Animi Immortalitate in
Homeri Carminibus, Prolusiones I — III, Geres, 1794 — 1797, 4to.
J. Fred. Delbruck, Homeri religionis quae ad bene beateque viven-
dum fuerit vis? Magdeb. 1797, 8vo.
J. D. Schulze, Deus Mosis et Homeri comparatus, Lips. 1799, 4to.
+ Fraguier, On the Gods of Homer; in the M6m. de l'Acad. des
Inscr. torn. IV.
Gust. Gadolin. De Fato Homerico. Aboce. 1800. 8vo.
^75.] PAETICTJLAE INTRODUCTION. 49
Hesiod,1 by the collection he made of the sacred mythi
(forming a system of theogony and . cosmogony,) and by
originating a great number of new ideas on morals,2 —
Epimenides of Crete,3 and Simonides4 of Ceos, with the
lyric and gnomic poets, and the authors of fables (^Esop),
belong to the same class, as having rendered to their country
the like services.5
Practical and Gnomical Wisdom.
C. G. Heyne, De Zaleuci et Charondae Legibus atque Institutes. In
his Opusc. Academ. torn. II.
t On the Legislation of Solon and Lycurgus, in the Thalia of
SCHTLLER, 1790, No. XI.
Jo. Fr. Buddei Sapientia Veterum, h. e. Dicta illustriora Sep tern
Graeciae Sapientum explicata, Halce, 1699, 4to.
+ C. Aug. Heumann, On the Seven Sages ; in the Acta Philosoph.
No. X.
+ Is. de Larrey, History of the Seven Sages, 2 vols. Rotterdam,
1713-16, 8vo. augmented by the remarks of Delabarre de Beaumar-
chais, The Hague, 1734, 2 vols. 8vo. (French).
Jo. Fr. Wagner, De fontibus Honesti apud Homerum, Luneb.
1795, 4to. l About 800 B.C.
2 Heinsii Introductio in Hesiodi Opera et Dies, in qua Hesiodi phi-
losophia exponitur; (in his edition of Hesiod, Lugd. Bat. 1613).
+ L. Wachler, On the Notions of Hesiod respecting the Gods,
the World, Man, and his Duties, Rinteln, 1789, 4to.
■fr Wagner, Homer and Hesiod, Sulzb. 8vo.
Ch. Glob. Heyne, De Theogonia ab Hesiodo condita ; in the Nov
Comment. Soc. Gott. vol. VIII.
Chph. Arzberger, Adumbratio doctrinae Hesiodi de origine Rerum,
Deorumque Natura, Erlang. 1794, 8vo.
t Letters on Hesiod, by Creuzer and G. Hermann, Leips. 1818, 8vo.
C. G. Eissner, The Theogony of Hesiod, Leips. 1823, 8vo.
3 + C F. Heinrtch, Epimenides of Crete, Leips. 1805, 8vo.
Pet. Gerh. Dukeri, Diss, de Simonide Ceo, poeta et philosopho,
Ultrajecti, 1768, 4to.
4 See the article Simonides in Bayle's Dictionary.
5 Ulr. Andr. Rhode, De Veterum Poetarum Sapientia Gnomica,
Hebrasorum imprimis et Graecorum, Ha/nice, 1800, 8vo.
J. Conr. Durii Diss, de recondita Veterum Sapientia in Poetis,
Altdorf. 1655, 4to.
El. Weihenmaieri Diss, de Poetarum Fabulis Philosophiae involucris,
Ulmce, 1749, 4to.
Chr. Glob. Heyne, Prog, quo disputantur nonnulla de Efficaci ad
Disciplinam publicam privatamque vetustissimorum Poetarum doctrina
morali, Gotting. 1764, 4 to.
E
50 PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION. [SECT.
76. In the legislative systems of the Greeks, particularly
those of Lycurgus, Zaleucus, Charon das, and Solon, we
observe a high sense of liberty, a profound observation of
the human heart, and great political prudence and expe-
rience. The sentences of the Seven Wise Men,1 and the
ancient Gnomic poets, contain, it is true, nothing more than
rules of practical wisdom, expressed with energy and con-
ciseness ; but they evince, even at this early period, an
advancement in civilization, and a maturity of reason for
the pursuits of science, whenever an occasion should pre-
sent itself to facilitate their prosecution.
1 From the XLth to the LYIIth Olympiad.
/ /
—78.] 51
PART THE FIEST.
FIRST PERIOD.
GREEK AND ROMAN" PHILOSOPHY.
PBOM THALES TO JOHN OP DAMASCUS ; 1. e. EEOM 600
TEAES B.C. TO THE END OF THE EIGHTH CENTTJBY.
Progress of the understanding towards knoioledge, hut tvitJiout
a clear perception of the principles which should direct it.
Beandis, Geschichte der Grieckisch-Komischen Philosophic
Creuzek's Symbolik. (Above $66).
Schlosser's Universal-historische Uebersicht, Part 1.
Ottfried Muller, Prolegomena zu einer wissenchaftlicher My-
thologie.
77. The Greeks, who had derived from foreigners the
first seeds of civilization, distinguished themselves above
all the other nations of antiquity, by their taste for poetry,
for the arts, and sciences. The position of their country,
their religion, their political constitution, and their love of
liberty, contributed to develope, in all its originality and
grandeur, the native genius of their country. They thus
were betimes matured for philosophy, and engaged in the
pursuit of it, even from the earliest date of their political
liberty (§ 75).
78. A philosophical spirit having been once awakened
among the Greeks, continued to extend its dominion. They
devoted their attention to the most important objects of
science (theoretically and practically); introduced method
into their researches, forming a system of scepticism in
opposition to dogmatism, and rarely failing to apply these
speculative inquiries to purposes of real life. The Greek
thinkers have justly been regarded by succeeding ages as
models, as well for their spirit of research and investiga-
tion, as for the results to which these have led, both in the
E 2
52 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
manner and the matter of their philosophical inquiries ; but
above all, for a certain character of elegance and urbanity,
and a command of philosophical language, which satisfies
at once the judgment and the taste.
79. Their philosophy did not arrive at this perfection at
once ; it began by disjointed speculations on the external
world. The habit of reflection which grew out of these first
essays, the diversity of the results at which they arrived,
and the continually increasing sense of a want of unity and
harmony in their conclusions, recalled wandering specula-
tion to the contemplation of the human mind as the ulti-
mate source of all certain knowledge ; and philosophizing
became more enlarged, more methodical, and more syste-
matic. In after times, the discord of different systems,
the prevalence of a subtile scepticism, the oppression of the
scientific spirit under a load of historical erudition, even-
tually diverted the mind from the investigation of its own
properties ; till the philosophers of Greece, having borrowed
from those of the East some of their opinions, in the hope
of attaining to something like positive knowledge, fell,
instead, into syncretism and mysticism} It is true that the
passionate enthusiasm which mixed itself up with this latter
philosophy, belonged in part to the natural character of the
Greeks.
80. The history of Grecian philosophy may, therefore,
be divided into three periods analagous to the ages of man ;
his youth — his maturity — and his decrepitude. Period the
first : an ardent spirit of speculation, but with limited views
and deficient in system ; from Thales to Socrates, i. e. from
600 to 400 B.C. Period the second : a spirit of inquiry
more universal, more systematic ; both dogmatical and scepti-
cal ; from Socrates to the union of the Porch and the
Academy, i. e. from 400 to 60 B.C. Period the third :
cultivation of Greek philosophy by the Jews and the
[Romans, and its declension ; philosophical learning, without
a philosophical spirit ; sceptical speculations under a more
learned aspect, but speedily lost in mystical and enthusi-
astical fancies, and destroyed by the union of Grecian
literature with that of the Orientals: prevalence of Christi-
1 Syncretism denotes eclecticism without digesting the compound
into a system. Mysticism admits the emotions and sensations as well
as the Keason as a source of authority. — Ed.
79 — 81.] GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 53
anity ; from JEnesidemus to John of Damascus ; i. e. from
the year 60 B.C. to the eighth century.1
Authorities for the history of Grecian philosophy.
81. These are twofold; direct and indirect. The first
are the works of the philosophers themselves, of which
only a portion have come down to us entire, and for the
most part consist of unconnected fragments, which have
inflicted on the learned a prodigious deal of labour to arrange
and illustrate them. The indirect sources consist in notices
and information respecting the lives, the doctrines, and
labours of the philosophers, which are to be found in sub-
sequent writers of whatever description ; whether presented
to us in detached and unconnected pieces, or in a more
complete form, and with a systematic arrangement. To
this class belong : 1st. The writings of philosophers which
contain accounts of the theories of their predecessors ;
among others, the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero (§ 180),
Seneca, Plutarch (§ 185), Sextus Empiricus (§ 189, sqq.),
Simplicius ( § 220). 2dly„ The collection of Diogenes
Laertius,2 Philostratus,3 Eunapius ;4 the history of philoso-
phy ascribed to Galen,5 and that of Origen;6 with the
collections of the Pseudo-Plutarch,7 and of Stobseus.8 3dly.
1 Consult also + Ast, Epochs of Greek Philosophy, in the Europa of
Fe. Schlegel, vol. ii, No II.
2 Diogenes Laertius, De vitis, dogmatibus, et apophthegmatibus
clarorum Philosophorum, cura Marc. Meibomii, Amst. 1692, 2 vols. 4to.
Cura P. Dan. Longolii, 2 vols. 1739, 8vo. Lips. 1759, 8vo. Cum
Notis Variorum, cura Hubneri et Jacobetz, 4 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1828-33.
3 Flav. Philostrati Vitae Sophistarum in Philostratorum Operibus,
Gr. et Lat. c. not. Olearii, Lips. 1709, fol.
4 Eunapii Vitae Philosophorum et Sophistarum, ed. Junius, A ntwerp.
1568, 8vo. Ed. Commelin, Heidelb. 1596, 8vo. Ed. Schott, Geneva,
1616, 8vo. Cum Notis Wyttenbach et Boissonade, 2 vols. 8vo.
Amst. 1822.
5 Claudii Galeni Liber 7rspl </><Ao<to0ov laropiag, in Hippocratis et
Galeni Operibus ex edit. Carterii, torn. II, p. 21, seq.
6 Origenis <t>i\o<ja<povntva in Jac. Gronovii Thes. Antiq. Graec.,tom.
X. (Also published by)
Jo. Chph. Wolff, Compendium Historic Philosophic^ antiquae, sive
Philosophumena quae sub Origenis nomine circumferuntur, Hamb. 1706
— 1716, 8vo.
7 Plutarchus, De placitis Philosophorum, sive de Physicis Philoso-
phorum decretis, ed. Chr. Dan. Beck, Lips. 1787, 8vo.
8 Joh. StoBjEI Eclogae Physicae et Ethicae, ed A. H. L. Heeren, GotL
54 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
The works of other Greek and Latin authors, such as
Athenaeus,1 Aulus Gellius,2 Macrobius,3 Suiclas.4 4thly. The
writings of the ecclesiastical Fathers ; Clemens Alexandri-
nus, Origen, Eusebius, Lactantius, Augustine ( § 232 ),
Nemesius, Photius (§ 235).
CHAPTER EIEST.
FROM THALES TO SOCRATES (FIRST PERIOD OF
GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY.)
Partial and Unsystematic Speculation.
Henr. Stephani Poesis Philosophica, Paris, 1573, 8vo. 'HOikt)
7roiri<Tic, seu Gnomici Poetaa Grseci, ed. Brunck. Argent. 1784. 4to.
And the Works on the Seven Sages and the Legislators of the Greeks.
Scipio Aquilianus, De placitis Philosophorum ante Aristotelem,
Milan, 1615, 4to. Op. Ge. Monalis, Venet. 1620, 4to. Ed. Car. Phil.
Brucker, Lips. 1756, 4to.
+ D. Tiedemann, First Philosophers of Greece, Leips. 1780, 8vo.
+ G. Gust. Fulleborn, On the History of the first ages of Grecian
Philosophy. In his Collection, Fasc. I.
J. Gottl. Buhle, Comment, de Veterum Philosophorum Graecorum
ante Aristotelem conaminibus in arte Logics invenienda et perficienda.
Comment. Soc. Scient. Gott. torn. X.
Fried. Bouterwek, De primis Philosophorum Graecorum decretis
physicis. Comment. Soc. Gott. torn. II, 1811.
Kiefhaber, Spriiche der Sieben Weisen Griechenlands, 1830.
Dilthey, Griechische Fragmente in Prosa and Poesie. Gesammelt,
iibersetzt und erlautert. Erstes Heft. Fragmente der Sieben Weisen
&c. 1836.
Wagner, De Periandro septem sapientibus annumerato, 1828.
See also the works enumerated above, § 75, on the Greek Mythology,
particularly on Orpheus, Homer, and Hesiod, and the Gnomic poets.
1792—1801, 2 parts in 4 vols. Sermones, Francf. 1781, fol. Ed. Nic.
Schow, Lips. 1797, 8vo.
1 Athen^ei Deipnosophistarum, libri XV, ed. Casaubon, Lugd. 1657
— 64, 2 vols. fol. Jo. Schweigh^user, Argent. 1801 — 7, 14 vols. 8vo.
Cura Dindorfii, 3 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1827.
2 + Fragments of the History of Ancient Philosophy, drawn from the
Nights of Aunus Gellius, Lemgo, 1785, 8vo.
Noctes Atticae, Henr. Steph. 1585. Gronov. Lugd. Batav. 1706.
4to. etc. Cura Conradi, 2 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1762. Cura Leon, 2 vols.
8vo. Qotting. 1824.
3 Macrobii Saturnal. ed. J ao. Gronovius, Lugd. Bat. 1670, 8vo. Ed.
Zeune, Lips. 1774, 8vo.
4 The modern works on the history of philosophy among the Greeks,
have been mentioned, § 38, I, a and b.
82 — 84.] GEEEK AND EOMAN PHILOSOPHY. 55
82. A spirit of philosophical research first manifested
itself in some rude attempts in Ionia, made at the period
when this country, colonized from Greece, enjoyed the
utmost prosperity. Thence it extended to some of the
neighbouring colonies ; subsequently into Magna Grseeia,
until the conquests of the Persians and the troubles of
southern Italy compelled it to take refuge in Athens ; from
which, as a centre, intellectual civilization was disseminated,
and, as it were, radiated over the whole of Greece.
83. The starting-point of philosophy was the question
concerning the origin and the elementary principle of the
world : the resolution of which was attempted by experience
and reflection in the Matter (Ionic school) ; and Form of
perception (Pythagoreans.) The Eleatic school opposed to
each other the experimental and intellectual systems ; which
were combined by the Atomistic philosophers. Last of all
came a Sophistical school, which threatened to destroy all
belief, religious and moral.
84. But this progress of investigation was a sort of pre-
lude to a more scientific philosophy, which by-and-by turned
from the external object to the internal subject : from the
world without to the mind within. Philosophical reflection,
discarding poetical myths, applied itself to practical purposes,
by the discovery of moral and political apophthegms, for a
long time delivered in verse (Gnomos, whence philosophia
gnomica sive sententiaria ; cf. § 75-76). In theory, men
wandered, went from one hypothesis to another, until, in
the end, they endeavoured to substitute for these a system
of metaphysical knowledge. The earliest philosophers were
solitary, and without a school (Pytliagoras nevertheless
being an exception). Their notions were disseminated at
first by oral tradition ; subsequently by writings ; which
gradually disengaged themselves from poetic fictions.
I. Speculations of the Ancient lonians.
f H. Hitter, History of the Ionian Philosophy, Berlin, 1821, 8vo.
Bouterwek, Dissertation referred to above, at the head of § 82.
Tholes.
t The Abbe De Canaye, Inquiry respecting the Philosophy of
Thales, in the Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. X.
56 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
Che. Alb. Doederlini Animadversiones historico-criticae de Thaletis
et Pythagorae historica ratione, 1750, 8vo.
Godofr. Ploucquet, Dissert, de Dogmatibus Thaletis Milesii et
Anaxagorae Clazomenii, etc. Tubing. 1763; and in his Comment.
Philos. Select.
Glieb. Chph. Harles, Tria Programmata de Thaletis Doctrina, de
Principio Rerum, imprimis de Deo, ad illustrandum Ciceronis de Nat.
Deor. locum, lib. I, 10, Erlang. 1780-84, folio.
J. Frid. Flatt, Diss, de Theismo Thaleti Milesio abjudicando, Tub.
1785, 4to.
J. H. Muller, De Aqua, principio Thaletis, Altd. 1719, in 4to.
Fischer, De Hellenicaa philosophise principiis, atque de cursu a
Thalete usque ad Platonem, 1836.
+ Goess, On the System of Thales. See above, at the head of § 2.
85. Thales (603 B. C.), of Miletus, the most flourishing
commercial city in Ionia, improved himself by travel, was
possessed of some mathematical and astronomical knowledge,
and was ranked by his fellow-citizens among the Seven
Sages. He was the first Grecian who discussed, on prin-
ciples of reason, the origin of the world. Water (vdivp), or
humidity,1 was in his opinion (formed in consequence of some
empirical observations very partial in their nature) the
original element (apxy)} whence all things proceeded ;2 and
spirit (voui) the impulsive principle. He observed the
attractive power of the magnet, and consistently with his
theory, supposed the stone to have a soul. Everything is
full of the divinity.3 It is not exactly known in what man-
ner Thales associated the spiritual parts of his system with
his material principle. Accordingly, the discussions which
his theism has occasioned commenced at a very early epoch.
Among other sentences, they attribute to him that of <yvu)9t
aeaviov.
Anaximander and l?lierecydes.
+ The Abbe de Canaye, Inquiry concerning Anaximander, in the
Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. X.
+ Fr. Schleiermacher, Dissertation on the Philosophy of Anaxi-
mander, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin,
1804-11, Berlin, 1815, 4to.
1 Aristot. Metaph. I, 3. De Coelo, II, 13.
2 Aristot. De Anim&, I, 2, 5. Cf. De Mundo, VI.
3 Cicero, De Nat. Deor. 1, 10.
85 — 86.] GEEEK AND KOMAtf PHILOSOPHY. 57
*f* H. Bitter, in the work already referred to, and the article Anaxi-
mander, IVth part of the Encyclopaedia published by Ersch and
Gruber.
Pherecydis fragmenta e variis scriptoribus collegit, etc. commenta-
tionem de Pherecyde utroque philos. et historico prsemisit Fr. Guil.
Sturz, Gera, 1789, 8vo. second edition, 1824.
f Heinius, Dissertation on Pherecydes, in the Mgmoires de l'Acad.
Roy. des Sciences, Berlin, V. 1747.
f See also the work of Tiedemann, mentioned above, at the head of
§ 82, p. 172, sqq.
86. Anaximander,1 a Milesian like Thales, and a friend of
that philosopher, chose, as the basis of his argument on the
same subject, not analogy, but an assumed philosophical
principle. The primary essence he asserted to be infinite
(aireipop), comprehending all things, and divine (to Oeiov),
without, however, more exactly defining it.2 According to
some he attributed to this divine nature an essence altogether
distinct from the elements ; according to others, he made
it something intermediate between water and air. It is only
in infinity that the perpetual changes of things can take
place ; from infinity, opposites detach themselves by a per-
petual movement, and in like manner continually return to
the same. By this principle the heavens and the earth
subsist : with respect to which Anaximander did not content
himself with astronomical speculations only. Every thing
which is contained in infinitude (to aireipov), is subject to
change, itself being unchangeable.3 Such also was the
doctrine, with some slight differences, of his contemporary
(but younger than himself) Pherecydes of Syros ; who
recognised as the eternal principles of all things Jupiter
(Zevs or alOrjp), Time, and the Earth. It appears also that
he attempted an account of the origin of the celestial bodies
and of the human race, and that he believed the soul to be
immortal.4 Anaximander and Pherecydes were the first
philosophers who committed their thoughts and opinions to
writing.
1 About 610 B.C. 2 Diog. Laert. II, 1.
3 Aristot. Physic. I, 4, 5; III, 4 — 7; and Simplic. Comment, in
Phys. p. 6; and De Coelo, p. 151.
4 Aristot. Metaph. XIV, 4. Diog. Laert. 1, 119. Cic. Tusc. Qu.
1,16.
58 TIEST PEEIOD. [sect.
Anaximenes.
Dan. Grothii (prass. J. Andr. Schmidt), Diss, de Anaximensis
Psychologia, Jen. 1689, 4to.
87. Anaximenes, of Miletus,1 followed the doctrine of his
friend and teacher Anaximander ; but instead of the inde-
terminate aireipov of the latter, certain observations, though
partial and limited, on the origin of things and the nature of
the soul, led him to regard the air (arjp) as the primitive
element.2 In after-time, Diogenes of Apollonia revived and
improved upon this system ; in which we may already
observe a more enlarged view of nature, and a higher
exercise of thought.
II. Speculations of the Pythagoreans.
Authorities : besides Plato and Aristotle, and the Pythagorean
Fragments, particularly those of Philolaus :
Pythagoras Aurea Carmina. Timasus Locris. Ocellus Lucanus.
Porpliyrius de Vita Pythagoras, ed. Conr. Rittershusius, Altd. 1610,
8vo. See also xpvvea txr}, in the Sententiosa vetustissimorum Gnomi-
corum opera, torn. I, ed. Glandorf, Lijjs. 1776, 8vo. ; and in Brunck's
Gnomici Poetas Grasci, 8vo. Argent. 1784.
Jamblichi de Vita Pythagorica liber, Gr. cum vers. Lat. Ulr.
Obrechti notisque suis edid. Ludolf. Kuesterus, acced. Malchus sive
Porphyrius De Vita Pythagoras cum not. L. Holstenii et Conrad.
Kittershusii, Amstelod. 1707, 4to. ed. Theoph. Kiesling, Lips. 1815,
2 vols. 8vo.
Pythagoras Sphasra Divinatoria de decubitu asgrotorum ; and the
Epistolas Pythagoras, in the Opusc. Myth. Phys. of Gale, p. 735, sqq.
Socratis et Socraticorum, Pythagoras et Pythagoricorum, quas feruntur
Epistolas, ed. Orellius, 1816, 8vo.
Hich. Bentley's Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, &c. 8vo.
best edition, Lond. 1777; new edition, by Dtce, 2 vols. 8vo. 1836.
Dissert, de Phalaridis, Themistoclis, Socratis, Euripidis, aliorumque
Epistolis, in Latin, sermonem convertit J. D. A. Lennep, Groning.
1777, 4to. Et, Bentleii Opuscula Philologica, Dissertationem in
Phalaridis Epistolas et Epistolam ad J. Millium complectentia, Lips.
1781, 8vo.
+ Meiners, History of the Sciences in Greece and Rome, torn. 1, p. IS 7.
+ Meiners, Dissertation on the Authenticity of some works of the
Pythagorean School, in the Bibliotheca Philol. torn. I, No. V.
1 Flourished about 257 B.C.
2 Aristot. Metaph. I, 3. Simpltc. in Phys. Arist. p. 6 et 9. Cic.
Acad. Quasst. II, 37. Plutarch, De plac. Philos. I, 3. Stob. Eel. I,
p. 296. Sext. Emp. Hyp. Pyrrh. Ill, 30 ; Adv. Mathem. VII, 5 ; IX,
360^ Diog. Laert. II, 3.
87 — 89.] GEEEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 59
* Tiedemann, Early Philosophers of Greece; p. 188, sqq.
W. Lloyd, A Chronological Account of the Life of Pythagoras, and
of other Famous Men, his Contemporaries, with an Epistle to Dr.
Bentley, etc. Lond. 1699-1704, 8vo.
Henr. Dodwelli Exercitationes duae, prima de aetate Phalaridis,
altera de aetate Pythagorae, Lond. 1699-1704, 8vo.
Dissertations sur l'Epoque de Pythagore, par De Lanauze et Freret,
dans les Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. XIV.
* * *
Ge. Lud. Hamberger, Exerc. de Vita et Symbolis Pythagoraa.
Vitemb. 1676, 4to.
Dacier, La Vie de Pythagore, ses symboles, ses vers dores, etc. Par.
1706, 2 vols. 12mo.
Chph. Schrader, Diss, de Pythagora, in qua de ejus Ortu, Praecepto-
ribus et Peregrinationibus agitur, Lips. 1708, 4to.
Je. Jac. Lehmann, Observatt. ad Histor. Pythagoras, Frcft. et Leips.
1731, 4to.
M . . . . ; Vies d'Epicure, de Platon, et de Pythagore, Amst. 1752,
12mo.
+ Fred. Christ. Eilschov, History and Critical Life of Pythagoras,
translated from the Danish of Philander von der Weistritz, Kopen-
hagen, 1756, 8vo.
f Aug. E. Zinserling, Pythagoras-Apollon, Lips. 1808, 8vo.
Joh. Scheffer, De Natura et Constitutione Phiiosophiae Italicae, Ups.
1664. Edit. II, cum carminibus, Vitemb. 1701, 8vo.
+ J. Le Clerc, in his Bibliotheca, torn. X, art. II, p. 79.
Bitter, Geschichte der Pythagoraischen Philosophic, 1826; (in his
History of Piiilosophy, vol. I, pp, 326 and seq. Bonn's translation).
Wendt, De rerum principiis secundum Pythagoreos, 1827.
Reinhold, Beitrag zur Erlauterung der Pythagoraischen Meta-
physik, 1827.
For the ancient works relative to Pythagoras and his Philosophy, see
the + Acta Philos. of Heumann, part II, p. 370, part IV, p. 752.
88. The difficulties which embarrass this part of history
and demand the exercise of much critical discernment are,
— The want of authentic writings, the abundance of those
which are apocryphal, the mystery which appears to involve
everything belonging to the person, the character, and views
of Pythagoras and his society; the difficulty of discrimin-
ating between what was his own, and what was borrowed
from the Egyptians, or may have proceeded from others of
his school, and, finally, the re-establishment of the same
school at a later period, under different masters, and with
somewhat different views.
89. Pythagoras was born at Samos ;x and improved him-
1 In 584, according to Meiners.
60 FIEST PEEIOD. [SECT.
self by his travels in Greece and Egypt,1 and probably also
by the lessons of Thales and Pherecydes (whose disciple
he is said to have been),2 as well as by those of Anaxi-
mander. After having previously attempted to establish
a school and a species of philosophical congregation at
Samos, he founded one (about 527) at Croto, in Italy,
whence his school came to be called the Italic. Besides
the improvement of the intellectual, moral, and religious
capacities of man, this society had also considerable political
influence ; which circumstance occasioned its ruin, and the
death of its founder,3 about the year 500. Pythagoras may
justly be esteemed a man remarkable for his talents, his
discoveries, his plans, and the authority he possessed over
others ; but the ancient Greeks and Romans invested him
with something more than this, amounting to a sort of
superstitious reverence. He was the first who assumed the
name of philosopher. See Cic. Tusc. Quaest. V. 3, 4. Diog.
Laeet. VIII. 8, and I, 12.
90. He investigated the principles of the mathematical
sciences ; particularly of Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and
Astronomy; his discoveries in which are of themselves suf-
ficient to immortalize his name. He ascribed an occult
power to words and numbers;4 and the science of arith-
metic, which he considered as the key to mathematics, he
looked upon as containing also the essence of all philo-
sophical knowledge.5 Prom this principle he was led to
adopt a sort of Mathematical Philosophy, which gave to his
school also the name of Mathematical. We possess only
fragments of the speculations of his school on these subjects,
in which we are not enabled to distinguish the hand of the
master from that of his disciples.
§ 01.
On the subject of the Pythagorean numbers, see Jao. Brucker, Con-
i Fr. Buddei Diss, de Peregrinationib. Pythagorae, Jena, 1692, 4to.;
and in his Analect. Hist. Philos.
2 Diog. Laert. I, 118, sqq. Cic. De Div. I, 13.
3 About 504, according to Meiners; according to others, 489 B.C.
4 Mllas. Yar. Hist. IV, 17. Jamblich. c. 10.
5 Aristot. Metaph. I, 5.
90 — 92.] GREEK AND BOMAN PHILOSOPHY. Gl
venientia Numerorum Pythagorae cum Ideis Platonis, Miscell. Hist.
Philos.
De Numerorum, quos Arabicos vocant, vera origine Pythagorica
commentatur Conr. Mannert, Norimb. 1801, 8vo.
"t C. A. Brandis, On the Doctrine of Numbers of the Pythagoreans
and Platonists (in the Ehen. Mus. of Hist. Philos. etc. 1828, No. II,
s. 208).
Amad. Wendt, De rerum principiis secundum Pythagoreos Comment.
Lips. 1827, 8vo.
Numbers were defined by the Pythagoreans to be the
principles (aljiat) of all things j1 this school being disposed
by their mathematical studies to make the system of ex-
ternal things subordinate to that of numbers, agreeably to
their axiom, fiiuqaiv elvai to ovta tCov apiOfxwv.2 Numbers
are equal and unequal, apn'oi and trepmol', the elementary
principle of the latter being unity (ytioi/as), that of the
former duality (hvas). Unequal numbers are limited and
complete ; equal ones unlimited and incomplete. The ab-
stract principle then of all perfection is unity and limitation
(to 7T€7repa(T/LLei/ov) ; that of imperfection, duality and inde-
terminateness (to u7reipov). The ten elementary numbers
which are represented in the tetractys? and which embrace
a complete system of numeration, contain also the elements
of a perfect system of nature. (See Arist. Met. I, 5). In
this instance they applied the theory of numbers to explain
the natures and substances of things, as, in others, to illus-
trate their formation and origin. But on this subject we
are acquainted only with subsequent essays, belonging to a
later school.4
92. On the World and the Deity. The Pythagoreans,
like their predecessors, considered the world to be a har-
monious whole (/coVytto?) ; consisting, according to a system
of Decades, of ten great bodies revolving around a common
centre, agreeably to harmonious laws ; whence the music
of the spheres,5 and their explanation of the symbolical
1 Arist. Metaph. I, 3. Jamblich. Vit. Pythag. c. xii, p. 120, ex
Heraclide Pontic.
2 Arist. Metaph. I, 5, 6 ; XIT, 6, 8.
3 Sext. Empir. Adv. Math. IV, 3.
J. Geo. Michaelis. Diss, de Tetracty Pythagorica, Franco/, ad Viad.
1735. Erh. Weigil, Tetracty s Pythagorica.
4 Sextus, Adv. Mathem. X, 249, sqq.
5 Aug. Boeckh, Disputatio de Platonico Systemate Coalestium
62 TIKST PEHIOD. [SECT.
lyre of Apollo. The centre, or central fire (the sun), in
other words, the seat of Jupiter, Atos o7ko$ <fiv\aicr], is the
most perfect object in nature, the principle of heat, and
consequently of life; penetrating and vivifying all things.
According to the same system, the stars also are divinities ;
and even men, nay, the inferior animals, have a sort of
consanguinity with the Divine Being. They considered
the dcemones as a race intermediate between gods and men,
and attributed to them a considerable agency in dreams
and divination: always, however, assigning as ultimate
causes of all things, destiny and the deity. They ennobled
their notion of the deity by the attribution of certain moral
qualities, such as truth and beneficence.1
93. Doctrine of the Soul. The soul also is a number,
and an emanation from the central fire,2 resembling the
constellations to which it is allied by its immortality and
its constant activity ; capable of combining with any body,
and compelled by destiny to pass successively through
several. This theory of the metempsychosis, borrowed (it
is probable) from the Egyptians,3 Pythagoras appears to
have combined with the doctrine of moral Eetribution.
It is to the Pythagoreans we are indebted for the first
attempt, however rude, at an analysis of the operations and
faculties of the mind. The Reason and Understanding
(vov9 and 0/)eVes), they placed in the brain; the appetites
and the will (Ov/no?) in the heart.4
94. The doctrine of Pythagoras embraced also the ques-
Globorum, et de ver3, indole Astronomic Philolaicae, Heidelberg.
1810, 4to.
1 Plato Phaedon. p. 139, et Heindorf, ad h. 1. Plutarch. De Plac.
Philos. I, 3, 7 ; II, 4. Diog, VIII, 27, 21. Jamblich. LXXXVI, 137,
sqq. Porphyr. Vita Pythag. § 41. jElian. Var. PI. XII, 59. Stob.
Eel. Phys. p. 206.
Conr. Dietr. Koch, Diss. Unum Theol. Pythagor. Compendium,
Helmut. 1710. Mich. Mourgues, Plan Theologique du Pythagorisme
et des autres Sectes, Toulouse, 1712, 2 vols. 8vo.
2 Diog. Laert. VIII, 28.
3 Herodot. II, 123. Arist. De An. I, Z.I Plut. De Plac. Philos.
IV, 7. Jamblich. Vit. Pyth., c. 24. Diog. Laert. VIII, 14, 28. 30,
31. Stob. Eel. I, 1044, sqq.
4 Cic. Tusc. Quest. I, 17. Diog. VIII, 30. Stob. Eel. Phys.,
p. 878.
93 — 94.] GEEEK AND SOMAN PHILOSOPHY. 63
tion of Ethics ;l and the fragments ot his which we possess
on this subject contain (in symbolical language) many-
admirable ideas, but of which the principles are not suffi-
ciently developed.2 Moral good they identified with unity
— evil with multiplicity. Virtue is the harmony and unison
of the Soul (Aristot. Eth. Mcom. II, 5; cf. I, 4. Diog.
Laert. VIII, 33. Clem. Alex. Strom. IV, c. 23), or, in
other words, similitude to God, o/no\o^ia 7rpo<$ to 6e?ov.
Justice they defined to be api0p,bs loaKi? lao?-* and Right
they made to consist in no avni7re7rov66<$ : Friendship was
made to consist in community of interests and equality;
self-murder was condemned by Pythagoras as a crime
against the gods, and the virtue which he especially com-
mended was self-command (KardprvGis). But the attention
of this school was greatly engaged, and its disciples exer-
Ambeos. Khodii, Dial, de Transmigratione Animarum Pythagorica.
Hafn. 1638, 8vo.
Paganini Gaudentii De Pythagorica Animarum Transmigratione,
Pis. 1641, 4to.
Essay of Transmigration, in defence of Pythagoras, Lond. 1692.
Guil. Irhovii De Palengenesia veterum, s. Metempsychosi sic dicta
Pythagorica, Lib. Ill, Amst. 1733, 4to.
1 Marc. Mappi Diss. (Prses. Jac. Schaller) de Ethica Pythagorica,
Argent. 1653 ; and in the Fragmen. Hist. Philos. of Windheim.
Krische, De societate a Pythagora in urbe Crotoniatana conditas
scopo politico, 1830.
Cramer, De Pythagora, quomodo educaverit atque instituerit.
1833.
Magn. Dan. Omeisii Ethica Pythagorica, Altd. 1693, 8vo.
Frid. Guil. Ehrenfr. Post, Super Pythagora Virtutem ad Numeros
referentenon revocante, Lips. 1803.
Fr. Bernii Arcana Moralitatis ex Pythagorae symbolis collecta,
Ferrar. 1669; ed. quartus Paul Pater. Francf. ad M. 1687"
Jo. Mich. Sonntag, Diss, de similitudine nostri cum Deo Pythagori-
co-Platonico, Jen. 1699, 4to.
Fr. Buddei, Diss. De icaOctpvei Pythagorico-Platonica, Hal. 1701,
4to ; cf. Analect. Hist. Philos. ejusdem.
Ch. Aug. Eoth, De Examine conscientiae Pythagorico vespertino,
Lips. 1708, 4to.
Jo. Friedem. Schneider, Diss. De uVooy seu ascensu hominis in
Deum Pythagorico, Hal. 1710.
Jo. Schilteri, Diss. De Disciplina Pythagorica, in his Manuductio
Philos. Moralis, Jen. 1676, 8vo.
2 Arist. Eth. Magn. I, 2.
3Arist. Eth.Nicom. 1,1; cf. II, 6; V, 5. Diog. Laert. VIII, 33.
64 TIILST PERIOD. [SECT.
cised in an anthropological morality, or asceticism, which
pervaded all their system.1
95. We are acquainted with but a small portion of the
writings of the old Pythagorean sect, and these are merely
commentaries on the opinions of their master. The philo-
sophers belonging to it were Aristceus of Croto, the successor
and son-in-law of Pythagoras, according to Jamblichus;2
Teleauges and Mnesarclius, sons of Pythagoras ; Alcmceon of
Croto, particularly distinguished as a naturalist and phy-
sician ; Hippo of Bhegium, and Hippasus of Metapontum ;
(these two last were allied to the Ionic school, by their doc-
trine of a fundamental and elementary principle of nature) ;
JZcphantus of Syracuse, who inclined to the Atomic school ;
Clinias, the contemporary of Philolaus, and JEpicharmus of
Cos, the comedian, called also the Megarean and Sicilian, on
account of his residence at those places. Nothing can be
advanced with certainty concerning Ocellus the Lucanian,3
and Timceus of Locri Epizephyrii, and on that account
called Timseus the Locrian.4 The work attributed to the
latter* is nothing but an abstract of the Timseus of Plato,
and the authenticity of the treatise on the Universe 6 attri-
buted to Ocellus, is even more unquestionably apocryphal.
Among the most distinguished Pythagoreans of a later
1 Several symbolical precepts are to be found apud Plutarch. Be
Pueror. Eiuc. fin.; and Diog. Laeet. VIII, 17.
2 Vita Pythag. 3 Flourished about 496 B.C.
4 Respecting both, consult + Meiners, Hist. Doctr. de Vero Deo, P.
II. p. 312, sqq. The same, in his + History of the Sciences among the
Greeks and Romans, vol. I, p. 584. The same, in the + Bibl. Philol.
of Gbtt., vol. I, No. I, p. 204; and t Tiedemann, Spirit of Speculative
Philosophy, vol. I, p. 89.
5 nept rriQ rov koc^iov j^X^C* printed in the Opusc. Myth. Phys. at
Eth. of Thom. Gale, p. 539, sqq., and published by D'Argens, Berlin,
1763, 8vo. translated by Bardili, in the collection of Fulleborn, No.
IX, § 9. On this work, consult t Tennemann, System of the Philo-
sophy of Plato, vol, I. p. 93.
6 litpi rrjg tov iravroq tpixrewQ, first published in the Opusc. of Th.
Gale, p. 99, sqq. The same, by Batteux, with the work of Timseus, Par.
1768, 3 vols. 8vo ; and also separately, by D'Argens, Berlin, 1792, 3vo;
by Rotermund, Leips. 1784, 8vo; and lastly, by Rudolphi. Ocellus
Lucanus de Rer. Natura, Greece ; rec, comment, perpet. auxit et vindi-
care studuit Aug. Frid. Wilh. Rudolphi, Leips. 1801, 8vo., translated
with a Dissertation on the Genius of Ocellus, by Bardili, ap. Ful-
leborn, Fasc. X, § 1 — 3.
95 — 96.] GREEK AtfD KOMAN PHILOSOPHY. 65
period should be mentioned, Arcliytas of Tarentum,1 a con-
temporary of Plato, and JPhilolaus of Croto, or Tarentum;2
who became celebrated for his system of astronomy, and com-
posed the first treatise of his school which was committed
to writing,3 entitled " The Bacchse, or Inspired Women."4
96. The doctrine of Pythagoras had great influence with
the most eminent philosophers of Greece (and, in particular,
with Plato) from the excitement, direction, and method it
communicated to their speculations. Subsequently, how-
ever, it became the fashion to call Pythagorean all that
Plato, Aristotle, and others after them, had added to the
doctrines of Pythagoras ; even opinions which they them-
selves had started ; and to this medley of doctrines of various
origin was superadded a mass of superstitions (§ 184).
III. Speculations of the Eleatic School.
Liber de Xenophane, Zenone, Gorgi&, Aristoteli vulgo tributus,
partim illustratus Commentario a Ge. Gust. Fulleborn, Hal. 1789, 4to.
Ge. Lud. Spaldingii Vindiciae Philosophorum Megaricorum ; subji-
citur Commentarius in priorem partem libelli de Xenophane, Zenone,
et Gorgia, Hal. 1792, 8^o.
t J. Gottfr. Walther, The Tombs of the Eleatic Philosopher un-
closed, second edition, Magd. et Leips. 1724.
1 See C. G. Batidili, Epochen, etc., supplement to the first part.
The same, Disquisitio de Archyta Tarentino, Nov. Act. Soc. Lat. Jen.
vol. I, p. 1. Tentamen de Archytae Tarentini vita atque operibus a Jos.
Navarra conscriptum, Hafn. 1820, 4to. Collection of the pretended
Fragments of Archytas, in the + History of the Sciences, by Meiners,
vol. I, p. 598.
Gruppe, Ueber die Fragmente des Archytas und anderen der altera
Pythagoraer, 1840.
2 The contemporary of Socrates.
3 Concerning this philosopher, see the work of Aug. Boecrh, men-
tioned § 92, note ; and t The Doctrine of the Pythagorean Philolaus,
with the fragment of his work, by the same, Berl. 1812, 8vo.
4 On the Pythagorean Ladies, see Iamblichi Vit. Pyth. ed. Kuster,
p. 21. Theano is particularly mentioned as the wife or the daughter
of Pythagoras. Dtog. Laert. VIII, 42, sqq. ; Iambl. 1. c. ; in the work
of Gale. Opusc. Myth. p. 740, sqq. ; in the Collect, of J. Chph. Wolf,
Fragmenta Mulierum Graecarum prosaica, p. 224, sqq , we find letters
attributed to Theano and other women of this sect. See also Fabricius,
Bibl. Gr. ; t Wieland, On the Pythagorean Ladies, in his works, vol.
XXIV; Fred Schlegel, Abhandlung Uber Diotima, fourth vol. of his
works, Vienna, 1822, 8vo. «,
66 FTEST PERIOD. [SECT.
Joh. Gottl. Buhle, Commentatio de Ortu et Progressu Pantlieismi
inde a Xenophane primo ejus auctore, usque ad Spinozam, Getting.
1790, 4to., et Commentt. Soc. Gbtt. vol. X, p. 157.
Chr. Aug. Brandis, Commentationum Eleaticarum, p. 1. Xeno-
phanis, Parmenidis, et Melissi doctrina e propriis Philosophorum
reliquiis repetita, Alton. 1813, 8vo.
97. The philosophers whom we have hitherto considered,
started from experience; and, conformably with the testi-
mony of the senses, assumed as a substratum the multipli-
city of changeable things, of which they endeavoured to
trace the origin and connection with the eternal. Now,
however, a school arose at Elea, in Italy, that ventured to
pronounce experience a mere appearance, because they found
creation {das Werden) incomprehensible, and that endea-
voured to determine the nature of things as the one sole
substance, merely from notions of the understanding.
According to this view, the one immoveable esse (seyn) is
the only true being. This idealistic pantheism1 was deve-
loped by four remarkable thinkers who, as regards their
personal history, are but too little known to us.
Xenophanes.
Fragments of the Poem of Xenophanes irepl Qvtrtwg, in the Col-
lection of Fulleborn, No. VII, § 1 ; and in Brandis Comment,
(above) ; and in Philosophorum Gr. vet. Operum Reliquiae. (Xenoph.
Parmen. Emped.) ed. Karsten, 3 vols. 8vo. Brvx. 1830-38.
Tob. Roschmanni Diss. Hist. Philos. (prses. Feuerlin) de Xeno-
phane, Altd. 1729, 4to.
Diet. Tiedemann, Xenophanis decreta, Nova Biblioth. Philolog. et
Crit. vol. I, fasc. II.
+ Fulleborn, Xenophanes, Collection, fasc. I, § 3. See the works
mentioned in the preceding §.
98. Xenophanes of Colophon was the contemporary of
Pythagoras, and, about the year 536, established himself at
Elea or Yelia, in Magna Grsecia. From the principle ex
nihilo nihil Jit. he concluded that nothing could pass from
non-existence to existence. According to him, all things
1 Idealism expresses that system of philosophy which, though admit-
ting differences on minor points, agrees in placing the Absolute in
abstract ideas and thought, and in regarding the appearances of the
world of sense as only relative. Idealistic Pantheism denotes that
system of philosophy which professes to regard this world of ideas and
thought as divine. A close approximation may be traced between the
Pantheism of Xenophanes and that of Hegel. — Ed.
97 — 99.] PAEMEKIDES. 67
that really exist are eternal and immutable. On this prin-
ciple he looked upon all nature as subject to the same law of
unity , eV to oV km irav. God, as being the most perfect
essence, to ttclvtwv apiaiov Kal KpcmoTov, is eternally One ;
unalterable, and always consistent with himself; He is
neither finite nor infinite, neither moveable nor immoveable ;
he cannot be represented under any human semblance ; he is
all hearing, all sight, and all thought, and his form is
spherical. The same philosopher (on the principle of experi-
ence) proposed to explain the multifariousness of variable
essences by assuming, as primitive elements, water and
earth. He appears to have hesitated between the opposite
systems of empirism1 and rationalism, and bewailed the
incertitude which he regarded as the condition of humanity.2
Xenophaues was the first to set the example of a philosopher
who divested the Deity of the unworthy images under which
he had been represented.3
Parmenides.
Fragments of his Poem tteqi fpvntwg, collected by H. Stephens.
f Fulleborn, Fragments of Parmenides, collected and illustrated,
Zullichau, 1795, 8vo. The same in his Collection, fasc. VI and VII.
The same Fragments, published with those of Empedocles, by Peyron ;
see § 108. (On Parmenides cf. Diog. Laert. IX, 21, sqq.) Parmenidis
Carm. Reliquiae, ed. Karsten, 8vo. Amst. 1835.
J. Brucker, Letter on the Atheism of Parmenides, translated from
the Latin into French, in the Bibliotheque Germanique, torn. XXII,
p. 90.
f Nic. Hier. Gundling, Observations on the Philosophy of Par-
menides, in the Gundlingiana, torn. XV, p. 371, sqq.
+ J. T. Van Der Kemp, Parmenides, Edinas, 1731, 8vo.
99. Parmenides of Elea, who travelled with Zeno to Athens
about 460, enlarged upon the above system. He maintained
that the Reason alone was capable of recognizing Truth ;
that the senses could afford only a deceptive appearance
1 Empirism, it is necessary to bear in mind, would derive all our
knowledge ultimately from Experience, by the avenues of the senses ;
rationalism, on the contrary, from the Reason.
2 Arist. de Xenoph. c. 3 ; Met. I, 3, 5 Sextus, Hyp. Pyrrh. I, 224,
sqq.; Ill, 228; Adv. Math. VII, 49, sqq. Aokoq 8'kiri ttcktl rkrvKrai,
52, 110; VIII, 326; X, 313, sqq. Diog. Laert. IX, 19, sqq. Stob.
Eel. II, p. 14, sqq. ed. Heeren.
3 Clem. Alex. ed. Pott, p. 714, sqq.
* 2
68 FIEST PEE10D. [SECT.
of it. From this principle he deduced a twofold system of
true and of apparent knowledge ; the one resulting from
the reason, the other from the senses.1 His poem on
Nature treated of both these systems ; but the fragments of
it which have come down to us, make us better acquainted
with the former than the latter. In the former, Parmenides
begins with the idea of pure existence, which he identifies
with thought and cognition* (never expressly making it the
same with the Deity), and concludes that non-existence, to prf
ov, cannot be possible ; that all things which exist are one
and identical ; and consequently that existence has no com-
mencement, is invariable, indivisible, pervades all space, and
is limited only by itself; and consequently that all movement
or change exists only in appearance* But appearance itself
depends upon an unavoidable Representation (£6ga)} To
account for this appearance conveyed by the senses, Par-
menides assumed the existence of two principles, that of
heat or light (ethereal fire), and that of cold or darkness
(the earth) ; the first pervading and active, the second
dense and heavy ; the first he defined to be positive, real,
and the intellectual element (tyfitovprybs) ; the second the
negative element (jiy bv) ; or as he preferred to style it —
a limitation of the former.8 From this twofold division he
derived his doctrine of changes ; which he applied even to
the phenomena of the mind.
Melissus.
Artstotelts liber de Xenophane, Zenone, Gorgi&, c. I, 2 ; et
Spalding, Comment ad h. lib. See Bibliogr. § 97 ; cf. Diog. Laert.
lib. IX, § 24.
1 Sextus Emp. Adv. Mathem. VII, 111. Arist. Metaph. I, 5.
Diog. Laert. IX, 22.
2 See Frag, in Fulleborn, V, 45, 46, 88—91, 93, sqq.
3 Parmenidis Fragmenta, in the Collection of Fulleborn, V, 39,
sqq. Arist. Physic. I, 2; Metaph. Ill, 4; Lib. de Xenophane, 4.
Plutarch. De Plae. Philos. I, 24. Sext. Empir. Adv. Math. X, 46;
Hyp. Pyrrh. Ill, 65. Simplic. in Phys. Arist. p. 19 et 31. Stob. Eel.
I, p. 412, sqq.
4 Simplic. Comment, in Arist. de Coelo, p. 38, b.
5 Cic. Acad. Qiiaest. II, 37. Plutarch. De Plac. II, 7—26; III, 1,
15; IV, 5; V, 7. Sext. Empiric. IX, 7, sqq. Stob. Eel. I, p. 500.
510. 516, etal.
100 — 101.] MELISSUS — ZENO. 69
100. Melissus of Samos,1 adopted (possibly from the
teaching of the two last philosophers) the same system of
idealism, but characterized by greater boldness in his way
of stating it, and, in some respects, by profounder views.
What really existed, he maintained, could not either be pro-
duced or perish ; it exists without having either commence-
ment or end; infinite (differing in this respect from Par-
menides), and consequently, one ; invariable, not composed of
parts, and indivisible : which doctrine implies a denial of the
existence of bodies, and of the dimensions of space. All that
our senses present to us (that is to say, the greater part of
things which exist), is nothing more than an appearance
relative to our senses (to eV rjfjuv), and is altogether beyond the
limits of real knowledge.2 As for the relation between real
existence and the Deity, we are ignorant of the sentiments
of Melissus on this head ; for what is reported by Diog.
Laert. IX, 24, can be considered as relating only to the
popular notions.
Zeno.
See the works mentioned in § 97.
Diet. Ttedemann, Utrum Scepticus fuerit an Dogmaticus Zeno
Eleates; Nova Bibliotheca Philol. et Crit. vol. I, fasc. 2; cf. f St^eud-
lin, Spirit of Scepticism, vol. I, 264,
101. Zeno of Elea, an ardent lover of liberty,3 travelled,
with his friend and teacher Parmenides, to Athens, about the
LXXX Olympiad,4 and appeared in the character of a
defender of the idealism of the Eleatic school, which could
not but seem to people at large, strange and absurd ; endea-
vouring, with great acuteness, to prove that the system of
empiric realism is still more absurd.5 1st. Because, if we
admit if there is a plurality of real essences, we must admit
them to possess qualities which are mutually destructive of
1 He was distinguished as a statesman and naval commander, and
flourished about 444 B.C.
2 Arist. Phys. I, 2, 3, 4 ; III, 9 ; De Coelo, III, 1 ; De Sophist.
Elench. 28. Simplic. in Physic. Arist. p 8 et 9. 22. 24, 25 ; in Arist.
de Coelo, p. 28, a. Cic. Acad. Quaest. II, 37. Sext. Emp. Pyrrh.
Hyp. Ill, 65 ; Adv. Math. X, 46. Stob. Eel. 1, p. 440.
a Plutarch, Adv. Colot. ed. Eeiske, vol. X, p. 630. Diog. Laert.
IX, 25, sqq. Val. Max. Ill, 3.
4 460 B.C. 6 Plato, Parmenides, p. 74, sqq.
70 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
eacli other, similitude, for example, and dissimilitude ; unity
and plurality ; movement and repose.1 2ndly. We cannot
form an idea of the divisibility of an extended object without
a contradiction being involved ; for the parts must be either
simple or compounded ; in the first of which cases the body
has no magnitude, and ceases to exist ; in the second it has
no unity, being at the same time finite and infinite.2 3rdlyt
Innumerable difficulties result (according to Zeno) from the
supposition of motion in space : if such motion be allowed to
be possible, the consequence is, that infinite space must, in a
given time, be traversed. He has acquired great celebrity
by his four logical arguments against motion,3 and parti-
cularly by the well-known one named Achilles.4 4thly. IVe
cannot form a notion of space as an object, without conceiving it
to be situated in another space, and so on ad infinitum.* And
in general he denies that the absolute unity which the
Reason requires as a character of real existence, is in any
sort to be recognized in the objects of the senses.6 By thus
opposing reason to experience, Zeno opened the way to
scepticism ; at the same time laying the foundations of a
system of logic, of which he was the first teacher ;7 and
employing dialogue.8
102. The speculations of the Eleatae (to which Xeniades of
Corinth9 also attached himself)10 were subsequently pursued
in the school of Megara. They did not fail to meet with
opponents, but their real fallacy was not so readily dis-
covered. Plato, by making a due distinction between ideas
and their objects, approached the nearest to the truth.
1 Plato, Phaedr. vol. Ill, p. 261. Simf-lic. in Phys. Arist. p. 30.
2 Simplic. 1. c.
3 Akist. Physic. VI, 9, 14. Cf. Plato, Parmenid. 1. c.
4 Car. Henr. Erdm. Lohse, Diss, (praeside HofFbauer) de Argu-
ments quibus Zeno Eleates nullum esse Motum demonstravit, etc.
Hal. 1794, 8vo.
6 Arist. Phys. IT, 3, 5.
6 Arist. Metaph. Ill, 4. Simplic. in Phys. p. 30. Senec. Ep. 30.
7 Plutarch. Pericles. Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. VII, 7. Diog.
Laert. IX, 25, 47.
8 Arist. De Sophist. Elench. c. 10.
9 Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. VII, 48, 53 ; VIII, 5.
10 In the fifth century B.C.
102 — 103.] XENIADES — HEEACLITUS. 71
IV. Heraclitus.
Joh. Bonitii Diss, de Heraclito Ephesio, P. I-— IV, Schneeberg,
1605, 4to.
Gottfr. Olearii Diatribe de Principio Kerum Katuralium ex mente
Heracliti, Lips. 1697, 4to. Ejusdem: Diatribe de rerum naturalium
genesi ex mente Heracliti, ibid. 1672, 4to.
Jo. Upmark, Diss, de Heraclito Ephesionim Philosopho, Upsal,
1710, 8vo.
Joh. Math. Gesneri Disp. de Animabus Heracliti et Hippocratis,
Comm. Soc. Gott torn. I.
Chr. Gottlob Heyne, Progr. de Animabus siccis ex Heracliteo
placito optime ad sapientiam et virtutem instructis, Gotting. 1781,
fol. ; and in his Opusc. Acad. vol. III.
*f* F. Schleiermacher, Heraclitus of Ephesus, surnamed the Obscure ;
compiled from the fragments of his work, and the testimonies of ancient
writers, in the third fasciculus of vol. I, of the Musseum der Alter-
thumswissenschaften, Berl. 1808, 8vo. Cf. the work of Ritter, p. 60,
referred to under the head of § 85; and, in answer to the views of
Schleiermacher, Theod. L. Eichoff, Dissertationes Heracliteae, partic.
I, Mogunt. 1824, 4to.
103. By his birth Heraclitus of Ephesus belonged to the
Ionian school.1 He was a profound thinker, of an inquisitive
spirit, and the founder of a sect called after him, which had
considerable reputation and influence. His humour was
melancholy and sarcastic, which he indulged at the expense
of the democracy established in his native town, and with
which he was disgusted. The knowledge he had acquired of
the systems of preceding philosophers (vying with one
another in boldness), of Thales, Pythagoras, and Xeno-
phanes,2 created in him a habit of scepticism of which he
afterwarks cured himself. The result of his meditations was
committed to a volume, the obscurity3 of which procured for
him the appellation of GKOTeivb?} He also made it his
object to discover an elemental principle ; but either because
his views were different, or from a desire to oppose himself
to the Eleatse, he assumed it to be fire, because the most
subtle and active of the elements. Fire he asserted to be
1 He flourished about 500 B.C.
2 According to some, he was the disciple of this philosopher.
3 This work is cited under different titles ; e. g. Movam, Fragments
in Henr. Steph. Poes. Philos. Cf. Schleiermacher.
4 Diog. Laert. IX, 5; et II, 22. Arist. Rhet. Ill; De Mundo 5.
Cic. De Nat. Deor. I, 26; III, 14; De Fin. II, 5.
72 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
the foundation of all things, and the universal agent. The
universe he maintained to be neither the work of gods nor
men ; but ajire, continually kept alive, but with alternations
of decay and resuscitation, according to fixed laws.1 Hence
he appears to have deduced among others the following
opinions ; 1. The variability, or perpetual flux of things
(porj)2 wherein also consists the life of animals.3 2. Their
formation and dissolution by fire ; the motion from above
and from below {ohbs llvw kcltiv) • the first by evaporation,
or avaOvfilaois ; and the future conflagration of the universe.4
3. The explanation of all changes by means of discord
(7t6\€/llo^\ £pi<?) and universal opposition (eVajmoTjp) according
to fixed and immutable laws (ei/uapfievr))b. 4. The principle
of force and energy he asserted to be the principle also of
thought. The universe he maintained to be full of souls and
dcemones, endowed with a portion of this all-pervading fire.
He maintained the excellence of the soul to consist in its
aridity, or freedom from aqueous particles — aorj Y^X1? apirnrj
or (jo^wTaTrj.6 The soul, he continued, by its relation with
the divine reason (koivo? ical 6e?o<? \070s), is capable, when
awake, of recognizing the universal and the true ; whereas
by the exercise of the organs of the senses, it perceives only
what is variable and individual.7 We may remark, that this
system, with which we are very imperfectly acquainted, and
which furnished a great many hints to Plato, the Stoics, and
iEnesidemus, contained many original and acute observa-
1 Aristot. Metaph. I, c. 3, 7 ; De Mundo, c. 5. Simpltc. in Phys.
Arist. p. 6. Clem. Alexand. Strom, lib. V.
* Plat. Cratyl. vol. Ill, ed. Bipont. p. 267. Cf. Theaetet. ihid. p. 69.
3 Plutarch. De Plac. Phil. I, 23, 27, 28. De a' apud Delph. p. 227,
239.
4 Arist. De Coelo, I, 10; III, 1. Plutarch, de d apud Delph.
Diog. Laert, IX, 8.
6 Diog. Laert IX, 7, 8, 9. Simplic. in Phys. p. 6. Plat. Sympos.
c. 12.
6 According to Stob., Serm. 17, and Ast, On the Phgedrus of Plato,
c. III. ed. Lips. 1810, Xvyrj i,r)c,r) iiv\r\ (ro6wror//. On this expression
compare, besides the works mentioned above, Pet. Wesseling, Obs. de
Heracl. avt] >\^v\r) and>wTciTr} Kai apiary, in ej. Observatt. Miscell.
Amstelod. vol. V, c. Ill, p. 42.
7 Aristot. De Anima, I, 2, 3. Plutarch. De Plac. Phil. IV, 3.
Sextus, Adv. Math. VII, 126, sqq. Cf. 249, VIII, 286; Hyp. Pyrrh,
III, 230. Stob. Eel. I, p. 194, sqq. 906.
104).] THE ATOMIC SCHOOL. — LEUCIPPUS. 73
tions, which were applied also to moral and political
questions.
V. Speculations of the Atomic School.
Diog. Laert. lib. IX, § 30, sqq. ; and Bayle's Diet. art. Leucippe.
104. Leucippus, a contemporary, possibly also a disciple of
Parmenides,1 opposed the system of the Eleatse ; which he
unjustly accused of contradicting itself, by advancing the ex-
clusive and narrow doctrine of atoms (the corpuscular
system2) ; a doctrine which, agreeably to experience, main-
tained the existence of motion and plurality? He asserted
also the existence of a matter filling space (to TrXijpe?), and
constituting the element of reality ; by the division of which
we arrive at something indivisible, to arofiov ; while at the
same time he taught the existence of a vacuum (to icevov) ;
opposed to material reality, yet possessing a certain reality
of its own ;4 and endeavoured to account for the actual state
of the world by the union (TrelpTrXetji? or avfXTrXofctj) and the
separation (BiaKparis) of material reality, within the limits of
this void. Accordingly, the elementary principles of this
system of materialism are the atoms, vacuum, and motion ;
and we recognize in it none but corporeal essences. The
atoms, the ultimate elements of what is real, are invariable,
indivisible, and imperceptible, owing to their tenuity ; they
occupy space, and possess forms infinitely diversified ; those
which are round possessing also the property of motion. It
is by their combination or separation (he continues) that all
things have their origin, and are brought to their dissolution ;
their modifications (aWoiwaei?) and properties being deter-
mined by the order (SiaOi^r) Ta£<s) and position (Tonrfj-Oeais)
of the atoms ; and take place in consequence of a law of
absolute necessity. The soul itself he defined to be nothing
but a mass of round atoms ; whence result heat, motion, and
thought.5
1 Flourished about 500 B.C. His birth-place is unknown; probably
Miletus.
2 Cf. above, § 74, at the end.
3 Arist. De Generat. et Corrupt. I, 8. 4 Arist. Phys. IV, 3.
5 Arist. De Gen. I, 1, 2, 8; De Coelo I, 7; III, 4; Metaph. I, 4;
De Animtl I, c. 2. Simplic. in Phys. Arist. p. 7. Stob. Eel. I, p. 160,
306, 442, 796.
74 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
Democritus.
The fragments of Democritus have been collected by Stephens, and
are to be found still more complete in Okelli Opusc. Graec. Senten-
tiosa, I, 91, sqq.
Diog. Laert. IX, 34, sqq. ; and Bayle, art. Democrite.
Joh. Chrysost. Magneni Democritus reviviscens, sive Vita et Philo-
sophia Democriti, Ludg. Bat. 1648, Hag. 1658, 12mo.
Joh. Geuderi Democritus Abderita Philosophus accuratissimus, ab
injuriis vindicatus et pristinae fama restitutus. Altd. 1665, 4to.
G. Fr. Jenichen, Progr. de Democrito Philosopho, Lips. 1720, 4to.
Godofr. Ploucquet, De placitis Democriti Abderitae, Tubing. 1767,
4to. And in his Commentatt. Philos. sel.
Jo. Cour. Schwarz, Diss, de Democriti theologia, Cobl. 1718, 4to.
See also the work of Hill, mentioned § 151.
105. Democritus of Abdera.1 This ardent inquirer into
Nature, ill-understood by his countrymen of Abdera, and to
whom has been attributed by subsequent tradition a laugh-
ing vein, in opposition to the melancholy of Heraclitus, his
contemporary, had been a great traveller for the purpose
of amassing instruction, and composed several works ; none
of which have come down to us entire. He expanded the
atomic theory of his master, Leucippus ;2 to support the
truth of which he maintained the impossibility of division
ad infinitum ; and from the difficulty of assigning a com-
mencement of time, he argued the eternity of existing
nature, of void space, and of motion.3 He supposed the
atoms, originally similar, to be endowed with certain pro-
perties, such as impenetrability and a density proportionate
to their volume. He referred every active and passive
aifection to motion, caused by impact ; limited by the
principle he assumed, that only like can act on like.4 He
drew a distinction between primary motion and secondary ;
impulse and reaction (iraXfws and avrnvTrla); from a com-
bination of which he deduced rotatory motion (hlvrj).
Herein consists the law of necessity (avd^KTj), by which all
things in nature are ruled.5 From the endless multiplicity
1 Born about 490 or 494; according to others, 460 or 470.
2 Arist. De Gen. Anim. 5, 8.
3 Arist. De Generat. et Corrupt. I, 2 ; Physic. Till, 1 ; De Generat.
Anim. II, 6. Diog. Laert. IX, 44. 4 De Gener. I, 7.
5 Arist. De Generat. et Corrupt. I, 7 ; Physicor. IV, 3. Diog. IX,
45, 49. Sextus, Adv. Math. IX, 113. Plut. De Decret. Philos. I, 25.
Cf. Stob. Eel. I, 394.
105.] DEMOCRITUS. 75
of atoms have resulted the worlds which we behold, with
all the properties of immensity, resemblance, and dissimili-
tude, which belong to them. The soul consists (such is his
doctrine) in globular atoms of fire,1 which impart move-
ment to the body. Maintaining throughout his atomic
theory, Democritus introduced the hypothesis of images
(eiSivXa), a species of emanation from external objects,
which make an impression on our senses, and from the
influence of which he deduced sensation (aiaOrjcn?), and
thought (voijats). He distinguished between a rude, im-
perfect, and therefore false perception (o-zcot/i/), and a true
one (jvTjairj)} In the same manner, consistently with his
theory, he accounted for the popular notions of the Deity ;
partly through our incapacity to understand fully the phe-
nomena of which we are witnesses, and partly from the
impressions communicated by certain beings (eiBtoXa) of
enormous stature, and resembling the human figure, which
inhabit the air.3 To these he ascribed dreams and the
causes of divination.4 He carried his theory into practical
philosophy also, laying down that happiness consisted in an
equability of temperament (evOv/Liia); whence he deduced his
moral principles and prudential maxims.5 Democritus had
many admirers ;6 among others, Nessus, or JNTessas, of Chios,
and the countryman of the latter (and according to some
his pupil) ; Metrodorus (by whom were propagated certain
sceptical notions) ;7 Diomenes of Smyrna ; Nausiphanes of
Teios, the master of Epicurus ; Diagoras of Melos, the
freedman and disciple of Democritus, who is also numbered
among the Sophists (§ 110), and was obliged to quit
1 Artst. De Anim. I, 2. Plutarch. De Plac. Pliilos. IV, 3.
2 Arist. de Anima I, 2, 3. Plutarch. De Plac. Philos. IV, 3, 4, 8,
13, 19. Arist. De Sensu, c. 4 ; De Divinat. per Somnum, c. 2.
Sextus Adv. Math. VII, 135, sqq. ; VIII, 6, 184; Hyp. Pyrrh. I, 213,
sqq. Arist. Metaph. IV, 5. Cic. De Divin. II, 67.
3 J. C. Schwarz, Diss, de Democriti Theologia, Gobi. 1718, 4to.-
4 Sextus, Adv. Math. IX, 19, 24. Plutarch. De defectu Oraculor.
IX, p. 326 ; Vita Jlmilii Paulli, II, p. 168. Cic Nat. Deor. I, 12, 43 ;
De Divin. I, 3.
5 Diog. Laert. IX, 45. Stob. Eel. II, p. 74, sqq. Cic. De Fin. V, 8, 29.
6 Diog. Laert. IX, 58, sqq.
7 Cic. Acad. Quaest. IV, 23. Sextus, Adv. Math. VII, 48, 88.
76 FIRST PERIOD. [SETC.
Athens1 on account of his reputed atheism;* Anaxarclius
of Abdera, the contemporary and friend of Alexander the
Great ; and others. It was from Democritus that Epicurus
borrowed the principal features of his metaphysics.
VI. Empedocles.
Empedocles Agrigentinus, De Vit& et Philosophic ejus exposuit,
Carminum Keliquias ex Antiquis Scriptoribus collegit, recensuit, illus-
travit Fr. Guil. Sturz, Lips. 1805, 8vo. Cf. Phil. Buttmanni Observ.
in Sturzii Empedoclea, in the Comment. Soc. Phil. Lips. 1804, et
Empedoclis et Parmenidis Fragmenta, etc. ; restituta et illustrata ab
Amadeo Peyron, Lips. 1810, 8vo.
J. G. Neumanni Progr. de Empedocle Philosopho, Viteb. 1790, fol.
f P. Nic. Bonamy, Researches respecting the Life of Empedocles ;
in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscript. vol. X.
+ Tiedemann, System of Empedocles; in Gott. Mag. torn. IV, No. 3.
+ H. Hitter, On the Philosophic Doctrine of Empedocles, in the
Litterarische Analekten of Fr. Aug. Wolff, fasc. IV.
Domenico Scina, Memorie sulla Vita e Filosofia di Empedocle
Gergentino. Palermo, 1813, 2 tomi, 8vo.
106. Empedocles of Agrigentum3 distinguished himself
by his knowledge of natural history and medicine ;4 and his
talents for philosophical poetry. It is generally believed
that he perished in the crater of iEtna.5 Some suppose
him to have been a disciple of Pythagoras or Archytas
(Diog. Laert. VIII, 54, sqq.); others, of Parmenides. He
cannot have been an immediate scholar of the first, inas-
much as Aristotle (Met. 1, 3) represents him as contempo-
rary with, but younger than Anaxagoras ; and because he
appears to have been the master of G-orgias. His philoso-
phy, which he described in a didactic poem, of which only
1 In 415 B.C.
2 Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Math. IX, 51, sqq., Hyp. Pyrrh. Ill, 218.
Mariangelus Bonifacius a Eeuthen, de Atheismo Diagorse. J. Jac.
Zimmermanni Epist. de Atheismo Evemeri et Diagorse, in Mus. Brem.
vol. I, p. 4. Thienemann, On the Atheism of Diagoras, apud Fulle-
born, fasc. XI, No. 2. Cf. p. 57, sqq. ; and Bayle's Dictionary, s. h. v.
3 Flourished about 442 , according to others 460 B.C.
4 Which procured him of old the reputation of working miracles,
(probably mesmerism). Diog. Laert. VIII, 51. Cf. Theoph. Gust.
Harles, Prcgrammata de Empedocle, num ille meritd possit magiae
accusari, Erl. 1788-90, fol.
6 Ge. Phil. Olearu Progr. de Morte Empedoclis, Lips. 1733, fol.
106.] EMPEDOCLES. 77
fragments have come down to us, combined the elements of
various systems : most nearly approaching that of Pythago-
ras and Heraclitus, but differing from the latter, principally :
1st. Inasmach as Empedocles more expressly recognises
four elements,1 earth, water, air, and fire: these elements
(compare his system, in this respect, with that of Anaxago-
ras) he affirmed not to be simple in their nature ; and
assigned the most important place to fire.2 2ndly. Besides
the principle of concord (0tX/a), opposed to that of discord
(j/efxo?), (the one being the source of union and good, the
other of their opposites), he admitted into his system
necessity also, to explain existing phenomena.3 To the first
of these principles he attributed the original composition
of the elements. The material world (o<fia7po<s /ul^/ia*) he
believed, as a whole, to be divine : but in the sublunar
portion of it he detected a considerable admixture of evil
and imperfection.5 He taught that at some future day all
things must again sink into chaos. He advanced a subtle
and scarcely intelligible theory of the active and passive
affections of things (Cf. Plato Menon. ed. Steph. p. 76, C.
D. ; Arist. De Gener. et Corr. I, 8 ; Fragm. ap. Sturz. v.
117), and drew a distinction between the world as presented
to our senses (kos/lw? cuV^t-os), and that which he presumed
to be the type of it, the intellectual world (icoa/no? voipo's),6
He looked for the principle of life in fire ; admitting at the
same time, the existence of a Divine Being pervading the
universe.7 From this superior intelligence he believed the
Dcemones to emanate, to whose nature the human soul is
allied. Man is a fallen Daemon. There will be a return to
unity, a transmigration of souls, and a change of forms.
The soul he defined to consist in a combination of the four
elements (because cognition depends upon the similarity of
the subject and object); and its seat he pronounced to be
1 D. C L. Struve, De Elementis Empedoclis, Dorp. 1807, 8vo.
2 Arist. Met. I, 4 ; De Generat. et Corrupt. I, 1,8; II, 6.
3 Arist. Phys. II, 4; De Partib. Animal. I, \; II, 8.
4 Simplic. in Phys. Arist.
5 Arist. Metaph. I, 4 ; III, 4. Plutarch. De Solertia Animal.
6 Fragm. edit. Peyron, p. 27. Simplic. in Arist- Phys. p. 7. De
Coelo, p. 128.
7 Sext. Adv. Math. IX, 64 et 127. Cf. Arist. Metaph. Ill, 4.
78 FIRST PERIOD. ['SECT.
principally the blood.1 He appears to have made a dis-
tinction also between good and evil Dcemones?
VII. Others of the Ionian School.
Hermotimus and Anaxagoras.
For the traditions relating to Hermotimus of Clazomenae, see a
+ Critical Inquiry by Fr. Aug. Carus, in the Collection of Fiilleborn,
fasc. IX, p. 58, sqq.
+ Heinius, Dissertations on Anaxagoras, torn. VIII and IX of the
History of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Prussia
(French); and in the Magazine of Hissmann, torn. V, § 335, sqq.
(German).
De Ramsay, Anaxagoras, ou Systeme qui prouve l'lmmortalite" de
l'ame par la matiere du Chaos, qui fait le Magnetisme de la Terre,
La Haye, 1778, 8vo.
God. Ploucquet, A work mentioned above, § 85.
*t Fr. Aug. Carus, On Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, and the Genius
of his Age, in the Collection of Fulleborn, fascic X. The same, Diss,
de Cosmo-Theologiae Anaxagorse fontibus, Lips. 1797, 4to.
+ J van Vries, Two Dissert, on the Life of Anaxagoras (Dutch),
Amsterd. 1806, 8vo.
J. T. Hemsen, Anaxagoras Clazomenius, sive de Vit& ejus atque
Philosophic Disquis. Philos. Hist. Gotting. 1821, 8vo.
Ritter, Work mentioned above, at the head of § 85.
Anaxagorse Clazomenii Fragmenta, quae supersunt, omnia, collecta
Commentarioque illustrata ab E. Schaubach, etc. Lips. 1827, 8vo.
Schorn, Anaxagorae et Diogenes Appoloniatis Fragmenta, 1829,
Breier, Die philosophic des Anaxagoras von Klazomena, nach Aris-
toteles, 1840.
Sketch of the Life, Character, and Philosophy of Anaxagoras,
Classical Journal, No. XXXIII, p. 173-177.
107. Anaxagoras? animated by an extraordinary love of
science, distinguished himself among the most celebrated
thinkers by following this principle, that the study of the
heavens and of nature is the proper occupation of man.4
He is looked upon by some as the disciple of Anaximenes
(which is inconsistent with chronology), and by others, of
Hermotimus, who was also a native of Clazomenae, and is
said to have recognized a Superior Intelligence as the
1 Arist. De Anim. I, 2. Sext. Adv. Math. I, 303; VII, 121.
Plutarch. De Deer. Philos. IV, 5 , V, 25.
2 Plutarch. De Is. et Osir. p. 361.
3 Born at Clazomenae, about 500 B.C. The friend of Pericles.
4 Arist. Eth. Eudem. I, 5.
107.] HERMOTIMUS — ANAXAGORAS. 79
Author of nature.1 In his forty-fifth year Anaxagoras fixed
himself at Athens ; but in consequence of the machinations
of a party, he was accused of being an enemy to religion,
without its being possible even for Pericles to protect him ;
and retired to end his days at Lampsacus.* Nothing has so
much contributed to his celebrity as his doctrine of a NoSe,
or intellectual principle, the Author of the universe ; a con-
clusion to which he was led in consequence of the superior
attention he paid to the system of nature ; the mystical
revelations of his countryman Hermotimus3 possibly con-
tributing to form in him this opinion ; as well as the mani-
fest inconsistency and inadequacy of all those systems which
had recognised only material causes. Adhering to the prin-
ciple, ex nihilo nihil fit, he admitted the existence of a
chaotic matter, the constituent elements of which, always
united and identical (ra o^oio/xeprjYj are incapable of being
decomposed; and by the arrangement of which and their
dissemination he undertook to account for the phenomena
of the natural world;5 adding, that this chaos, which he
conceived surrounded by air and aether, must have been put
in movement and animated at the first by the Intelligent
Principle. "Sods he defined to be the apxrj rrjs Kivrjaevos.
Prom this first principle he deduces motion, at first circular
(jrepixwpr]<7L<i) ; from which resulted the separation (htaKpiat^)
of the discordant parts, the union (avtiiut-is) of the ana-
logous parts : in fine, proportion and order. Intelligence he
considers as the forming and regulating cause ; it possesses,
according to him, omniscience, greatness, power, free energy,
and spontaneity (avroKpaies) ; it is simple and pure ; distinct
1 Arist. Met. I, 3. Sext. Adv. Math. IX, 7.
2 In 428 B.C.
3 Arist. Metaph. I, 3. Plin. Hist. Nat. VII, 52.
4 The term Homceomeriae appears to be of more recent invention.
Another of his maxims was, kv ttclvti irdvra that in everything
there is a portion of everything.
5 G. De Vries, Exercitationes de Homoiomeri& Anaxagorae, Ultra'
ject. 1692, 4to. + Batteux, Conjectures respecting the Homoiomeriae,
or Similar Elements of Anaxagoras. The same, Developpement d'un
Principe Fondamental de la Physique des Anciens, etc. Mem. de
l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. XXV , and t Hismann, Magaz. vol. Ill,
sect. 153 and 191. See also G. K. "Wiener, On the Homceomeriae of
Anaxagoras, Wormat. 1771 (Lat.\ and Eilers, Essay on his Principle,
top vuvv dvai TravTuiv clLtlov. Fcf. ad M. 1822, 8vo. <
80 FIRST TEEIOD. [SECT.
from all matter; pervading and determining all things; and
consequently the principle of all life (Y^X1) T0" xoapov), of
all sensation, and of all perception in the world.1
Anaxagoras was more inclined to the study of physics
than of metaphysics, for which reason he is accused by Plato2
and by Aristotle3 of not having conceded enough to final
causes, and of having converted Grod into a machine. Ac-
cordingly he explained on physical principles the formation
of plants and animals, and even celestial phenomena;4 which
drew upon him the charge of atheism.5 Nevertheless, he
regarded the testimony of the senses as subjectively true ;
but as insufficient to attain to objective truth,6 which was
the privilege of the reason (Xo'ryo?).
Diogenes of Apollonia and Arclielaus.
+ F. Schleiermaoher, On the Philosophy of Diogenes of Apollonia,
in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sc. of Berlin, 1815.
Fr. Panzerbieter, De Diogenis Apolloniatse Vitil et Scriptis,
Meining. 1823, 4to.
108. The theism of Anaxagoras appears to have influenced
Diogenes of Apollonia in Crete, as well as Arclielaus of
Miletus (or, according to others, of Athens), who were both
at Athens at the same period. But the idea of this theism
was too new to be understood in a sufficiently clear and
profound manner so long as it remained separate from
practical notions. Diogenes7 maintained that air was the
fundamental principle of all Nature, and imputed it to an
1 Diog. Laert. II, 6, sqq. Arist. Phys. I, 4 ; VIII, 1 ; Metaph.
I, 3 ; De Generat. et Corrupt. I, 1. Simplic. in Phys. Arist. p. 33, sqq.
Arist. De Anima, I, 1.
2 Phaed. c. 46, sqq.
3 Metaph. I, 4. Aristotle accuses him of using the Deity only as a
machine in his philosophy.
4 Maintaining that the sun was originally ejected from the earth, and
heated till it became a fiery mass, by rapid motion.
5 Theophrast. Hist. Plantar. Ill, 2. Diog. Laert. II, 9. Xenoph.
Memorab. IV, 7. Plato, Apol. Socr. 14.
« Sextus, Hypotyp. I, 33*; Adv. Math. VII, 90. Arist. Metaph.
IV, 5, 7. Cic. Tusc. Qusest. IV, 23, 31.
7 Cf. above, § 87. He was sometimes surnamed Physicus; and
flourished about 472 B.C. In his adoption of one elementary principle
he resembled the Ionian school : his book was intitled ilepi tyvatug, of
which Simplicius has preserved us several fragments.
108 — 109.] DIOGENES — AECHELAUS. 81
intellectual energy:1 uniting in this respect the system of
Anaximenes with that of Anaxagoras. On the other hand,
Archelatis, a disciple of Anaxagoras,2 maintained that all
things were disengaged from the original chaos by the ope-
ration of two discordant principles of heat and cold (or of
fire and water); that mankind had insensibly separated
themselves from the common herd of the inferior animals ;
and was inclined to believe that our ideas of what is just,
and the contrary, are conventional, and not by nature : to
hlicaiov elvai ical to al^pbu ov (fivaei aXXa vojjlw.z AV^ith
respect to the operations of the mind his system was one
of pure materialism. The system of nature of this last is
still more obscure than that of the former.4
VIII. Transition to the Second Period of Greek Philosophy.
The Sophists.
Particulars and opinions respecting them to be found in Xenophon,
Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Sextus Empir, Diogenes Laertius,
and Philostratus.
Lud. Cresollii Theatrum Veterum Rhetorum, Oratorum, Declama-
torum, i.e., Sophistarum, de eorum discipline ac discendi docendique
ratione, Paris. 1620, 8vo. and in Gronovius, Thes. torn. X.
Ge. Nie. Kriegk, Diss, de Sophistarum Eloquentia, Jena, 1702, 4to.
Jo. Ge. Walchii Diatribe de praemiis Veterum Sophistarum Rheto-
rum atque Oratorum ; in his Parerga Academica, p. 129 ; and De
Enthusiasmo Veterum Sophistarum atque Oratorum, ibid. p. 367, sqq.
t Meiners, History of the Sciences, etc. vol. I, p. 112, sqq. and
vol. II.
Geel, Historia critica Sophistarum, qui Socratis setate Athenis
fioruerunt. In Nov. Act. liter. Societ. Rheno-Trajectinae, P. II,. 1832,
109. The rapid diffusion of all sorts of knowledge and
every variety of speculative system among the Greeks, the
uncertainty of the principles assumed and the conclusions
deduced in the highest investigations, (consequences of the
little stability of the data on which they were grounded),
together with the progress of a certain refinement which
1 Artst. De An. I, 2.; De Generat. et Corrupt. 1, 6. Simpltc. in
Phys. Arist. p. 6 and 32. Diog. Laert. IX, 57. Cxc. De Nat. Deor,
I, 12. Euseb. Praepar. Evang. XV.
2 Flourished about 460 B.C.
3 Diog. Laert. II, 16. Cf. Sextus, Adv. Math. VII, 135.
4 Plutarch. De Plac. Phfios. I, 3. CL Simplic. in Ph. Arist. p. Si
et Stob. Eel. I.
G
82 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
kept pace with the deterioration of their moral and religious
habits, all these causes conspired to give birth to the tribe
of Sophists j1 that is, to a class of persons possessed of a
merely superficial and seeming knowledge ; to the profession
of which they were influenced by merely interested motives.8
The Sophists Gorgias, Protagoras, Prodicus,3 Hippias of
Elis, Polus, Thrasyrnachus, and Collides, were orators aud
scholars, very well practised it is true in the art of speaking,
of dialectics, criticism, rhetoric, and politics ; but being to-
tally devoid of any real love of philosophy, were anxious
only so far to follow the current of their time which set
that way, as to promote their own advantage by means of
their ability as disputants. All they desired was to dis-
tinguish themselves by the show of pretended universal
knowledge ; by solving the most intricate, most fanciful,
and most useless questions ; and above all, hoped to get
money by the pretended possession of the art of persuasion.4
"With this view they had contrived certain logical tricks of a
kind to perplex their antagonists; and, without possessing
in the least degree a spirit of philosophy, they maintained
all sorts of philosophical theories. The end of their system
would have been to destroy all difference between truth snd
error.
Their conduct reflected much of the general character of
their age and country, while it had the advantageous effect
of awakening at length, in others, a nobler and more elevated
spirit of inquiry.
110. The celebrated orator Gorgias of Leontium,5 a dis-
ciple of Empedocles, endeavoured, in his work on Nature,6
1 The term <To<pl<jTr)g had at first been equivalent to that of ootyog.
2 For an opposite view of the character of the Sophists, see Grote's
History of Greece.
3 Welcker, Prodikos von Keos, im Rheinischen Museum. Band. I,
St. I, Nr. 4, 1833.
4 Plat. Tim. ed. Bipont. torn. IX, p. 285. Xenoph. Memorab. I, 6.
Arist. Sophist. Elench. c. 1. Cic. Acad. Qusest. II, 23.
5 Flourished about 440. Was ambassador at Athens 424 B.C.
Foss, De Gorgia Leontino commentatio. 1828.
6 We find, apud Aristot. et Sext. Empir., fragments of this work,
under the title : Uepi tov ur) ovtoq jj irepi <pvaewg. To Gorgias are
also attributed the Speeches which are to be found among the Oratorea
Graeci of Reiske, vol. VIII.
110.] GOEGIAS — PEOTAGOEAS. 83
to demonstrate, by certain subtle arguments, that nothing
real eocists; because neither Negative nor Positive, nor both
at the same time, can really exist. But even granting that
something real did exist, yet 2nd, it would not be cognizable,
because, if thoughts are not the real things, the real cannot
be thought; and if thoughts were the real things, that
which is not real could not be thought ; consequently every-
thing thought must be real in that case. Finally, even if
something were cognizable, still it could not be imparted
through the medium of words, because words do not express
things, and nobody thinks like his neighbour.1 The dis-
tinction he established between objects, impressions, and
words, was important, but led to no immediate result. Pro-
tagoras of Abdera (said to have been the disciple of Demo-
critus) maintained that human knowledge consists only in
the perception of the appearance through the subject, and
that whatsoever appeared to any one, in his state at the
time, was true ;2 consequently, that man is the standard of
all things (jrdvrivv ^pyjjJia'TWV fierpov av0piv7ro<$):3 that, as far
as truth or falsehood are concerned, there is no difference
between our perceptions of external objects ;4 that every
way of considering a thing has its opposite, and that there
is as much truth on the one side as the other ; and that
consequently nothing can be supported in argument with
certainty ;6 maintaining at the same time the sophistical
profession, "to make the worse the better argument.'1 As
for the existence of the gods, he appears to have esteemed it
doubtful,6 in consequence of which he was banished from
1 Akist. De Xenoph. Zenone, et Gorgi&, especially c. V, sqq. Sext.
Adv. Math. VII, 65, sqq.
2 Plat. Theeetet. ed. Bip. II, 68. Sext. Hyp. Pyrrh. I, 217. Cf.
Diog. Laert. IX, 51.
3 Plat. Crat. torn. Ill, 234, sqq. Arist. Met. XI, 5. Sextus, Hyp.
Pyrrh. I, 216, sqq.
4 Plat. Theeetet. p. 89, 90, 102. Sext. Adv. Math. VII, 60, sqq.
369, 388. Cic. Ac. II, 46.
5 Diog. Laert. 1. 1.
6 Cic. De Nat. Deor. I, 12, 23. Sext. Adv. Math. IX, 56, sqq.
Diog. Laert. IX, 51, 53.
On Protagoras, consult, besides the Dialogue which hears his name,
in Plato, ed. Bip. vol. Ill, p. 83, sqq. ; and Meno, vol. IV, p. 372, sqq.,
JElian, A. Gellius, Philostratus, and Suidas. + J. C. Bapt. Nurn-
g 2
84 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
Athens (where he taught), and died in banishment, about
the XCIII Olympiad. Prodicus of Julis in the isle of
Ceos,1 a disciple of Pythagoras, employed himself in inves-
tigating the synonymes of words : deduced the principle of
religion from the appearance of a beneficent intention in
external nature ;2 and declaimed very plausibly on the sub-
ject of virtue.3 Hippias of Elis was a pretender to universal
knowledge.4 Thrasymachus of Chalcedon5 taught that "might
made right ;" and Polus of Agrigentum, Callicles of Acharnae,
JEuthydemus of Chios, and others, that there is no other
principle of obligation for man than instinct, caprice, and
physical force ; and that justice and its opposite are of
political invention.6 Diagoras of Melos was notorious for
professing atheism (§ 105). Critias1 of Athens, the enemy
of Socrates, and reckoned among the partisans of the
Sophists, ascribed the origin of religion to political consi-
derations,8 and appears, like Protagoras, to have asserted
that the soul was material and resided in the senses ; which
last he appears to have placed in the blood.9
berger, Doctrine of the Sophist Protagoras, on existence and non-
existence, Dortm. 1798, 8vo.
Chr. Gottlob Heynii Prolusio in Narrationem de Protagora Gellii.
N. A. V, 10; et Apuleii in Flor. IV, 18, Gotting.1806, On his
Sophisms and those of his disciple Evathlus.
Jo. Lud. Alefeld, Mutua Pythagorae et Evathli Sophismata, quibus
olim in judicio certarunt, etc. Giess. 1730, 8vo.
» About 420 B.C.
2 Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. IX, 18. Cic. De Nat. Deor. T, 42.
3 For example, in his celebrated kirideiiZu;, Hercules ad bivium. See
Xenoph. Memorab. II, 1, 21 ; and Cf. Xenophontis Hercules Prodiceus
et Silii Italici Scipio, perpetua nota illustrati a Gotth. Aug. CuBjEO,
Lips. 1797, 8vo.
4 Plat. In Hipp. Maj. et Min. Xenoph. Memorab. IV, 4. Cic. De
Orat. Ill, 32.
5 Plat. De Eepubl. I; ed. Bip. torn. VI, p. 165, sqq.
6 Plat. Gorgias, Thesetet. de Republ. II, de Leg. X, p. 76.
7 One of the thirty tyrants, died 404 B.C.
s Sext. Hyp. Pyrrh. Ill, 218; Adv. Math. IX, 54.
9 Arist. De Anima, I, 2. •■
Critle Tyranni Carminum aliorumque ingenii Monumentorum, quae
supersunt, dispos. illustr. et emend. Nic. Bachius. Praemissa est
Critiae Vita a Philostrato descripta, Lips. 1827, 8vo. Guil. Ern.
Weber de Critia Tyranno Progr. Francf. ad M. 1824, 4to.
Ill — 112.] PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOLS. 80
CHAPTEB SECOND.
FROM SOCRATES TO THE END OP THE CONTEST BETWEEN
THE PORCH AND THE ACADEMY (SECOND EPOCH OE
GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY,)
111. The Sophists compelled their antagonists to examine
narrowly human nature and themselves, in order to be able
to discover some solid foundation on which philosophy might
take its ground, and defend the principles of truth, religion,
and morality. "With this period began a better system of
Greek philosophy, established by the solid good sense of
Socrates. Philosophy was diverted into a new channel, and
proceeded from the subject to the object, from man to external
nature, instead of beginning at the other end of the chain.
It became the habit to investigate no longer merely specu-
lative opinions ; but likewise, and in a still greater degree,
practical ones also. Systematic methods of proof were now
pursued, and the conclusions arrived at diligently compared.
The want which all began to feel of positive and established
principles, gave birth to different systems ; at the same time
that the scrupulosity with which all such systems were
examined, kept alive the spirit of original inquiry.
112. This alteration was effected under the influence of
some external changes of circumstances also. Athens had
now become, by her constit ution and her commerce, by the
character of her inhabitants, the renown she had acquired in
the Persian war, and other political events, the focus of
Grecian arts and sciences. In consequence, she was the
scene of the labours of their philosophers : schools were
formed in which ideas might be communicated, the intellec-
tual powers of those who frequented them developed by
more frequent and more various contact of the opinions of
others, and emulation continually excited towards continu-
ally higher objects. On the other hand these schools were
liable to the defect of fostering, by their very facilities of
acquiring knowledge, a certain intellectual indolence; in-
creased by the easy repetition of the doctrines of their
teachers, and aided by the methodical nature of the instruc-
tion itself. It was to the powerful influence of the character
86 FIKST PEKIOD. [SECT.
and inquiries of Socrates, that the philosophy of the period
owed the new impressions and bias which were given to it.
I. Socrates.
The principal authorities are i* Xenophon (particularly the Memora-
bilia and Apology of Socrates), and Plato (Apology1?) (Compare these
two writers, in this respect). Secondary sources: Aristotle, Cicero,
Plutarch, Sextus Empiricus, Diogenes Laertius (II, 18, sqq.), Apuleius.
113. Socrates was born at Athens in 470 or 469, and was
the son of a poor sculptor named Sophroniscus, and of
Phaenareta a midwife. He formed himself to a character
completely opposed to the frivolity and sophistical habits
of the refined and corrupted age to which he belonged, par-
Worlcs on the Life, Doctrine, and Character of Socrates.
Fr. Chakpentier, La Vie de Socrate, 3eme edition. Amster. 1699.
J. Gilbert Cooper, The Life of Socrates, collected from the Memora-
bilia of Xenophon and the Dialogues of Plato, Lond. 1749-50, and 1771.
Jac. Guill. Mich. Wasser, Diss. (Praes. G. Chr. Knorr) de Vit&,
Fatis atque Philos. Socrabis, (Etting. 1720, 4to.
+ W. Fr. Heller, Socrates, 2 parts, Francf 1789-90, 8vo.
+ C W. Brumbey, Socrates, after Diog. Laertius, Lemgo, 1800, 8vo.
Dan. Heinsii Socrates, seu Doctrin& et Moribus Socratis Oratio ; in
his Orationes, Lugd. Bat. 1627, 8vo.
Dan. Boethius, De Philosophic Socratis, p. I, Ups. 1788, 4to.
+ Garnier, The Character and Philosophy of Socrates ; in the Mem.
de l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. XXXII.
t G. Wiggers, Socrates as a Man, a Citizen, and Philosopher, Rost.
1807, second edition, Neustrel. 1811, 8vo.
+ Ferd. Delbruck, Reflections and Inquiry concerning Socrates,
Cologne, 1816, 8vo.
J. Andr. Cammii Commentatio (Praes. Jo. Schweigh^euser) : Mores
Socratis ex Xenophontis Memorabilibus delineati, Argent. 1785, 4to.
J. Hacker, Diss. (Praes. Fr. Volkm. Eeinhard), Imago Vitas
Morumque Socratis e Scriptoribus vetustis, Viteb. 1787, 8vo.
J. Lusac, Oratio de Socrate cive, Lugd. Bat. 1796, 4to.
Fr. Mentzii Socrates nee officiosus maritus, nee laudandus pater-
familias, Lips. 1716, 4 to.
Joh. Math. Gesneri Socrates sanctus paederasta, in Comment. Soc.
Eeg. Gotting. torn. II.
Boeckh, De simultate quam Plato cum Xenoph. exercuisse fertur.
1 The pretended Epistles of Socrates, lately published (cf. the biblio-
graphy at the head of § 88), are spurious. See Chph. Meiners, Judi-
cium de quorundam Socraticorum reliquiis, in Comment. Soc. Goto,
vol. V. p. 45, sqq.
113.] SOCEATES. 87
ticularly by living all the while in constant habits of society,
even with women of cultivated minds — the Hetairai. By
these means, added to personal reflection, he became a
venerable sage, whose whole life, m all his relations as
man and citizen, presented the pure image of a beautiful
humanity ennobled by morality. He became the instructor
of his countrymen and of mankind, not for the love of lucre
nor of reputation, but in consequence of a sense of duty.
He was desirous above all things to repress the flight of
speculative theories by the force of an imperturbable good
sense ; to submit the pretensions of science to the control of
a higher authority, that of virtue ; and to re-unite religion to
morality. Without becoming, properly speaking, the founder
of a school or system of philosophy, he drew around him,
by the charms of his conversation, a crowd of young men
and others, inspiring them with more elevated thoughts and
sentiments, and forming several of those most devoted to
him into very brilliant characters. He encountered the
Sophists with the arms of good sense, irony, and the power-
ful argument of his personal character. A constant enemy
to obscurantism and philosophical charlatanism (even in the
circumstances of private life), he drew upon himself the
hatred of many ; under which he ultimately fell.1 He was
accused of contempt for the household gods, and of cor-
rupting the youth by his doctrine. Being condemned to
death, he drank the hemlock goblet, 400 B.C.,2 01. XCV, 1.
1 + On the Trial of Socrates, etc. by Th. Christ. Ttschen, in the
Biblioth. der alten Literatur and Kunst., I and II fasc. 1786.
+ W. Suvern, On the Clouds of Aristophanes, Berl. 1826. With
additions, ibid. 1827.
M. Car. Em. Kettner, Socratem criminis majestatis accusatum vin-
dicat. Lips. 1738, 4to.
Sig. Fr. Dresigii Epistola de Socrate juste damnato, Lips. 1738, 4to.
+ J. C. Chph Nachtigall, On the Condemnation of Socrates, etc.
in the Deutsche Monatsschrift, June 1790, p. 127, sqq.
Car. Lud. Richter, Commentatt. I, II, III, de Libera quam Cicero
vocat Socratis Contumacia, Cassel. 1788-90, 4to.
2 Ge. Christ. Ibbecken, Diss, de Socrate mortem minus fortiter
subeunte, Lips. 1735, 4to.
Jo. Sam. Muller, Ad Actum oratorio-dramaticum de Morte Socratis
invitans, praefationis loco, pro Socratis fortitudine in subeunda morte
contra Ibbeckenium pauca disputat. Hamb. 1738, fol.
Brandis, Grundlinien der Lehre des Sokrates, im Rheinischen
Archiv, 1, 1. St. § 118, f.
88 FIKST PEEIOD. [SECT.
114. Although, properly speaking, Socrates was not the
founder of a philosophical school, yet by his character, his
example, by what he taught, and his manner of communi-
cating it, he rendered, as a wise man and popular teacher,
immense services to the cause of philosophy : calling the
attention of inquirers to those subjects which are of ever-
lasting importance to man, and pointing out the source
from which our knowledge (to be complete) must be derived;
from an investigation of our own minds (^{vwOl aeav-rov).
God.Wilh. Pauli Diss, de Philosophic Morali Socratis, Hal. 1714, 4to.
Edwaeds, The Socratic System of Morals as delivered in Xenoph.
Memorab. Oxford, 1773, 8vo.
Lud. Dissen, Programma de Philosophic Morali in Xenophontis de
Socrate Commentariis tradita, Gott. 1812, 4to.
Schleiermachek, in the Abhandlung der Berlinen Akadem. d. w.
1814-15, § 39, f.
Koetscher's Sokrates und sein Zeitalter.
115. The exclusive object of the philosophy of Socrates
was the attainment of correct ideas concerning moral and
religious obligation ; concerning the end of man's being, and
the perfection of his nature as a rational being ; and lastly
his duties ; all of which he discussed in an unpretending and
popular manner ; appealing to the testimony of the moral
sense within us. 1st. The chief happiness of man consists
in knowing the good which it is his duty to do, and acting
accordingly : this is the highest exercise of his faculties, and
in this consists evirpa^m (right action).1 The means to
this end are self-knowledge, and the habit of self-control.
Wisdom (ffocfiia), which he often represents as moderation
(owcfypoovvrj), may be said to embrace all the virtues;2 and
on this account he sometimes called virtue a science? The
duties of man towards himself embrace also continence
(iryicpcLTeia) and courage (avhpeia).4. Our duties towards
others are comprised in justice (pucaioovvij) ; that is, the
fulfilment of the laws, human and divine. Socrates appears
to have been the first to make allusion to natural right or
justice.5 2ndly. Virtue and happiness (ev&ai/novia) he held
1 Xenoph. Memorab. Ill, § 14, sqq. ; Cf. I, 5 ; IV, 4, 5, 6.
2 Ibid. Ill, 9, § 4 et 5. 3 Arist. Eth. Nicom. VI, 13.
4 Xenoph. Memorab. I, 5, § 4 ; IV, 5, § 6 ; IV, 6, § 10, sqq.
5 Xenoph. Memorab. IV, c. 4, c. 6, § 12. To <pv<jn diicaiov.
Jac. Guil. Fuerlin, Diss. Historico-philosophica, Jus Naturse Socra-
ticum. Altdorf. 1719, 4to.
114 — 115.] SOCRATES. 89
to be inseparably united.1 3rdly. Religion (e?W/3em), is the
homage rendered to the Divinity by the practice of virtue ;
and consists in a. continual endeavour to effect all the good
which our faculties permit us to do.2 4thly. The Supreme
Being is the first author and the guardian of the laws of
morals :3 his existence is proved by the order and harmony
observable in all nature ; both in the inward constitution of
man, and the world without. (Eirst instance of theology
deduced from the order of nature). He is a rational but
invisible Being, revealing himself only by his works.*
Socrates acknowledged, moreover, a Providence ; (to which
doctrine he superadded a belief in divination, and in a
tutelar daemon of his own);5 with the other attributes of
the Divinity which have a reference to the good government
of the world without, and in particular of man.6. He deemed
that beyond this his inquiries ought not to extend. Sthly.
The soul he considered to be a divine being, or similar to
1 Xenoph. Memorab. Ill, 9; IY, 2, § 34, sqq.;I,6,§ 10. Cic. Offic. Ill, 3.
2 Xenoph. Memorab. I, 1, § 2, 3 ; III. 9, 15.
3 Ibid. I, 2, 4; IV, 3, 4. Plat. Apol. Socr. c. 15.
4 M. Lud. Theop. Mylii Diss, de Socratis Theologia, Jen. 1714, 4to.
J. Fr. Aufschlager, Comment. (Prseside J. ^ohweigHjEuser) : Theo-
logia Socratis ex Xenoph. Memorab. excerpta, Argent. 1785, 4to.
5 God. Olearii Dissert, de Socratis Dsemonio, Lips. 1702; and in
Stanley, Hist. Philos. p. 130, sqq.
t Chph. Meiners, On the Genius of Socrates, in part III of his
Misc. Works.
T On the Genius of Socrates, a Philosophical Inquiry, by Aug. G.
Uhle, Hanov. 1778, 8vo. The same, previously published in the
Deutsches Museum, 1777.
+ Parallel between the Genius of Socrates and the Miracles of Jesus
Christ, by Doctor Less, Gottingen, 1778, 8vo. (an Answer to the
preceding.)
See also the Dissert, of Schlosser, Gotting. 1778, fasc. I, p. 71 and 76.
+ On the Genius of Socrates, a new Philosophical Inquiry (by J.
Chph. Kxenig;, Francf. and Leips. 1777, 8vo.
B. J. C. Justi, On the Genius of Socrates, Lsips. 1779, 8vo.
Bob. Nares, An Essay on the Demon or Divination of Socrates,
Lond. 1782, 8vo.
Matth. Fremling, De Genio Socratis, Lond. 1793, 4to.
+ J. C. Nachtigall, Did Socrates believe in his Genius'? Deutsche
Monatsschrift, 1794, fasc. XI, p. 326.
J. Fr. Schaarschmtdt, Socratis Daemonium per tot secula a tot
hominibus doctis examinatum quid et quale merit, num tandem
constat] Nivemont. 1812, 8vo.
6 Xenoph. Memorab. I, 4; IV, 3.
90 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
God. He believed it to approximate tlie Divinity {fieiexeiv
too Oeov) in respect of its reason and invisible energy, and
on this account he considered it immortal.1 6thly All the
other arts and sciences which have no reference to practice
he looked upon as vain, without object, and unacceptable to
Grod: though he himself was not unacquainted with the
mathematics, and the speculations of the Sophists.2
116. The method of teaching observed by Socrates3 was a
sort of intellectual obstetricism (jituevTiicrj) ; agreeable to
which he made it his practice to elicit from each, in conver-
sation, the principles of his convictions, employing induction
and analogy. His own good natural sense suggested to him
this method ; which was admirably calculated to refute the
Sophists by making them contradict themselves.4 In such
encouuters he armed himself with his characteristic elpuovela,
or affected ignorance, and with his peculiar logic.5
117. The services which Socrates has rendered to philo-
sophy are twofold ; negative and positive. Negative, mas-
much as he avoided all vain discussions; combated mere
speculative reasoning on substantial grounds; and had the
wisdom to acknowledge ignorance when necessary; but
without attempting to determine accurately what is capa-
ble, and what is not, of being accurately known. Posi-
tive, inasmuch as he examined with great ability the ground
directly submitted to our understanding, and of which Man
1 Xenoph. Memorab. I, 4, § 8, 9; IV, 3, § 14; Cyropsed. VIII, 7
Plat. Phaedo, c. 8, sqq.
t W. G. Tennemann, Doctrines and Opinions of the Socratic School
respecting the Immortality of the Soul, Jena, 1791, 8vo.
2 Xenoph. Memorab. I, 1, § 15; IV, 7. Cic. Tusc. Qusest. V, 3
Acad. I, 4.
3 Fr. Menzii Diss, de Socratis Methode docendi non omnino prae
scribenda, Lips. 1740, 4to.
J. Christ. Lossius, De Arte Obstetrica Socratis, Erf. 1785, 4to.
t Fr. M. Vierthaler, Spirit of the Socratic Method, Salzb. 1793
8vo; second ed. Wurzb. 1810.
f J. F. Graffe, The Socratic Method in its Primitive Form, Goti
1794, third ed. 1798, 8vo.
G. J. Sievers, De Methodo Socratica, Slesv. 1810.
4 + C. Fr. Fraguier, Dissertation on the Irony of Socrates, his
pretended Familiar Genius, and his Character ; in the Memoirs of the
Academy of Inscriptions, torn. IV.
5 Xenoph. Memorab. IV, 2. Plat. Theeetet., Meno, Sympos. p. 260.
Cic. De Fin. II, 1.
1] 6 — 118.] XENOPHON — J1SCHINES. 91
is the centre ; without, however, any profound investigation
of the different ideas and motives which influence practice.
He first distinguished that Free-will and Nature were both
under the dominion of certain laws; pointed out the proper
sources of all knowledge ; and finally laid open new subjects
for philosophic research.
Chr. Fred. Liebegott Simon, Diss. (Praes. W. T. Krug), de Socratis
meritis in Philosophiam rite sestimandis, Viteb. 1797, 4to.
t Fr. Schleiermacher, On the Merit of Socrates as a Philosopher ;
in the Memoirs of the Class of Philosophers of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Berlin, 1818, 4to. p. 50.
118. As Socrates divided his time among men of very
different habits and dispositions, some more inclined to
active life, some to retired study, a great number of disci-
ples, in very different classes of society, and with very
different views, were formed by his conversations, and still
more by his method of teaching, so favourable to the
development of original thinking.1 The Athenians Xeno-
phon* (cf. § 113), JEschines, Simo? Crito, and the Theban
Cebesf disseminated the principles of their master and lived
agreeably to them. Among those who especially devoted
themselves to the pursuits of philosophy, Antisthenes the
Athenian, founder of the Cynic school, subsequently
Aristippus, the chief of the Cyrenaic, and afterwards Pyrrho,
gave their attention exclusively to questions of morals, and
their practical application. Euclid of Megara, Phcedo of
Elis, Menedemus of Eretria, were occupied with theoretical
or metaphysical inquiries. The more comprehensive genius
of Plato embraced at once both these topics, and united
the two principal branches of Socraticism ; either of which
i Cic. De Oratore, III, 16. Diog. Laert. Prooem. sect. 10.
2 Born about 450, died 360 B.C.
On the pretended letters of the Socratic philosophers, see the note
on § 113.
A. Goering, Explicatur cur Socratici Philosophicarum, quae inter se
dissentiebant, Doctrinarum Principes, a Socratis Philosophic longius
recesserint, Partenopol. 1816, 4to.
3 The authenticity of the two dialogues attributed to him is con-
tested. See Boeckh, Simonis Socratici, ut videtur, Dialogi quatuor.
Additi sunt incerti auctoris (vulgo jEschinis) Dialogi Eryxias et
Axiochus, ed. Aug. Boeckh, Heidelb. 1810, 8vo.
4 The writing known under the name of nival (Cebetis Tabula) is
also attributed to a Stoic of Cyzicus, of a later age. See also Fr. G.
K.LOFFER, De Cebetis Tabula, Zwick. 1818, 4to.
92 EIBST PERIOD. [SECT.
separately was found sufficient to employ the generality of
the Socratic philosophers. When we examine the spirit
of these different schools, the Cynics, the Cyrenaics, the
Pyrrhonists, and the Megareans, (as for the schools of
Elis and Eretria, we are but imperfectly acquainted with
them), and lastly, that of the Platonists, we find that the
first four did little more than expand the ideas of Socrates,
with partial views of his system ; while the latter is dis-
tinguished by a boundless activity, allied to the true Socra-
tic spirit ; and which explored all the subjects of philosophic
investigation.
II. Partial Systems of the Socratics.
I. Cynics.
Authorities: Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch, Sextus
Empiricus, Diogenes Laertius, VI.
Ge. Gotcfk. Richteri Diss, de Cynicis, Lips. 1701, 4to.
J. Ge. Meuschenii Disp. de Cynicis, Kilon. 1703, 4to.
Christ. Glieb. Joeoher, Progr. de Cynicis nulla re teneri volentibus,
Lips. 1743, 4 to.
Fr. Mentzii Progr. de Cynismo nee Philosopho nee homine digno,
Lips. 1744, 4to.
Antistlienes .
Gottlob Lud. Richter, Diss, de Vita, moribus, ac placitis Antis-
thenis Cynici, Jen. 1724, 4to.
Lud. Chr. Crellii Progr. de Antisthene Cynico, Lips. 1728, 8vo.
119. Antisthenes, an Athenian,1 at first the disciple of
Gorgias, afterwards the friend and admirer of Socrates, was
virtuous even to excess, and proportionably arrogant. He
placed the supreme good of man in virtue ; which he de-
fined to consist in abstinence and privations, as the means
of assuring to us our independence of external objects : by
such a course he maintained that man can reach the highest
perfection, the most absolute felicity, and become like to
the Deity. Nothing is so beautiful as virtue ; nothing so
deformed as vice; (fa<ya6a Ka\a, to. kclkcl a/<rx/5«); all things
else are indifferent (aSiacpopa), and consequently unworthy
of our efforts to attain them.2 On these principles he built
a system of practice so excessively simple, as to exclude
even the decencies of social life ; and for the same reasons
1 Flourished about 380 B.C.
2 Diog. Laert. VI, 11, sqq., 103, 106.
119 — 120.] THE CYNIC SCHOOL. 93
professed a contempt for speculative science,1 alleging that
the natures of things are undefinable. He maintained also
that opinions are all identical, and that no man can refute
those of another.2 We must not omit his idea of one
Divinity, superior to those adored by the populace.3
120. In spite of the unattractive austerity of his way of
life, which procured him the surname of 'AirXoicvev, Antis-
thenes, by his lofty spirit and the eccentricity of his cha-
racter and conduct, drew about him a great number of
partisans, who were called Cynics ; either from the Cyno~
sarges, where their master taught, or from the rudeness of
their manners.4 Among these we remark Diogenes of
Sinope,5 said, on doubtful authority, to have lived in a tub ;
who gave himself the name of KiW,6 and made virtue and
wisdom the subjects of his cynical asceticism ;7 and after
him, his disciple Crates of Thebes,8 and his wife, Hipparchia
of Maronea; but these latter are not distinguished for
having contributed any thing to the cause of science.
Onesicritus of iEgina, Metrocles the brother of Hipparchia,
Monimus of Syracuse, Menedemus, and Menippus, are cited,
but less frequently. The Cynic school finally merged in
1 Notwithstanding, many works of his are quoted (Diog. Laekt. VI,
15, sqq.) of which only two speeches remain to us, printed among the
Orat. Graec. of Reiske, torn. VIII, p. 52, sqq.
2 Arist. Metaph. VIII, 3 ; V, 29. Plat. Sophist, p. 270.
* Cic. De Nat. Deor. I, 13. 4 Diog. Laert. VI, 13 et 16.
5 Born 414, died 324 B.C. 6 Diog. Laert. VI, 20-81.
7 The letters which bear his name (probably suppositious) are found
in the Collection published by Ald. Manutius, (reprinted at Geneva,
1606); twenty-two more exist, according to the notice of the unedited
letters of Diogenes, etc., by M. Boissonade, Notices and Extracts from
the MSS. in the King's Library, torn. X, p. ii, p. 122, sqq.
For remarks on this philosopher consult :
+ F. A. Grtmaldi, Life of Diogenes the Cynic, Naples, 1777, 8vo.
Ch. Mar. Wieland, SoiK-par/jg /xaivo/xtvoQ, or Dialogues of Diogenes
of Sinope, Leips. 1770 ; and among his works.
Frced. Mentzii Diss, de Fastu Philosophico, virtutis colore infucato,
in imagine Diogenis Cynici, Lips. 1712, 4to.
Jo. Mart. Barkhusii Apologeticum quo Diogenem Cynicum a cri-
mine et stultitiae et imprudentise expeditum sistit, Regiom. 1727, 4to.
8 Diog. Laert. VI, 85, sqq. Cf. Juliani Imperat. Orat. VI, ed.
Spangeub. p. 199.
94 FIKST PERIOD. [sect.
that of the Stoics - it made an ineffectual attempt to rise
again in the centuries immediately succeeding the birth of
our Lord; but without displaying their spirit, merely by
affecting the exterior of the ancient Cynics.1
II. Cyrenaics.
Authorities : Xenophon, Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch Sextus Empi-
rious, Adv. Math. VII, 11, Diog. Laert. II.
Frid. Menzii Aristippus Philosophus Socraticus, sive de ejus Vit&,
Moribus, et Dogmatibus, Commentarius, Hal. 1719, 4to,
t Batteux, Elucidation of the Morals of Aristippus, to explain a
passage of Horace ; in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions,
torn. XXVI.
f C. M. Wieland, Aristippus, and some of his Contemporaries,
4 vols. Leips. 1800-1802.
H. Kunhardt, Diss. Philos. de Aristippi Philosophia Morali, qua-
tenus ilia ex ipsius Philosophi dictis secundum Laertium potest deri-
vari, Helmst. 1796. 4to.
Wendt, De Philosophia Cyrenaica, 1842.
121. Aristippus2 of Cyrene, a colonial city of Africa,
born to easy circumstances, and of a light and sportive
character, had, when he first attended the conversations of
Socrates, an inclination for self-indulgence, which the latter
eventually succeeded in rendering more elevated, without
being able to eradicate.3 He made the summum bomim and
the Te'Xos of man to consist in enjoyment, accompanied with
good taste and freedom of mind, to Kpare7v teat firj fj7Ta$0ai
Tjhovwv apiaiov ov to fju^ xpyvQ*11* Other pursuits and sciences
he made very light of, especially the Mathematics.5 His
grandson Aristippus, surnamed Metrodidactus (because in-
structed by his mother Arete, daughter of the elder Aris-
tippus)6 was the first to develope, on these principles, a
complete system of the philosophy of self-indulgence
(yhoviafios?) This sort of philosophy takes for its basis the
affections, principally of the body (jraOrj)', which it divides
1 Luciani Kvvikoq, and other Dialogues.
2 Flourished 380 B.C.
8 Diog. Laert. II, 65, sqq. Plutarch, adv. Principem Indoct. II,
p. 779 Xenoph. Memorab. II, 1 ; et III, 8.
4 Diog. Laert. II, 75.
6 Diog. Laert. II, 75. Arist. Met. Ill, 2.
6 J. Ge. Eck, De Arete Philosopha, Lips. 1775, 8vo.
121—122.] aristippus. 05
into pleasurable and the reverse ; giving the preference to
the pleasures of the senses. Its degraded object is not
evSaifiovia, but merely present and actual enjoyment, (ydovy
iv KivTjffet); allowing something to wisdom and virtue (as
they were pleased to term them) as means of attaining
thereto.1 The philosophy of these teachers (neglecting
logic and the natural sciences) was confined to what they
called a system of morals, built entirely on that of the
sensations, as being the only objects of knowledge concern-
ing which we are not liable to err (/cara\^7TT6a ical aSid-
■^evo-Ta),2 and at the same time the only criteria of virtue.3
122. This species of philosophy, when it came to be com-
pared with our notions of Truth, Justice, and Keligion,
gave birth to a subdivision of the sect of Cyrenaics, called
also Hedonics (jjSovacol). Theodorus (of Cyrene ?), surnamed
the Atheist, a disciple of the second Aristippus,4 and pro-
bably also of the Stoic Zeno, the Sceptic Pyrrho, and
others,5 taking, like his predecessors, Sensation for the
basis of his argument, ended by denying the existence of
all objects of perception ; disallowed the reality of an uni-
versal criterium of Truth, and thus opened the way for the
Sceptic school; framing to himself a system (Indifferentism),
which excluded all difference of right and wrong, in Morals
and in Religion, and assuming pleasure or gaiety (xap), as
the final end of existence. His followers denominated
themselves QeoSwpetoi? His disciple, Bio of Borysthenis,7
and Euhemerus (according to some, of Messene),8 made an
1 Diog. Laert. II, 86, sqq. Euseb. Prsep. Evang. XIV, .
2 Cf. Diog. Laert. II, 92. Cic. Acad. Qusest. IY, 46.
3 Diog. Laeet. II, 86, sqq, Sext. Empir. Adv. Math. VII, 11, 15,
191—198. 4 Flourished about 300 B.C.
6 Suidas, s. h. v. Diog. Laert. 86 et 97, sqq.
« Sextus, Adv. Math. VII, 191. sqq. Plutarch. Adv. Colot. XIV,
p. 177. Euseb. Praep. Evang. XIV, 18. Diog. Laert. II, 93, 97—100.
7 Bio the Borysthenite, called also the Sophist, lived in the middle
of the third century B.C.
See Bayle's Dictionary ; et Marius Hoogvliet, Specimen Philoso-
phico-criticum continens Diatriben de Bione Borysthenita, etc. Luyd.
Bat. 1821, 4to.
8 The fragments of his work, entitled 'Itpa. avaypa<f>r), in Diod. Sic.
Bibl. Hist. ed. Vesseling, torn. II, 633; and among the fragments of
Ennius, who had translated them into Latin. Idem. ed. Hessel,
93 FIUST PEEIOD. [SECT.
application of this doctrine to the religion then prevalent1
Hegesias, who in the time of Ptolemy taught at Alexan-
dria, a native of Cyrene and pupil of the Cyrenaic Farce-
hates, was equally decided in maintaining the indifference
of right and wrong, but asserted that perfect pleasure is
unattainable in our present state (ahvvaTov kcu awTraptcrov),
and concluded that death was therefore preferable to life.
Hence he was surnamed I\eia6avaio<s} He became the
founder of a sect, the Hegesiacs.
123. Anniceris of Cyrene, who appears, like Hegesias,
to have been a disciple of Paraebates, and to have taught
at Alexandria, endeavoured, without renouncing the prin-
ciples of his sect, to get rid of their revolting consequences,
and to reconcile them with our sentiments in favour of
friendship and patriotism, by pleading the refined pleasures
of benevolence :3 thus making the Cyrenaic system approx-
imate that of Epicurus. The success of the latter caused
the downfal of the Cyrenaic school.
III. Pt/rrho and Timon.
Authorities: Cic. De Fin. II, 13; IV, 16. Sextus Em piricus. Diog,
Laert. IX, 61, sqq. 105, sqq. Euseb. Prasp. Evang. XIV. 18.
Cf. the bibliography § 38, II, a.
T G. P. de Orouzaz, Examination of Pyrrhonism, Ancient and
Modern, folio, Hague, 1733 (French). Extracts of the same work in
Formey, Triumph of Evidence; with a Prelim. Dissert, by M. de
Haller, Berlin, 1756, 2 vols. 8vo.
J. Arrhenii Diss, de Philosophic Pyrrhonia, Ups. 1708, 4to.
p. 212. See also concerning Euhemerus and Euhemerism : + Sevin,
Researches concerning the Life and Works of Euhemerus; *r Four-
mont, Dissertation on the Work of Euhemerus, entitled 'Itpa dvaypatprj,
etc. ; and + Foucher, Memoirs on the System of Euhemerus, in the
Mem. of the Academy of Inscriptions, torn. VIII, XV, XXXIV (all
French).
1 Cic. De Nat. Deor. I, 42. Plutarch. Adv. Stoicos, XIV, p. 77;
De Is et Osir., torn. VII, p. 420, ed. Reiske. Sextus, Adv. Math.
IX, 17, 51, 55. Diog. Laert. II, 97; et IV, 46—58. Diod. Sicul.
V, 11 et 45. Lact. Div. Instit. I, 11.
2 Cic. Tusc. Quaest. I, 34. Diog. Laert. II, 86. 93, sqq. Val.
Max. XVIII, 9.
J. J Rambach, Progr. de Hegesia TrtiaQavartp, Quedlimb. 1771, 4to.
Idem, in his Sylloge Diss, ad rem Litterariam pertinentium, Hamb.
1790, 8vo. No. IV. 3 Diog. Laert. II, 96, 97.
123 — 124.] ' PTEEHO — TIMON. 97
God. Ploucquet, Diss, de Epocha Pyrrhonis, Tilling. 1758, 4to.
J. G. Munch, Diss, de Notione ac Indole Seepticismi, nominatim
Pyrrhonismi, Altd. 1796, 4to.
Jac. Bruckeri Observatio de Pyrrhone & Seepticismi Universalis
macula absolvendo, Miscell. Hist. Philos. p. 1.
C. Vict. Kindervater, Diss. Adumbratio Questionis, an Pyrrhonis
doctrina omnis tollatur virtus, Lips. 1789, 4to.
Eicard. Brodersen, De Philosophic Pyrrhonia, Kil. 1819, 4to.
Thorbecke, Responsio ad Quest. Philos. etc. numquid in Dogmaticis
oppugnandis inter Academicos et Scepticos interfuerit (1), 1820, 4to.
J. Frid. Langheinrich, Diss. I et II de Timonis Vita, Doctrina,
Scriptis, Lips. 1729-31.
Zimmerman, Ueber den Ursprung, das Wesen und die historische
Bedeutung der Pyrrhonischen Philosophic, 1843.
124. JPyrrho of Elis,1 originally a painter, together with
his master Anaxarchus accompanied Alexander in his
campaigns, and subsequently became a priest at Elis. In
common with Socrates (whom in some particulars he resem-
bled) he maintained that virtue alone is desirable ;2 that
every thing else, even science, is useless and unprofitable.
To support this last proposition, which was also con-
nected with the Irony of Socrates, he alleged that the con-
tradiction existing between the different principles sup-
ported by disputants (avriXoryia, avn'Oeais tuov \6yiuv),
demonstrates the incomprehensibility of things (aKcnak^la).
All this he argued, should make a philosopher withold his
assent (iirdxeip), and endeavour to maintain an aira&ela, or
freedom from all impressions. By this doctrine, Pyrrho
and his school attached a special meaning on the word
o-re'Y"9 (examination), which had already been frequently
employed more loosely.3 His friend and pupil Timon, a
physician of Phlius, and previously a pupil of Stilpo at
Megara,4 carried still farther this system of scepticism,
which had begun on moral principles,8 and maintained with
1 Flourished about 340, died about 288 B.C.
2 Cic. De Orat. Ill, 17 ; De Finib. Ill, 3; Acad. Qusest. II, 42.
3 Diog. Laert. IX, 70, sqq. Sext. Empir. Hyp. Pyrrh. I, 209, sqq.
Aul. Gell. XI, 5.
Hence the Pyrrhonists are also called Sceptics, in the proper sense of
the word : they have been more properly denominated Ephectics (from
iiroxn, suspension of judgment), Zetetics, and Aporetics (investigators,
and doubters).
4 Flourished about 272 B.C. 5 Sext. Adv. Math. I, 53.
H
98 FIEST PEEIOD. [SECT.
sarcastic bitterness the following propositions1 against the
Dogmatics :* the doctrines of the Dogmatics are founded
not on substantial principles, but mere hypotheses: — the
objects of their speculations do not come within the com-
pass of certain knowledge : — all science is tc be accounted
vain, as not contributing to happiness : — in questions of
practice we ought to give ear only to the voice of our own
nature, that is, of our emotions ; and by withholding the
assent in matters of speculation (acjiaala), should endeavour
to retain the mind in a state of unalterable repose (arapagla) ?
A question has been raised whether the Ten sources of doubt
(jottoi or vpoTToi Tip eVox^s), of the Sceptics,3 are the work
of Pyrrho or Timon. The latter left behind him no disciple
of note.
TV. Megaric School.
Authorities: Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Sextus Empiricus, Diogenes
Laertius, II.
J. Casp. Guntheri Diss, de Methodo Disputandi Megarica, Jen.
1707, 4to.
J. Ern. Junn. Walch, Commentatio de Philosophiis Veterum
Criticis, Jen. 1755, 4 to.
G. Lud. Spalding, Vindicise Philosophorum Megaricorum, Berol.
1793, 8vo.
Ferd. Deycks, De Megaricorum Doctrina ejusque apud Platonem et
Aristotelem vestigiis, Bon. 1827, 8vo.
J. G. Hager, Dissert, de Modo Disputandi Euclidis, Lips. 1736,
4to. See also Rayle.
H. Hitter, The Philosophy of the Megaric School. Ehein. Mus.
2nd year, 3rd No.
125. Euclid of Megara,4 had studied the philosophy of
the Eleatse previously to his becoming a disciple of Socrates.
1 Particularly in his satiric poem St'XXot, whence he has been occa-
sionally denominated Sillographus. Fragments of the three books of
this poem, and of his work ITtpi afaQrirTeiov, are to be found partly in
the Dissert, quoted above (of Is. Fr. Langheinrich), and partly in
Hen. Steph. Poes. Philos. and among the Analecta of Brunck, torn. II
and III.
* For an account of what is meant by Dogmatism, see §§ 55, 56,
57.— Ed.
2 Cic. Fin. II, 21, 13; IV, 16; Offic. I, 2; De Orat. Ill, 17. Diog.
Laert. IX, 61, sqq. 103, sqq. Euseb. Preen. XIV, 18. Sextus, Adv.
Math. Ill, 2 ; XI, § 171 ; VII, § 30.
3 See, subsequently, under the art. JEnesidtmus.
4 Flourished about 400 B.C.
]25 — 126.] EUCLID OF MEGABA. 99
After the death of his master, having, together with the
most of his other pupils, taken refuge at Megara, he esta-
blished there a school ; the principal object of which was
the cultivation of Dialectics, on the principles of Socrates
and the Eleatae. The subtilties of this sect, which were
sufficiently censured of old (witness the appellation of
ipiaTiKoi), have been still more severely condemned by the
moderns ; who, it must be allowed, have not been able to
collect a sufficiently accurate account of what their practice
really was. They appear to have pointed out the difficulties
which attend thinking and cognition, Rationalism and
Empiricism : and to have pursued certain Dogmatics to
their last defences, particularly Aristotle and Zeno. Prac-
tical philosophy appears, with the exception of Stilpo, to
have engaged the attention of few of this school.
126. Euclid gave as it were a new edition of the Eleatic
doctrine: Grood is one (ev to a^aOov); which alone is real
and invariable : reasoning by analogy he rejected (Sia irapa-
(3o\i}s \070v9); attacking not so much the premises assumed,
as the conclusions drawn (tirKfropav)} Eubulides of Miletus,
and his disciple Alexinus of Elis (nicknamed (*E\e'7|f£i/os),
are only known as the authors of certain captious questions
(aXvra) which they levelled at the Empirics, and in par-
ticular at Aristotle ; such as the ffivpeiTrp*, the ijrevSofievo?,
the icepaTim)'?, etc.2 Diodorus surnamed Cronus, of Jasus
in Caria, the pupil, according to some, of Eubulides,
denied the twofold significations of words,3 investigated the
notions of possibilitiy (jrepl SwaTtbv)* and speculated con-
cerning the truth of hypothetical judgments (to ovvrjp.-
fidvov);5 and finally advanced some arguments to disprove
the reality of motion.6 His disciple JPhilo the Dialectic,
1 Cic. Acad. Quaest. IV, 42. Diog. Laeet. II, 106, 107.
2 Diog. Laert. II, 108, sqq. Cic. Acad. Qusest. IV, 29. Sext.
Empir. Adv. Math. VII, 13 ; cf. IX, 108. A. Gell. N. A. XVI, 2.
3 A. Gell. Noct. Att. XI, 12.
4 Arist. De Interpret, c. IX; Metaph. VIII, 3. Cic. De Fato,
Frag. VII, IX.
5 Sext. Empir. Adv. Log. II, 11, 114, sqq.; Adv. Phys. II, 115;
Pyrrh. Hyp. II, 110 ; Adv. Math. VIII, 112, sqq. Cic. Acad. Qutest.
II, 47.
6 Sextus Empir. Adv. Math. X, 85, sqq. ; IX, 363 ; Adv. Phys. II,
H 2
100 FIEST PElilOD. [SECT.
(who must not be confounded with the Stoic, or with the
Academician of the same name), became his opponent on
these subjects. Stilpo of Megara, a philosopher venerable
for his character,1 disallowed the objective validity of generic
conceptions (ja et&tf); and the truth of those judgments which
are not identical*'1 He made the character of a wise man to
consist in apathy or impassibility {animus impatiens, Senec.
Ep. 9.) : from which doctrine his disciple Zeno deduced a
great number of consequences. We find also mentioned
as Megarics, Bryso or Dryso, a son of Stilpo ; Clinomachus?
and Euphantus.
V. Schools of Elis and Eretria.
V2H. The schools founded by Phoedo of Elis and Mene-
demus of Eretria (§ 118), are not, as far as we can learn,
more distinguishable from each other than from that of
Megara. The first was a true disciple of Socrates :4 his
opinions were set forth in dialogues which have not come
down to us. The second, a hearer of Plato and Stilpo, may
be said to have continued, at Eretria, the school of Elis.5
He and his disciples (in this respect resembling Stilpo)
limited truth to identical propositions? They denied that
it could be inferred by negative categorical propositions,
or conditional and collective.
85, sqq. ; Pyrrh. Hyp. II., 242 et 245. Stob. Eel. I, p. 310. Euseb.
Prsep. Evang. XIV, 23.
1 Diog. Laekt. II, 113, sqq.; flourished 300 B.C.
* "laugnete die objective Giiltigkeit der Gattungsbegriflfe
(ra sldrj), und die Wahrheit derjenigen Urtheile, die nicht identisch
sind."
2 Plutarch Adv. Coloten, XIY, p. 174. Diog. Laert. II, 119. Plat.
Soph. torn. II, p. 240, 269, 281. Simpl. In Physica, p. 26.
t J. Chph. Schwab, Kemarks on Stilpo, in the Philos. Arch. of.
Eberhard, torn II, No. I.
J. Frid. Chph. Graffe, Diss. qu& Judiciorum Analyticorum et
Syntheticorum Naturam jam longe ante Kantium Antiquitatis Scrip-
toribus fuisse perspectam contra Schwabium probatur, GoUingen,
1794, 8vo.
3 Diog. Laert. II, 112. 4 Ibid. II. 105.
5 Diog. Laert. II, 125, sqq.
6 Simpl. In Phys. Arist. p. 20. Diog. Laert. II, 135.
127—128.] plato. 101
III. More complete Systems, proceeding from the School of
Socrates.
128. A more complete system of dogmatic philosophy
was founded at the Academia by Plato, on the principles
of the Rationalists, or that of the pure Idea, and another
by his disciple Aristotle, on those of the Empirics,1 or that
of Reality. From the Cynic school sprang the Stoics, and
from the Cyrenaics the Epicureans. The dogmatism of
the Stoics called forth the opposition of the Academician
Arcesilaus, with whom began the scepticism of the later
Academy. In this manner, from the Socratic school arose
four dogmatical systems ; diverging from one another in
theory and practice; and, in addition to these, a school
decidedly sceptical.
I. Plato.
Authorities r Plato, his works, with the Argumenta Dialogorum
Platonis of Tieclemann (in the 12th vol. of the ed. Bipont.), translated
by Schleiermacher : Guil. van Heusde, Specimen Criticum in Platon.
ace. Wyttenbachii Epist. ad auct. Lugd. Bat. 1803, 8vo. Aristotle,
Cicero, Plutarch (Quaest. Platon.), Sext. Empiricus, Apuleius de
Doctrina Platonis, Diogenes Laertius, lib. Ill, Timaeus, Suidas.
Modern Works on the Life, Doctrine, and Works of Plato in
general.
Mars. Fictni, Vita Platonis : Introductory to his translation of Plato.
Remarks on the Life and Writings of Plato, with Answers to the
principal Objections against him, and a General View of his Dialogues,
Edinb. 1760. 8vo.
t W. G. Tennemann, System of the Platonic Philosophy, Leips.
1 792-5. 4 vols. 8vo.
+ Fr. Ast, On the Life and Writings of Plato, intended as intro-
ductory to the Study of that Philosopher, Leips. 1816, 8vo.
f Ferd. Delbruck, Discourse on Plato, Bonn, 1819, 8vo.
+ Jos. Socher, On the Works of Plato, Munich, 1820. A work
principally relating to their authenticity and chronological order.
James Geddes, Essay on the Composition and Manner of Writing of
the Ancients, particularly Plato, Glasg. 1748, 8vo.
J. Bapt. Bernardi Seminarium Philosophise Platonis, Venet. 1509-
1605, 3 vols. fol.
Rud. Goclenii Idea Philos. Platonicae, Marb. 1612, 8vo.
1 The Rationalists maintain that the Intuitional Faculty (the
Reason) is the only source of absolute certainty. The Empirics trace
all certain knowledge to impressions received from without, through
the senses. — Ed.
102 FIRST PEEIOD. [SECT.
Lud. Morainvilliere, Examen Philos. Platonicse, 1659. 8vo.
Sam. Parker, A Free and Impartial Censure of Platonic Pkilo-
sophy, Lond. 1666, 4to.
+ J. J. Wagner, A Dictionary of the Platonic Philosophy, Gotting.
1779, 8vo. with a Sketch of that System.
+ J. Fr. Herbart, De Platonici Systematis Fundamento, Gott.
1805, 8vo. Cf. his Manual to serve for an introduction to Philosophy,
second edition, IV sect. ch. 4.
P. G. von Heusde, Initia Philosophise Platonicse, Pars. I, Ultraj.
1827, 8vo.
Translations by Cousin, Sydenham, and Schleiermacher.
+ See a Life of Plato by an unknown author, in the Gottinger Bibl.
der alt. Litteratur und Kunst. 5 St.
Niebuhr, Kleine hist. und. philol. Schriften, 1 Samb. p. 470, &c.
129. Plato1 was born at Athens 430 or 429 B.C., in the
3rd or 4th year of the LXXXVII 01., the son of Aristo
and Perictione, of the family of Codrus and Solon, and was
endowed with distinguished talents for poetry and philoso-
phy. By the advice of Socrates he attached himself to the
latter pursuit. He had originally some inclination for public
life, but was disgusted by the perpetual changes which took
place in his time in the governments of Greece ; by the
corruptions of the democracy, and the depravity of the
manners of his countrymen.2 His studies were happily
promoted by a diligent cultivation of poetry and the mathe-
matics ; by foreign travel, particularly in Italy and Sicily ;
and by familiar intercourse with the most enlightened men
of his time ; particularly with Socrates, whose conversations
he attended for eight years ;*3 as well as by the correspon-
dences which he entertained with the Pythagoreans of
Magna Grraecia.4 In this manner was formed this great
philosopher, surpassing, perhaps, all, by the vastness and
profoundness of his views, and the correctness and eloquence
with which he expressed them ; while his moral character
entitled him to take his place by the side of Socrates. He
1 His proper name was Aristocles. 2 Plat. Epist. VII.
* He had previously become acquainted with the system of Heraclitus.
3 Xenoph. Memorab. III. 6. Apuleius.
4 Jo. Guil. Jani Dissert, de Institutione Platonis, Viteb. 1706. De
Perigrinatione Platonis, ibid, ejusd.
Chph. Ritter, De Prseceptoribus Platonis, Gryphisw. 1707, 4to,
On his intercourse with Xenophon :
Aug. Boeckh, Progr. de Simultate quam Plato cum Xenophonte,
exercuisse fertur, Berol. 1811, 4to.
129—131.] • plato. 103
founded in the Accidentia a school of philosophy, which for
a long period was a nursery of virtuous men and profound
thinkers. Plato died in the first year of the CVIII
Olympiad, 348 B.C.
130. His works, principally in the form of dialogues;1
(models of excellence for the rare union of a poetic and
philosophic spirit);2 are the only incontestable authorities
respecting his opinions ; but we must not hope to attain
his entire system except by conjecture, as he had certain
doctrines (a^pacpa ho^fiaja) which he did not communicate
except to those whom he entrusted with his esoteric phi-
losophy.3*
131. Plato, by his philosophical education and the supe-
riority of his mind, had placed himself on the higher position
of Ideas, which gave him a commanding view of the systems
of his contemporaries, without allowing him to be involved
in their prejudices.4 He embraced the highest aim of
humanity, together with, the theoretical interests of the
1 J. J ac. Nast, Progr. de Methodo Platonis Philosophiam tradendi
Dialogica, Stuttg. 1787. 4to.
Zeller, Platonische Studien, 1840.
Hermann, Geschichte und System der platonischen Philosophie,
1839. 1 Th. Die historisch-kritische Griindlegung enthaltend.
J. Aug. Goerenz, Progr. de Dialogistica Arte Platonis, Viteb.
1794, 4to.
2 Henr. Phil. Conr.. Henke, De Philosophia Mythica, Platonis
imprimis, Observationes varise, Helmst. 1776, 4to.
J. Aug. Eberhard, Dissert, on the proper end of Philosophy, and
the Mythi of Plato, in his Vermischte Schriften, Hal. 1788. 8vo.
J. Chr. Huttner, De Mythis Platonis, Lips. 1788, 4to.
+ Garnier, Mem. on the use which Plato has made of Fables, in the
Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript. torn. XXXII.
t M. Marx, the Mythi of Plato, a Dissert, in the Eleutheria, a
Literary Gazette of Fribourg, published by Ehrhardt, torn. 1, fasc. 2
and 3. Frib. 1819, 8vo.
3 Plat. Epist. II, VII, XIII; Phsdr. p. 388; Alcib. Pr. de Eep.
IV. Arist. Phys. IV, 2; De Gener. et Corrupt. II. 3. Simplic. in
Arist. libr. de Anima, I, p. 76. Suidas.
* This is denied by others.
We must not omit to notice, as sources of information respecting
Plato, the passages in Aristotle, where that philosopher criticises the
system of his master. See Fr. A. Trendelenburg, Platonis de Ide:s
et Numeris Doctrina ex Aristotele illustrata, Lips. 1826, 8vo.
4 Sophista, vol. II, p. 252, 265. Cratyl., p. 345, 286.
104f FIRST PERIOD. . [SECT.
reason, and always considered theoretical and practical
philosophy as forming essential parts of the same whole ;
and conceived that it was only by means of true philosophy
that human nature could attain its proper destination.1
132. His critical acquaintance with preceding systems,
and the appreciation of their ideal aim, enabled Plato to
form more adequate notions of the proper end, extent, and
character of philosophy.2 Under this term he comprehended
a knowledge of the Universal, the Necessary, the Absolute,
as well as of the relations and essential properties of all
things.3 Science he viewed as the form of philosophy.
Philosophy he denned to be Science, properly so called.
The source of knowledge he pronounced to be not4 the
evidence of our senses, which are occupied with contingent
matter, nor yet the understanding* but Reason,5 whose
object is that which is Invariable and Absolute (to ovtivs ov6).
He held the doctrine of the existence in the reason of certain
innate notions (i/o^ara) which form the basis of our concep-
tions, and precede in the soul the representation of what is
individual and peculiar, besides forming the elements of our
practical resolutions. These notions have for their object
the Ideas (I'Seai), the eternal archetypes (7rapaBei^fiara), or
unities (fiovdSes), which are the essence of infinite things,
and the principles to which we refer the endless multiplicity
of things (to a7reipov, ra 7ro\\a)7 by means of thought ; and
1 De Rep. VI, p. 76, 77 ; Ep. VII.
2 On the end of the philosophy of Plato, see, besides the work of
Eberhard quoted in the preceding section :
Aug. Magn. Kraft, De Notione Philosophise in Platonis soaoraif,
Lips. 1786, 4to.
Gottlob Ern. Schulze, De summo secundum Platonem Philosophise
fine, Helmst. 1789, 4to.
3 Thesetet., p. 141; De Republ. VI, p. 69; V, p. 62; De Leg. Ill,
p. 131.
4 Jo. Fr. Dammann, Diss. I et II de Humana sentiendi et cogitanda
facultatis Natural ex Mente Platonis. Helmst. 1792, 4to.
* See Observation, § 41.
5 Phsedo, p. 225. 6 Phaedr., p. 247.
Wienbarg, De primitivo Idearum Platonicorum sensu, 1829.
7 Besides the general treatises above, see, on the Ideas of Plato, the
following works :
Scipionis Agnelli Disceptationes de Ideis Platonis, Ven. 1615. 4to.
Car. Joach. Sibeth, Diss. (Kesp. J. Chr. Fersen) de Ideis Platonicis,
Iiostoch. 1720, 4to.
132—133.] plato. 105
which consequently cannot have originated from experience,
but have been only developed by it. The soul recollects the
Ideas and principles on perceiving their copies (ojuoiw/uara),
with which the world is filled ; and this process is in its case
like the memory of an anterior state when it lived without
being united to a body. This is what constitutes the Pla-
tonic avafivrja^} Inasmuch as the manifold objects, whose
elements are the great and the little, correspond in part with
the eternal Ideas, they must have some principle in common
between them and the cognizant soul ; that principle is the
Divinity, who has formed these external objects after the
model of the Ideas.2 Numbers differ from ideas, and occupy
the interval between ideas and objects. Such are the funda-
mental doctrines of the philosophy of Plato ;3 in accordance
with which he drew a distinction between the world of
sense and the super-sensuous world (icoa/nos alaOrjTos and
vorjTos) Empirical knowledge and Rational; making the
latter the only true object of philosophy.
The system of Plato is an instance of nationalism}
133. The division of philosophy into Logic (Dialectics),
Metaphysics, (Physiology or Physics), and Morals (the
Political science), has been introduced by Plato,5 who clearly
Jac. Bruckeri Diss, de Convenient^!, Numerorum Pythagoricorum
cum Ideis Platonis ; Miscellan. Hist. Philos., p. 56.
Glob. Ern. Schulze, Diss. Philosophico-Historica de Ideis Platonis,
Viteb. 1786, 4to.
+ Fr. V. L. Plessing, Dissertation on the Ideas of Plato, as repre-
senting at once Immaterial Essences and the Conceptions of the Under-
standing, in the Collection of Ccesar, vol. Ill, p. 110.
Theoph. Fahse, Diss, de Ideis Platonis, Lips. 1795, 4to.
De Schanz (Praes. Matth. Fremling), De Ideis Platonicis. Lund.
1795, 4to.
See work of Trendelenburg, mentioned at § 130.
H. Kichteri de Ideis Platonis libellus, Lips. 1827, 8vo.
J. Andr. Buttstedt, Progr. de Platonicorum Reminiscentia, Erlang.
1761, 4to.
1 Phaedo, p. 74, 75; Phsedr., p. 249.
2 De Rep. VI, p. 116—124 ; Tim., p. 348.
3 Phaedr., p. 226, 230; De Rep. VI, 122; VII, 133; DeLeg. III.
p 132.
Danzel, Plato, quid de philosophandi methodo senserit, 1841.
5 Sext. Empir. Adv. Math. VII, 16.
106 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
laid down the chief attributes of each of these sciences, and
their mutual dependencies ; he also attended more than his
predecessors to researches into the philosophy of grammar.
Ata ti)v kv to?9 \6ryots cice^riv, says Aristotle. He also dis-
tinguished between the analytical and synthetical mode of
investigation: Philosophy therefore is under great obliga-
tions to him, quoad formam. She is no less indebted to him
for the material enrichment of the above parts considered
separately ; and though he did not systematically complete
the province of research, yet he continually excited the at-
tention of others in order to further discoveries, and fostered
free enquiry by adopting the Socratic form of dialogue.
134. Plato distinguished what is corporeal from the Soul.
The corporeal is that which only contains an impression of
the Ideas in its ever-changing appearance, and which has a
share in the Universal. It has Pire and Earth as its funda-
mental elements, between which Air and Water occupy an
intermediate rank. He considered the Soul to be an eternal
and self-acting energy (aino kavio kivovv) •} in it (the Soul)
the divine Idea is really united with the manifold into one
substance,2 and hence the Divinity is revealed to it in a
more elevated manner than in corporeal things. Viewed as
combined with the body, he distinguished in it two parts,
the rational (Xo^iaiiKov vovi) ; and the irrational or animal
(aXoryia-TLKov or eTriOvfjirjTiKbv) ; mutually connected by a sort
of middle term (Ov^cs, or to OvfioeiBe?).3 The animal part
has its origin in the imprisonment of the soul in the body ;4
the rational still retains a consciousness of the Ideas;
whereby it is capable of returning to the happy condition of
Spirits. In Plato we discover also a more complete discri-
mination of the faculties of cognition, sensation, and volition ;5
1 De Leg. X. p. 88. sqq. 2 Timaeus. Ed. Steph. p. 35.
3 De Eep. IV, 349. ed. Steph. 4 Phaedo.
a On the doctrine of Plato as respecting the soul, consult the fol-
lowing works :
f Chph. Meineks, Dissertation on the Nature of the Soul, a Platonic
Allegory (after the Phaedrus); in the first vol. of his Miscellany,
p. 120, sqq.
+ C. L. Reinhold, Dissertation on the Rational Psychology of Plato:
in the first vol. of his Letters on the Philosophy of Kant, Letter XL
Em. Gp. Lilie, Platonis Sententia de Natura Animi, Gotting.
1790, 8vo.
134—135.] plato. 107
with admirable remarks on their operations,1 and on the
different species of representation, of sensation, of motives
determining the will, as well as the relations between
Thought and Speech. (See for the last, Thesetet. ed. Steph.
p. 189, E sqq. Phileb. p. 38, D.)
135. Plato has rendered no less service to philosophy by
affording it the first sketch of the laws of thought, (in
Phcedr. ed. Bip. p. 226. 230; De Eep. VI. 122 ; VII. 133 :
De Leg. p. 132, the law of Identity and Contradiction is laid
down as the basis of thought), the rules of propositions,
of conclusions, and proofs, and of the analytic method:
the distinction drawn between the Universal (koivov) and
Substance (ovcla) ; and the Particular and the Accidental.
He diligently investigated the characteristics of Truth, and
detected the signs of appearance :2 to him we owe the first
attempt at the construction of a philosophical language:3
the first development of the notion of knowledge and
science (degrees of cognition Soga, hmvoia, irria^/Mf) :4 the
first logical development of the conceptions of Matter, Porm,
Substance, Accident, Cause and Effect, of Natural and
Independent Causes, of unchangeable esse (to ov), and of
Appearance (ipatvofievov) ; a more adequate idea of the Divi-
nity, as a being eminently good ; with a more accurate deve-
lopment of the Divine Attributes, especially the moral ones ;5
accompanied by remarks on the popular religion, and an essay
towards a demonstration of the existence of God by reason-
ings drawn from Cosmology.6 He represented the Divinity
as the author of the world, inasmuch as he introduced into
rude matter (y\rf — to afioprf>ov) order and harmony, by
moulding it after the Ideas, and conferring (together with
a rotatory motion) an harmonious body, governed, as in the
case of individual animals, by the soul of the world. He also
described the Divinity (in respect of his providence) as the
1 De Eep. IY, p. 367.
2 For the Logic of Plato, consult + J. J. Engel, Essay on a Method
of extracting from the Dialogues of Plato his Doctrines respecting the
Understanding, Berl. 1780, 8vo.
3 In the Cratylus. 4 De Rep. II, p. 250; VII, 133.
5 De Leg. X, p. 68, XII, p. 229. Cf. X, p. 82, sqq.j Phileb. p. 224;
Epinomis, p. 254, sqq.
108 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
author and executor, or guardian of the laws of Morals ;
and to him we owe the first intelligent essay on a Theodice.
According to his views, the existence of evil is not attri-
butable to the Deity, inasmuch as it results on the contrary
from the principle of what is unformed and variable, and
acts in conflict with the Ideas ; by means of which conflict
life and development are brought to pass in the world ; but
he maintains that Grod has adopted all the measures neces-
sary for overcoming evil.1 Lastly, to him we owe the first
1 De Rep. IV, 10; Tim., p. 505, sqq.
On the Cosmogony and Theology of Plato, consult, besides the
ancients (e.g. Peoclus), the commentaries on, and translations of, the
Timaeus : f L. Horstel, The Timaeus of Plato, the doctrine and the
end of this work, with Remarks and Illustrations, Brunswick, 1795,
8vo; and f The Timaeus of Plato, a Primitive and Veracious Monument
of true Physical Knowledge, translated, with illustrations, by K. J.
Windischmann, Hademar, 1804.
Maes. Ficini Theologia Platonica, Florent. 1482, foL
Es. Pufendoefii Diss, de Theologia Platonis, Lips. 1653, 4ta.
J. Feied. Wucheeer, Diss. II. de Defectibus Theologies Platonis>
Jen. 1706, 4to.
Ogilvie, The Theology of Plato compared with the Principles of
Oriental and Grecian Philosophers, Lond. 1793, 8vo.
t Diet. Tiedemann, On the Ideas of Plato respecting the Divinity,
in the Mem. of the Antiq. Soc. of Cassel. torn. 1. (Fr.) Cf. Spirit of
Speculative Philosophy, torn. II, p. 114, sqq.
t W. Gl. Tennemann", On the Divine Intelligence : in the Memo-
kabilien of Paulus, fasc. 1, p. 2.
Balth. Stolbeeg, De Xoy^et v$ Platonis, Viteb. 1676, 4to;
J. Ge. Aen. Oeleich, Commentatio de Doctrina Platonis de Deo a
Christianis et recentioribus Platonicis varie explicata et corrupta, Marb.
1788, 8vo.
C. Feied. Staudlin, Progr. de Phil. Platonicae cum Doctrina religionis
Judaica et Christiana cognatione, Gott. 1819, 4to. (See Gott. Gel. Anz.,
No. XCY, 1819).
Lud. Hoestel, Platonis doctrina de Deo e Dialogis ejus, etc. Lips.
1814, 8vo.
On the Matter and Formation of the World, and the Soul of the
Universe, according to Plato.
Diete. Tiedemann, De Materia quid visum sit Platoni; Nov. Bibliotb.
Philos. et Crit., vol. 1, fascic. 1. Gott. 1782.
+ Chph. Meinebs, Considerations on the Greeks, the age of Plato,
the Timaeus of that Philosopher, and his Hypothesis of a Soul of the
World, in vol. I. of his Vermischte Schriften.
136.] PLATO. 109
formal development of the doctrine of the spirituality of
the soul, and the first attempt towards demonstrating its
immortality.1
136. The interesting and profound research which Plato
carried so far, respecting the Supreme Grood,2 belongs to
the subject of Morals, which is closely connected with his
metaphysical views. Virtue he defined to be the imitation
of God, or the free effort of man to attain to a resemblance
to his original {o/xoliuai<s 6eu> Kara to hvvaTov)^ or in other
terms a unison and harmony of all our principles and
actions according to reason,4 whence results the highest
degree of happiness. Evil is opposed to this harmony as a
disease of the soul. Virtue is one, but compounded of four
elements : Wisdom (aofa'a — (ppovrjcns) • Courage, or Con-
Aug. Boeckh, On the Formation of the Soul of the World, according
to the Timaeus of Plato : in vol. III. of the Studien, published by Daub
and Creuzer.
Aug. Boeckh, Progr. de Platonica Corporis Mundani fabrica conflati
ex Elementis Geometrica ratione concinnatis, Heidelb. 1809, 4to; and
De Platonico Systemate Caelestium Globorum et de vera indole Astro-
nomiae Philolaicae, Ibid. 1810, 4to.
1 C. J. Chph. Gottlebeki Animadvers. ad Platonis Phaedonem et
Alcibiadem II. Adjuncti sunt excursus in Quaestiones Socraticas de
Animi Immortalitate, Lips. 1771, 8vo; + Fried. Aug. Wolff, On the
Phaedo, Berl. 1814, 4to ; and the following :
Sam. Weickmanni Diss, de Platonic^ Animorum Immortalitate,
Viteb. 1740, 4to.
Chr. Ern. de Windheim, Examen Argumentorum Platonis pro
Immortalitate Animae Humanae, Gott. 1749, 8vo.
Moses Mendelssohn's Phaedo, Berl. 1767, 8vo.
+ W. G. Tennemann, Doctrines and Opinions ©f the Socratic School
respecting the Soul's Immortality, Jena, 1791, 8vo.
Gust. Frid. Wiggers, Examen Argumentorum Platonis pro Immor-
talitate Animi Humani, Host. 1803, 4to.
Franc. Pettavel, De Argumentis quibus apud Platonem Animorum
Immortalitas defenditur. Disp. Acad. Berol. 1815, 4to.
t The Phaedo of Plato Explained and Examined, more especially
inasmuch as it treats of the Immortality of the Soul ; by Kuhnhardt,
Lubeck, 1791, 8vo.
Wehrmann, Platonis de summo bono Doctrina, 1843.
Matthies, Die platonische und aristotelische Staatsidee, 1848.
2 Especially in the Theaetetus, the Philaebus, the Meno, and the
Republic.
3 Tim., p. 338, vol. IX ; Theaetet. p. 176.
4 De Rep. IX, p. 48.
110 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
stancy (avhpela) ; Temperance (awcppoovvrf) ; and Justice
(pacaLoovvrj) } which are otherwise termed the four cardinal
virtues. Such virtues he describes as arising out of an
independence of, and superiority to, the influence of the
senses. In his practical philosophy Plato blended a rigid
principle of moral obligation with a spirit of gentleness and
humanity ; and education he described as a liberal cultiva-
tion and moral discipline of the mind.2 Politics he defined
to be the application, on a great scale, of the laws of
morality (a society being composed of individuals, and
therefore under similar obligations) : and its end to be
liberty and concord. In giving a sketch of his Republic, as
governed according to reason, (an Ideal state), Plato had
particularly an eye to the character and the political difli->
culties of the Greeks ;3 and the elements of this organism,
in his view, answer to the component parts of the soul.4
Plato's Republic is the earliest systematic treatise on
Socialism, and the philosopher himself the earliest scientific
Socialist. Beauty he considered to be the sensible repre-
sentation of moral and physical perfection :5 consequently it
1 De Rep. IY, 443, sqq.
2 Ibid. Ill, p. 310 ; De Leg. I, p. 46, sqq., II, 59. 3 Ibid.
4 Consult the following works on the philosophy of Plato, as bearing
upon practical principles :
Chrys. Javelli Dispositio Moralis Philosophise Platonicae, Ven.
1536, 4to. Et, Dispositio Philosophise Civilis ad Mentem Platonis
Venet. 1536, 4to.
Magn. Dan. Omeish Ethica Platonica, Altdorf. 1696, 8vo.
Fr. Aug. Lud. Adolph. Grotefend, Commentatio in qua Doctrina
Platonis Ethica cum Christiana comparatur, etc., Ootting. 1720, 4to.
Joh. Sleidani Summa Doctrinae Platonis de Republica et de Legibus,
Argentor. 1548, 8vo.
J. J. Leibnitii Respublica Platonis. Leips. 1776, 4to.
J. Zentgravii Specimen Doctrinae Juris Naturae secundum Disci-
plinam Platonicam, Argentor. 1679, 4to.
Car. Morgenstern, De Platonis Republ. Commentt. III., Halm,
1794, 8vo.
J. Lud. Guil. de {Jeer, Diatribe in Politices Platonicae Principia,
Ultraj. 1810, 8vo.
+ Fr. Koppen, Polity, according to the Principles of Plato, Leips.
1818, 8vo.
G. Pinzger De iis quae Aristoteles in Platonis Politia reprehendit,
Leips. 1822, 8vo.
5 De Leg. II, p. 62, sqq., p. 89, sqq.; Sympos. Phaedr. Hippias. Maj.
137 — 138.] successors or plato. Ill
is one with Truth and Goodness, and inspires love (e^ws),
which leads to virtue.1 (Platonic Love.)
137. Plato borrowed considerably from other philosophers,
particularly the Pythagoreans, who suggested to him the
leading idea that all the variety of existing objects consist of
one changeable substratum and form . but what he bor-
rowed his own genius stamped with a character of origi-
nality, and blended the discordant systems of older philo-
sophy in an harmonious whole; the striking advantages
of which are the unity it presents in its system of Ideas ;
the combinaticn in one and the same interest of our reason,
both speculative and practical ; the strictness of the union
which he maintains between Virtue, Truth, and Beauty;
the multitude of new ideas of which the germs are to be
found in his system ; and, finally, for the love of science
which his meditations inspire.2 On the other hand his
system is not without its weak side ; he did not sufficiently
distinguish between conceptions originating in the mind
itself and those which are acquired by experience ; and his
origin of the I'Beai is mystical ; besides which he confounds
thought with cognition. There are faults also in his manner :
the union of much imagination with reasoning, of a poetic
with a philosophic spirit, and the total absence of any syste-
matic form, have rendered his doctrine difficult to be appre-
hended ; gave occasion for abundance of misinterpretations ;
and ultimately had great influence over the fortunes of
Platonism.
138. Plato drew around him a crowd of disciples and
admirers ; many of them celebrated statesmen, and even
several females :3 among others Axiothea of Phlius, and
Lasthenia of Mantinea. As the doctrines he had blended
came subsequently to be redivided, and as succeeding ages
produced a succession of different prevailing spirits of
philosophy, his school was subdivided into several sects,
and thus gave birth to various Academies. To the first of
these belonged Speusippus of Athens (died 339 B.C.), the
1 Sympos. Phaedr., p. 301 ; Euthyphr. p. 20.
Baur, Das Christliche des Platonismus, 1837.
Diog. Laert. Ill, 46.
112 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
nephew and successor of Plato,1 and his successor Xeno-
crates of Chalcedon (died 314 B.C.) ;a who in his manner of
expressing himself resembled Pythagoras: for instance, in
denning the soul to be a self-moving number. After him
Polemo of Athens3 presided at the Academy, who considered
the summum honum to consist in a life regulated according
to nature;4 and subsequently Orates of Athens.5 Finally
Grantor of Soli, the friend and disciple of Xenocrates and
Polemo, maintained the original system of the founder of
the school, with the exception of a small number of altera-
tions, applied principally to the popular doctrines of prac-
tical morality.6 The new Academy (see below, § 166, sqq.)
directed its speculations to prove the uncertainty of human
judgment : while the Neo-Platonists founded a school of
enthusiasts who laid claim to a high degree of internal
illumination.*
II. Aristotle.
Authorities : The works of Aristotle, and his numerous commen-
tators, whose observations must be admitted with caution; (among
others, Ammonius, Alexander Aphrodisiensis, Simplicius, and The-
mistius); Cicero, Plutarch, Sext. Empir., Diog. Laert. lib. V., Suidas.
Modem Works on the Life and Philosophy of Aristotle
in general.
Franc. Patricii Discussionum Peripateticarum, torn. IV, quibus
Aristotelicae Philosophise Universae Historia atque Dogmata cum vete-
rum placitis collata eleganter et erudite declarantur, Basil. 1581, fol.
Melch. Weinrichii Oratio Apologetica pro Aristotelis Persona,
adversus Criminationes Patricii, Lips. 1644, 4to.
1 Diog. Laert. IV, 2, sqq. For some of his opinions, see Arist. Met.
VII, 2; XII, 7; Eth. Nic. 1, 4. Sext. Adv. Math. VII, 145.
2 Ibid. IV, 6, sqq. Sext. Adv. Math. VII, 16, etc. 3 In 314 B.C.
4 Diog. Laert. IV, 16, sqq. Cic. De Fin. IV, 6. 5 About 313 B.C.
9 Heraclides of Pontus, the author of some treatises of which we
possess certain fragments (ed. Geo. D. Koeler, Hal. 1804, 8vo. Cf.
Diog. Laert. V, 86, sqq. Cic. Tusc. V, 3 ; De Div. I, 23, and Suidas,
s. h.v.), was the hearer both of Plato and Aristotle ; on which account he
has by some been called a Peripatetic.
* This internal illumination has been identified, by many modern
writers, with the clairvoyance of natural somnambulism and Animal
Magnetism. (See Colquhoun's Hist, ol Magic, Witchcraft, and Animal
Magnetism, vol. I.) — Ed.
139.] AEISTOTLE. 113
Herm. Conringii Aristotelis Laudatio: Orationes duae, Helmst.
1633, 4to.
E. V. L. Plessing, On Aristotle, in Ccesar's Denkwurdigkeiten, aus
der Philos. Welt. torn. III.
J. Gottl. Buhle, Vita Aristotelis per Annos digesta : in the first
vol. of his edition of the Works of Aristotle.
Mich. Piccarti Isagoge in Lectionem Aristotelis cum EpistolSt
Conringian& et praemissa Dissertatione de Natura, Origine et Progressu
Philos. Aristotelicae ; ed. J. Conr. Durrius, A ltd. 1667, 8vo.
Petr. Joh. Nunnesii, Barth. Jos. Paschasii, et Jo. Bapt. Mon-
torii Oratt. tres de Aristotelis Doctrina, Franco/. 1591, 8vo.
Mich. Piccarti Hypotyposis Philos. Aristotelicaa, Norimb. 1504, 8vo.
J. Crassotii Institutiones in Universam Arist. Philosophiam, Par.
1619, 4to.
J. Conr. Dubru Hypotyposis totius Philos. Aristotelicae, Altd.
1660, 4to.
* * *
Petri Rami Animadversiones Aristotelicae XX libris comprehensse,
Par. 1558, 8vo.; and his other works quoted farther on.
Petri Gassendi Exercitationes Paradoxicse adversus Aristotel., etc.
Gratianop. 1624, 8vo.; and in his Works, Lugd.
Petri Valeriani Philosophia contra Aristotelem, Dantisc. 1653,
4to.
On the other hand see the Works written in defence of Aristotle, by
Mart. Dorpus, P. Gallandius, J. Broscius, J. Guilleminat, H.
Stabius, Jos. de Munnana against Valla, Ramus, and others.
Pet. Villemandy, Manuductio ad Philosophiae Aristoteleae Epicurae
et Cartesianae parallelismum, Amst. 1683, 8vo.
Ge. Paul. RoETENBECcn Disp. de principio Aristotelico et Cartesiano,
Altd. 1685, 4to.
Sam. Mascovii Exerc. Acad, uter in Scrutinio Veritatis rectius
dubitet Aristoteles an Cartesius, Regiom. 1704, 4to.
Biese, Die Philosophic des Aristoteles, 1 Bd. 1835.
Stahr, Aristotelia, I und II, 1830 und 1832.
Michelet, Examen critique de l'ouvrage d'Aristote, intitule Meta-
physique, 1836.
Michelet, Die Ethik des Aristoteles, 1827.
Harris (James) of Salisbury, Works (passim), published by his son
(Lord Malmsbury), Lond. 1801, 2 vols. 4to. Again 1805.
Cf. besides, the articles Aristotles, Aristotelische Philosophic (by
Buhle), in the great Encyclop. published by Ersch, etc. ; part V.
139. Aristotle was born at Stagira, 384 B.C. 01. XCIX.
He inherited from his father Nicomachus, who had been
the physician and friend of Amyntas, king of Macedon, a
predilection for natural philosophy. From 368 B.C. he
continued for twenty years the disciple of Plato, improving
under that great master his admirable talents for analysis ;
I
114 TIEST PEEIOD. [SECT.
though, subsequently, he separated from him. In 343 he
became the preceptor of Alexander, who assisted his scien-
tific pursuits by sending to him collections of objects of
natural history, and furnishing him with sums of money
for the purchase of books.1 He founded in 334 a new
school in the walks of the Lycseuin ; whence the name of
Peripatetics ? and died in 322,3 at Chalcis, in Euboea ; pro-
bably by poison, which he had taken on being obliged to
leave Athens under the suspicion of atheism. Aristotle
has bequeathed to us excellent works on all the sciences
known to the Greeks, and particularly on Moral Philosophy.
These treatises are to be divided into exoteric and esoteric,
or acroamatic* The peculiar fortunes to which his works
have been exposed,5 have rendered still more difficult the
examination and exposition of his doctrines, already suffi-
ciently obscure, by their brevity and the peculiarity of the
language he employed.6
140. Aristotle possessed in a high degree the talent of
discrimination, and a great mass of knowledge derived from
books and the observation of nature. He mastered the
whole philosophical and historical science of his age, and
started from the exploration of nature. He was conse-
quently not satisfied with Ideas,7 but sought also to re-
concile them with nature. He conceived them to be not
» Plin. Hist. Nat. VIII, 16.
2 Diog. Laeet. V, 2. Cic. Acad. Qusest. 1, 4. A. Gell. N. A. XX, 5.
3 01. CXIV.— CXIII.
4 J. Gottl. Buhle, Commentatio de Librorum Aristotelis distri-
butione in Exotericos et Acroamaticos, Gott. 1788, 8vo.; and in the
first vol. of his edition of Arist.
Franc. Nic. Titze, de Aristotelis Operum serie et distinctione liber,
Lips. 1826, 8vo.
s See Strab. Geo. lib. IX, et Plut. in Vit. Syllae, c. 26. Heyne,
Opusc. Acad., vol. 1, p. 126, et Schneider, Epimetrum de Fatis Libror.
Aristotelicorum, in his edition of Arist. Hist, of Anim. Lips. 1811,
p. 76. See also Brandis, in the Ehein. Museum, I Jahr, Nos. Ill and
IV, Lond, 1827.
6 Petr. Joh. Nunnesius, De Causis Obscuritatis Aristotelis earumque
remediis una cum Vita Aristotelis a Joh. Philopono descripta, etc.
Lugd. Bat. 1621.
t Fulleborn (Collect, fasc. IX.), On the Manner and Philosophy of
Aristotle.
7 Metaph. I, 7 ; XII, 9.
140 — 141.] ABISTOTLE. L15
only a Svvapis, but at the same time also as an imikix^a,
assuming that all representations, even the highest of the
understanding, are developed out of experience,1 and that
the world is, even as regards its form, eternal and not
formed by an intelligence. He drew a sharp distinction
between philosophic thinking and poetry ; and he invari-
ably, in all his writings, cast a retrospective and critical
glance on the philosophical progress of his predecessors ;
and differs also from Plato in this respect, that instead of
proceeding, like him, from the universal to the particular,
he proceeded from the particular to the universal.2
141. Philosophy, according to Aristotle, is science arising
out of the love of knowledge ; and science is knowledge
founded on certain principles.3 There are two sorts of know-
ledge, mediate and immediate.4 In order to make the first
possible, the existence of the second is necessary. We become
sensible immediately and by experience of particulars (ja
KaO' eKaara) : mediately, but still by experience, we acquire
the universal (to, icaO' oXov), and we thus attain to that
which is real and necessary, and is capable of being ex-
pressed in definitions and axioms. From immediate certi-
tude we deduce mediate, by means of arguments, the theory
of which belongs to logic ; the object of which is to show
how we can ascertain by reasoning the certainty or the
probability of things. Logic, therefore, is the instrument
{prganum) of all science or philosophy, but only quoad
» Analyt. Priar. I, 30.
2 Here may be noticed the comparisons drawn between the two phi-
losophers, by George of Trebizond, and G. Gemisthus Pletho.
And also : Paganinus Gaudentius, De Dogmatum Aristotelis cum
phil. Platonis comparatione, Florent. 1539, 4to.
Jac. Mazonius, De Comparatione Aristot. cum Platone, Venet.
1547, fol.
Jac. Caepentarii Platonis cum Arist. in Universa Philosophic com-
paratio, Par. 1573, 4to.
Andr. Bachmann, Aristoteles cum Platone comparatus, Nordh.
1629, 4to.
Rapin, Aristotle and Plato compared, Paris, 1671, 8vo.
Chr. Herrmann Weisse, De Platonis et Aristotelis in constituendis
principiis differentia, Commentat. Lips. 1828, 8vo.
3 Phys. II, 3; Met. I, 2. 4 Anal. Post. I, 2; II, c. 19.
I 2
116 riBST PERIOD. [SECT.
forrnam; (a distinction which was afterwards very often
forgotten) ; for it is experience which must supply the
matter to be worked upon, and wrought into general prin-
ciples.1 The first principle is that of contradiction ; but,
though productive of truth, it is the test and not the con-
stituent element of truth.2 By his works comprehended
under the title of Organum, Aristotle has, next to Plato,
rendered the greatest service to logic ;3 as the science which
would establish the formal part of reasoning, and elucidate ita
theory: he there considers propositions and conceptions as the
elements of reasoning,* with admirable remarks on language
interspersed ; and he ought not to be made responsible for
the abuse, which afterwards prevailed, of this art, when it
came to be considered as capable of supplying not only the
form but the matter of argumentation.5
142. Aristotle, above every other philosopher, enlarged
the limits of philosophy. He comprised therein all the
sciences (rational, empirical, or mixed), with the single
exception of history : and appears to have divided it as a
whole into Logic, Physics, and Ethics ; or into speculative
and practical.6 Speculative philosophy contemplates the
real order of things, which is not dependent on our caprice :
practical, the accidental and voluntary : real substances are
either invariable (aic/i/jpa), or variable (kivtjto). The latter
1 Anal. Post. I, 18.
2 Anal. Post. Metaph. I, 1 ; IV, 3 ; De Anima, III, 5, 6.
3 Mich. Pselli Synopsis Logicae Aristotelis, Gr. et Lat. edidit
El. Ehinger, Aug. Vind. 1597, 8vo.
Niceph. BlemmyD;E Epitome Logicae Doctrinae Aristotelis Gr. etLat.
ed. Jo. Wegelin, ibid. 1605, fol.
Geo. Aneponymi Compendium Philosophiae seu Organi Aristotelis,
Gr. et Lat. ed. Jo. Wegelin, ibid. 1600, 8vo.
Jac Carpentarii Descriptio Universae Artis disserendi ex Arist.
Organo collecla et in III libros distincta, Par. 1654, 4to.
Car. Weinholtz, De Finibus atque pretio Logicae Aristotelis, Rost.
1824. 4 Sophist. Elench. 34, fin.
5 Trendlenburg, Erlauterungen zu den Elementen der aristotelischen
Logik, 1842.
Heyder, Kritische Darstellung und Yergleichung der aristotelischen
und Hegel'schen Dialektik, 1845.
Ge. Paul. Roetenbeck, Diss. Aristotelicae Philosophiae divisioneni
sub examen vocans, Altd. 1705, 4to.
6 Diog. Laert. V., 28.
142—143.] AKISTOTLE. 117
either perishable (cfrQap-Ta) or imperishable. Sublunary
things are variable and perishable : the heavens are im-
perishable, but variable : the Deity alone is imperishable
and invariable. Consequently, speculative philosophy be-
comes, in proportion as it advances in abstraction, either
Physics or Mathematics, or what came to be afterwards
called, Metaphysics: relatively to its objects, it is divided
into Physics, Cosmology, Psychology, and Theology. Prac-
tical Philosophy comprehends Ethics, Politics, and Eco-
nomy.1 These subdivisions are not broadly traced, on
denned principles, yet it is to Aristotle that we are indebted
for the first hint of an encyclopaedic system of the sciences ;
for having subjected to a rigorous examination the notions
and principles of his predecessors ; for having himself
laboured to establish others by induction and reflection:
and we are called upon to admire the multitude of hints, in-
quiries, and observations, which are dispersed up and down
his works, without forming integral parts of his system.
§ 143.
Jac. Carpentarii Descriptio Universse Naturae ex Aristotele ; para
let II. Par. 1562, 4to.
Pet. Rami Scholarum Physicarum, libri VIII. Par. 1565, 8vo.
Sebastiani Bassonis Philosophise Naturalis adversus Aristotelem
libri XII, Par. 1621, 8vo.
Speculative Philosophy : 1st. Physics or Natural Philo-
sophy. Nature ((frvais) is the sum of all existing things,
whose existence can be known only by means of perception
and experience founded thereon. Ta vorjTa, the objects of
our mental conception, do not exist per se.2. Nature is also
the internal principle of change in objects, and this con-
stitutes a distinction between her works and those of art.
The knowledge of nature is properly the knowledge of the
laws of bodies, so far as they are in movement. In this
science are comprised the following subjects of discussion :
Nature, Cause, Accident, End, Change (and its subdivi-
sions), Infinitude, Space, and Time: and moreover a general
theory of movement. Nature, as a principle of change,
1 Metaph. I, 2; VI, 1 ; XI, 3; Ethic. X, 9; (Econ. 1, 1.
s Metaph. Ill, 2—4 , V, 5.
113 FIEST PEEIOD. ['SECT.
does nothing without an end or object; which end is the
Form} When we speak of chance (to avrofxaiov), we
always in fact mean real causes, unknown to ourselves.
All change necessarily presupposes a substratum (yicoicei-
/mevov, v\rj), and a form (et£os)» A change (Kivrjffis, fie7a-
po\rj), is the realization of that which is possible eVreXexe/a),2
SO far as it is possible, 7] 70v hwajxet ov70<s ev7e\exeia y
ToiovTov.3 As soon as the Possible (Swd/iei ov) assumes a
certain form and is developed after a particular manner,
every other condition and state is excluded (o-7eprjaU).
Matter, Form, and Privation, are therefore the three prin-
ciples, or elements of existence and of change. Change is
possible in respect of Substance, Quantity, Quality, and
Place. This last condition, and generally that of space and
time, serve as a foundation for the others.4 Space (toVov)
is the first immoveable limit of that which surrounds us :
(to 70u irepicyovTos irepas aicivrjTOV 7rptc70v);5 there is no va-
cuum (jcevev). Time is the measure or numeration (apiOjios)
of movement, with reference to priority and posteriority
(api9fx6<s Kivrjo~eu)$ iccna to 7rpu>70v ical va7epov).* Infinitude
is that which continually suggests the idea of still greater
extent, in addition to that already ascertained. In reality
there is no being which can be called Infinite ; only in our
conception. Time is infinite, Body and Space are finite,
although susceptible of infinite division.7 Motion, in gene-
ral, like time, has neither beginning nor end. Nevertheless,
it must be supposed to have had a first cause of movement,
itself unmoved (to Trpw7ov klvovv anlvupov). This source of
movement must be eternal and invariable; its essence is
eternal and pure, activity and life ; such a cause is the
Divinity. The first thing put in motion from eternity was
the Heavens.8
1 Phys.II, 4— 6, 8, sqq.
2 Cf. Suidas, sub hac v. Cf. also Father Ancillon, Critical and
Philosophical Researches respecting the Entelechia of Aristotle, in the
Mem. of the Royal Acad, of Prussia (Class of Phil.), for the years
1804-11, Berl. 1816, p. 1, sqq. (Fr.).
3 Phys. Ill, 1 ; VIII, 1. 4 Ibid. Ill, 1 ; VII, 7 ; VIII, 7.
5 Ibid. IV, 4, sqq. 6 Ibid. IV, 11.
7 Phys. Ill, 1—7 ; VI, 1—9.
8 Ibid. VIII, 5, sqq. ; De Coelo, II, 3, sqq.
144 — 145.] ARISTOTLE. 119
144. Cosmology. The world (koV/ao?, ovpavo?) is the sum-
total of all things subject to change. Beyond its limits is
neither change, nor time, nor space. Itself is eternal and
immoveable.1 The First Being, who is the author of all
movement, is not himself a part of the world. The latter
is a whole, bounded by the heavens, without beginning or
end, and of a spherical form. The earth is the central point,
the heavens the circumference. Hence arise three simple
movements: towards the centre (the gravitation of bodies
towards the earth) ; from the centre to the circumference
(light bodies, for instance, lire) ; and finally about that
centre (the circumambient bodies, the heavens, etc.). The
circular motion is the most perfect, and the upper region
of the heavens in which it prevails is perfect and divine,
indestructible, not subject to suffering or change; and
consequently of a nobler nature than sublunary parts. The
elementary matter of the constellations is the principle of
all life, action, and thought in the inferior region; and all
things here are subject to its influence and direction. The
constellations are animated beings (e/i^v^a) ; their prin-
ciple of motion is within themselves, although they revolve
in the circle to which they are attached. In general, this
part of Aristotle's system is obscure and inconsistent, and
appears to waver between two opposite doctrines.2
145. Psychology is indebted to Aristotle for its first though
still imperfect elaboration upon the principle of experience,
with which, however, he coupled speculative views. The
soul is the efficient principle of life (taken in its broadest
acceptation) the primitive form of every physical body
capable of life, i.e. of one organically framed. ("^X1? effrtv
evreXe^eta n 7rpioT7j cuo/maro? (fivoiicov t^tvfjv e^ovTO? hvvafiei)z
The soul is distinct from the body : but considered as its
form (eidos or ivTeXexeia), it is inseparable therefrom.4
1 De Coelo, 1, 12.
2 De Coelo, I, 6—12 ; II, 1, 2, 3, 4 ; De Gener. et Corrupt. 11, 10 ;
De Gener. Animal. II, 3; III, 11; Meteorol. I, 1; Metaph. XII, 8;
Phys. VIII, 2, 3, 5.
3 De An. II, 1. 4 Ibid. I, 1—4.
To this subject belong the Commentaries on the works of Aristotle
which treat of the soul, etc.
120 PIEST PEBIOD. [SECT.
The faculties (Swa/uei?) of the soul are : Production, and
Nutrition,1 Sensation,8 Thought (to hiavor^-riKov), and Will
or Impulse. Notwithstanding, Aristotle maintains the unity
of these faculties in one soul, and rejects the notion of a
plurality of souls. His remarks are particularly interesting
on the manifestations of the cognitive powers,3 i. e. on the
senses; on Common Sense, (kowtj ataOrjai?); the first attempt
towards a clearer indication of Consciousness,4 on Imagi-
nation, Eeminiscence, and Memory.* The act of Intuition
and Perception is a reception of the forms of objects ; and
Thought is a reception of the forms pre-supposed by feeling
and imagination.6 Hence a passive {7ra6^7iK6<i, intellectus
patiens), and an active Understanding (roiipum vod?, intel-
lectus agens). The first implies receptivity for those forms,
therefore it has the closest relation with the faculty of
feeling, and hence, with the body ; to the latter, which
elaborates those forms into judging (v7ro\a[jipdi>eiv) and
inferring (Xo^i^eaOai), and which moreover itself thinks,
appertains indestructibility (Immortality without Conscious-
ness or Memory.7 Thought itself is a power separate from
the body, coming from without into man,8 similar to the
element of the stars.9 Further, the understanding is theo-
retical or practical ; it is the latter, inasmuch as it proposes
ends and aims. The Will (opegis,) is an impulse directed
towards matters of practice, that is to say, toward Good ;
which is real or apparent, according as it procures a
durable or a transient enjoyment:10 opegi? is subdivided
into (3ov\r)fft<$ and ewi6vfua\ the Will, properly so called,
and Desire. Pleasure is the result of the perfect exertion
of a power, — an exertion by which the power again is
perfected. The noblest pleasures spring from Reason.11
1 De An. IT, 2, 4; De Gener. Anim. II, 3.
2 Ibid. II, 5,6,12; 111,12.
3 De An. II, 6; III, 12, sqq. ; De Sensu et Sensibili.
4 Ibid. Ill, 1, sqq.
5 Ibid. Ill, 3, et De Memeria. 6 Ibid. Ill, L
7 De An. II, 1—6 ; III, 2, sqq., 5.
s De Gen. Animal. II, 3.
9 Cic. Acad. Qusest. 1, 7.
io De An. Ill, 9—11; Eth. Ill, VI.
11 Ethic. X, 4, 5, 8.
146.] AHISTOTLE. 121
§ 146.
+ J. G. Buhle, On the Authenticity of the Metaphysics of Aristotle,
in the Biblioth. of Ancient Arts and Literature, fasc. IV. See also his
Compend. of the Hist, of Phil. II, § 331, sqq.
+ Fulleborn, On the Metaphysics of Aristotle : in his Collectanea,
fascic. V.
Petki Kami Scholarum Metaphysicarum, lib. XIV, Par. 1566, 8vo.
Primary philosophy, treating of the nature of Being* in
the abstract, was an attempt of Aristotle's, the first which
had been made in the science since denominated Meta-
physics.1 It was reasonable to expect that this attempt
should be as yet an imperfect one. It contains an analytical
statement of the fundamental predicates of the thing
(to Kvpuvs oV, to ©Vtu>9 ov) or what he denominated the
Categories (ten in number),8 a title under which he com-
prised and elucidated, without much systematic order, the
radical as well as derived notions of the Understanding and
of the Senses,3 as he found them by abstraction, from the
objects of experience. The Ten Categories (prcedicamentd)
of Aristotle are — i) ovata, to iroabv, to tto?ov, Trpbs rl, 7rot>y
7tot€, Ke?a0ai, 6%6iv, 7roLe7v, iraax^v. From these he dis-
tinguishes the Catagorems (prcedicabilia, quinque voces) —
o/205, fyei/oe, €?So9, hiacfiopa, ihiov and ov/LLfiepTjicos, which are
related to the former. (Top. i, 6.) "With this arrangement
he connected the question of the First Being, and His pro-
* The English work Being imperfectly expresses the German das
Seyn, and the Greek to ov. The idea intended to be expressed is esse
in the abstract. — Ed.
1 Schwegler, Die Metaphysik des Aristoteles. Grundtext, Ueber-
setzung und Commentar, nebst erlauternden Ammerkungen, 3 B'ande,
1846.
Biese, Die Philosophie des Aristoteles, 1 Bd. Logik und Meta-
physik, 1835.
2 See Harris's Philos. Arrangements, Edin. and Lond. 1775, 8vo.
Cf. the Categories of Aristotle, with illustrations, offered as an intro-
duction to a new theory of Thought, by Sal. Maimon, Berl. 1794, 8vo.
On the authenticity of the treatise on the Categories; Krug, Obser-
vations Crit. et Exeget. in Aristotelis librum de Categoriis, part I,
Lips. 1809, 4to.
3 Metaph. V, 7. Cf. Categor. II, ed. Buhle.
122 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
perties (theology).1 G-od, the absolute cause of regular
movement,2 is the perfect Intelligence (vov$), to whom
appertains, of his nature, pure and independent Energy,
and the most complete Felicity ;3 He is immutable, and the
end of all Nature.
147. Practical Philosophy, by the profound analysis of
Aristotle, became a moral theory of happiness, connected
with the Empirical point of view. The enquiry starts from
the conception of a sovereign good and final end. The
final End (re\os), is happiness (evdai/jLovia, ev7rpa^ia), which
is the result of the energies of the soul, eV p/iv reXetw, in
a perfect life ;8 to it appertains true dignity as being the
highest thing. This perfect exercise of reason is virtue ;
and virtue is the perfection of speculative and practical
reason: hence the subdivision of Intellectual virtue (dta-
i/oi]TLKrj apeirj), and moral (tjOikt)).6 The first belongs in
its entire plenitude to God alone, and confers the highest
felicity or absolute beatitude; the second, which he also
styles the human, is the constant perfecting of the reason-
able will (e£ie, habitus), the effect of a deliberate resolve,
and consequently of liberty (7rpoaipe7iK^)* of which Aristotle
was the first to display its psychological character, and of
which the subjective form consists in always taking the
mean between two extremes, (to necov, jxeaor^)? Ethical
1 Besides the old treatises on the Theology of Aristotle, by J. Faus-
tius, Hier. Capr^edonus, Fortunius Licetus, and the treatises of
Valerianus Magnus and Zachar. Grapius on the Atheism of Aris-
totle, consult :
Job. G. Walch, Exercitatio Histor. Philosophica de Atheismo
Aristotelis. Parerga Acadeinica, Lips. 1721, 8vo.
Joh. Sev. Vater, Theologiae Aristotelicae Vindiciae, Lips. 1795, 8vo.
f Fulleborn, in his Collections, fasc. Ill, on the Nat. Theol. of
Aristotle.
2 Cf. § 143—144. 3 Pol. VII, 1.
4 Metaph. I, 1 ; XII, 7, sqq. ; De Coelo, II, 3, sqq. ; De Gener. et
Corrupt. I, 6.
5 Eth. Nic. I, 1—7; X, 5, 6. 6 Idem, I, 13; II, 1.
* Aristotle may be said to have been the first to analyse 7rpoaips<ngf
or deliberate free-choice.
Sprengel, Ueber die unter dem Namen des Aristoteles erhaltenen
ethischen Schriften. Abhandlungen der Miinchener Akademie, III, 2,
(1841). 7 Eth. Nic. II, 6.
147—148.] ARISTOTLE. 123
virtue presents itself under six principal characters, having
reference to the different objects of desire and avoid-
ance (the cardinal virtues), namely, courage (avSpia), tem-
perance (owcfypoovvrj), generosity (iXevOepioTrjs) delicacy
(jbLe^a\o7rpe7reia), magnanimity and a proper love of glory1
(jULerjaXoyJsvxia), gentleness and moderation. To these are
added the accessory virtues : such as politeness of manners
(evrpaireXia), amiability, the faculty of loving and being
beloved (0t\m), and lastly justice (piKaioovvT)), which com-
prises and completes all the others, and on that account is
called perfect virtue (reXe/a). Under the head of Justice
Aristotle comprehends* Eight also. Justice he regards as
the special virtue (applied to the notion of equality, to taov) of
giving every man Ms due ; and its operation may be explained
\)j applying to it the Arithmetical and Geometrical pro-
portions conformably to the two species, the Distributive
and Corrective, into which he subdivided the virtue. To
these must be added Equity, which has for its end the
rectification of the defects of law.2 Under the head of Right
(htKcuov), he distinguishes that appertaining to a family
(oiKovofwcov), from that of a city (tto\i7lic6v) • dividing the
latter into the natural (fatmieov), and the positive (vojbukov),
Aristotelis Ethicorum Nicomacheorum adumbratio accommodate ad
nostras Philosophic rationem facta, Disp. Jo. Fr. Gottl. Delbruck,
Hal. 1790, 8vo.
+ The Ethics of Aristotle, translated and illustrated by Chr. Garve,
Bred. 1798—1802, 2 vols. 8vo.
Aristotle's Ethics and Politics, comprising his Practical Philosophy,
translated from the Greek, illustrated by Introductions and Notes, the
Critical History of his Life, and a new Analysis of this Speculative
Works, by J. Gillies, Lond. 1797, 2 vols. 4to.
t K. L. Michelet, On the Ethics of Aristotle, Berl. 1827, 8vo.
148. A perfect unity of plan prevails throughout his
Ethics, his Politics, and his (Economics. Both the latter
have for their end to show how the object of man's existence
Michelet, Die Ethik des Aristoteles in ihrem Verhaltniss zum
System der Moral, 1827.
1 Eth. Nic. V, I, 6, sqq.
2 C. A. Droste-Huelshoff, De Aristotelis Justitia Universali et
Particulari, deque nexu quo Ethica et Jurisprudentia junctae sunt,
Bounce, 1816, 8vo.
124 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
defined in the Ethics, viz. Virtue combined with Happiness,
may be attained in the civil and domestic relations, through
a good constitution of the state and household.1 The state
(wo'Xw), is a complete association of a certain number of
smaller societies sufficient to satisfy in common all the
wants of life.2 Mental power alone should preponderate.
The science of Politics is the investigation of means tend-
ing to the final end proposed by the State : its principle
is expediency, and its perfection the suitableness of means
to the end. By this principle Aristotle would prove the
lawfulness of slavery.3 All education he refers to the
ultimate end of political society.
149. Aristotle also rendered great services to philosophy
by his investigations with regard to the elements of lan-
guage; particularly in his treatise 7repl epfirjveia?; and by
laying the first foundations of a theory of the fine arts ;*
the principle of which, agreeably to his system, he deduced
from the imitation of Nature.5
150. The first successors of Aristotle were, for the most
part, skilful commentators on his doctrines, who endea-
voured, in publications under similar titles, to re-state more
clearly what he had first advanced : the effect of which was
that his system gradually withdrew farther and farther from
that of Plato, and proportionably approached the limits of
Materialism. The most distinguished of his immediate fol-
lowers were Theophrastus of Eressus ;6 whom Aristotle him-
self had characterised as the most learned and the ablest of
his auditors, and the most proper to be his successor and
1 Ethic. VIII, 9 ; X. 9. — See the translations of the Politics and
(Economics, by Schlosser, Lubeck and Leips. 1798, 2 vols, and that
of the Politics by Garve, with Remarks and Dissertations by Fulle-
born, Bresl. 1799, 1802, 2 vols. 8vo. Also : Aristotelis Rerum Public,
reliq. coll. illustr. etc. C. Fr. Neumann, Heidelb. et Spir. 1827, 8vo.
2 Pol. I, 2.
3 W. T. Krug, De Aristotele Servitutis Defensore, Lips. 1813, 4to.
C. G. Gottling, Commentatio de Notione Servitutis apud Aristo-
telem, Jen. 1821, 4to.
To this head belong the Rhetoric and Poetics of Aristotle.
t Biese, Die Philosophic des Aristoteles, II Bd. Die besondem
Wissenschaften, 1842.
6 Formerly called Tyrtamos.
149—150.] AEISTOTLE. 125
heir:1 Eudemus of Rhodes, who, as well as Theophrastus,
republished with very few alterations Aristotle's doctrines
in Physics, Logic, and Ethics : Diccearchus of Messana,2 and
Aristoxenus of Tarentum, the musician ; both materialists in
their opinions on psychology : the first considering the soul
to be a vital energy, inherent in the body :3 the latter believ-
ing it to be a symphony or harmony resulting from the
body, analogous to those elicited from the chords of an in-
strument.4 Heraclides Ponticus has been already mentioned
(§ 138). Subsequently, we have occasion to remark, among
the disciples of Aristotle, the follower and successor of
Theophrastus,5 Strato of Lampsacus; who died about 270
B.C., and published, with more of original character about it, a
dynamical system of Physics,6 in which he referred the exist-
ence of all things to the productive energy of nature, acting
unconsciously ; which caused him to be considered by many an
atheist.7 We have fewer details with regard to Demetrius
Phalereus,8 sl follower of Theophrastus : as an orator and
statesmen he was sufficiently distinguished. As for those
who came after, Lyco or Glyco, of Troas, the successor of
Strato9 (about 270 or 268 B.C.), Hieronymus of Rhodes, his
1 Diog. Laert. V. 36, sqq. A. Gell. Noct. Att. XIII, 5.
Of his numerous works, the only one which has come down to us,
besides his treatises on Natural History, is his book of Characters
{i)<piKoi xapaKTtjptg), and some fragments. Opera Gr. et Lat. ed. Dan.
Heinsius, Lugd. Bat. 1613, 2 vols. fol. See also the work of Hill,
mentioned in the following section.
2 Flourished about 320 B.C.
3 Nic. Dodwell, De Dicsearcho ejusque Fragmentis. Cf. Bredow.
Epp. Paris, p. 4, et alibi ; et Bayle, Diet.
4 G. L. Mahne, Diatr. de Aristoxeno Philos. Peripatetico, Amstd.
1793, 8vo. 5 Cic. Tusc. Qusest. I. 10, 31.
6 Hence he was surnamed Physicus.
7 Diog. Laert. V, 58. Cic. Acad. Quaest. IV, 38 ; De Nat. Deor. I,
13. Sext. Emp. Hyp. Pyrrh. Ill, 32, 136, sqq. ; Adv. Math. VII, 350;
X, 155, 177, 228. Simplic. In Phys. p. 168 et 225. Lactant. De Ira
Dei, 10. Plutarch. Adv. Coloten. p. 163 ; De Plac. IV, 5 ; De Solert.
Anim. p. 141. Stob. Eel. p. 298—348.
Phil. Frid. Schlosser, De Stratone Lampsaceno et Atheismo vulgo
ei tributo, Viteb. 1728, 4to.
Brucker, Diss, de Atheismo Stratonis; Amoenitates Literariae of
Schellhorn, torn. XIII. 8 Flourished 320 B.C.
9 Diog. Laert. V, 65, sqq.
126 TIItST PERIOD. [SECT.
contemporary,1 Aristo of Ceos, the successor of Lyco,a
Critolaus of Phaselis, who went to Rome as ambassador at
the same time time with Cameades, 3 and his pupil and suc-
cessor Diodorus of Tyre — all we know of these Aristotelians
is that they devoted their especial attention to the investi-
gation of the supreme good.* After them, we are ignorant
even of the names of the masters of the Peripatetic school,
till the time of Andronicus (see § 183).
The system of Aristotle for a long time maintained its
ground as distinct from that of Plato: subsequently, at-
tempts were made to associate them, as identical ; or by
giving the superiority to one or other. In the Middle ages
that of Aristotle, degraded to a system of formularies,
became universally prevalent, till in the end it yielded to
Platonism : not, however, without continuing to retain great
influence, from the general adoption of its Logic.5
III. Epicurus.
Authorities : Epicuri Physica et Meteorologica duabus Epistolis
ejusdem comprehensa, ed J. G. Schneider, Lips. 1813, 8vo.
Epicuri Fragmenta librorum II et XI, De Natura, etc., illustrata a
Eosinio, ed. Orellius, Lips. 1818, 8vo.
Diogenis Laertii De Vitis, Dogmatibus et Apophthegmatibus
clarorum Philosophorum lib. X, Gr. et Lat. separatim editus, atque
Adnotationibus iHustratus a Car. Nurnrerger, Norimb. 1791, 8vo.
Cf. also the Didactic Poem of Lucretius De Eerum Natura : and
likewise Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch.
Petri Gassendi Animadversiones in Diogenem Laert. de Vita et
Philosophia Epicuri, Lugd. Bat. 1646, fol.
Ejusdem De Vita, Moribus et Doctrina Epicuri, libb. VIII, Lugd.
1647, 4to. Hagoz Comit. 1656, 4to.
t Sam. de Sorriere, Letters on the Life, Character, and Eeputation
of Epicurus, with Remarks on his Errors (among his Letters and Dis-
courses), Paris, 1660, 4to.
+ J. Eondel, Life of Epicurus, Par. 1679, 8vo. translated into Lat.
Amst. 1693, 12mo.
1 Diog. Laert. IV, 41, sqq. 68.
2 Idem, V, 70—74. 3 155 B.C.
4 Cic. Acad. Qusest. IV, 42 ; De Fin. II, 3 ; V, 5.
5 J.- Launoy, De Varia Philosophiae Aristotelicae Fortuna, Paris,
1653, third edition, Hagaz Comit. 1662, 8vo. Eecudi curavit Joh.
Herm. ab Elswich, Viteb. 1720, 8vo.
G. Paul Eoeteneeck, Oratio de Philosophise Aristotelicae per sin-
gulas aetates Fortuna Varia, Altd. 1668, 4to.
151 — 152.] epicurtjs. 127
+ Essay towards an Apology for Epicurus, by an Opponent of
Batteux (J. G. Bremeb), Berl. 1776, 8vo.
Fr. Ant. Zimmermann (Resp. Zehner), Vita eb Doctrina Epicuri
Dissertatione Inaugur. examinata, Heidelb. 1785, 4to.
f H. E. Warnekros, Apology for, and Life of, Epicurus, Greifsw.
1795, 8vo.
Nic. Hill, De Philosophic Epicurea, Democritea, et Theophrastea,
Genev. 1669, 8vo.
Petri Gassendi Syntagma Philosophise Epicuri, Hag. Com. 1665 et
1659, 4to. and in his Opp.
151. JEpicurus,1 of the demos of Gargettos near Athens,
was born of poor parents. His father, who had settled at
Samos, gained his livelihood as a schoolmaster, and his
mother by divining. The constitution of Epicurus was
feeble, and his education imperfect, but his talents were
superior. A verse of Hesiod, and the works of Demos-
thenes, awakened in him, while yet young, a spirit of
inquiry. Soon after, he attended at Athens, but in a desul-
tory manner, the lessons of Xenocrates the Academician,
Theophrastus, and others. In his thirty-second year he
opened a school at Lampsacus, which, five years after, he
removed to Athens,* where he taught, in his garden, a
system of philosophy which readily recommended itself by
the indulgence it held out to sensual habits, combined with
a taste for the refinements of social life, an abhorrence of
superstition, and a tone of elegance and urbanity which
blended with all his doctrines. He may be justly reproached
with depreciating the works of other philosophers.3 Of his
numerous writings we possess only a few fragments cited
by Diogenes Laertius, and the fragments of a book 7repl
0v<rew?, which by a fortunate chance was discovered among
the ruins of Herculaneum.
152. According to him, philosophy directs us to happiness
by the means of reason.4 Consequently, Ethics form a
principal part of his system, and Physics, etc. are only
accessories. He assigns the same inferior place to what he
terms Canonics, the Dialectics of his system.6 There is
little originality in this theory of happiness ; and the form
alone in which it is put belongs to Epicurus. The theory
i Born 337, died 270. 2 Diog. Laert. X, 15.
3 Ibid. X, 17. « Sextus Emp. Adv. Mathem. XI, 169.
6 Senec. Ep. 89. Diog. Laert. X, 24-31.
123 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
is in fact nothing more than one of Eudaemonism, inter-
woven with moral Ideas, built upon na Atomic system
by way of Physics ; with a theology suitable to such a
whole.
153. Epicurus borrowed from Democritus his theory of
representations derived from certain subtile emanations of
objects (Ji7r6ppoiai, «7ro<TTa<T6t9), which he supposes to detach
themselves therefrom, and so disperse themselves through
the air (§ 105). The contact of these images with the
organs of sense gives birth to perceptions sensational and
intuitional, which correspond perfectly to the objects them-
selves, as well as the representations of imagination, which
are distinguished from perceptions by a greater subtlety,
by fortuitous combinations, and a slighter connexion with
external objects. The knowledge of the object is compre-
hended in the immediate act of sensuous cognition (eVatcr-
Orjtris). It is from the same act that we derive all our
representations, even those which are universal, and of
which there existed previously what he termed TrpoX^ei^ ;l
the understanding contributing however to their formation.2
Every representation of the senses and imagination is true,
because necessarily responding to the images impressed
upon them; and the results are neither capable of being
demonstrated nor refuted (ivapryrjs, aXo-yos). Our opinions
(Sogai), on the other hand, are either true or false, according
as they respond or not to our sensational perceptions :
wherefore these are always to be referred to as their
criteria. Our sensations (jraOrj) are our criteria with respect
to what we ought to desire or to avoid (al'peffi? and <fiv<yfj).
There is no law of necessity for thought; or a Fatalism
would be the consequence. Such are the principles of his
Canonics.3
1 Joh. Mich. Kern, Diss. Epicuri Prolepses, seu Anticipationes,
Sensibus demum administris haustse, non vero menti innatse, in locum
Cic. de Nat. Deor. I, 16, Gott. 1756, 4to.
Taconis Roorda, Disp. de Anticipatione, cum omni turn inprimis
Dei, atque Epicureorum et Stoicorum de Anticipationibus Doctrina,
Lugd. Bat 1823-4.
2 Diog. Laert. X, 31, sqq. 46, sqq. 52. Lucret. IV, particularly
V. 471—476. 726—753. Cic. Divin. II, 67.
3 Diog. Laert. X, 32. Sext. Adv. Math. VII, 203, sqq. Cic.
Acad. Qusest. IV, 25. 32; Nat. Deor. I, 25; De Fato, 9, 10.
153 — 154.] epicuefs. 129
§ 154.
+ The Morals of Epicurus, with Remarks, by M. the Baron Des
Coutures, Par. 1685. + With additions by Rondel, The Hague,
1686, 12mo.
+ The Morals of Epicurus, drawn from his own writings, by the
Abbe Batteux, Par. 1758, 8vo.
Magni Omeisii Diss. Epicurus ab Infami Dogmate, quod Summum
Bonum consistat in Obsccen& Corporis Voluptate, Defensus, Altd.
1679, 4to.
+ Investigation respecting the Partial and Exclusive Opinions of the
Stoic School, and that of Epicurus, with respect to the Theory of
Happiness (by E. Platner) ; in the Neue Biblioth. der Schonen Wis-
senschqften, XIX, B.
Morals. Pleasure is the sovereign good of man ; for all
beings from their birth pursue pleasure and avoid pain.
Pleasure consists in the activity or the repose of the soul ;
in the enjoyment of agreeable sensations, and the absence
of those which are painful (ySovij eV Kiv^aei, and ydovrj
Ka7aa7ri/u,a7iK7j). Accordingly Epicurus considers as the end
and aim of man this well-being, which consists in being
exempt from bodily ills and mental afflictions ; and he places
the summum bonum in a state entirely free from suffering
(arapatjia, arovia, 7rav709 too aA/yo^ro? V7regaipecri$\ the re-
sults of the satisfaction of our natural and necessary wants,
appetites, and desires.1 All our emotions in themselves
are equal in worth and dignity, but differ greatly in in-
tensity, duration, and their consequences. The pleasures
and the pains of the mind exceed those of the body. To
attain happiness therefore, it is necessary to make a choice
(al'peffis); and to rule our desires by the help of reason* and
free-will, or individual energy independent of nature, which
Epicurus explains in a manner not the most philosophical.2
Consequently Prudence (tppoveaii), is the first of virtues :
next to that Moderation and Justice. Virtue in general
has no value or worth but for the consequences which at-
tend her ; namely, that she is inseparably allied to enjoy-
ment.3 Contracts are the origin of Eight ; their end is the
• Diog. Laeet. X, 131. 136, 137. 139. Cic. Fin. I, 9, 11.
* Eeason must here be understood in its popular English sense, as
denoting the intellectual and intuitional faculties generally. — Ed.
2 Ibid. X, 144. Cic. Nat. Deor. I 25.
3 Ibid. X 129. 140. 142.
130 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
mutual advantage of the contracting parties, and expediency
the principle which makes their performance obligatory.1
Occasionally Epicurus took higher ground ;2 with the same
inconsistency which compelled his adversaries to praise the
life he led, so much at variance with the spirit of his precepts.3
Observation. — A difference is to be observed between the system of
happiness adopted by the Cyrenaics and that of Epicurus ; who appears
to have made his more perfect in proportion as he became gradually
more alive to the deficiencies of the former. See Diog. Laekt. X, 6,
131, 137. Cic. Tusc. Qusest. Ill, 18 ; Fin. I, 17.
§ 155.
Gult. Charleton, Physiologia Epicureo-Gassendo-Charletoniana, etc.
Lond. 1654, fol.
Gottfrid. Ploucquet, Diss, de Cosmogonia Epicuri, Tub. 1755, 4to.
+ Restaurant, Agreement between the Opinions of Aristotle and
Epicurus on Philosophy, Lugd. Bat. 1682. 12mo.
Physics. He considered the science of Nature as sub-
ordinate, in some sort, to that of Ethics ; and that its
proper end was to liberate mankind from all superstitious
terror derived from their conceptions of the celestial phe-
nomena, the gods, death, and its consequences ; i. e. from
vain apprehensions affecting the living.4 With these views,
Epicurus found nothing which suited him better than the
Atomic theory, which he enlarged by adding a great number
of hypotheses, and applied to explain different natural
phenomena. If we admit the objects presented to our
senses to be compound in their nature, we are led to pre-
sume the existence of simple uncompounded bodies, or
Atoms. Besides weight, form, and volume, and that which
he considered to be the primitive movement common to all,
viz. a perpendicular, he assigned to them also an oblique
motion,5 without adding any proof. The various mechanical
movements of Atoms in vacuo (to tcevbv), or space (twos),
have produced aggregates or bodies, and even the universe
itself; which is a body, and which, considered as a whole,
is immutable and eternal, though variable and perishable
1 Ibid. X, 150, 151. 2 Ibid. X, 135. Cic. Tusc. Quaest. II, 7.
3 Cic. Tusc. Qusest. Ill, 20. Senec. De Vita Beata, 13.
4 Diog. Laert. X, 81, sqq. ; 142, sqq. Lucret. I, 147. Plutarch.
Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum, c. 8, 9.
5 Lucret. II, 217. Cic. Fin. I, 6.
155—156.] EPICURUS. 131
in respect of the parts or worlds of which it is composed.1
The world being imperfect, and presenting nothing bnt
scenes of misery, destruction, and death, (imperfections
especially" observable in Man), cannot be considered the
work of an Intelligent Cause. Besides, such an origin is
inconceivable, and irreconcileable with the tranquil and
happy lot of the G-ods.2 All the appearances of final causes
which are observable in the world are purely fortuitous.3
The soul is of a corporeal nature, as is attested by its
sympathy with the body ; but at the same time of a nature
more refined, involved in one less perfect. Its elemental
principles are heat, the aether spirit, and an anonymous
matter on which depends its sensibility: this last is situated
in the breast, the others dispersed over the body.4 The soul
and the body are united in the most intimate manner : the
latter is born with the body, and perishes with it, by the
dissolution of its component Atoms.5 To suppose the soul
immortal is to contradict all our notions of the character-
istics of an immutable and eternal being.6 By these and
other similar arguments Epicurus would disprove the im-
materiality of the soul, which Plato had maintained. Death
he affirmed to be no evil.7
§ 156.
Jo. Pausti Diss, de Deo Epicuri, Argent. 1685, 4to.
J. Cone. Schwarz, Judicium de Kecondita Theologia Epicuri. Com-
ment, I, II, Cob. 1718, 4to.
Jo. Henr. Kronmayer, Diss, (prses. Gottl. Stolle) de Epicuro,
Creationis et Providentiee Divinse assertore, Jen. 1713, 4to.
Joh. Achat. Fel. Bielke, Diss, qua sistitur Epicurus atheus contra
Gassendum, Rondellum, et Baelium, Jen. 1741, 4to.
+ Chph. Meiners, Dissertation on the Character of Epicurus, and
the Contradictions in his Theory of the Divine Nature : Yermischte
Schriften, II, p. 45, sqq.
Theology. Such a system, as the ancients themselves
1 Diog. Laert. X, 39, 43, sqq., 73, sqq. Lucret. II, 61, sqq.
2 Ibid, X, 139. 76, 77. Lucretius, V, 157. 235; III, 855, 984.
Cic. De Nat. Deor. I, 9—16. 3 Lucret. IV, 821.
4 Diog. Laert. X, 63, sqq.; Lucret. III. 31, sqq. ; 95, sqq.; 138. 188.
204, sqq. Sextus Emp. Hyp. Pyrrh. 187, 229.
5 Lucret. Ill, 324, sqq.," 396, sqq., 426, sqq. Diog. Laert. 64, sqq.
6 Ibid. Ill, 807, sqq.
7 Diog. Laert. X, 139. Cf. 124, sqq. Lucret. Ill, 670, sqq.
K 2
132 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
remarked of it, approaches Atheism rather than Theism ;l
and accordingly some Stoics, among others Posidonius,
treated Epicurus as a disguised Atheist;2 but it may be
nearer the truth to look upon him as an inconsistent Theist,
who asserted the existence of the Gods, and enlarged upon
their attributes with all the hardiness of Dogmatism. He
concludes that they exist, from the universality of religious
representations and conceptions; which according to his
system of cognition are the Effluence of corresponding real
objects. The Gods are compounded of Atoms, and bear
the human shape, the most perfect of all figures, their
substance being analagous to that of our bodies, without
being altogether the same : they are eternal, imperishable,
and supremely happy: as such they are worthy of our
worship, although they inhabit the space intermediate
between the Worlds, in a state of repose and indifference,
in which their felicity consists, and without exerting any
influence over the affairs of this lower region.
157. Epicurus had a great number of disciples, among
whom we remark Metrodorus3 and his brother Time-crates,
Colotes (the same against whom is directed a treatise of
Plutarch), Poly anus, Leonteus and his wife Themista, all of
Lampsacus ; add to these another Metrodorus of Stratonicea,
who subsequently went over to the Academy :4 and the
friend and confident of Epicurus, Leontium, the noted
courtesan of Athens ; next came Hermachus of Mitylene,
the successor of Epicurus ;5 and, at a later period, Poly-
stratus, Dionysius, Dasilides, Apollodorus, Zeno of Sidon,
Diogenes of Tarsus, Diogenes of Seleucia, JPhcedrus and
Philodemus of Gadara, etc. His school subsisted for a long
time without undergoing any important modifications:6 of
which the reason probably was, the spirit of the system
itself, and the deference entertained by his followers for
their master. He had, besides, guarded his doctrines
against any considerable innovation by founding them on
1 Plutarch. Non posse suaviter vivi sec. Epicur. c. 8.
2 Cic. De Nat. I, 30—44. 3 Diog. Laert, X, 22, sqq.
4 Idem, X, 9. s 270 B.C.
6 Sen. Ep. 33. Who are the real Epicureans and real Sophists?
(See Diog. Laert. X, 26).
157 — 158.] ZEtfO AND THE STOICS. 133
formal propositions, or general maxims (icvpiei Bogai).1 If
on the one hand this system had a tendency to extinguish
all that is ideal in the human soul, on the other it fortified it
against superstition ; with the loss, it is true, of all belief
derived from the understanding.2
IV. Zeno and the Stoics.
Authorities : The Hymn of Cleanthes, and the Fragments of Chry-
sippus and Posidonius ; Cicero; Seneca; Arrian; Antoninus; Stob£eus;
Diogenes Laertius, VII; Plutarch, in several of his Treatises against
the Stoics; Simplicius.
Modern Works.
Hemingii Forelli Zeno Philosophus leviter adumbratus. Exer-
citatio Academica, Ups. 1700, 8vo.
Justi Lipsii Manuductio ad Stoicam Philosophiam, Antwerp, 1604,
4to. ; Ludg. Bat. 1644, 12mo.
Thom. Gatakeei Diss, de Disciplina Stoica cum Sectis aliis collata.
Prefixed to his edition of Antonin., Cambridge, 1653, 4to.
Fk. de Quevedo, Doctrina Stoica, in ejus Opp. torn. Ill, Bruxell.
1671, 4to.
Jo. Fr. Buddei Introduct. in Philos, Stoicam. Prefixed to his
edition of Antonin. Lips. 1729, 8vo.
Dan. Heinsii Oratio de Philos. Stoicft; in suis Orationib. Ludg.
Bat. 1627, 4to., p. 326, sqq.
t Dietr. Tiedemann, System of the Stoic Philosophy, Leips. 1776,
3 vols. 8vo. ; and in his Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, vol. II,
§ 427, sqq.
Joh. Alb. Fabricii Disputatio de Cavillationibus Stoicorum, Lips.
1692, 4to.
Schmidt, Stoicorum grammatica, 1839.
Meyer, Commentatio in qua doctrina Stoicorum ethica cum Chris-
tiana comparatur, 1823.
158. Zeno was born at Cittium, in Cyprus ;3 his father
Mnaseas being a rich merchant. Having received a good
education, chance, added to his own inclinations, caused
him to attend the Socratic schools. He became a hearer
of the Cynic Crates, Stilpo and Diodorus Cronus the
Megareans, and the Academicians Xenocrates and Polemo,
for several years. His object was to found a comprehensive
and tenable system of human Cognition which might oppose
itself to Scepticism; and, in particular, to establish rigid
1 Lucret. Ill, 14. Cic. Fin. I, 5—7; II, 7. Diog. Laert. X,
12, 13.
2 Lucian. Alexander. 3 About 340 B.C.
134 FIRST PEEIOD. [sect.
principles of Morality, to which his own conduct was con-
formable. In the Portico (<rroa), at Athens, he formed a
school,1 distinguished for a succession of excellent thinkers
and lovers of virtue ; a school which became memorable for
the influence it possessed in the world, and its resistance to
vice and tyranny. Zeno died after Epicurus.2 His system
was extended, developed, and completed in the course of
a long rivalship with other schools, particularly that of
Epicurus and the New Academy. Its principal supporters
were Persceus or Dorotheus of Cittium,3 Aristo of Chios,4
who founded a separate school approaching that of the
Sceptics,5 Herillus of Carthage ;6 and lastly, the pupil and
worthy successor of Zeno, Cleanthes of Assos.7 Next came
the disciple of the last, Chrysippus of Soli or of Tarsus, the
pillar of the Portico ;8 then his disciple Zeno of Tarsus,9 and
Diogenes of Babylon, who with Carneades and Critolaus
went as ambassador to Rome about 155 B.C.; still later
came Antipater of Tarsus or Sidon,10 JPancetius of Rhodes,
who succeeded him at Athens, but also taught at Rome,
1 About 300 B.C. 2 Between 264 and 260 B.C.
3 Suidas, s. v. Persaeus and Hermagoras.
4 Godofr. Buchneri Diss. Hist. Philos. de Aristone Chio, Vita et
Doctrina noto, Lips. 1725, 4to.
Jo. Ben. Carpzovii Diss. Paradoxon Stoicum Aristonis Chii : 'O/iolov
elvai T(ji ayaOy v-jroicpiTy tov cotyov, novis Observationibus illustratuni,
Lips. 1742, 8vo.
5 We must not confound him with Aristo of Ceos, the Peripatetic,
§ 150. 6 Persseus, Aristo, and Herillus flourished about 260 B.C.
Guill. Traugott Krug, Herilli de Summo Bono sententia explosa
non explodenda, Symbolar. ad Hist. Philos. Partic. Ill, Lips. 1822,
4to. (Cf. Cic. De Offic. I, 2.) i Flourished about 264 B.C.
+ Hymn of Cleanthes to the Supreme Being, in Greek and German,
with a statement of the principal Doctrines of the Stoics, by Herm.
Heimart Cludius, Gott. 1786, 8vo.
t Gr. C. Fr. Mohnike, Cleanthes the Stoic, Greifswald, 1814, 8vo.
J. Fr. Herm. Schwabe, Specimen Theologise Comparativse exhibens
K\edv9ovg vfivov tig Ala, Jen. 1819.
8 Cic. Acad. Qusest. IV, 24. Diog. Laert. VII, 183. He was bom
280, died 212 or 208 B.C.
J. Fr. Kiohter, Diss, de Chrysippo Stoico Fastuoso, Lips. 1738, 4to.
Ge. Albr. Hagedorn, Moralia Chrysippea e Rerum Naturis petita,
Altd. 1695, 4to.
Joh. Conr. Hagedorn, Ethica Chrysippi, Norimb. 1715, 8vo.
9 About 212 B.C. 10 About 146 B.C.
159 — 160.] SCHOOL OF ZEKO. 135
and accompanied Scipio Africanus to Alexandria;1 and
lastly, Posidonius of Apamea in Syria, a pupil of the former,
and surnamed the JRhodian, from the school which he esta-
blished at Khodes.2 Even after an examination of all the
historical authorities relative to the philosophers of this
sect, it is no easy matter to assign to each his respective
part in the composition of its doctrines. On the present
occasion we can only find room for the principles and
general characteristics of the system.
159. According to the Stoics, philosophy is the effort
after and way to the highest perfection (ao(pia, wisdom), or
virtue of man, which developes itself in the cognition of the
nature of things, in the knowledge and practice of what is
good, and in the formation of the understanding. Its three
subdivisions are Physiology, Ethics, and Logic, which ought
together to shew the way to this perfection. They were
not agreed respecting the order in which they presented
these. They commonly, however, like Zeno and Chrysippus,
placed Logic at the head. The latter (Chrysippus) added
Natural Philosophy to it. The Stoics were not able to
digest these branches of philosophy into a systematic form,
founded on solid principles,* because they were devoted to
the theory of Empiricism ;3 their fundamental maxim being,
to follow Nature.
160. The Logic of Zeno and his successors was of much
more extensive application than that of Aristotle : forming
a considerable part of the wisdom he professed to teach,
1 Flourished about 130 B.C.
+ Memoirs of the Life and Works of Panaetius, by the Abbe Sevin,
in the Mem. of the Acad, of Inscript. torn. X.
Cae. Gunth. Ludovici Progr. Panaetii Vitam et Merita in Roma-
norum turn Philosophiam turn Jurisprud. illustrans, Lips. 7333, 4to.
Fr. Ge. van Lynden, Diss. Historico-Critica de Panaetio Rhodio,
Philos. Stoico (praes. Dan. Wyttenbach), Ludg, Bat. 1802, 8vo.
2 He nourished about 103 B.C.
Fr. Bake, Posidonii Rhodii Reliquiae Doctrinae, collegit atque
illustravit, Lugd. Bat. 1810, 8vo.
* This verdict is the offspring of Tennemann's rationalistic prin-
ciples.— Ed.
3 Cic. Fin. Ill, 21; IV, 2; Acad. Qwest. T, 10, sqq. Senec. Ep.
89. Plutarch. Decret. Philos. Proem., et De Stoicorum Repugn.
p. 342. Diog. Laert. VII, 40, sqq. 54.
13G FIKST PERIOD. [SECT.
and being adapted ad materiam as well as to the form of
argumentation; and comprehending in its range as sub-
ordinate to itself, something of Psychology, Grammar, and
Rhetoric. Such a system of Logic was intended to oppose
to the uncertainty and the instability of popular notions a
solid and stable science, worthy of a philosopher ; and which
might serve him as a touchstone of Truth and Falsehood.
It starts from a theory of Representations, to which Chry-
sippus seems to have affixed a doctrine of the nomenclature of
representations. Every original representation is the result
of impressions produced upon the mind, and hence of sensa-
tional perceptions ; and is therefore denominated (pavraaia,
visum. Out of these original and sensational impressions,
Reason, a superior and directing power (to yrfefiovucbv),
forms our other representations. The true are styled by
Zeno (f)avTaaiat Karak'rjWTiicai, or KaTa\7^ei9, that is, such as
are verified by their correspondence with the object to
which they refer, are freely assented to, and constitute the
foundation of science. The rule of Truth, accordingly, is
Bight Reason, (6p0b$ XoVyo?), which conceives of an object as
it is. On this Dogmatic Empiricism rested the system of
Zeno. Chrysippus remarked with still greater exactitude
the difference between sensational representaions or con-
ceptions (alaOrjTiKal) and those which are not derived from
the senses. The latter, i. e. ideas, result from the mutual
comparison of the former, and by combining whatever they
contain of Universal. This union takes place, sometimes
involuntarily, sometimes in consequence of a voluntary
application of the thinking faculty ; and hence result, on
the one hand, natural conceptions {(jyvaixai ewoiai ical
7rpo\7)tyei<$)i and on the other, notions artificially acquired,
(ewoiai). Of these the former constitute the Sensus com-
munis (icoivbs \6<yo<z), which is the criterium of Truth.1
The versatility, or as it may be termed, the subtilty of
the mind of Chrysippus, displayed itself especially in the
manner in which he perfected the Syllogistic system of
Logic ; and particularly in his theory of Hypothetical and
Disjunctive arguments. He assumes the following as the
1 Cic. Acad. QuaBst. I, 11 ; 11, 42. Plutarch. Dogm. IV, 11.
DiOG. Laekt. VII, 54. A. Gellius, XIX, 1.
161.] zeno. 137
most universal conceptions (ja ^eviKwrara) or categories,1
1st. the substratum (to vTroKeifievov), 2nd. the quality (to
7toiov), 3rd. the relation of a thing to itself (to 77-ws ^xov)i
4th. the relation of a thing to others (to wpbs rl e%ov)'
§ 161.
Justi Lipsii Physiologise Stoicorum libri III, Antw. 1610, 4to.
Th. A. Sdabedissen, Programma • cur pauci semper fuerint Phy-
siologic Stoicorum Sectatores, Casel. 1813, 4to.
Zeno attempted, in his Physiology, to give such an
account of the notions commonly received respecting the
objects of the natural world, as, without the substitution
of any hypothesis, might aiFord a foundation for practical
judgment. Of all preceding systems, that of Heraclitus,
which supposed the existence of an all-pervading Xo^o?,
appeared to Zeno to suit his purpose best, and agreed with
his doctrine that immaterial beings are nothing more than
chimeras.2 According to the Stoics, all that is real — all that
can act or suffer, is corporeal. They make a distinction how-
ever between solid bodies (o-repea), and the contrary. Space,
Time, and Representations are incorporeal.3 Chrysippus also
distinguished between Space and Vacuum ; and pronounced
the latter, like Time, to be infinite. There are two eternal
principles (a/>x«0> °f au things: the one (oXrj)* matter,
passive ; the other active, namely the Divinity, or creative
principle ; the source of activity, and author of the forms
and arrangement of all things in the world. Grod is a living
fire, unlike however to common fire , he is named also irvevfxa
or spirit ;5 he fashions, produces, and permeates all things,
agreeably to certain laws (\6<yot a7rep/^a7iK6i). Matter is thus
subject to universal reason, which is the law of all nature.6
Various proofs of the existence of a Divinity were alleged
by the Stoics, particularly by Cleanthes and Chrysippus.7
• i According to Simplicity, ad categ. Ar. f. 16.
2 Cic. Acad. Quaest. I, 11. Diog. Laert. VII, 56.
3 Diog. Laert. VII, 135. 4 Idem, VII, 140.
5 Cic. Nat. Deor. II, 14. Diog. Laert. VII, 139. Stob. p. 538.
6 Cic. Acad. Quaest. I, 11; Nat. Deor. II. 8, 9. 14. 22. 32. Sextus,
Adv. Math. IX, 101. Diog. Laert. VII, ' 134, sqq. 147-156, sqq.
Stob. Eel. Phys. 1, p. 312—538.
i Gulll. Traug. Krug, Prog, de Cleanthe Divinitatis assertore ac
prsedicatore, Lips. 1819, 4to.
138 FIRS* PERIOD. [SECT.
According to the doctrines we have reviewed, God is
t in, not without the world. The world itself is a living being
and divine. Hence resulted the close connection main-
tained by these philosophers between Providence {wpovola)
and Destiny (eifiapfievrj), founded upon the relations be-
tween Cause and Effect observable in the world:1 this
notion led Chrysippus still farther, to Determinism, and
thence to Optimism? to Divination (jiavriKij), and an
attempt to explain the Mythological Polytheism by the aid
of Physiology and Theology.3 In like manner as the world
was produced by the action of fire, when the four elements
(o-To<^6?a), out of which the Divinity formed all things,
were separated from primeval matter ;4 so must it ultimately
perish by the same.5 This combustion or dissolution by
fire, by which all things will be resolved into their original
state (iicTTvpwois rod icoofiov) has been rejected by some sub-
sequent Stoics,6 among others by Zeno of Tarsus, Pansetius,
and Posidonius.7
162. The soul is a fiery air (jrvevjAa evOepfiov), being a
portion of the Soul of the world, but, like every other real
individual being, is corporeal and perishable.8* Cleanthes
and Pansetius went so far as to endeavour to establish its
1 Plutarch. De Stoic. Repugnan. Stob. Eel. Phys. vol. i, p. 180.
2 Joh. Mich. Kern, Disp. Stoicorum Dogmata de Deo, Gott. 1764, 4to.
Jac. Brucker, De Providentia Stoiea, in Miscell. Hist. Philos. p. 147.
S. E. Schulze, Commentatio de Cohaerentia Mundi partium earumque
cum Deo conjunctione summa secundum Stoicorum disciplinam. Viteb.
1785, 4to.
Mich. Heinr. Reinhard, Prog, de Stoicorum Deo, Torgav. 1737, 4to.
Et Comment, de Mundo Optimo praesertim ex Stoicorum Sententia,
Torgav. 1738, 8vo.
3 Cic. Nat. Deor. I, II, III: De Fato, c. 12, 13, 17. A. Gellius,
N. Att. VI, c. 2. 4 Diog. Laert. VII, 142.
5 Cic. Nat. Deor. II, 46. 6 Philo, De iEtern. Mundi.
' Jac Thomasii Exercitatio de Stoiea Mundi exustione, etc. Lips.
1672, 4to.
Mich. Sonntag, Diss, de Palingenesia Stoicorum, Jen. 1700, 4to.
8 Cic. De Nat. Deor. III., 14; Tusc. Qusest. I, 9; Diog. Laert.
VII, 156.
* The latter Stoics differed on this point from their sires* Epic-
tetus, Marcus Aurelius, and even Seneca, incline to a belief in the
immortality of the soul. — Ed.
162—163.] the stoics. 139
mortality by proof.1 It consists of eight parts or powers :
one, and the principal (to rj^efiovncov), or Understanding
(Xoryiafios), is the source of all the rest, namely, the five
senses, speech and the generative faculty; in the same
manner as the Divinity is the origin of all individual
energies in the world without.2 The emotions also, as well
as the passions and appetites of the soul (7rd0rj and op/uai),
are the results of the intellectual faculty ; because they are
always founded on some belief of the reality of their object,
on some approbation, or judgment.3 Grief, fear, desire
(eTriOvfiia, libido), and joy (j)S6vij)1 are instanced as naBr)*
§ 163.
Casp. Scioppu Elementa Stoieas Philosophise Moralis, Mogunt.
1606, 8vo.
J. Fr. Buddei Exercitt. Historico-Philos. IV de Erroribus Stoi-
corum in Philos. Morali, Hal. 1695-96.
Ern. Godp. Lilie, Commentationea de Stoicorum Philos. Morali.
Comment. I. Alton. 1800, 8vo.
+ J. Neeb, Examination of the Morality of the Stoics, compared
with that of Christianity, Mainz, 1791, 8vo.
Ern. Aug. Dankegott Hoppe, Diss. Hist. Philos. : Principia Doc-
trinse de Moribus Stoicae et Christians, Viteb. 1799, 4to. (See also
the works of Conz and Wegscheider, cited § 182.)
Nichol. Frid. Biberg (praes. et auctor ; resp. C. T. Latin), Com-
mentationum Stoicarum, pars 1, Upsal. 1815, 4to.)
The morality of the Stoics was built upon profound ob-
servation of the essential characteristics of Human Nature,
of Reason, and Free-will ; and a close association of Ethics
with Nature,4 in virtue of this principle, that God, the
inherent cause of all the existing forms and proportions of
1 Chph. Meiners, Commentar. quo Stoicorum Sententia de Ani-
morum post mortem statu et fatis illustratur; Verm. Philos. Schriften,
vol. II, p. 265.
2 Plutarch. Decret. Philos. IV. 4. 5. 21. Sextus, Adv. Math.
IX, 101.
3 Cic. Tusc. Qusest. IV, 6, sqq. ; Fin. IV, 38. Diog. Laert. VII,
110. Stob. Eel. Eth., p. 166. 170. Plutarch. De Virt. Morali ; De
Decret. Philos. IV, 25.
* Epictetus ably distinguishes between passive impressions and
spontaneous judgments. The former are not in our power, the latter
are. Oujc i<p rffxiv ilai, ajjfia, xP*llxaTa> K.r.X. E^> i)\iiv cTct 6pt£i£,
sTciOvnia, ic.7.\. See 'Eyxtipitfioi\ — Ed.
4 Cic. De Nat. Deor. 1, 14.
110 FIRST PEEIOD. [SECT.
the world, is himself the supreme Eeason and Law. In
consequence of the Eational nature of Man, the Stoic con-
siders Order, Legality, and Eeason, as what we are above all
things bound to respect, as the only condition on which man
can attain to the end of his being, that is Virtue ; towards
which all Nature is framed to lead us. Accordingly the first
of all maxims is i1 To live agreeably to the law of Right Reason
(6p0o$ Ao'709); or, according to the formulary of Cleanthes and
other Stoics : To live conformably to Nature, (6/uo\o<yovfi€vu)<s
£rjv or oftoXo^ovfieuwi rrj (frvcei %rjv).2 See above Polemo
(§ 138). Such a life is 'the proper end of human existence.3
164. The most remarkable principles of the Practical
system of this school are: 1st. to koKov (or Virtue), is the
only absolute good (povov atyaBbv): Vice, on the other hand,
is the only ^positive evil : everything else is morally indifferent,
(a6/a0o/aoi/), possessing only a relative value, which renders it
in a greater or less degree capable of becoming an object of
choice, of avoidance, or simply of toleration, {k^wiov, 0X^701/,
fieoov).4' 2dly. Virtue is based on wisdom (0/>oV?;<m) : it
consists in the practical exercise of a free and independent
reason, in harmony with itself and with nature, whereof the
application is found in knowing and doing what is good.5
Stoical virtue may also be defined as a mode of life entirely
guided by the principle that there is no other good than to
do good, and that in that alone is contained the principle of
liberty.6 3dly. Vice is an inconsequent mode of action (in-
constantia) that results from the contempt or perversion of
reason: the evil inclination or the guilty passions that spring
from it incur disgrace and responsibility.7 All actions
are conformable or unconformable to the character of the
agent, kclOtjkovtci, 7rapa to KadrjKov: the first being subdivided
1 Aut. Cress, Comment, de Stoicorum Supremo Ethices Principio,
Viteb. 1797, 4to.
2 Cic. Fin. III. 6 ; Cleanthes, Hymn V Diog. Laert. VII, 87.
Stob. Eel. Eth. PI. II, p. 32. 132. 134. 138, sqq.
3 Joh. Jac. Dorneield, Diss, de Fine Hominis Stoico. Lips.
1720, 4to. 4 Cic. Fin. Ill, 3, 8. 15.
5 Diog. Laert. VII, 89. AtaOemg bfjLoXoyovfxkvr). Stob. Eel. Eth. II,
p. 204. AidOtdig -tyvxviQ crviMpwvog avry irepi 6Xov rbv fiiov.
6 Cic. Acad. Queest. I, 10; Fin. Ill, 7; Tusc. Quaest. IV. 15; Para-
doxon V. Plutarch. De "Virt. Mor. c. 3.
* Cic. Acad. Queest. 1, 10 Tusc. Queest. IV, 9. 23.
164.] THE STOICAL DOCTRINES. 141
into KaOrjKovTa Te\e7a, and k. fieca; the former, inasmuch as
they are done in fulfilment of the law, are called good actions,
KcnopOwiuna, and their contraries, transgressions, ajtiapTrjficna*
The KdTopOivfjLaTa alone are virtuous and worthy of com-
mendation ; without respect to their consequences.1 4thly.
Virtue being the only good, can alone enable us to attain
felicity, evhaifxovla :2 which latter consists in a tranquil course
of life (evppoia (3iov), and cannot be augmented by any
increase of duration.3 5thly. Virtue is one, and Vice is
one : neither of them are capable of augmentation or dimi-
nution.4 All good actions are respectively equal, and in
like manner all evil, inasmuch as they flow from the same
sources. Virtue is manifested under four principal cha-
racters: Prudence, ((ppovrjais)-, Courage, (avhpict); Tempe-
rance, (ow(fipo0vvrj) ; Justice, (pacaioavvri) : with a correspond-
ing number of Vices.5 6thly. The Virtuous man is exempt
from Passions (7ra6<rj), but not insensible to them. It is in
this sense that we must understand the a.7ra0eia of the
Stoics.6 The sage alone is free and a king. The Passions
ought to be not only moderated but totally eradicated.
Chrysippus also mainly contributed to systematise the
1 Cic. Fin. 7, 9. 17, 18. Stob. Eel. Eth. II, p. 58, sqq.
2 Ben. Bendtsen, Progr. de avrapKua ttjq dptrijQ npbg ev^aifioviav.
Hafn. 1811, 4to.
Joh. Colmae (praes. Ge. Paul. Kcetenbeccio), Diss, de Stoicorum et
Aristotelis circa gradum necessitatis bonorum externorum ad summam
beatitatem disceptatione, Norimb. 1709, 4to.
3 Cic. Fin. Ill, 14. Stob. Eel. Eth. p. 138. 154. Dioo. Laert. VII, 88.
4 Cic. De Fin. Ill, 14, 15.
5 Cic. Acad. Queest. I, 10; Fin. Ill, 14, 15, 21 ; IV, 20—27, sqq.
Paradox. Ill, 1. Plutarch. De Virt. Mor. c. 2. Stob. Eel. Eth. PI. II,
p. 110.116. 218.220.
6 Cic. Ac. Qusest. 1, 10. ; Tusc. Qusest. IT, 16—19. A. Gell. XIX, 2.
Joh. Barth. Niemeyer, Dissert, de Stoicorum enratidq., etc. Helmst.
1679, 4to.
Joh. Beenii Dispp. Ill, de aicaQtla Sapientis Stoici, Hafn. 1695, 4to.
Joh. Henr. Fischer, Diss, de Stoicis cnraQuaQ falso suspectis, Lips.
1716, 4to.
Mich. Fr. Quadius, Diss. Hist. Philos. tritum illud Stoicorum
irapaSo%ov 7rtpi enraptiag expendens, Sedini, 1720, 4to.
f Chph. Meinebs, On the Stoic Apathy : Verm. Philos. Schriften,
torn. II, p. 130, sqq.
142 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
Ethics of the Stoics, and asserted that the principle of
Right was founded in the nature of Reasonable Beings ($>vaei
Kal pr) Oeaei hUaiov): and derived from this the character-
istics of Natural Right.
165. The Stoics admitted only two descriptions of men ;
the good, aTTovhaloi ; and the bad, (fiadXoi : without allowing
the existence of any intermediate class. With such a view
they drew a portrait of their ideal Wise Man ;* with all the
most sublime features of moral and intellectual perfection,
but without a sufficient observation of the differences
which must necessarily exist between the idea and the
reality ; and more as if they were describing the qualities of
a superior nature, than a degree of perfection attainable by
man.2 On the same principle they permitted their Wise
Man, under certain circumstances, to deprive himself of life
(avToxeipia) , as a part of his absolute freedom.3 In later
times this licence was made still greater, particularly by the
authority of Seneca.4 The blending of the moral system
of the Stoics with their views of Physics and Theology, and
an imperfect estimate of the distinctions which form the
limits between the Law of Nature and Free-will, Morality
and Felicity, gave occasion, in this system, to many incon-
sistencies which are easily observable; especially in their
ideas of absolute liberty, and the incompatibility of this
entire independence with Fate.5 The system bears also
throughout a character of extravagant pride and asperity,
which is hostile to the cultivation of moral sentiment. On
the other hand, we find abundant germs of noble sentiments,
calculated to elevate man, and inspire him with a sense of
his own dignity; and it has on many occasions communi-
cated to its disciples an invincible courage, and fortitude to
resist all the rigours of tyranny.
1 f Ant. le Grand, The Stoic Wise Man. The Hague, 1662, 12mo.
Erh. Redsch (prses. Omeisio). Diss. Vir Prudens Aristotelicus cum
Sapiente Stoico collatus, Altorf. 1704, 4to.
2 Stob. Eel. Eth., p. 198. 221.
3 Chr. Aug. Heumann, Diss, de at»ro%£ipt'a Philosphorum, maxime
Stoicorum, Jena, 1703, 4to.
4 Cic. Fin. Ill, 18. Diog. VII, 130—176. Stob. Eel. Eth. II, p. 226.
6 Cic. De Fato, c. 12, sqq., 17. A. Gell. VI, 2.
165 — 167.] NEW ACADEMY. 143
V. New Academy.
Authorities : Cicero, Sextus Empiricus, Diog. Laertius, lib. IV.
+ St^udlin, work mentioned above (§ 38, II.)
*j* Foucher, History of the Academicians, Paris, 1690, 12mo. Diss,
de Philos. Academica, Paris. 1692, 12mo.
J. D. Gerlach, Commentatio exhibens Academicorum Juniorum de
Probabilitate Disputationes, Gotting. 1815, 4to.
J. Rud. Thorbecke, Responsio ad Qu. Philos. : qugeritur in Dog-
maticis oppugnandis numquid inter Academicos et Stoicos interfuerit]
Quod si ita sit, quseritur quae fuerit discriminis causa] 1820, 4to.
166. The bold and uncompromising Dogmatism which
prevailed in the Porch, and the bitter attacks made by Zeno
and Chrysippus on the founder of the Academy,1 induced
the successors of the latter to investigate, after a more
scrupulous manner, the prevailing Dogmatical systems, and
in particular that of the Stoics. The consequence was a
habit of doubting in philosophical inquiries; a habit which
characterised a whole class of Academicians, in opposition
to the practice of the original school: hence the New
Academy ; the founder of which was Arcesilaus of Pitane, in
JEolia.2 This is sometimes called the Second or the Middle
Academy, with reference to the one which followed. After
having previously applied himself to the study of Poetry,
Eloquence, and the Mathematics, this philosopher attended,
at Athens, Theophrastus, and afterwards Polemo. Grantor
and Zeno were his fellow-disciples under the latter : and their
methodical and innovating spirit incited him to contra-
diction. He subsequently took the place of Sosicrates, as
Chief of the Academy, and died 241 or 239 B.C. He was
a philosopher of extensive knowledge, of great ability in
Dialectics, and of stainless morals.
167. The character thus introduced, by a spirit of doubt,
into the Academy, was one of Diffidence ; which tended to
circumscribe the pretensions of philosophic reason, without
denying the possibility of certain, or at least, of probable
knowledge. In this manner, by the subtilty of his Logic,
Arcesilaus brought into question the principal Dogmatical
doctrines, in order to open the way for more profound
inquiries ; and to this end introduced into the Academy the
1 Diog. Laert. VII, 32. « Born 318 or 316 B.C.
144 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
method of Disputation} He attacked, above all, the con-
ceivable representation (tfyavracla Kara\7]7rTiKy,^ as it was
termed, which Zeno taught, and admitted it as a criterium
in thesi, while at the same time he denied it in hypotliesi?
Constantly opposing himself to the opinions of his adver-
saries, he was drawn into a general Scepticism with regard
to our knowledge of the absolute Esse and nature of things ;3
so much so, that he denied the reality of any adequate
criterium of Truth, and recommended, as a quality of
wisdom, a suspension of all definitive Judgment.4 In
Practical philosophy, he maintained that the safest rule
was the principle of Conformity to Eeason ; to euXo^ov.5
His immediate followers were Lacydes of Cyrene, Evander
and Telecles, both of Phocis ; and Hegesinus of Pergamus.6
168. But a much more distinguished personage followed,
in Carneades of Cyrene.7 He attended at first the school of
the Stoics ; afterwards he became the pupil and successor
of Hegesinus at the Academy; and having been sent a
deputy to Rome,8 he excited universal admiration by his
eloquence and his logic.9 This philosopher, who has by
some been considered the founder of a Third Academy,
directed his Scepticism more especially against Chrysippus,
with great oratorical and logical acumen. He started from
the twofold relation of the representation (ifravratria), to
the object (to (j)av7aaTov) and the Subject ((fiavTaaiovfievos) ,
which he first correctly discriminated. He concluded that
there could be no objective knowledge, inasmuch as neither
the senses nor the understanding afford a sure testimony
(Kpnrjpiov) of its truth; and maintained that all that can
be inferred is probability10 (to inQavov) ; in three distinct
1 Cic. Ac. Quaest. 1, 12; II, 6, sqq.; Fin. II, 1. Diog. Laert. IV,
28. Plutarch. Adv. Coloten. c. 27.
2 Cic. Ac. Quaest. II, 24. Sextus Adv. Math. VII, 154. 408, sqq.
3 Cic. Ac. Quaest. 1, 12. Sext. Hypotyp. I, 1. 4. 220—235 (where a
distinction is made between Pyrrhonism and the principles of the New
Academy). Adv. Math. VII, 153.
4 Sext. Emp. Pyrrh. Hyp. I, 232, sqq.; Adv. Math. VII, 150, sqq.
s Sext. Adv. Math. VII, 158. Cf. Hyp. Pyrrh. I, 231.
s Diog. Laert. IV, 59, sqq.
' Born about 215 : died 130 B. C.
8 See above § 158. 9 598 of Rome ; 155 or 156 B.C.
10 Cic. Ac. Quaest. II, 10, sqq.
1G3 — 169.] FEW ACADEMY. K5
degrees : e^t0a<rt9, or TriOavff (fravraala : a7repr)ioi7raa76<$ : and
Siegivdev/uLevrj rj 7repivohevfievrj (pavraaia.1 But he regards it as
a duty to explore the probable. In this consists the system
of Probabilities of Carneades (ev\o<yioTia). He attacked the
Theology of the Stoics in detail : proving that the Divinity
cannot be conceived of as a t,Coov : and that we cannot apply
to him any ontological or moral ideas. He exposed, in like
manner, by victorious demonstration, the defects of anthro-
pomorphism.2 He defended against the Stoics, the existence
of a Particular Natural Right; and, on the subject of the
Supreme Grood, opposed to theirs the opinion of a certain
Callipho ; who made it consist in Virtue united to Pleasure.
He threw considerable light on practical morals, by compar-
ing Civil with Natural Eight, and Prudence with Morality ;
(making Prudence the principle of action;) but for want
of solving the apparent contradictions between these two
principles he did injury to the cause of Virtue, though his
own character was far from being opposed to it.3 Clito-
TiiacTius of Carthage, the disciple and successor of Carneades
(129 B.C.), put the sceptical arguments of his master in
writing.4
169. The Stoics were sensible of the danger which me-
naced the foundations of their system, but the only answer
they were able to make was the reproach of inconsistency
with which Antipater taxed the Academicians,5 or they cut
short their attacks by the downright assertion — That we
ought not to endeavour to discover any new grounds of
knowledge and certainty.6 Nevertheless, Dogmatism and
Scepticism, in their respective schools, relaxed somewhat of
their rigour, and a sort of reconciliation between them was
brought about by JPhilo of Larissa and Antiochus of Ascalon,7
his pupil and follower, who became a teacher at Athens,
1 Cic. Ac. Quaest. II, 9, 31, sqq. Sext. Adv. Math. VII, 159, sqq;
161, 167, sqq. Euseb. Praepar. Evang. XIV, 7, sqq.
2 Sext. Adv. Math. IX. 138, sqq.; 140, sqq; 182, sqq. Cic. De Nat.
Deor. Ill, 12, sqq. ; De Divin. II, 3.
3 Lact. Div. Instit. V, 14. 16, 17. Quintil. XII, 1. Cic. De Leg. I,
13; Fin. IT, 18.
4 + Heinius, Dissertation on the Philosopher Clitomachus ; in the
Memoirs of the Roval Academy of Sciences of Berlin, 1748.
5 Cic. Ac. Qmest. II, 9. 34. 6 Ibid. 6.
7 Died 69 B. 0.
146 TIEST PERIOD. [sect.
Alexandria, and Borne. The first was the pupil and suc-
cessor of Clitomachus ; he also taught at Rome, whither he
retreated during the war of Mithridates, a hundred years
B.C.; and by some has been considered the founder of a
Fourth Academy. He confined Scepticism to a contradic-
tion of the Metaphysics of the Stoics and their pretended
criteria of knowledge :l he contracted the sphere of Logic :2
made moral philosophy merely a matter of public instruc-
tion; and endeavoured to prove that the old and new
Academies equally doubted the certainty of speculative
knowledge.3 Antioclius derived from the Conscience a strong
argument against Scepticism,4 to which in his youth he was
inclined. Consequently, he became an opponent of his
master:5 and in the end endeavoured to demonstrate the
identity of the Academic, Peripatetic, and Stoic doctrines
with respect to Morals;6 maintaining that the differences
were merely nominal. He has been improperly regarded
by some as the founder of a Fifth Academy ; for he rather
approximated the doctrine of the Stoics ; inasmuch as he
admitted that there is a degree of certainty in Human
Knowledge ;7 and rejected the system of Probabilities of the
Academy. These two attempts at union were the prelude
to many more.8
In his moral system, Antiochus treated self-love as the
primum onobile of men and animals ; considering its opera-
tion to be at first instinctive ; and afterwards aided by con-
sciousness and reason. In this respect he modified and
tempered the Stoic principle.9
170. Thus was the debate between Dogmatism and Scep-
ticism for a time suspended : and the latter, at least, ceased
to be heard of in the Academy. It is true that all these
disputes had not settled the grand problem in question;
whether there be any solid principle and foundation for
1 Sext. Hypotyp. I, 235. Cic. Ac. Quasst. II, 28.
2 That is, if it is of him that Cicero writes, Ac. Qugest. II, 28.
3 Cic. Ac. QuEest. II, 23. Sext. Hyp. I, 220. Stob. Eel. Eth. II. p.
38, sqq. * Cic. Ac. Queest. II, 8, sqq., 34.
5 Ibid. I. 4 ; II, 4. 22. 6 Cic. De Fin. II, 3. 8. 25.
7 Cic. Ac. Queest. II, 7. 11. 13, sqq., 21.
8 Ibid. II, 1. 1., et 35, 43, sqq. ; De Fin. V, 3. 7 ; De Nat. Deor. 1, 7.
Sext. Emp. Hyp. 1, 233. 9 Cic. Fin. Y, 8, 9, 11, sqq., 21, sqq.
170 — 172.] GREEK PHILOSOPHY ABROAD. 147
knowledge in general, and, in particular, for Philosophic
Knowledge ; but by the observation of Moral Consciousness
the disputants had. come to the conclusion that a certain
knowledge is necessary ; and had drawn broader distinctions
between what is subjective and what is objective, in our
cognitions.
The four great philosophical factions continued to main-
tain at Athens their several schools, close by each other,
without mutually interrupting their discussions; and pro-
secuted, but with less vivacity than of old, their ancient
disputes.
CHAPTEE THIED.
OF PHILOSOPHY AMONG THE ROMANS, AND THE NEW
SCEPTICISM OF .2ENESIDEMUS, DOWN TO THE TIME OF
JOHN OF DAMASCUS (FROM 60 B.C. TILL THE END OF
THE EIGHTH CENTURY AFTER CHRIST.)
Propagation and Downfall of Grecian Philosophy.
General Sketch.
171. Scepticism, after it had lost much of its influence
in the Academy, re-appeared in the schools of Medicine:
where it called forth, from the spirit of contradiction, new
dogmatical researches founded on the intuition of the
Absolute: inquiries which were fostered by the increased
intercourse which had taken place between the Orientals
and the Greeks, as well as by some other great external
events, such as the conquests of Alexander and the Eomans,
and, subsequently, the growth of Christianity. Combined
with other causes, these events contained the principle of
the decline and fall of Grecian philosophy, at the same time
that they laid open new paths to the spirit of philosophic
research.
172. Alexander1 had annihilated the republican liberty of
Greece, and subdued to the Grecian arms, together with
Egypt, the whole of Asia, as far as the Indus : thus opening
the way for an active commerce between the East and the
1 Died 323 B.C.
L 2
148 TIEST PEEIOD. [sect.
"West, which contributed to enlarge the sphere of Grecian
art and science. Alexandria, that mighty commercial city
which gradually succeeded to the importance of fallen
Athens, strengthened these distant relations, and helped to
convert them to the interests of science. The Ptolemies,
the successors of Alexander in Egypt,1 aided the cause of
knowledge by founding their famous Library and Museum ;
although original inquiry appears to have been damped by
this vast accumulation of scientific resources, and the facility
with which they were accessible. A progressive decline
became observable in the spirit of Philosophy, which was
gradually directed to humbler objects, of a more pedantic
character; such as Commentaries, Comparisons, Miscel-
lanies, Compilations, etc. etc.
Reference may be made to :
Chr. Gottl. Heyne, De Genio Seculi Ptolemseorum. Opusc. Acad.,
vol I, p. 76.
Chr. Dan. Beck, Specimen Historise Bibliothecarum Alexandri-
narum, Lips. 1779, 4to.
§ 173.
(See the Works mentioned § 38.)
The Romans, a nation of warriors and conquerors, with
whom the interests of their Republic outweighed all
others, became acquainted with Grecian philosophy, parti-
cularly with the Peripatetic, Academic, and Stoic doctrines,
only after the conquest of Greece; and more especially
through the intervention of three philosophers whom the
Athenians deputed to Rome.2 In spite of determined pre-
judices and reiterated denunciations,3 one of these doctrines
(that of the Academy), daily gained disciples there; espe-
cially when Lucullus and Sylla had enriched the Capitol
with conquered libraries. The latter, after the capture of
Athens, 84 B.C., sent thither the collection of Apellicon,
which was particularly rich in the works of Aristotle.
1 Third century B.C. 2 155 B.C.
Levesow, De Cameade, Diogene, et Critolao, et de causis neglecti
etudii Philosophise apud Antiquiores Romanos, Stettin. 1795.
Dan Boethii Digest, de Philosophise nomine apud Veteres Romanos
inviso, Upsal. 1790, 4to.
3 A. Gell. N. A. XV, 11.
173 — 176.] CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMANS. 1 19
The Romans almost always looked upon Philosophy as a
mean to attain some personal or political end : betraying by
that very circumstance their want of a genuine philosophic
spirit. Nevertheless they eventually became the deposita-
ries of Grecian philosophy.
174. Christianity, the religion of "the pure in heart,"
which prescribed a disinterested love of our neighbours, and
proclaimed to all mankind, independently of any scientific
form, the union of God with man, afforded as it were a
fresh text, of the highest interest, which directed men to
Reason as well as Revelation. It has exercised a various
influence over the progress of Philosophical Reason, by the
matter of its doctrines, as well as by their form.
175. The spirit of research of Grecian Philosophy, once
so original and independent, was exhausted. Reason had
tried every path, every direction then open to her, without
being able to satisfy herself ; for she had not penetrated to
the fundamental problem, that of the nature of Reason,
and consequently had continued an enigma to herself. The
different philosophic systems had viewed truth only in one
of its aspects, and consequently were involved in errors.
The want of philosophical method had rendered the dis-
entanglement of these errors the more difficult ; and a
reconciliation or adjustment had become impossible between
the different sects, whose disputes, while they prevented the
understanding from sinking into lethargy, had also the
effect of detracting from the pure and disinterested love of
Truth. Consequently, the efforts of science were not so
much directed to the investigation of the first principles of
knowledge, as to maintain, consolidate, illustrate, and apply
conclusions which had been already drawn.
176. The political, religious, and moral condition of the
Roman Empire during the first centuries after the Christian
era, were not such as to animate and sustain a spirit of
philosophical research. Greece had lost her political exist-
ence ; Rome her republican constitution. Beginning with
the capital, luxury, egotism, and indolence had spread their
reign to the remotest provinces. The characteristic features
of the period were a neglect of the popular religion, a pre-
ference for foreign rites, (of which an incongruous medley
was tolerated), a widely prevalent superstition, a disdain of
150 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
what was natural, a mania for what was strange and ex-
traordinary, a curious prying into the (pretended) occult
arts, with an extinction of all sentiments truly great and
noble. Such are the characteristics given by the Epicurean
Lucian of Samosata (2nd cent. A.C.) in a Satire, which
exposes with the most poignant ridicule the false philosophy
of his age. (Cf. § 181.)
See t Chph. Meiners, History of the Decline of Morals under the
Roman Government, Leips. 1782, 8vo.
177. Consequently the efforts of the Reason were di-
rected in various ways, and tended 1st. To maintain the
Schools and systems already existing ; not without consider-
able modifications. 2ndly. To revive superannuated doc-
trines, such as those of the Pythagorean and Orphic
philosophies. 3dly. To combine by Interpretation, Syncre-
tism, or Eclecticism,* the various systems, especially those
of Plato and Aristotle ; and to trace them all back to the
ancient Dogmata of Pythagoras, the pretended Orpheus,
Zoroaster, and Hermes.1 4thly To combine in one the
spirit of Oriental and Occidental philosophy.
178. Nevertheless, Philosophy made at least some ap-
parent progress in extension, and, at least apparently, in
intensity. In extension, because the Romans and the Jews
by this time had made themselves acquainted with the
philosophical dogmas of the Greeks, and had produced some
philosophical works sufficiently original. Nor does this
progress of philosophy appear to have been merely external ;
inasmuch as Scepticism assumed a more intense character,
and gave occasion for a fresh dogmatical system in the
school of the Platonists. By imagining a new source of
knowledge, the intuition of the Absolute ; by labouring to
combine the old and the new theories of the East and the
West, they endeavoured to provide a broader basis for Dog-
matic philosophy, to prop up the established religion, and
to oppose a barrier to the rapid progress of Christianity;
* Syncretism professes to combine the elements of different systems:
Eclecticism to extract from all what is consistent with a particular
theory. — Ed.
1 Cf. L. E. Otto Baumgarten-Crusius, De Librorum Hcrmeticorum
origine atque indole, Jena, 1827, 4to.
177 — 179] GREEK PHILOSOPHY AT ROME. 151
but eventually lost themselves in the region of Metaphy-
sical dreams. On the other hand, the Doctors of the
Catholic faith, who at one time had rejected and contemned
the philosophy of the Greeks, ended by adopting it, at
least in part, in order to complete and fortify their religious
system. The invasions of the barbarous tribes, and the
disunion of the Eastern and Western empires, brought on
at last an almost utter extinction of philosophical research.
Introduction and Cultivation of Grecian Philosophy
among the Romans.
179. Unquestionably the national character of the Ro-
mans, more disposed for action than speculation, did not
encourage philosophy to spring up among them unassisted.1
The revolutions also in their government, the loss of their
republican constitution, the tyranny of the greater part of
their emperors, and the general and continually increasing
corruption, were little favourable to the development of a
truly philosophical spirit, yet from time to time they mani-
fested a degree of interest in such researches, which they
looked upon as indispensable to a cultivated mind, and as
serviceable for certain civil offices. Agreeably to their
native character and habits, they showed more predilection
for the doctrines of the Porch or of Epicurus, than those of
Plato and Aristotle, which were of a more speculative cha-
racter. The Romans thus applied themselves to Grecian
philosophy ; successfully transferred into their own language
some of its treatises ; enriched, by the application of them,
their jurisprudence and policy, but did not advance a step
by any original discovery of their own. Consequently, we
can distinguish only a small number of Latins who have
deserved a page in the history of philosophy. We shall
proceed to mention the principal of those among them,
who, whether Romans or foreigners, cultivated and diffused
the philosophy of the Greeks, with some partial modifica-
tions in their manner of teaching it.
1 K. F. Renner, De Impedimentis quae apud Vett. Romanos Philo-
sophise negaverint successum, Hal. 1825. See also the authors men-
tioned at the head of § 24, b.
152 TIEST PERIOD. [sect.
Cicero.
Authorities : The works of Cicero ; Plutarch, Life of Cicero.
t Morabin, History of Cicero, Paris, 1745, 2 vols. 4to.
Conyers Middleton. Life of Cicero. (Several editions).
J ac. Facciolati, Vita Ciceronis Literaria, Patav. 1760, 8vo.
H. Chr. Fr. Hulsemann, De Indole Philosophica M. T. Ciceronis
ex ingenii ipsius et aliis rationibus aestimanda, Luneb. 1799, 4to.
Gautier de Sibert, Examen de la Philosophic de Ciceron ; dans les
Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscr. torn. XLI et XLIII.
Chph. Meiners, Oratio de Philosophia Ciceronis ejusque in Univer-
sam Philosophiam meritis; Verm. Philos. S chr if ten, I, § 274.
J. Chph. Briegleb, Progr. de Philosophia Ciceronis, Cob. 1784, 4to.
Et, De Cicerone cum Epicuro Disputante, Ibid. 1779, 4to.
J. C. Waldin, Oratio de Philosophia Ciceronis Platonica, Jen.
1753, 4to.
Math. Fremling (resp. Schantz), Philosophia Ciceronis, Lund.
1795, 4 to.
*h J. Fr. Herbart, Dissert, on the Philosophy of Cicero : in the
Konigsb. Archiv. No. I.
R. Kuhner, M. T. Ciceronis in Philosophiam ejusque partes merita,
Hamburg, 1325, 8vo.
Adam Bursii Logica Ciceronis Stoica, Zamosc. 1604, 4to.
Conr. Nahmmacherii Theologia Ciceronis ; accedit Ontologise Cice-
ronis specimen. Frankenh. 1767, 8vo.
Dan. Wyttenbachii Dissert, de Philosophiae Ciceronianse loco qui
est de Deo, Amstel. 1783, 4to.
+ An Essay towards settling the Dispute between Middleton and
Ernesti on the Philosophic Character of the Treatise De Natura
Deorum; in five Dissert. Altona and Leips. 1800, 8vo.
Gasp. Jul. Wunderlich (resp. Andr. Schmaler), Cicero de Aninia
Platonizans Disp. Viteb. 1714. 4to.
Ant. Bucheri Ethica Ciceroniana, Hamb. 1610, 8vo.
Jasonis de Nores, Brevis et Distincta Institutio in Cic. Philos. de
Vita et Moribus, Patav. 1597.
180. M. T. Cicero* like many other young Romans of
good family, was instructed by Greek preceptors. In
order to improve himself in eloquence and the science of
polity, he travelled to Rhodes and Athens ; where he occu-
pied himself with the pursuit of Grecian philosophy, direct-
ing his attention particularly to the Academic and Stoic
systems. He owed, in part, his success as an orator and
a statesman, to the ardour with which, he devoted himself
to these studies. At a later period of his life, when his
career as a statesman was closed by the fall of the Republic,
1 Born at Arpinum, 107 B.C., died B.C. 44.
180—181.] ciceeo. 153
with his characteristic patriotism he consecrated his leisure
to the discussion of points of philosophy ; labouring to
transplant the theories of the Greeks into his native soil :
with little gratitude on the part of his countrymen.1 In all
speculative questions he maintained the freedom of opinion
and the impartiality which became a disciple of the New
Academy : following the method also of that school in the
form of his writings. In questions of morality he preferred
the rigid principles of the Stoics,2 but not without doing
justice to Plato, Aristotle, and even Epicurus (as far as the
correctness of his life was concerned3). His philosophical
works, in which he appears to have made Plato his model,
are a most valuable collection of interesting discussions and
luminous remarks on the most important topics, e. g. On
the Nature of the Divinity ; On the Supreme Good ; On
the Social Duties ; On Pate ; Divination ; the Laws ; the
Republic, etc. etc. :4 and have proved a mine of information
to succeeding ages, without, however, betraying any great
depth of thought. They are likewise highly valuable as
throwing light on the history of philosophy,5 and have con-
tributed to form the technical language of this science.
Epicureans,
181. The doctrine of Epicurus, when first disseminated
in their country, attracted among the Romans a crowd of
partisans, in consequence of its light and accommodating
character,6 and the indulgence it afforded to the inclinations
of all ;7 as also because it had the effect of disengaging the
mind from superstitious terrors. Unhappily it favoured at
the same time a frivolous and trifling spirit. Very few of
the Roman Epicureans distinguished themselves by a truly
philosophical character : and even these adhered literally to
i Cic. Orat. pro Sextio. Plutarch. Vit. Cic. V.
2 De Offic. I, 2. 3 De Nat. Deor. I, 5; Acad. Qutest. IV. 3.
4 De Div. II, Init.
5 M. T. Ciceronis Historia Philosophise Antique. Ex illius Script.
ed. Fried. Gedike, Berl. 1782, 8vo.
6 Among the most considerable were, Catius and Amafanius; C.
Cassius, Tit. Pomponius Atticus, Caius Velleius, Bassus Aufidius ; add
to these the poet Horace, with several more.
" Cic. Fin. I, 7; Tusc. Qiuest. IV, 3; Ep. ad Div. XV, 19. Senec.
Ep. 21, 30.
151 TIKST PEEIOD. [SECT.
the doctrines of their master, without advancing a step
beyond them. Such, among others, was Lucretius* who
gave a statement of those doctrines in his didactic poem De
Berum Natura? as a poem, a work of superior merit.3
Stoics and Cynics.
+ C. P. Conz, Dissertations on the Hist, and Characteristics of the
later Stoic Philosophy ; with an Essay on Christian Morality, on Kant,
and the Stoics, Tub. 1794, 8vo.
G. P. Hollenbekg, De Praecipuis Stoicae Philosophise Doctoribus et
Patronis apud Roinanos, Leips. 1793, 4to.
J. A. L. Wegscheider, Ethices Stoicorum recentiorum fundamenta
ex ipsorum scriptis eruta, cum principiis Ethicis quae critica rationis
practicae sec. Kantium exhibet, comparata, Hamb. 1797, 8vo.
182. Next to those of Epicurus, the doctrines of the
Stoics obtained the greatest success at Rome, especially
among men of a severer character,4 who had devoted their
lives to public aifairs. With such men, the Stoic philosophy
being more closely applied to real life, and exercising a
marked influence over legislation and the administration of
the laws, naturally acquired a more practical spirit, and
began to disengage itself in some degree from speculative
subtilties.5 Besides Atlienodorus of Tarsus,6 C. Musonius
1 Born 95, died 50 B.C.
2 Ubersetzt von Knebel, 2 Bde. (1821) 1831.
J. A. Ortloff, Abhandlung uber den Einfluss der Stoischen Philo-
sophic auf die Rbmische Jurisprudenz, 1797.
3 C. Plinius Secundus, author of the Natural History, who died
A.D. 79, by the eruption of Vesuvius, and Lucian of Saraosata, the
satirist (§ 176), who flourished in the second cent, after Christ, (see
f J. C. Tiemann, On the Philosophy and Language of Lucian, Zerbst,
1804, 8vo.), have been numbered among the Epicureans without suffi-
cient grounds; as well as the contemporaries of the latter, Diogenes
Laertius (flourished about 211), and Celsus. The latter is known to us
as an adversary of Christianity, by the work of Origen. By some he is
esteemed a Neoplatonist.
4 Such, in the days of the Republic, were the Scipios, and, in par-
ticular, the second Scipio Africanus, (cf. § 158); C. Laelius; the juris-
consult Pub. Rutilius Rufus, Q. Tubero, Q. Mucius Scaevola the augur;
and subsequently, Cato of Utica, and M. Brutus, the assassin of Caesar.
5 See the preceding note.
6 Flourished about two years after Christ.
182.] STOICS AND CYNICS. 155
Rufus the Volsinian,1 Annceus Cornutus or jPhornutus* of
Leptis in Africa (the two last expelled from Borne by Nero
about 66 A.C.), Chceremon of Egypt, who was a preceptor of
Nero, TZwplirates of Alexandria, Bio of Prusa, or Bio Chry-
sostom,3 Basilides and others, we must not forget as having
distinguished themselves in moral philosophy or by their
t Sevin, Researches concerning the Life and Works of Athenodorus,
in the Mem. of the Acad of Inscr. torn. XIII.
J. Fr. Hoffmanni Diss, de Athenodoro Tarsensi, Philosopho Stoico,
Lips. 1732, 4to.
We must here take notice of the sect of the Proculians, founded, in
the time of Augustus, by Antistius Labeo, and his disciple Semp.
Proculus. This sect was formed in opposition to that of the Sabinians,
headed by Masurius Sabinus, a disciple of C. Ateius Capito. See Just.
Henning. Bcehmeri Progr. de Philosophic Jurisconsultorum StoicC,
Hal. 1701, 4to.
Ever. Ottonis, Oratio de StoicC veterum Jurisconsultorum Philo-
sophic, Duisb. 1714, 4to.
J. Sam. Hering, De StoicC veterum Romanorum Jurisprudents,
Stettin. 1719.
These three works are collected in that of Gottlieb Slevoigt, De
Sectis et Philosophia Jurisconsultorum Opuscc. Jen. 1724, 8vo.
Chr. Westphal, De StoC Jurisconsultor. Roman. Best. 1727, 4to.
Chr. Fried. Geo. Meister, Progr. de Philosophic Jurisconsultorum
Romanorum StoicC in DoctrinC de Corporibus eorumque partibus,
Oott. 1756, 4to.
Jo. Godofr. Schaumburg, De Jurisprud. veterum Jurisconsultorum
StoicC, Jen. 1745, 8vo.
+ J. Andr. Ortloff, On the Influence of the Stoic Philos. over the
Jurisprudence of the Romans : a Philos. and Jurisprudential Dissert.
Erlang. 1787, 8vo.
1 1 Burigny, Mem. on the Philosopher Musonius, in the Mem. of
the Acad, of Inscr. torn. XXXI.
C. Musonii Run Reliquiae et Apothegmata, ed. J. V. Peerlkamp,
Ilarl. 1822, 8vo.
D. Wyttenbachii Diss. (resp. Niewland), de Musonio Rufo Philoso-
pho Stoico, Amstel. 1783, 4to.
t Four unedited Fragments of the Stoic Philosopher Musonius, trans-
lated from the Greek, with an Introduction respecting his Life and
Philosophy, by G. H. Moser, accompanied by the article of Creuzer on
this publication, in the Studien, 1810, torn. VI, p. 74.
2 D. Martinii Disp. de L. Ann^o Cornuto, Phil. Stoico. Lugd. Bat.
1825, 8vo. To him is attributed the Oeojpia nepi t?jq twv QtuJv (pvatwt;,
republished by Gale, Opusc. M. et Ph. p. 137.
3 Both flourished under Trajan and Adrian.
153 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
practical wisdom, Seneca,1 Epictetus* of Hierapolis in Phrygia,
a slave who preserved nevertheless a free spirit,2 and who,
having been banished from Eome, established a school at
Kicopolis in Epirus :3 Arrian,4, & disciple of the preceding,
whose doctrines he preserved in writing, and Marcus Aure-
1 Luc. Ann. Seneca, of Corduba in Spain ; the preceptor of Nero.
Born about 3, died 65 A.C.
Senecae Opera, ed. Ruhkopf, Lips. 1797, sqq. 6 vols. 8vo.
Essay on the Life of the Philosopher Seneca, on his Works, and the
Reigns of Claudius and Nero, with Notes (by Dideeot), Paris, 1778.
It is to be found also in the collection of his works, and the French
translation of Seneca by La Grange.
+ Fel. Nuscheler, The Character of Seneca as deduced from his Life
and Writings, Zurich, 1783, 8vo. 1 vol.
C. P. Conz, On the Life and Character of Seneca : as a preface to a
translation of the Consolatio ad Helv. etc. Tubing. 1792, 8vo.
Jo. Jac. Czot,be, Vindiciae Senecae, Jen. 1791, 4to.
Jo. Andr. Schmidii Disp. de Seneca ejusque Theologia, Jen. 1688, 4to.
Jo. Ph. Apini Disp. de Religione Senecae, Viteb. 1692, 4to.
Justi Siberi Seneca Divinis Oraculis quodammodo consonans, Dresd.
1675, 12mo.
Fried. Chr. Gelpke, Tractatiuncula de Familiaritate quae Paulo
Apostolo cum Seneca Philosopho intercessisse traditur verisimillima,,
Lips. 1813, 4 to.
Christ. Fred. Schulze, Prologomena ad Senecae Librum de "Vita
Beata, Lips. 1797, 4to.
+ L. Ann. Seneca, by Joh. Ge. Carl Klotzsch, Wittemb. 1799,
1802, 2 vols, 8vo.
Henr. Aug. Schick, Diss, de Causis quibus Zeno et Seneca in Philo-
sophic discrepent, Marb. 1822, 4to.
E. J. Werner, De Senecae Philosophic, Berol. 1825, 8vo.
* Kuhnhardt, Ueber die Hauptmomente der stoischen sittenlehre
nach Epiktet's Handbuch. In Bouterwek's Neuem Museum fur Phi-
losophic and Litteratur. I und II Band.
2 Epicteti Enchiridium et Arriani Dissert. Epictetese ; edid. J.
Sch weighjsuser ; Epictetae Philosophiae Monumenta, etc., Lips. 1799,
1800, 5 vols. 8vo.
+ The Manual of Epictetus translated into German by Linck, Nurenb.
1783; and by Thiele, Franc/. 1790.
Works of Epictetus, translated by Carter (Mrs.) Lond. 1758, 4to.
3 Flourished about 90 A.C.
4 Flavius Arrianus of Nicomedia, prefect of Cappadocia in 134.
f Arrian, Conversations of Epictetus with his Disciples, translated,
with Remarks Historical and Philosophical, and a Brief Exposition of
the Philosophy of Epictetus, by J. Math. Schulz, Altona, 1801—3,
2 vols, large 8vo.
182.] EPICTETUS AND MARCUS ATJRELIUS. 157
lius Antoninus, the philosophic emperor,1 and disciple of the
Stoic Q. Sextus of Chseronea, the grandson of Plutarch.
Seneca, who appreciated the truth which he discovered in
various systems of philosophy, but principally attached him-
self to that of the Portico,2 was one of the first who drew
a distinction between a Scholastic and Practical philosophy.
The latter he judged the most essential, its primary object
being individual Morality (PhilosopJiia Prceceptiva.) He
gave admirable rules of conduct, after the principles of the
Stoics,3 but betraying at the same time considerable predi-
lection for Exaggeration and Antithesis.4 Epictetus reduced
+ Giles Boileau, Life of Epictetus, and Account of his Philosophy,
second edition, revised and corrected, Paris, 1667, 12mo.
M. Rossal, Disquisitio de Epicteto qua probatur eum non fuisse
Christianum, Groning. 1708, 8vo.
Jo. Dav. Schwendneei Idea Philosophise Epictetae ex Enchiridio
delineata, Lips. 1681, 4to.
Chph. Aug. Heumanni Diss, de Philosophic Epicteti, Jen. 1703, 4to.
Lud. Chr. Crellii Diss. II, ra tov 'E7riKrfiTov v7rkpGo<pa ical aoo<pat
in Doctrina de Deo et Officiis erga seipsum, Lips. 1711-16, 4to.
Jo. Erd. Waltheri Diss, de Vita regenda secundum Epictetum, Lips.
1747, 4to.
+ H. Kuhnardt, On the Principal Points of the Ethics of the Stoics,
after the Manual of Epictetus : in the Neues Museum der Philos. und
Literatur, published by Bouterwek, torn. I, fas. 2 ; and torn. II, fas. 1.
f J. Franc. Beyer, On Epictetus and his Manual of Stoical Morality,
Marb. 1795, 8vo.
1 Became emperor in 161, died 180 A.C.
Antonini Commentarii ad seipsum (rig tavrbv f3i(3\ia $o>deica), ed.
Thom. Gataker; Wolle; Morus ; Jo. Math. Schulz; Slesv. 1802,
sqq., 8vo. Translated into German by the same, with Observations
and an Essay on the Philosophy of Antoninus, Schlesw. 1799, 8vo.
Bach, De M. Aurelio imp. philosophante, 1826.
Chph. Meiners, De M. Aurelii Antonini ingenio, moribus et scrip tis,
in Comment. Soc. Gotting. 1784, torn. IY, p. 107.
Cf. C. Fr. Walchii Comm. de Eeligione M. Aur. Antonini in numina
celebrata. Acta Soc. Lat. Jenensis, p. 209.
J. Dav. Koeleri Diss, de Philosophic M. Aurel. Antonini in TheoriC
et Praxi, Alton. 1717, 4to.
Jo. Franc. Buddei Introductio ad Fhilosophiam Stoicam ad mentem
M. Antonini; prefixed to the edition of Antoninus by Wolff, Leips.
1729, 8vo.
J. W. Reche, Essay towards a Statement of the Stoic Maxims
according to the views of Antoninus : in his translation of Antonin.
Franc/. 1717, 8vo.
2 Ep. 20. 45. 82. 108. 3 Ep. 94. 4 Quintil. Inst. X, 1.
158 FIEST PEEIOD. [SECT.
the moral system of the Stoics to a simple formulary, dvexov
ku\ a7rexov (sustine et abstine) : and assumed as his leading
principle, Freedom.
Antoninus imparted to the same system a character of
gentleness and benevolence, by making it subordinate to a
love of mankind, allied to Religion. These two last are
much less decided advocates of suicide than Seneca (§ 165.)
About this period a great number of writings of this school
proclaimed a more fixed belief in the immortality of the
soul. — Of the Cynics the most distinguished during the
second century were: Denionax of Cyprus, who taught at
Athens ; Crescens of Megalopolis, and Peregrinus, surnamed
Proteus, of Parium in Mysia ; who, they say, burnt himself
at Olympia about 168 A.C.
The two last contributed nothing to the cause of Science.1
Peripatetics.
On each of the Philosophers mentioned in this section, consult
Suidas, and the first volume of Patricius, a work cited § 139.
183. The Philosophy of Aristotle was not suited to the
practical character of the Roman mind, and such as devoted
themselves to the study of it, became mere commentators of
various merit or demerit. We must account Peripatetics :
Andronicus of Rhodes (§ 150), who arranged and expounded
at Rome the works of Aristotle ;2 Cratippus of Mitylene,
whom Cicero the Younger and several other Romans at-
tended at Athens ;3 Nicolas of Damascus ;4 Xenarchus of
Seleucia, who, as well as the preceding, gave lessons in the
time of Augustus ; Alexander of Mgdd, one of the preceptors
1 Lucian, Demonax, et De morte PeregriDi. — Cf. A. Gellius, N. A.
VIII, 3; XII, 11. 2 Flourished about 80 B.C.
It is thought that he was not really the author of the book Tltpl
irdOwv, ed. Hoeschel, Aug. Vind. 1594; and the Paraphrase of
Aristotle's Ethics, ed. Dan. Heinsius, Lugd. Bat. 1607, 4to; 1617,
8vo. ; Cantab. 1678, 8vo. 3 Flourished about 48 B.C.
4 + Franc. Sevin, Inquiry concerning the Life and Works of
Nicolas Damascenus, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions;
and the Fragments of Nicolas Damascenus, published by Orelli, Lips.
1804; Suppl. 1811, 8vo. Some critics have attributed to him, without
sufficient grounds, the book Uepi koct/iov, found among the works of
Aristotle.
183 — 184.] PERIPATETICS. 159
of Nero -,1 Adrastus of Aphrodisias ;2 and more especially the
celebrated commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias,3* the
disciple of Herminus and Aristocles, who taught at Alex-
andria, and who founded a special exegetical school which
bore his name.4 In his work On the Soul he departed from
Aristotle, and taught that the soul is not a special sub-
stance (ovaia), but simply a form of the organized body
(ete)o9 t* rod ffw/uaros opryavacov), and consequently that it
could not be immortal ; and in his Treatise on Destiny he
attacked the Fatalism of the Stoics, which he declared
irreconcileable with morality. Among the Syncretic Peri-
patetics may be mentioned Ammonius of Alexandria, who
taught at Athens;5 Themistius of Paphlagonia; Syrianus
and Simplicius* (See § 219). The commentaries of the
latter, next to those of Alexander of Aphrodisias, are the
most distinguished production of these schools.
New Pythagoreans.
184. Pythagoras, whose reputation and even whose philo-
sophy had long been familiar to the Romans, had at the
1 To him are attributed the Commentaries on the Meteorologies
and Metaphysics of Aristotle, which by others are assigned to Alex-
ander Aphrodisiensis. 2 Second century after Christ.
3 At Venice and Florence there were printed, in the sixteenth
century, in a separate form, the different Commentaries attributed to
him, on the following works of Aristotle :
The Analytica Priora, the Topics, the Elenchi Sophistarum, the
books De Sensu et Sensibili, the Physics, with the treatises De Anima,
and De Fato {Xlf.pl EifiapjxevrjQ ical rov i<p' r)jjuv).
Cf. Casiri Biblioth. Arabico-Hisp., vol. I, p. 243, for the works of
Alexander of Aphrodisias.
* Called, by way of eminence, the Commentator (l^ytjrrir).
4 Surnamed the Alexandrians and Alexandrists. He differed from
Aristotle in his doctrine respecting the soul.
5 In the first century. Plut. de Et apud Delph. ed. Eeiske,
torn, vii, p. 512, sqq., et torn. VI, p. 260.
6 His various commentaries on the works of Aristotle (especially
his physical treatises) were published at Venice, at the end of the
fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries.
His Comment, on the Manual of Epict. has been given by Schweigh.
Monum. Epict. Phil. torn. IV.
160 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
period of which we are treating a large number of followers :*
his exemplary life, and still more the mysterious character
of his history and his doctrines, being the principal causes
of the species of enthusiastic reverence with which he was
regarded. Some Moral Reformers wished to adopt his prin-
ciples of practice, of which number were Qu. Sextius2 (a
Roman who wrote in Greek) and Sotion of Alexandria,3 both
of them acquainted with Seneca at Home :4 and to this class
of Pythagoreans it is probable that we should refer Apollo-
nius5 of Tyana* in Cappadocia, a disciple of JEuxenus of
Heraclea in Pontus, a very remarkable man, who combined
a scientific turn of mind with an exalted religious enthu-
siasm, who was moreover an imitator of Pythagoras, and
consummate in divination ; and finally, Secundus of Athens.6
1 Cic. De Senect., c. 21 ; Tusc. IV, 2.
2 Or Sextus. He flourished about 2 A.C.
He must not be confounded with Sextus of Chasronea (§ 182) the
Stoic. His Moral Sentences are to be found in the dubious translation
of Ruffinus, published by Th. Gale, Opusc. Mythol. Phys., etc.
p. 645, sqq.
De Burigny, On the Philosophical System of Sextius, in the
Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, torn. XXXI.
3 About 15 A.C. 4 Seneca, Ep. 108.
5 Flourished about 70 A.C.
Flavius Philostratus de Vita Apollonii Tyanaei, in Philostratorum
Opp. cura Oleaeii, Lips. 1709, fol. : where are printed, with many
other letters, those attributed to Apollonius.
Jo. Laur. Mosheim, Diss, de Existimatione Apollonii Tyanaei; in
ejus Commentationib. et Oratt. Var. Arg. Hamburgis. 1751, 8vo.,
p. 347, sqq.
Sigism. Chr. Klose, Diss. II de Apollonio Tyanensi Philosopho
Pythagorico Thaumaturgo, et de Philostrato, Viteb. 1723-24, 4to.
J. C. Herzog, Diss. Philosophia Practica Apollonii Tyanaei in Scia-
graphia, Lips. 1719, 4to.
See also Bayle, and the article by Buhle in the great Encyclopedia
published by Ersch, part IV.
* The discoveries of Modern Science have vindicated and explained
the extraordinary powers attributed to Apollonius in common with
Pythagoras and the Neoplatonists, by referring them to Mesmerism.
See Colquhoun's Hist, of Magic, vol. I. — Ed.
6 About 120 A.C.
For his Moral Sentences, see Secundi Atheniensis Responsa ad
-Interrogata Hadriani, in the work of Th. Gale, referred to above
(note 2), p. 160, sqq.
185.] NEO-PLATO^ISTS. 161
Others (for instance, Anaxilaus of Larissa, banished from
Italy under a suspicion of magical practices1) applied the
principles of Pythagoras to the study of Nature ; or, like
Moderatus of Grades,2 and Nicomachus of Gerasa,3 endea-
voured to discover, in the Pythagorean doctrine of Numbers,
a sublime and occult science,4 which they blended with the
theories of Plato.
Neo-Platomsts.
See the works mentioned § 201 ; particularly that of Bouterweck.
185. After the downfall of the Sceptic Academy (§ 169,
170), even in the time of Augustus, a new school of Pla-
tonists began to form itself, and became popular. Among
these, ThrasylJus of Mendes,5 the astrologer, distinguished
himself; with Theon of Smyrna,6 the author of an Exposi-
tion of Plato ;7 Alcinous, who has left us a brief sketch of
the Platonic doctrine ;8 Albinus, the preceptor of Galen ;
J?lutarclioi Cha?ronea,9 a disciple of Ammonius (§ 183), and
preceptor of Adrian; Calvisius Taurus of Berytus, near
1 He flourished under Augustus.
2 Flourished first century after Christ.
3 Second century after Christ.
Nicomachus is said to have been the author of a theory of Numbers
(Tntroductio in Arithmeticam, Gr. Paris. 1538, 4to.), explained by
Iamblichus ; and of a Manual of Harmony (apud Meibom. : Antiquae
Musicae Auctores, VII, Amst. 1652, 4to).
Fragments of his Symbolics of the Science of Numbers (OeoAoyoi'-
fifj'rt aoi6fxi]TiKa) are to be found in Photius, Biblioth. Cod. 187.,
p. 237/
1 An Essay on this occult science of Numbers is to be found ap.
Sextus Empiricus adv. Mathem. X, 248. Cf. also Porphyr. Vit.
Pythagor., § 32, sqq.
5 First century after Christ. 6 Second century after Christ.
7 Theon Smyrnensis de iis quae in Mathematicis ad Platonis lectionem
utilia sunt, Gr. et Lat. ed. Ism. Bullialdus, Paris. 1644, 4 to.
0 Alcinoi introductio at Platonis Dogmata, Gr. cum vers. Lat. Mars.
F i cini, Paris. 1533, 8vo. ; republished with Platonis Dialogi IV. ed
Fischer, 1783, 8vo.
9 Plutarchi Opera Omnia, Gr. et Lat. ed. Henr. Stephanus, 13
vols. 8vo. Paris. 1572; ed. Reiske, 12 vols. 8vo. Lijys. 1774—82-,
ed. Hutten, 14 vols. 1791—1804, 8vo. Plutarchi Moralia ex recen-
sione Xylandri, Bus. 1574, fol. ; ed. Wyttenbach, 7 vols. 4to. Oxon.
1725-1821, et 15 vols. 8vo.
Plutarch was born 50, died 120 A.C.
162 TIEST PERIOD. [sect.
Tyre,1 the master of Aldus Gellius ; Lite. Apuleius of Me-
daurus in Numidia ;2 and Maximus Ti/rius, the Rhetorician.9
These philosophers made it their object to disseminate in
a popular form the Ethics and Religious Theory of Plato,
and constructed for themselves a system of allegorical inter-
pretation which connected the doctrines of that system with
the ancient religious Mysteries.4 With this they blended
much that was derived from the Pythagoreans and Aristotle,
and, iu the Dogmatic manner, pursued the most lofty specu-
lations (the outline of which had been traced in the treatises
of Plato) on the Deity, the Creator, the Soul of the World,
the Demons, the Origin of the World, and that of EviL
They supposed our conceptions to have a hypostatical exist-
ence, and applied their abstract principles to account for
phenomena of their own days ; for instance, the cessation of
oracles.5 The physician Galen,6 the inventor of the Eourth
Figure of Logic, was a calm and sedate Platonist, who
admitted, to account for the phenomena of Life, the exist-
ence of a twofold Spirit (Tlvevfia Zw'iicov — irt^Hcov) :7 Favo-
rinus of Arelas, in Gaul, was more inclined to Scepticism*
These Platonists were at the same time for the most part
Eclectics, but not altogether after the manner of Polamo of
1 About 139. 2 Flourished about 160.
Apuleii Opera, Lagd. 1614, 2 vols. 8vo. ; in usum Delphini, 1688,
2 vols. 4to. Particularly his sketch therein of the Platonic Philosophy.
Apuleii Opera omnia, cum Not. var. cura Ruhnkenti et Bosscile,
3 vols. 4to. Lugd. Bat. 1786-1823.
Cf. Apuleii Theologia exhibita a Ch. Falstero in ejus Cogitationib.
Philos., p. 37. 5 Flourished about 180 A.C.
Maximii Tyrii Dissertationes XXXI, Gr. ct Lat. cd. Dan. Heinstus,
Lugd. Bat. 1607 et 1614; ex recens. J. Davisii recudi curavit Jo. Jac.
Reiske, Lips. 1774-75, 2 vols. 8vo.
4 Euseb. Praep. Evang. IX, 6, 7.
5 Plutarch. De Def. Orac. ; De Is.
6 Claudius Galenus, born at Pergamus 131, died about 200 A.C.
7 Galeni Opera Omnia, ed. Pen. Charterius, Paris. 1679, 13 vols.
Cf. § 81.
f Kurt 'Sprengel, Letters on the Philosophic System of Galen, in
his Collection towards a History of Medicine, part. I, p. 117.
8 Imm. Fried. Gregorii Duee Commentatt. de Favorino Arelatensi
Philosopho, etc. Laub. 1755, 4 to.
Z. Forsmann, Diss. (prass. Ebb. Porthan) de Favorino Philosopho
Academico, Abo. 1789, 4 to.
186.] jEkesidemtjs. 163
Alexandria,1 who, while he selected what he judged most
tenable from every system, pretended to form of these
extracts a separate doctrine of his own, concerning which
we have not sufficient details to enable ns to judge.2
The Neoplatonism of the Alexandrians, as we shall after-
wards see, has been improperly deduced from this isolated
attempt.
Scepticism of the Empiric School.
JEnesidemus .
Authorities: Eusebii Prepar. Evangel. XIV, 7. 18; Fragments of
jEnesidemus, Uvppiovsiwv Xoyiov 6/cra fiifiXia, apud Photium : Myrio-
bibilion sive Bibliotheca, cod. 212 : and in Sextus Empiricus (cf. § 189);
Diog. Laert. IX.
See also the article iEnesidemus by Tennemann, in the Encyclopedia
by Ersch, part II.
186. iEnesidemus, a native of G-nossus in Crete, settled
in Alexandria,3 revived, about the commencement of this
period, the Scepticism4 which had been silenced in the
Academy, and wished to make it serve the purpose of
strengthening the opinions of Heraclitus, to which he was
inclined.5 For in order to know that everything has its
contrary, he maintained that we ought to admit that an
opposite is presented to each and the same individual.6 He
assumed an external principle of Thought, making Truth to
consist in the universality of the subjective appearance.7
He accused the Academicians of being deficient in G-ene-
1 The period when he lived is uncertain.
C. G. Glockner, Diss, de Potamonis Alexandrini Philosophic Eclec-
tica, recentiorum Platonicorum Discipline admodum dissimili. Lips.
1745, 4to. 2 Diog. Laert. I, 21.
3 He probably flourished a little later than Cicero.
4 According to the testimony of Aristocles, related by Eusebius, loc.
laud. At the same time, Diog. Laert. (IX, 114), mentions among the
disciples of Timon (§ 124), a certain Eupliranor of Selucia, whose les-
sons Eubulus of Alexandria had followed. To the latter he assigns, as
disciple, Ptolemy of Cyrene, who, he says, revived Pyrrhonism ; and
whose disciple Heradides, a sceptical philosopher, had been the master
of iEnesidemus.
5 Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. IX, 337 ; X, 216, 233.
6 Idem, Hypot. I, 210, sqq.
7 Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. VII. 349, 350; VIII, 8.
M 2
1G1 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
ralisation, as Sceptics, and thereby contradicting them-
selves.1 In order therefore to strengthen the cause of
Scepticism, he extended its limits to the utmost ; admit-
ting and defending the ten Topics (deVa tpoiroi cTroxy?),
attributed also to Pyrrho (§ 124), to justify a suspense of
ail positive opinion. These Topics are deduced: 1. From
the diversity of Animals ; 2. From that of Mankind con-
sidered individually; 3. From the fallibility of all our
Senses ; 4. The circumstances and condition of the Subject ;
5. Position, Distance, and other local accidents; 6. The
combinations and associations under which things present
themselves to our notice ; 7. The different dimensions and
various properties of things ; 8. Their mutual relations ;
9. The habitude or novelty of the sensations ; 30. The
influence of Education, and Institutions, Civil and Reli-
gious.2 In short, iEnesidemus opposed Sceptical objections
to every part of Dogmatical philosophy. According to him,
Scepticism (Tryppuoveio? Xofyo?) is a comparative reflection
exercised on Appearances and Thoughts ; which would
convict them all of the greatest inconsistency and con-
fusion.3
The weak side of this Scepticism is its Aim, and its pre*
tensions to Universality.
187. The boldest attack made by any of the ancient philo-
sophers on the possibility of demonstrative knowledge, was
that attempted by iEnesidemus against the reality of the
Idea of Causality, and its application in the investigation of
natural causes (JEtiology) .* He argued that the notion of
Causality is without signification, because we cannot under-
stand the relations of Cause and Effect ; which he endea-
voured to prove by arguments in abstracto, and also by
insisting on the logical mistakes and false inferences of the
Dogmatists in their inquiries into the nature of Causes.
188. Prom the time of JEnesidemus to that of Sextus,
followed a succession of Sceptics, all of them physicists of
1 Photiug.
2 Euseb. Praepar. Evang. XIV, 18. Sextus Emp. Adv. Math. VII.
345; Hypot. I, 36. Cf. Diog. Laert. IX, 87.
3 Diog. Laert. IX, 78.
4 Sextus Emp. Adv. Math. IX, 217, sqq.; Hypotyp. I, 180, sqq.
187 — 189.] SEXTUS EMPIEICTJS. 165
the Empirie and Methodic Schools ;s who confined them-
selves to the observation of facts, and rejected all theory
respecting the causes of diseases. Among these, IPavorinus
(§ 185) attached himself to the principles of JEnesidemus.
The most distinguished were Agrippa, Menodotus of JNfico-
media, and Sextus. Agrippa2 reduced the ten Reasons for
doubting to five more extensive ones, viz. : 1. Difference of
Opinions ; 2. the necessity that every proof should be itself
capable of proof ; 3. The Belativeness of our impressions;
4. The disposition to Hypothesis; 5. The Arguing in a
Circle unavoidable in all proofs.
Finally he insisted on this, that there cannot be any
certain knowledge, either immediately, eg hav-rov, nor me-
diately, egf licpov ; and especially applied himself to criticise
the Formal part of knowledge.3
Sextus Empiricus.
Sexti Empirici Opera, Gr. et Lat. ed. Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Lips.
1718, fol. Editio altera, cum Indd. 2 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1842. llecens.
Struve, Regiomont. 1823, 2 vols. 8vo.
Criticisms on this author :
Guil. Langius, De Veritatibus Geometricis adv. Sextum Empiricum,
Hafn. 1656, 4to.
De primis Scientiarum Elementis, seu Theologia Naturalis methodo
quasi Mathematica digcsta. Accessit ad heec Sexti Empirici adversus
Mathematicas decern Modorum tTroxvG seu Dubitationis, secundum edi-
tionem Fabricii, quibus scilicet Sextus Scepticorum Coryphaeus, veritati
onmi in os obloqui atque totidem retia tendere haud dubitavit, succincta
turn Philosophica turn critica rcfutatio (per Jac. Thomson), Regiomont.
1728, (id. 1734), fol.
Gotoer. Ploucquet, Diss, examen rationem a Sexto Empirico tarn
ad propugnandum quam impugnandam Dei existentiam collectarum,
Tubing. 1768, 4to.
189. Sextus, surnamed Empiricus, from the School of
Physicists to which he belonged, was a native, as appears,
of Mitvlene,4 and a pupil of Herodotus of Tarsus,6 the
Sceptic. He put the finishing stroke to the Philosophy of
1 Diog. Laert. IX, 116. 2 First or second century after Christ.
3 Diog. Laert. IX, 88, sqq. Septus, Hypotyp. I, 164—178.
4 This has been proved by Visconti in his Iconographic, on the testi-
mony of a medal of that city. 6 Diog. Laert. IX, 116.
166 PIRST PEEIOD. [sect.
Doubt about the end of the second century. "While he
availed himself of the works of his predecessors, especially
iEnesidemus, Agrippa, and Menodotus, he contributed
much to define the object, end, and method of Scepticism,
particularly in his three books Hvppwveucv viro-rvn-^aeoov ;
and to guard against the attacks of the Dogmatists, he
made more acccnrate distinctions between the operations of
his system and the practice of the New Academicians or of
the Dogmatists themselves.
190. According to Sextus, Scepticism is the faculty
(pvvayii<i) of comparing the appearances of the senses and
thoughts (cj)aiv6[jLcva t€ koi voov/ulcvo), in order, by such a
competition, so instituted, to arrive (Sia ttju eV to?? avnicei-
juevois 7rpd^/uaai kcu \o<yofs laoaOlveiav) at a suspension of all
judgment (eVo^?)) on objects the nature of which is obscure
to us (aSijXov, u(f)ave<$) : hence results a certain repose of
the mind (a-rapagui), and, in the end, a perfect eqanimity
(fieTpi07ra6eia) .
His Scepticism admits the existence of representations
and appearances ((fiaivojueva) ; does not deny the possibility
of cognition, but the reality of it ; and abstains from its
pursuit. His system is not a Doctrine, but an entirely
subjective mode of viewing things, and consequently does
not demand to be proved, but only requires to be stated.1
His maxim was, ovBev jxaXKovf meaning that no one thing
deserves to be preferred to another.
191. Sextus appears sometimes to have forgotten this
principle, when he would erect his principle into a Doctrine,
and represent it as an Art of non-cognition ; and an Art
destructive of all inquiry after Truth, and denying the
possibility of its attainment. He exposed himself to this
censure because: 1. "When he finds himself at a loss for
arguments of Doubt, he suggests that hereafter they may be
discovered;3 2. He declines all exposition of the real nature
of representation and cognition;4 3. He intrenches himself,
when he finds it necessary, in Sophisms f 4. He endeavours,
1 Sextus Emp., Hypotyp. I, 1. 4. 25. 2 Ibid. 1-1,
3 Ibid. 33,sqq. ; Ii, 259. 4 Idem, I, 9, sqq.
5 Adv. Math. I, 9.
190 — 193.] SEXTUS EMPIRICUS. 167
in this manner, by mere sophistical arguments, to prove
that no science can be taught or learnt ;l 5. He goes so
far as to argue, in opposition to his own doctrine (§190),
against the existence of our representations ;2 6. He does
not define with sufficient perspicuity the facts which he
assumes as data, e. g. our representations, and the laws of
Thought.
192. Notwithstanding these objections, his statement of
Scepticism is a very important work, both in respect of
the manner in which he has treated it, and as a record of
the state of Science, more especially of Metaphysical Phi-
losophy, among the ancients. In the five last books of
his treatises, Upos toi>s /aaOrj/naTiicov^, he reviews the doctrines
of the principal philosophers in the most important sub-
jects; setting in a strong light the incertitude of their
principles, and contradictory or inconsistent conclusions.
He endeavours to show that the Dogmatists had never
discovered any solid and irrefragable criterium of Truth;
and that they all disagree wTith respect to the funda-
mental notions and principles of Logic, Physics, and Ethics.
Denying the existence of any self-apparent Certainty (in
consequence of the contradictions which prevail in the
theses of Philosophers), he begins by demanding that every
truth should be proved ; and then goes on to show that
such proof is impossible, for want of self-evident data.
Beginning with such principles he proceeds to demolish all
the scientific labours of the human mind, not excepting the
Mathematics.
193. Such a system of Scepticism had the tendency to cut
short all farther research ; and appearing incontrovertible,
it stood forth in a terrible aspect. Nevertheless, such a
Scepticism contained in itself its own contradiction ; it
clashes with the natural tendency of the human reason,
without being able to make good the object it promised to
realise, the repose of the mind. At the time when it
appeared it seems to have made little impression, in con-
sequence of the slight interest then felt for philosophical
studies ; and it died with Saturninus (also called Cythenas),
1 Adv. Math. I, 9. £ Ibid. 361, sqq.
168 FIKST PEEIOD. [SECT.
a disciple of Sextus.1 The only persons who paid attention
to it were some physicians, such as Gralen (De optimo
docendi genere) ,2 and the philosopher Plotinus.3 The latter4
opposed to it a visionary and hyperphysical Dogmatism.
Philosophic Doctrines of the Je%vs and Gentiles.
194. It has not been perfectly ascertained whether at
this period there existed an Eastern School of Philosophy,
' AvaroXiKrj Si8a<TKa\ia.5 It has been asserted by Mosheim,
Brucker,6 Walch,7 and Buhle ; and denied by Meiners8 and
Tiedemann.9 It is impossible to controvert the existence
of certain opinions peculiar to the East ; but the question
is, whether they had already assumed a philosophical form
and character, or whether they were not rather developed
and brought to perfection in proportion to the progress
which Grecian philosophy, and particularly that of Plato,
made among the Orientals.10 This last conjecture becomes
still more probable when we reflect that at this period
appeared the apocryphal writings, falsely ascribed to Zo-
roaster, Hermes, and others ; as well as when we remark
the efforts made by several Gnostics,11 to depreciate the
works of Plato.12
I Diog. Laert. IX, 116. 2 See § 185.
3 See § 203. « Plot. Enn. V, lib. V, II.
5 Cf. Theodot. in Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. torn. V, p. 135; Porphyr.
Vita Plotini, E. XVI ; Eunapii Vita ^Edesii, p. 61.
« Hist. Crit. Phil. torn. II, c. 3, p. 639, sqq.
7 Commentat. de Philosophic Orientali, in Michaelts Syntagma
Commentatt. part II, p. 279. s + History of Philosophy, p. 170.
9 f Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, torn. Ill, p. 98. The same (a
prize composition) : De Artium Magicarum Origine, Marb. 1788, 8vo.
10 Bouterweck, in an excellent treatise, which we shall have occasion
to notice (§ 201), considers the mystical doctrines of Immediate Intui-
tion, and the Emanation of Spirits, as having been derived from the
East and from Persia ; particularly through the channel of Alexandria,
where they had already been long established.
Mattei, Essai historique sur l'ecole d'Alexandrie, torn. II, ch. 8, &c.
I I Plotinus, Enn. I, lib. IX, 6.
12 See Buhle, Compendium of the History of Philosophy (§ 37),
part IV, p. 73, sqq : and the larger work of Tennemann on the
History of Philosophy (ibid.) torn. VI, p. 438.
194—196.] the jews. 169
195. On the supposition that the Orientals had a phi-
losophy of their own, it is natural to suppose that the
immense extent of the Roman Empire would bring it into
contact with that of the Western Nations, and contribute
to their admixture. History has afforded us proof of this
in the doctrines of the Jews, the Gnostics, and the JNTeopla-
tonists. Alexandria, where, from the time of the Ptolemies,
every system of philosophy had been taught, was the
principal point of union between the Eastern and Western
doctrines.
I. Jews.
See the works mentioned in § 73.
196. During their exile the Jews had collected many
opinions belonging to the religion and philosophy of Zo-
roaster (§ 70), for example, that of a Primitive Light, of
two Principles, the Good and the Evil, and of the Demons.
Subsequently, a certain number of their countrymen who
had settled in Egypt, and, in consequence of their medical
studies had engaged in speculation (particularly those who
were devoted to a contemplative life, and therefore called
Therapeutre), acquired some knowledge of Grecian philo-
sophy;1 but, faithful to their national prejudice, that all
wisdom must have originated from the Jews, they regarded
the truths which they met among the Greeks, as well as
all that agreed with their ancient religious traditions, as a
theft. In order to substantiate this idea, Aristeas2 devised
the story of an ancient translation into Greek of the Old
Testament ; and Aristobuhis? a Peripatetic, forged certain
Apocryphal books and passages.
1 The resemblance of the Essenes to the Pythagoreans had already
been observed. See J. J. Bellermann, Historical Evidences respecting
the Essenes and Therapeutse, Berlin, 1821, 8vo.
2 Humfredi Hody, contra Historiam Aristeas de LXX interpretibus,
etc. Oxon. 1685, 8vo. Et : De Bibliorum Textibus Origine, Versioni-
bus, etc. 1705, fob
3 Luc Casp. Valkenaer, Diatribe de Aristobulo Judaso, Philosopho
Peripatetico, Lugd. Bat. 1806, 4to. Other critics however consider the
very existence of this author as doubtful, and attribute the Commen-
taries on the books of Moses, which bear his name, to a later period.
He lived, perhaps, in the time of Ptolemy Philometor.
170 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
2?Mh of Alexandria.
Philonis JuDiEi Opera. Fl. Josephi Opera, (see § 73).
Jo. Alb. Faricti Diss, de Platonismo Philonis, Leips. 1693, 4to.
Idem.: Sylioge Dissertat. Ilamh. 1738, 4to.
+ C. F. Stahl, Attempt at a Systematic Statement of the Doctrines
of Philo of Alexandria: in the Allgem. Bibl. tier Bibl. Literatur of
Eichhorn, torn. IV, fasc. V.
+ J. Chph. Schreiter, Ideas of Philo respecting the Immortality of
the Soul, the Resurrection, and Future Retribution : in the Analecten
of Keil and Tzchirner, vol. I, sect. 2 ; see also vol. Ill, sect. 2.
Scheffer, Qusestiones, P. I,. II, 1829 — 31.
Grossmann, Qusestiones Philonianse, Pars I : De theologise Philonis
fontibus et auctoritate, 1829.
Gfrorer, Philo und die Alexandrische Theosophie, 2 Bde, (1831)
1835.
DiEHNE, Geschichtliche Darstellung der judisch-alexandrinischen
Religions-philosophie, 1 Abth. 1831.
Ibid, in the Theol. Studien und Kritiken Jahrb. 1833, p. 984.
Bucher, Philonische Studien, 1848.
Creuzer, Kritik der Schriften des Juden Philon. (Theol. Studien
und Kritiken Jahrb.) 1832, 1 Heft.
Dr. Ritter's Hist, of Ancient Philosophy, vol. IY. c. 6 : (Philo the
Jew.)
197. The Jew Philo,1 a man of erudition and of a cultivated
mind, settled at Alexandria, was not free from prejudices,
but supported them in a more honourable spirit. He applied
his knowledge of all the Greek systems, and especially that
of Plato (who has so many points of correspondence with
the Orientals), to represent his national religion as a perfect
and divine doctrine. Josephus2 subsequently followed the
same course. On the other hand, Philo transferred into his
system of Platonic philosophy many of the opinions of the
East, in return for those which he borrowed from Plato.
He may be considered (as Bouterweck has ranked him) as
the first JVeoplatonist of Alexandria. He assumes that the
Divinity and Matter are the two first principles, existing
from eternity. Agreeably to the principles of Plato, he
characterizes them thus : the Divinity as a Being, Real,
Infinite, and Immutable, Incomprehensible to any human
1 Born at Alexandria, some years B.C.
2 Flavius Josephus, born at Jerusalem, 37 A.C.
197.] PHILO A,ND THE CABBALISTS. 171
understanding (*Oi>) ; Matter, as non-existing (/ui) ov), but
having received from the Divinity a form and life. He
represents the Deity, by certain Oriental figures, as the
Primitive Light, as an Infinite Intelligence, from whom are
derived, by irradiation, all finite Intelligences. In the soul
of the Divinity are concentrated the ideas of all things
possible. This X0709 of the Divine Being, the focus of all
Ideas (Xoryo? ivhtaOero'i), is in fact the Ideal "World; and
called also the Son of God, or the Archangel. He is the
image of God, the type after which God by his creative
power (\6<yo<$ 77y>o0g/h<co?) formed the world, such as it is pre-
sented to our senses. Hence three hypostases in the Divine
Being. We cannot become acquainted with the nature of
God but by His immediate influence on our minds : hence
the doctrine of Internal Intuition.1 We may clearly ob-
serve how the views of the Jews were modified by the
representations of Platonism, and how this admixture gave
birth to new opinions. Nwnenius of Apamea in Syria,2 in
part admitted this mode of representation, and maintained
that reason is the faculty of acquiring a knowledge of the
Absolute and Super sensuous. He perfected the notion of
the Trinity, by distinguishing, in the Divine Incorporeal
Being, first, the Primitive and Supreme God, the immutable,
eternal, and perfect intelligence ; secondly, the Creator of
the World, or Demiurgos, the vov<$, having a twofold relation
to the Divinity as his Son, and to the World as its author.
The same philosopher maintained the Immateriality and
Immortality of the Soul, and styled Plato the Attic Hoses
The Calhalisls.
Authority : The Talmud.
Liber Jezirah, translatus et Kotis illustr. a Pittangelo, Amslel.
1642, 4to.
Artis Cabbalisticse, hoc est reconditse Theologise et Philosophise
Scriptores; (Editor, J. Pistorius), torn. I, Basil. 1587, fol.
Kabbala Denudata, seu doctrina Hebraeorum transcendentalis et Me-
1 Philo de Mundi Opificio, de Confusione Linguarum, de Somnis,
quod Deus sit immutabilis, de Prasmiis et Pcenis. Euseb. Prsep.
Evang. VII, 13; XI, 15; Hist. Ecclcs. II, 4, sqq. ; 7, sqq.
2 Second century after Christ.
3 EusEB.Pnep.Evang.XI,10.1S; IX, 6; XIII, 5; XIV, 5; XV, 17.
172 FIRST PEEIOD. [SECT.
tapliysica atque Theologica, opus antiquissimas Philosophia3 barbaricse
variis speciminibus refertissimum, in quo ante ipsam libri translationcm
difficilimi atque in literatura Hebraica summi, commentarii nempe in
Pentateuchum et quasi totum seriptuarum V. T. Kabbalistici, cui no-
men Sohar, tarn veteris quam recentis, ejusque Tikkunim seu supplc-
mentorum tarn veterum quam recentiorurn praemittitur apparatus.
Tom. I, Solisb. 1677, 4to. torn. II. Liber Sohar restitutus (editore
Chuist. Knorr de Rosenroth), Franco/. 1684, 4to.
+ Rabbi Cohen Irira, Porta Coelorum. (A Commentary on the
two Cabbalistic books above). Wolff, Biblioth. Hebr. Ilamb. 1721,
4 vols. 4 to. (in the first vol.).
+ Eisenmenger, Judaism displayed, Konigsb. 2 vols. 1711, 4to.
+ De la Nauze, Remarks on the Antiquity and Origin of the Cab-
bala, in the Mem. of the Acad, of Inscr. torn. IX.
+ J. Fr. Kleuker, On the Doctrine of Emanation among the Cab-
balists, etc. Riga, 1786, 8vo.
f Life of Solomon Maimon, published by Ph. Moritz, Berlin, 1792,
in 2 parts, 8vo.
f On the Doctrine of Emanation and Pantheism in the first ages of
Antiquity, with especial reference to the writers of the Old and In ew
Testaments. An Historical, Critical, and Explanatory Essay, Erf.
1805, Svo.
Hartmann, Leipz. Liter. Zeitung, 1834, No. 63, 64.
Jost, Geschichte der Israeliten. 3 Bd. p. 195. sqq.
Zunz, die Gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden; p. 162, sqq., et
402, sqq.
Tholuck, (Commentatio de vi quam Graeca philosophia in theologiam
turn Muhammedanorum quam Judseorum exercuerit) ; Part II, De
Ortu Cabbala-, 1837.
Molttor, Philosophic der Geschichte, oder iiber die Tradition im
Alten Bimde und ihre Beziehungen zum ISleuen Bunde, mit vorziig-
licher Rucksicht auf die Kabbala. 1827—1837, 3 Biinde.
Freystadt, Philosophia cabbalistica et Pantheismus, 1832.
Adler, Die Kabbala, oder die Religions-philosophie der Hebraer.
In den Jahrbuchern fiir speculative Phiiosophie, 1846-1847.
198. Cabbala (that is oral tradition) is a system of as-
sumed Divine Wisdom, diversified by a variety of fables,
which the Jews affect to have received from a Divine source
through secret tradition. To treat of it only as far as it
belongs to the history of philosophy — it had its origin as
early as the first centuries of the Christian era, and was
invented or systematised by the Rabbi AkibJia,1 and his
disciple Simeon Ben Jochai, surnamed the spark of Moses.
It consists in a string of philosophical legends, which repre-
sent all things as descending, in a continued scale, from the
J Died A. D. 138.
198.] CABBALISTS AND GNOSTICS. 173
Ensoph (the First Light) ; the Deity and Creator. They are
arranged in ten Sephiroths, or luminous circles ; and four
worlds, Aziluth, Briah, Jezirah, and Aziah. Adam Cadmon,
the first man, was the firstborn of the Divinity, the Messiah,
Dy whose means the rest of the universe emanated from the
Almighty, yet in such a way that it subsists in God : God
being the inherent cause of all things. By the person of
the 8011 is probably here implied the idea of the world con-
ceived by God. All things that exist are of a spiritual
nature, and matter itself is nothing but a condensation or
attenuation of the rays of light ; in a word, every substance
is divine.
To this theory of Emanation were added a tissue of
imaginations respecting the Demons, which involved a belief
in magic; respecting the four elements of souls; their
origin and formation ; and, lastly, with regard to man con-
sidered as a microcosm, or little world in himself. This last
notion gave occasion to a new fancy, that of pretending to
acquire knowledge by ecstasy.* The whole is a mass of
strange and exaggerated representations, conceived under
the influence of the religion of the Persians, but employed
by those who advanced them to recommend to general notice
the sacred history and doctrines of the Jews ; especially
with respect to the creation and the origin of evil. It is
probable that the Cabbalistic books Jezirah and Sohar
(see the works at the head of this section), the first attri-
buted to the Rabbi Akibha, the second to Simeon Ben
Jochai, have been from time to time interpolated by their
expositors. The Christians became acquainted with the
Cabbala, by name only, in the fifteenth century ; the Jews
having carefully concealed from them these mysteries.
II. Gnostics.
"Walch, De Philosoph. Oriental. Gnosticorum Systematis fonte ; and
Michaelis, De Indiciis Gnosticae Philosophise tempore LXX Inter-
pretuni et Philonis ; second part of his last Syntagm. Commentt.
Ekn\ Ant. Lewald, Comment, ad Hist. Eeligionum vett. illus-
trandum pertinens, de Doctrina Gnosticorum, Heidelb. 1818, 8vo.
* This fancy has been substantiated by the discoveries of Animal
Magnetism.— Ed.
174 FIBST PERIOD. [SECT.
The same author had previously published : De Fidei Gnoseosque
idea, et ea qua ad se invicem et ad Philosophiam referuntur ratione
secundum rnentem Clem. Alexandrini, Heidelb. 1811, 8vo.
Baur, Das manichaische lieligions-system, 1831.
t J. Aug. Neander, Origin and Development of the principal
Gnostic Systems, Berlin, 1818, 8vo.
Fritzche's Ketzer Lexicon.
Professor Norton's Hist, of the Gnostics, 1045.
199. The same spirit of extravagant speculation possessed
the G-nostics also. They pretended to a superior and mys-
terious knowledge (^{vCbais) of the Divine Being, and the
origin of the World ; blending the religious dogmata of the
Persians and Chaldees with those of the Greeks and Chris-
tians. The greater number of them professed Christianity,
though they were looked upon as heretics. Some attached
themselves to the Jewish persuasion, others became its ad-
versaries, others again appear to have belonged to no par-
ticular religious creed whatsoever. The most distinguished
among them (for the most part Orientals), were Simon
Magus, Menander the Samaritan, Cerinthus the Jew, all
belonging to the first century : then Saturninus the Syrian,
JBasilides, Carpocrates, and Valentinus of Alexandria, who
approximated the Neoplatonists (second century) ; Marcion
of Sinope,1 Cerdon and Bardisanes, both Syrians2 (about the
middle of the second century) ; and Manes,3 a Persian (put
to death by Sapor, a.d. 277). Their followers subsisted
some ages after. One division of them recognised in the
Divinity the One Great Principle wdience they derived all
things, according to different degrees or classes of spirits
called iEons ; another admitted the existence of Two first
principles, a G-ood and an Evil one, continually opposed
to, and conflicting with each other. Lastly, a third divi-
1 Aug. Hahn, Progr. de Gnosi Marcionis Antinomi, P. I and II.
Regiomont. 1820-21, 8vo. Et : Antitheses Marcionis Gnostici, liber
deperditus, nunc quoad ejus fieri potuit restitutus, ibid. 1823, 4 to.
2 Aug. Hahn, Bardesanes Gnosticus Syrorum primus Hymnologus.
Commentat. Hist. Theol. Lips. 1819, 8vo.
3 f Beausobre, Critical History of Maniches and Manicheism, Amst.
1734—39, 2 vols. 4 to. See also Bayle, sub hac voce, and Walch's
Hist, of Heres. part. I, sect. 770.
+ K. A. von Eeichlin Melldegg, The Theological System oi Manes,
and its Origin, etc., Francf. on the M. 1825, 8vo.
199 — 200.] THE CHBISTIAtf GNOSTICS. 175
sion of Gnostics maintaining the existence of two Princi-
ples (of Light and Darkness), asserted that they were both
derived from one common Creator. In general, they iden-
tified matter with the Evil principle, and regarded even
the formation of the Universe as a fall and declension from
the Divine Being. These their leading dogmata were asso-
ciated with a multitude of fictions incredibly daring and
extravagant; and each of which supposed a particular
revelation imparted to their authors. The imagination has
played, among the Orientals, a predominant part ; and they
delight in losiag themselves in a labyrinth of hypotheses
allied to the supernatural.* Morality could not but suffer
in consequences of such extravagancies, and was apt to sink
into a narrow asceticism.
§ 200.
Baur, Der Begriff der christlichen Philosophic In den theolo-
gischen Jahrbiichern, 1846. Zweyter Artikel : Die patristische Philo-
sophic, § 72. 115.
(A.) The Christian Gnostics.
Baur, Die christliche Gnosis in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung,
1835.
The Nature of the Christian Gnosis.
200. The Christian Gnosis, or the Gnosticism of the
second century of our era, proceeded from the conflict of
the three religious systems that prevailed at the first ap-
pearance of Christianity; Judaism, Heathenism, and their
youthful opponent Christianity. It originated also in the
urgent necessity of reconciling the latter with the former,
and of determining how much of the new religion was
derived from previously existing opinions. The objects of
chief interest on which the attention of men's minds were
concentrated during this process of fusion were, the rela-
tions between God and the World, Spirit and Matter, and
the origin of evil attributed to the latter. Gnosticism
naturally attached itself to these problems, and sought to
solve the Dualism of the old world's philosophy, though
often rather in a phantastic than a philosophical manner.
The universal and uniform aim of the various Gnostic
* The Rationalist Convictions of Tennemann lead him to condemn
as visionary all supernaturalist tendencies.— Ed.
176 TIEST PEEIOD. [sect.
systems is to represent Christianity as the higher religion,
at the expense of Judaism and Heathenism, and to regard
the whole previous religious development of the world as
having reference to Christ, and as so many subordinate and
progressive degrees of the spirit of humanity. All the
Gnostic systems agreed in adopting the following essential
elements : the supreme invisible God, and opposed to Him,
ungodly perishable Matter, the successive emanation of
(Eons, or divine spirits, from God, and the Creator of the
world, Demiurgos, or Christ.
These elements compose the forces out of which the
world has been developed, a development that was repre-
sented by the Gnostic systems as a revelation of the Divine
Being in its operations in the World. Thus the history
of human development, as it steered its course towards
Christ, is in reality the history of the Divine, of the puri-
fication of the divine principle from its contact with
matter.
The most natural and desirable classification of the Gnos-
tic systems will be that which assigns them their rank and
estimation, according to the light in which they view Chris-
tianity as compared with previous systems.
The first great form of the Gnostic systems places
Christianity and Judaism in absolute opposition with
Heathenism : this is the system of the so-called Clementine
Homilies.
The second great form represents Christianity as the
goal to which all previous religions tended and pointed:
jBasilidcs and his followers ; Valentinus and his disciples ;
the system of the Ophites and of the collateral sects, espe-
cially those of Saturninus and of Bardesanes, belonged to
this division.
The third chief form represents Christianity as the only
religion that is divine and absolute, and stands forth in
sharp separation from Heathenism and Judaism : to this
school belong Marcion and his disciples.
We have lastly the fourth chief form of Gnosticism, called
Manicheism, which regards Christianity as identical with
the religions of the past, and as finally perfected in the
revelation of Manes, the appointed Paraclete.
Mather, Essai sur 1 ecole d' Alexandria (1820), (1840), 2 Th.
201—202.1 NEO-PLATONIST8. 177
JSFeoplatonism of Plotinus ; Predecessors and Successors of
this philosopher.
Authorities: The works of Plotinus; Porphyry; Iambliclms; Julian;
Eunapius, Vitae Philosophorum, (see § 81); Sallustius, dc Diis ct
Mundo; Proclus; Suidas.
+ Sainte-Croix, Letter to M. Du Theil, on a new edition of all the
works of the Eclectic Philosophers, Paris, 1797, 8vo.
Gottfr. Olearii Diss, de Philosophic Eclectica ; in his translation
of Stanley's History of Philosophy, p. 1205.
f Critical History of Eclecticism, or the Neoplatonists, Avignon,
1766, 2 vols. 12mo.
+ G. G. Fulleborn, Neoplatonic Philosophy; in his Collect, fasc.
Ill, No. 8.
t Chph. Meiners, Memoirs towards a History of the Opinions of
the first century after Christ, with Observations on the System of the
Neoplatonists, Leips. 1782, 8vo.
C. A. G. Keil, De Causis alieni Platonicorum recentiorum a Religionc
Christiana animi, Lips. 1785, 4to.
Ji G. A. Oelrich, Oomm. de Doctrina Platonis de Deo a Christian! s
et recentioribus Platonicis varie explicataet corrupta, Marb. 1788, 8vo.
Alb. Christ. Roth, Diss. (praes. J. B. Carbzov) Trinitas Platonica,
Lips. 1693, 4to.
Joh. Wilh. Jani Diss, (praes. J. G. Neumann) Trinitas Platonismi
verb et false suspecta, Viteb. 1708, 4to.
H. Jac. Ledermuller, Diss, (praes. Ge. Aug. Will) de Theurgia ct
Virtutibus Theurgicis, Altd. 1763, 4to.
J. Aug. Dietelmaier, Progr. quo seriem Veterum in Schola Alex-
andria Doctorum exponit, Altd. 1746, 4to.
Imm. Fichte, De Philosophise Novae Platonicoa Origine, Berol.
1818, 8vo.
Frid. Bouterweck, Philosophorum Alexandrinorum ac Neoplatoni-
corum recensio accuratior, Comment, in Soc. Gott. habita, 1821, 4to.
(See Gott. gel. Anz. No. 166, 167, 1821).
201. JNTeoplatonism had its origin in the frequented school
of the Platonists of Alexandria, and was characterised by
an ardent and enthusiastic zeal. Its disciples aspired to
attain the highest pinnacles of science, to acquire a know-
ledge of the absolute, and an intimate union (evtvati) there-
with, as the final end of man's being. The way thereto
they held to be the intuition of the absolute (Qewpict),
202. The principal causes which led to this new system
were : The decline of genuine Grecian philosophy, and the
admixture with its remains of the theories of the East;
K
178 PIEST PEEIOD. [SECT.
added to a continually-increasing attachment to Oriental
exaggeration and enthusiasm, which they confirmed by fre-
quent appeals to celestial revelations, while they depreciated
the merit of Plato as a philosopher.1 The prevailing spirit
of the age, and the decline of the Roman empire, contributed
to this. To these may be added two other causes: the
opposition the Sceptics of the modern school continually
made to all pretensions to rational knowledge: and the
alarm which the victorious progress of Christianity occa-
sioned to the defenders of the old religion, lest it should be
utterly overthrown.
The importance which Platonism assumed in this conflict
between the Christians and the Polytheists, added to the
daily increasing influence of Oriental notions, caused that
philosophy to assume a fresh distinction : its ardent charac-
ter being aided by the scientific turn of the Greeks, and
heightened by the admixture of many other doctrines.
203. Philo of Alexandria (§ 197), JNumenius (ibid.) and
Atticus, had already given specimens of this sort of mystical
speculation, and association of Oriental ideas with those
of the Platonists. The same is observable in the writings
of many of the Greek Fathers of the Church, Justin for
instance, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen ; who not
unfrequently Platonise. Ammonias2 of Alexandria, a man
of low birth, obliged to gain his livelihood as a porter,
(whence his surname of Saccas), and probably also an apos-
tate from Christianity,3 but endowed with a strong love of
knowledge, great talents, and an enthusiastic temper, threw
himself into this new career of philosophy, and became the
founder of a School,4 which laboured to reconcile the doc-
trines of Plato and Aristotle on the most important topics.5
He infused the same enthusiastic spirit into his disciples,
among whom Longinns? a celebrated critic and judicious
1 Plotinus, Eim. II, lib. IX, 6.
2 Dehaut, Essai historique sur la vie et la doctrine d'Ammonius,
Saccas, 1836. 3 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. VI, 19.
4 About 123 A.C.
5 C. F. Koslek, Diss, de Commentitiis Philosophise AinmonicDe frau-
dibus et noxis, Tub. 1786, 4to.
c Dav. Rhunkenii Diss, de Yita et Scriptis Longinit Lugd. Bat.
distinguished. The three last made a solemn engagement
2
203—204.] plotinus. 179
thinker,1 Plotinus, Origen, and Ilerenniits, were the most
distinguished. The three las
to keep their doctrines secret.
§ 204.
Plotini Opera, Florentice, 1492, fol., et cum Interpret. Ficini, Bas.
1530, 1615, fol.
Plotini Opera omnia, ed. Creuzer, 3 vols. 4to. Oxon. 1835.
Plotini liber De Pulchritudine, ad Codd. fidem cum Annotatione
perpetua et praeparatione, ed Fried. Creuzer, Heidelb. 1814, 8vo.
Plotinus Uspi T7]Q Trpojrijg apxVG r&v tzcivtuv, etc.; Villois, Anecd.
Gr. II, 237. sqq.
f The Enneades of Plotinus translated, with Explanatory Eemarks,
by Doctor S. G. von Engelhardt, preceded by the Life of Plotinus by
Porphyry, part II, Erl. 1820, 8vo. See also the Studien of Creuzer,
vol. I, Franc/, and Heidelb. 1805.
PorphyRii Vita Plotini, at the commencement of the editions of the
works of Plotinus.
Friedr. Grimmii Commentat. qua Plotini de Eerum Principio sen-
tentia(Enn. II, lib. VIII, c. 8. 10) Adimadversionibus illustratur, Lips.
1788, 8vo.
Jul. Friedr. Winzer, Progr. adumbratio decretorum Plotini de
Hebus ad Doctrinam Morum pertinentibus, Spec. I, Viteb. 1809, 4to.
Hauff, Neu Platonismus und Christenthum, mit besonderer Euck-
sicht auf Porphyr. In den Studien der evangelischen Geistlichkeit
Wurtembergs, 1838, 10 Bd. 3 Heft.
Vogt, Neu Platonismus und Christenthum, I Thcil ; neu-platonische
Lehre (nach Plotin), 1836.
Heigl, Die plotinische Physik, 1815.
Steinhart, Meletemata Plotiniana, 1840.
G. W. Gerlach, Disp. de differentia quae inter Plotini et Schellingii
doctrinam de numinesummo intercedit, Viteb. 1811, 4to.
Plotinus was born A.D. 205, at Lycopolis in Egypt.
^Nature had endowed him with superior parts, particularly
with a deeply feeling spirit and a lofty and vigorous imagi-
nation. He early manifested these abililities in the school
of Ammonius at Alexandria. Subsequently he determined
to accompany the army of Gordian to the East, in order to
study the Oriental systems in their native soil. He was a
1776, and the editions of the treatise Ilepi %T^ovq attributed to him, by
Todp, More, and Weiske, (Leips. 1809, 8vo).
1 Born at Athens 213. Put to death at Palmyra, A. D. 275.
2 Porphyr. Vita Plotini. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 1. Hierocles de
Puovidentia, in Photius, cod. 251, 214.
V 2
180 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
dreamer, who perpetually laboured to attain the comprehen-
sion of the Absolute by intuitional perception ; a notion
which he transferred into Plato's writings. Carried away
by his enthusiasm he thought that he was developing the
designs of the philosopher of the Academy, when in fact he
exhibited his thoughts only partially and incompletely. The
impetuous vivacity of his temper, which caused him to fall
into extasies,* prevented his reducing his mystical Rationalism
to a system. His various scattered treatises were revised
by Porphyry and edited in six Enneades.1
He died in Campania, A.D. 270 ; having taught at
Rome, and enjoying the almost divine veneration of his
disciples.
205. Plotinus assumes, as his principle, that philosophy-
can have no place except in proportion as cognition and
the thiug known — the Subjective and the Objective — are iden-
tical. The employment of philosophy is to acquire a know-
ledge of the One thing, (to oV, to ev9 to a^aOov), the essence
and first principle of all things : and that not mediately by
thought or reflection, but by a more exalted method, by
direct intuition (TrapovoUi), anticipating the progress of
thinking.2 The end of his philosophy, according to Porphyry
(§ 215), is an immediate union with the Divine Bein
He was led by twofold considerations, scientific as well as
moral, to this mystical sort of Idealism: the only path
which human Reason had not yet essayed.
206. Every thing that exists, exists in virtue of unity, is
one, and contains unity in itself. Nevertheless existence
and unity are not identical ; because every object comprises
a plurality. Neither is Reason unity; for it perceives
Unity in a complete manner, not without but ivithin itself.
It is at once the percipient subject and the object per-
ceived: therefore it is not single but twofold; it is not
the first or Primitive Being, but only Unity deduced and
derived from some other principle. Primitive Unity is
* His was probably a case of Natural Somnambulism, which unravels
many of the arcana of the New Platonic Philosophy. — Ed.
1 JPokphyr. Vita Plotini, c. 6 and 24.
2 Enn. V, lib. Ill, 8 : lib. V, 7, sqq. ; Enn. VI, lib. IX, 3 et 4.
3 Enn. Y, lib. I, 1, 2.
3
205—207.] PLOTINTTS. 181
no thing, but the principle of all things ; absolute good and
perfection ; simple in its own nature, and not falling within
the conceptions of the understanding. It has neither quan-
tity nor quality ; neither reason nor soul : it exists neither
in motion nor repose ; neither in space nor time ; it is not
a numeric unity nor a point, for these are comprehended
in other things, in those namely which are divisible ; but
it is pure Esse without Accident ; of which we may
form a notion by conceiving it to be sufficient to itself:
it is exempt from all want or dependency, as well as from
nil thought or will : it is not a thinking Being, but
Thought itself in action: it is the principle and cause
of all things, infinitely small, and at the same time of infi-
nite power; the common centre of all things, — Good1 — The
Deity.
207. Unity is also represented as Primitive and Pure
Light, from which perpetually radiates a luminous cirde
pervading all space. It possesses the sight and knowledge
of itself, but without duality of terms, without reflection ; it
is at once pure virtuality, and the essence of all things that
exist.2 The One and the Perfect continually overflows, and
from it Being, Reason, and Life, are perpetually derived,
without deducting anything from its substance, inasmuch as
it is simple in its nature, and not, like matter, compound.3
This derivation of all things from Unity, does not resemble
Creation, which has reference to time, but takes place purely
in conformity with the principles of causality and order,
without volition ; because to will is to change.4 Prom this
primordial Unity there emanates, in the first place (as light
does from the sun), an eternal essence of the most perfect
nature; viz. Pure Intelligence (i/oSs), which contemplates
Unity, and requires only that for its existence. Prom this
in its turn emanates the Soul of the world (Y^X7) T0" navios
or twv oKwv\.
Such are the three elements of all real being: which
1 Enn. VI, lib. IX, 1, sqq.
2 Idem. Ill, lib. VIII, 8, 9; Enn. VI, lib. VIII, 16; Enn. IV. lib,
III, 17; Enn. V, lib. I, 7.
3 Idem, VI, lib. IX, 9,
* Idem IV, 5} lib. 1,6.
182 FIKST PEEIOD. [SECT.
themselves have their origin in Unity ;x this is the Trinity
(Trias) of Plotinns :3
208. Pure Intelligence (NoOs), is the product and the
image of Unity; but inasmuch as it contemplates Unity
as its object, it becomes itself the percipient, and is thus
distinguished from that which it perceives, or Duplicity.
Inasmuch as Intelligence contemplates in Unity that which
is possible, the latter acquires the character of something
determined and limited; and so becomes the Actual and
Meal {ov). Consequently, Intelligence is the primal reality,
the base of all the rest, and inseparably united to real
being. The thinking Esse and the JEsse thought are iden-
tical $ and that which Intelligence thinks, it at the same
time creates. By always thinking, and always in the same
manner, yet continually with some new difference, it pro-
duces all things ; it is the essence of every imperishable
essence: the sum total of infinite life.3 It comprises all
Gods and all Immortal Souls ; Perfect Truth and Beauty
also belong to it.
209. The Soul (i. e. the Soul of tie World), is the off-
spring of Intelligence, and the thought (Xo'709) of Intelli-
gence, being itself also productive and creative. It is there-
fore Intelligence, but with a more obscure vision and less
perfect knowledge: inasmuch as it does not itself directly
contemplate objects, but through the medium of Intelli-
gence ; being endowed with an energetic force which carries
its perceptions beyond itself. It is not an original but
reflected light, the principal of action, and of external
Nature. Its proper activity consists in perception direct
from without (Oewp/a) • and in the production of objects by
means of this perception. In this manner it produces, in
its turn, different classes of souls, and among others the
human; the faculties of which have a tendency to elevation
1 Enn. II, lib. IX, III ; lib. V, 3. V ; lib. I, 3 et 6 ; lib. II, I.
2 Joh. Heim. Feustking, De Tribus Hypostasibus Plotini, Vitcb.
1694, 4to. Cf. Dissertations of Roth and Janus, quoted § 201.
3 Enn. VI, lib. VIII, 16 ; Enn. IV, lib. Ill, 17; Enn. VI, lib. VII,
51 ; lib. VIII, 16, Enn. V, lib. I, 4, 7 ; lib. Ill, 5, 7 ; lib. V, 2 ; lib. IX,
5; Enn, VI, lib. VII, 12, 13.
208—211.] plotinus. 183
or debasement. The energy of the lowest order, creative,
and connected with matter, is Nature (0^0-fs).1
210. Nature is a percipient and creative energy, which
gives form to matter (\o'<yos ttoiCov) ; for form (etco? —
fjiopcprj) and thought (\6^o*) are one and the same. All
that takes place in the world around us is the work of
Perception, and for the sake of Perception.2 Thus from
Unity, as from the centre of a circle, are progressively derived
Plurality, Divisible Being, and Life ; by continued abstrac-
tion. In Unity, form and matter are distinguishable ; for
it is Form that fashions ; which supposes something capable
of receiving a determinate impression.3
211. Form and Matter, Soul and Body, are inseparable.
There never was a time when the universe was not animated;
but as we can conceive it not to have been so, the question
suggests itself: What is matter ; and how ivas it 'produced by
Unity (since the latter is the principle of all Reality?)
Matter is real, but devoid of Form ; it is indeterminateness,
capable of receiving a form, and stands in the same relation
to it as shade to light. Unity, as being the cause of
Reality, continually progresses from itself as a centre ; and
following this progressive scale of production to the end,
we arrive at a final product, beyond which no other is pos-
sible; an ultimate term whence nothing can proceed, and
which ceases to retain any portion of unity or perfection.
The Soul, by its progressive intuitional and sensational per-
ception, which is at the same time production also, creates for
itself the scene of its action ; that is, Space, and therewith
Time also.* The Soul is a light kindled by Intelligence, and
shedding its rays within certain limits, beyond which is night
and darkness. It contemplates this darkness, and gives it a
form, from its own incapability of enduring any thing unim-
pressed by Thought ; and thus out of darkness it creates for
itself a beautiful and diversified habitation, inseparable from
the cause which produced it ; in other words it bestows on
itself a body.4
1 Enn. V, lib. 1,6,1; lib. VI, 4 j Enn. VI, lib. II, 22.
2 Enn. Ill, lib. VIII. 3 Enn. II, lib. IV, 14 ; Enn. III. lib. VI, 7.
* An analogous but not identical system of Mystical Idealism has
been reproduced in Germany by the School of Schelling. — Ed.
4 Enn. I, lib. VIII, 7 ; Enn. Ill, lib. IV, 2 \ Enn. II, lib. Ill, IV.
184 TIEST PEEIOD. [SECT.
Since all Reality is present in the Intelligence in an eternal
way, Plotinns draws a distinction between intelligible and
sensational Matter. He appears sometimes to regard
unformed or rude matter as a product of the mind, but
through an imperfection in its operations: supposing the
mind while occupied in creation to have been sometimes car-
ried out of itself, without fixing its view on the First and
Perfect Principle ; and consequently becoming liable to inde-
terminateness.1 At other times he speaks of unformed mat-
ter as possessed of reality, but not derived from the Soul.3
212. There is an Intellectual World as well as a World
of Sense (vorjjb? kcu aioOrjTbs tcdff.fwi) : the latter is but the
image of the former, and hence their perfect accordance.
The intellectual world is a Whole, Invariable, Absolute,
Living ; Undivided in point of space ; Unchangeable through
time : it is Unity in Plurality and Plurality in Unity, like
Science (the spiritual world.) Indeterminateness exists
even in the Intellectual world: the greater the distance
from True Being the greater the degree of Indeterminate-
ness.
In the Sensible World, (the reflection of the former), are
plants, the earth, rocks, fire, etc. — all of them endued with
life ; for the World itself is an animated Idea. Eire, air,
and water are ideas endowed with life : a Soul inhabiting
Matter, as a creative principle (Jiylozoisni) .
Nothing in Nature is devoid of Eeason : even the inferior
animals possess it, but in a different degree from man.3
213. Every object possesses Unity and Multiplicity. To
the Body belongs Multiplicity, divisible with reference to
Space. The Soul is an essence devoid of extent, immaterial,
and simple in its nature ; without body ; or with a body
which has two natures, the superior one indivisible : the
inferior divisible. To each of these he assigns three forces.
Souls descend from the Intellectual to the Sensational
world. Their union with the Body is a Pall from the
perfect and happy state.
Plotinus states very ably the metaphysical arguments for
the immateriality and immortality of the Soul: but at
' Enn. I, lib. VIII, 3, 4. * Enn. Ill, lib. VIII, 1.
3 Enn. IV, lib. IV, VIII, IX ; Enn. VI, lib. IV, VII.
212—215.] plotinus. 185
the same time gives rise to extravagant imaginations in his
dreams respecting the nnion of the immaterial element
with the corporeal substance.1
214. Every thing that takes place is the result of Neces-
sity, and of a principle identified with all its consequences ;
(in this we see the rudiments of Spinozism, and the Theo-
dice of Leibnitz).2 All things are connected together by
a perpetual dependency ; (a system of universal Determinism,
from which there is only one exception, and that rather
apparent than real, of Unity). Out of this concatenation of
things arise the principles of natural Magic and Divination.3
As for the existence of Evil in the external world, Plotinus con-
siders it to be sometimes an unavoidable but necessary nega-
tion of good, at others, something positive : such as Matter,
Body ; and, in this latter particular, sometimes as being exter-
nal to the soul, and the cause of imperfection in its produc-
tions; sometimes as seated within the soul, as its imperfect
product. In this manner he falls into the very fault which
he urges against the Gnostics.4 He is also led to adopt a
system of Optimism and Fatalism, adverse to Morality;5
though occasionally he admits that moral Evil is voluntary,
and the author of it accountable.6
215. Unity (the Divinity) being Perfection itself, is the
end and object of all things, which derive from him their
nature and their being; and which cannot become perfect
but through him. The Human Soul cannot attain per-
fection or felicity but by the intuition of the Supreme Unity,
by means of an absolute abstraction (aVXuWs, simplification)
from all compound things, and by absorption into pure Esse.
In this consists Virtue, which is twofold : Inferior Virtue,
comprising the so-called cardinal virtues, (or 7ro\m/a}), be-
longing to such souls as are in the progress of purification ;
and Superior Virtue, which consists in an intimate union,
by intuition, with the Divine Being (eWo-ts). Its source
1 Eim. IV, lib. I, II, III, VI.
3 Enn. VI, lib. VII, 8—10; Enn. IV, lib. IV, 4, 5; Eim. VII, lib.
II, 3.
3 Enn. Ill, lib. II, 16 ; Enn. IV, lib. IV, 32. 40.
4 Enn. I, lib. VIII ; Enn. II, lib. IX; Enn. Ill, lib. II.
* Enn. I, lib. VIII, 5; Enn. Ill, lib. II, 18.
6 Enn. Ill, lib. II, 9, 10.
186 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
is the Divinity himself, throngh the medium of light and
heat. The Soul acquires from its intuition of Divine beauty
a similar grace ; and derives warmth from the celestial fire.1
216. This system is built on two principles unsupported
by proof. These are : 1st. That the Absolute and Universal,
which is inaccessible to the senses, is the Principle of the
Universe, and may be recognised as such : 2dly. That it can
be known by means of an intellectual intuition and percep-
tion, superior in its nature to Thought itself. Plotinus repre-
sents Thought as intuition and perception, transforms Phi-
losophy into Poetry, and the pure form of our conceptions
into substantial objects. His doctrine is a transcendant
Mysticism containing some Platonic notions, and elicited
by the enthusiasm prevalent in that age. Neglecting the
question of possibilities, his philosophy proceeds at once
to the cognition of the absolute and complete theory of
universal knowledge. At the same time it certainly con-
tains several valuable hints respecting our faculties for
acquiring knowledge, and some elevated thoughts, which
have been borrowed and improved by other philosophers.
It acquired the highest popularity, principally because it
derived knowledge from a source superior to the senses ;
and owing to its doctrine of a Triad, and the relation it
supposes between it and the external world: and in short
was considered a complete exposition of the theory of the
Great Plato : of that Plato whom men began now to con-
sider divinely inspired.2 Next came the attempt to prove
the correspondence of Plato's system with those anterior
doctrines whence he was supposed to have derived so many
of his own: viz. of Pythagoras, Orpheus, Zoroaster, and
Hermes ; and they were not long without apocryphal books
also, attributed to the same, to substantiate this notion.
They went farther, and desired to prove a like correspond-
ence between Plato and his successors, particularly Aristotle.
All these attempts, which were inconsistent with a truly
philosophical spirit, did but foster the prevailing taste of
the age for superstition and mystical exaggeration. (Magic
and Divination, etc.).
1 Enn. I, lib. II, VIII, 13 ; Enn. VI, lib. VII, c. 22; lib, IX, 9—11.
2 Pkocli Theol. Platonis, lib. 1, c. 1.
216—217.] POEPHTET. 187
Among the numerous disciples of Plotinus were princi-
pally distinguished Porphyry (whose proper name was
Malchus), and Amelius or Gentilianus of Etruria. The
works of the latter, illustrative of the theory of Plotinus,
have not come down to us.
§ 217.
Porphyrii Liber de VM Pythagoras, ejusdem sententiae ad intelli-
gibilia ducentes, cum Dissertatione de Yittl et Scriptis Porphyrii, ed.
Lucas Holstenius, Rom. 1630, 8vo. Cf. § 88.
Porphyrii De abstinentia ab esu Animalium libri IV, ed Jac. de
Ehoer, Traj. ed Rhen. 1767, 8vo.
Ejusd. : Epist. de Diis Daemonibus, ad Anebonem (in Iambl. de
Mysteriis, Ven. 1497.
Ejusd.: De quinque Yocibus, seu in Categorias Aristotelis Intro-
ductio, Gr. Paris. 1543, 4to; Lat. per Jo. Bern. Felicianum, Venet.
1546, 1566, fol.
HoQ<pvpiov (pi\oa6(j)ov ttqoq MaptckWav, etc. Invenit, interpretatione
notisque declaravit Angelus Maius, etc. ace. ejusdem Poeticum Frag-
mentum, Mediol. 1816, 8vo,
Malchus or Porphyry was born A.D. 233, at Batanea,
a colony of the Tyrians in Syria, and after having been
formed by the instructions of Origen and Longinus, whom
he attended at Athens (§ 203), he went to Rome at the age
of thirty, and there frequented the school of Plotinus, of
whom he became a passionate admirer, and subsequently
the biographer (§ 204). He possessed much more know-
ledge than his master, but less depth of understanding;
coupled with considerable vanity and love of distinction.
To judge from his writiDgs, he possessed an inquisitive and
critical spirit, and did not scruple to express doubts re-
specting some particulars of the Pagan mythology, the
belief in apparitions, for instance, and demons j1 but on the
other hand he was at times carried away by mystical and
extravagant notions. He appears to have been so parti-
cularly in his latter days ; when, like Plotinus, he was
honoured with the sight of God.2 His labours were prin-
cipally devoted to the explanation and diffusion of the phi-
losophy of his master; to an attempt to blend the theory
1 See his Epistle to Anebo. 2 Porphyb. Vita Plot, sub fin.
188 FIEST PEEIOD. [SECT.
of Aristotle with, those of Plato and Pythagoras; to the
elucidation of certain topics connected with his religion,
such as those of sacrifice, divination, the demons, and
oracles ; and lastly, to attacks on Christianity, against which
he composed certain works,1 while resident in Sicily. He
taught eloquence and philosophy at Borne, after the death
of Plotinus, and died A.D. 304.
IambUcJius.
Iamblichus, De Mysteriis iEgyptiorum liber, seu Responsio ad Por-
phyrii Epistolam ad Anebonem, Gr. et Lat. ed. Thom. Gale, Oxon.
1678, folio; with the other works of Iamblichus.
Ejusd.: Ilepi (iiov UvOayopucov Xoyoc. See § 88.
Ejusd. : Aoyog 7rpoTpe7rriKbg tig <pi\oGo<biav, adhortatio ad Philos.
Textum, etc., recensuit, interpretatione Latina, etc., et Animadver*
eiombus instruxit Theoph. Kiessling, Lips. 1813, 8vo.
Ejusd. : De Generali Mathematura Scientia (the original in the
Anccdota Graeca of Villoisost, torn. II. p. 188, sqq.), and Introductio
in Nicomachi Geraseni Arithmeticam (see § 185), eel. Sam. Tennulius,
Arnli. 1668, 4to, et Theologumena Arithmetices, Paris. 1543, 4to.
Ge. E. Hebenstreit, Diss, de Iamblichi Philosophi Syri doctrina,
Christians Religioni quam imitari studet, noxia, Lips. 1704, 4to.
218. The mystical philosophy of Iamblichus was even still
better adapted to the temper of the age. He was born
at Chalcis in Ccele-Syria, became the disciple of a certain
Anatolius and of Porphyry : obtained the surname of Qav-
jmatos and GetoVaTo?, and died A.D. 333. In reputation he
soon surpassed his master, Porphyry; but not in talent.
In his life of Pythagoras he appears as a Syncretist, or
compiler and combiner of different systems, but without
critical talent. In the fragments of his work on the soul,
and in his letters,2 we discover some good sense, and more
acquaintance with his opinions of the old philosophers, with
which he is apt to blend his own philosophical tenets. It
is very doubtful3 whether he was the author of the work on
the mysteries of the Egyptians, but if so, no one ever
carried to a greater length than he did the mysticism and
extravagance of his age. Styling himself the priest of the
1 Euseb. VI, 18, Hist. Eccles. 2 Preserved to us by Stob^eus.
3 See Meinebs, Commentat. Soc. Gotting. 1782, vol. IV, p. 50, and
Tiedemann, Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, torn. Ill, p. 473, sqq.
218—219.] iambliciius. 189
Divinity, he there, with the most perfect assurance, gives
solutions of the queries proposed by Porphyry in his letter
to Anebon (§ 217), and defines with the utmost minuteness
the different classes of angels, the apparitions of gods and
demons; with a multitude of details of the same nature. He
maintained the doctrine of union with Grod {bpaaTiK^ evwai?)
by means of theology, and theurgy or the supernatural
science, to which he made philosophy subordinate.
By Theurgy he meant to express the practice of certain
mysterious actions, supposed to be acceptable to the
Divinity; and the influence of certain incommunicable
symbols, the perfect knowledge of which belongs to God
alone, whereby the Divinities are influenced according to
our wishes ; and to give some colour to these extravagances
he referred to the Hermetical books, whence he chose
to suppose that Pythagoras and Plato had derived their
theories.
Successors of Iambliciius and their contemporaries.
219. Iamblichus had a great number of followers ; among
others Dexippus, Sopater of Apamea, JEdesius, the successor
of Iamblichus, and Eustathius, the successor of the latter,
both of Cappadocia. Among the disciples of iEdesius were
Eusebius of Myndus, and PHscus of Molossis, both of whom
rejected the belief in Magic and Theurgy,1 to which Maxi-
mus2 of Ephesus and Clirijsantliius of Sardes were inclined.
To the school of the latter belonged Eunapius of Sardes,a
and the emperor Julian.41 The ISTeoplatonic system was
taught in part by Claiidian, brother of Maximus, and by
Sallust, the same doubtless who became consul under
1 Eunap. Yit. Soph. p. 69.
2 Ma^iyiov <pi\o<j6<pov 7rtpl Karao^wi;, rec. etc. ed. Geehaed, Lips.
1820, 8vo.
3 See Bibliogr. § 81. * Became emperor 360, died 363, A.C.
Juliani Opera, ed. Dion. Petavius, Paris. 1630, 4to. Ed. Ezech,
Spanheim, Lips. 1696, fol.
Ad. Kluit, Oratio inauguralis pro Imperatore Juliano Apostata,
Middelb. 1760, 4to.
Joh. Pet. Ludewig, Edicta Juliani contra Philosophos Christianos,
Hal. 1702, 4to.
Gottl. Fe. Gudii Diss, de Artibus Juliani Apostates Paganam supez-
stitionem instaurandi, Jen. 1739, 4to.
190 PIRST PEBIOD. [sect.
Julian, AJX 363, and wrote an abstract of this system.1
Then came the Eclectic Themistius of Paphlagonia2 (§ 183),
who taught at Nicomedia and Constantinople : the com-
mentator and compiler Macrobius ;3 the Eclectics Hierocles
and Olympiodorus, who taught at Alexandria,4 and JKneas
of Gaza (§ 227), the disciple of Hierocles, who subsequently
became a convert to Christianity. After the close of the
fourth century Athens became the principal seat of the new
philosophy, where it was professed by Plutarch of Athens,
the son of Nestorius,5 who was surnamed the Great; by
Syrianus of Alexandria, his disciple and successor, who
taught the Aristotelian system as an introduction to that
of Plato f by JProclus (see following §) ; and by Hermias1 of
Alexandria, a pupil of Syrianus, and husband of JEdesia,
also a disciple of this school.
Proclus.
Marini Vita Procli, Gr. et Lat. ed. J. A. Fabricius, Hamb. 1700, 4 to
ed. Jo. Fr. Boissonade, Lips. 1814, 8vo.
Procli Philosophi Platonici Opera e codd. MSS. Bibl. Reg. Paris
Nunc primum edid. Victor Cousin, 6 vols. 8vo. Paris. 1819—27.
Procli in Theologiam Platonis lib. VI, una cum Marini Vita Procli
et Procli Instit. Theol. Gr. et Lat. ed. JEwil. Portus et F. Linden
brog, Hamb. 1618, fol. ed. Fabricius, 1704, 4lo.
Ejusdem : Commentariorum in Platonis Timseum lib. V, Bas. 1534
fol. ' Edidit C. E. Schneider, 8vo. Vind. 1847.
Commentary on the Alcibiades of Plato, by Proclus. Two portions
of this work, viz. De Anima ac Dasmone; and De Sacrificiis et Magia,
were published by Ficinus, in Latin, Ven. 1497, fol. : and often
republished. Another portion, Tltpi 'ivioaewg kcli kciWgvq, has been
Hiller, De Syncretismo Juliani, Viteb. 1739, 4to.
t Aug. Neander, On the Emperor Juliaa and his Age, Leips.
1812, 8vo.
Joh. Strauss, Der Kaiser Julian, oder die Romantik, 1848.
1 Sallustii Philosophi de Diis et Mundo, lib. Gr. et Lat. ed. Leo
Allatius, Rom. 1638, 12mo. ; et Lugd. 1639. Idem : Opuac. Myth, a
Gale. Emendatius edidit, Luce Holstenii et Thojle Galei Annota-
tionibus integris, FoRMEn autem selectis aliorumque, etc., illustr.
Jo. Conr. Orellius, Turici, 1821, 8vo.
2 In the latter part of the fourth century.
3 AureHus Macrobius Ambrosius Thcodosius, flourished about 409.
4 Fifth century. 5 353—430 A.C. G Died about 450 A.C.
7 Not to be confounded with the Christian philosopher of the same
name, who attacked Paganism in the third century. (Irrisio Philos.
Gentil. ed. Guil. Worth, Oxon. 1700, 8vo.)
220.] peoclxjs. 191
published after the MSS. by Creuzer. The Dissertation of Plotinus is
added thereto (§ 204.)
Initia Philosophise ac Theologiae ex Platonicis fontibus ductse, sive
Procli Diadochi et Olympiodori in Platonis Alcibiadem Commentarii.
Ex codd. MSS. nunc prirnum Graece ed. Fr. Creuzer, 4 vols. 8vo.
Franco/. 1820-25.
Scholia Grseca in Cratylum, ex Procli scholiis excerpta, e codd. ed.
T. F. Boissonade, Lips. 1820, 8vo.
De Motu, lib. II, Gr. Lat. Justo Velesio interpret. Bas. 1545, 8vo.
Comment, in Euclid., lib. IV, Gr. cura Gryn^ei, Bas. 1533, fol.
De Sphoera, Gr. ; in the Astron. Yet. Venet. Aid. 1499, and pub-
lished separately by Bainbpidge, Lond. 1620, 4to-
Paraphr. in Ptolem. Gr. per Phil. Melancht. Bas. 1534; Gr. et
Lat. ed. Leo Allatius, Lugd. Bat. 1654, 8vo.
f De Burigny, Life of the Philosopher Proclus, and Notice of a
MS. containing some of his works hitherto unpublished : in the Me-
moirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, torn. XXXI.
220. This philosophy was reinforced by the accession of
JProclus, surnamed Ataco^o?, and born at Constantinople
A.D. 412. He spent his ardent and enthusiastic youth at
Xanthus,1 a city devoted to Apollo and Minerva, where his
parents resided. Thence he removed to Alexandria, where
Olympiodorus was teaching; and subsequently to Athens,
where the lessons of Plutarch, of Asclepigenia his daughter,
and his successor Syrianus2 (§ 219) instructed him in the
philosophy of Aristotle and Plato. When on his travels he
procured himself to be initiated in all the mysteries and
arcana of Theurgy. He united an imaginative temper to
great learning, but was unable to balance his acquirements
by any weight of understanding. He looked upon the
Orphic poems and Chaldsean oracles, which he had diligently
studied, as divine revelations (§ 71) and capable of becoming
instrumental to philosophy by means of an allegorical ex-
position ; whereby also he endeavoured to make Plato and
Aristotle agree.8 He called himself the last link of the
Hermaic chain (aeipa epfiaLKrj), that is, the last of men con-
secrated by Hermes, in whom, by perpetual tradition, was
preserved the occult knowledge of the Mysteries.4 He
1 In Lycia : hence he was called Lycius.
2 Procius succeeded the latter in his school of Platonism — whence
his name Aia^o^c.
3 Marin., p. 53-67 ; Procli Theol. Plat. I, 5; Comment, in Tim. V.
p. 291.
4 Marini Vita Procli, p. 76 : Photius, cod. 242.
192 FIEST PERIOD. [SECT.
elevated faith, (iti<xti?) above Science, as forming the closest
bond of union with Good and Unity}
221. His sketch of philosophy contains a commentary on
the doctrines of Plotinns, and an attempt to establish this
point : That there is but one real principle of things, and
that this principle is unity, which by going forth from itself
(jrpooco^) without ever losing unity (evialu)<s)r produces all
things by Triads. This demonstration is founded on the
analysis and synthesis of the ontological accidents of a
thing, whose most universal distinctions are changed and
hypostatized into fundamental principles. The chief notions
in this demonstration are Unity, Duality, which he con-
siders as identical with limitation (jrepa'i), and boundless-
ness (a7T6ipta), and the mixed compound of both, or the
tiling which contains Esse, Life, and Intelligence (vov?).
(Institutio theologica: Theologia Platonis, 1. III.) The
fundamental dispositions of things, are, 1st. Esse ; 2nd, Life,
or infinite production ; 3rd, the Understanding (vous), which
leads back to unity, winch again contains three Triads in
itself.
He distinguished the Divinities (making these also de-
scend from Unity and give birth to triads) into Intelligible
and Intelligent, Supernatural and Natural: attributed a
Supernatural efficacy to the name of the Supreme Being,
and, like his predecessors, exalted Theurgy above Philo-
sophy.2 Proclus also attacked the Christian religion ; being
principally oifended by the doctrine of the creation of the
world.3 In his three treatises on Providence, Fate, and
Evil,4 he states with great ability his notion that the latter
does not spring from Matter, but from the limitation of
Power, and labours to reconcile the system of Plotinus with
the conclusions of sound reason.
i Theologia Plat. I, 25, 29.
2 In Timseum, p. 291, 299. Theol. Plat. I, 25, 29.
3 Procli XXII Argumenta adversus Christianos, apud Philoponum ;
de iEternitate Mundi contra Proclum, ed. Tmncavelli, Gr. 1585, fol. ;
Lat. Lngd. Bat. 1557.
4 See Fabkicius, Bibl. Gr. torn. VII et VIII, for extracts from a
Latin translation.
Baur, Der Begriff der christlichen Philosophie : In den theologischen
JahrbUckern, 1846, p. 29—72.
221—222.] NEO-PLATONISTS. 193
222. Proclus died A.D. 465, with a reputation for wisdom
and even for miraculous powers, approaching adoration;
leaving behind him a crowd of followers, of whom some
were females, such as Hypatia} Sosipatra, Asclepigenia, etc.
His disciples were of very different degrees of talent, but
little distinguished for improving the sort of philosophy he
had bequeathed them. Among the most considerable were
Marinas of Mavia Neapolis (Sichem),who succeeded Proclus
as a teacher at Athens ; and composed his life (see § 220) ;
but subsequently differed from him in his interpretation of
Plato ; then Isidorus of Gaza, who took the place of Marinus
at Athens, and afterwards removed to Alexandria ; an en-
thusiastic character but devoid of originality* with Zeno-
dotus the successor of the latter, in what they termed the
Golden Chain: still later Heliodorus and Ammonius, both
the sons of Hermias of Alexandria (§ 219), and of whom
the latter taught there ; then the Egyptians Heraiscus and
Asclepiades, Asclepiodotus, Severianus, Hegius, and Vlpian,
the brother of Isidorus. To this epoch belongs likewise
John Stobceus the compiler.2 The last who taught the Neo-
platonic system in the Academy of Athens was Damascius
(of Damascus) ,3 a disciple of Ammonius the son of Hermias,
as well as of Marinus, Isidorus, and Zenodotus. He united
a certain clearness of understanding to an active imagi-
nation; and being dissatisfied with the manner in which
Plotinus had subdivided Primitive Unity into many sub-
ordinate Unities (Triad of Triads — or Ennead), he laboured
to reduce everything to a Simple Unity ; at the same time
that he perceived the inadmissibility of the idea of an
absolute principle of Eeality, and asserted that the Intel-
ligible and Absolute were accessible to the human under-
1 Jo. Chph. Wernsdoef, Diss. IV, de Hypatifi, Philosopha Alexan-
dria, Viteb. 1747-48 ; et Jo. Chph. Wolff, Fragmenta et Elogia Mu-
lierum Graecarum.
2 John Stobseus of Stobi in Macedon, flourished at the beginning of
the sixth century. For his collection see § 81.
Fragments of his treatise, 'A Tropica icai \vaeig Trepl apxm'> are to be
found in the Anecd. Gr. of Wolff, torn. Ill, p. 195, sqq. Fragments of
the Biography of the Philosophers by Damascius (the Fragments relate
to Isidorus of Gaza), are found apud Photium, cod. 142, and 118.
Damascius Damascenus flourished in the first half of the sixth century.
O
194 riKST PERIOD. [sect.
standing only by means of analogies and symbols, and that
but partially.
Among his disciples and those of Ammonius was the
celebrated commentator on Aristotle, Simplicius of Cilicia,1
who, as well as his teachers, endeavoured to reconcile
Aristotle and Plato. The emperor Justinian having by a
severe decree caused the schools of the heathen philo-
sophers to be shut,2 Damascius, with Isidorus, Simplicius,
and others, was obliged to fly into Persia, to the protection
of the king Chosroes. They returned, indeed, A.D. 533,
but the ardour of this sect which had so long and so widely
prevailed, and had exerted an insensible influence even over
the opinions of the Christian philosophers, was manifestly
on the decline.
Philosophy of the Fathers of the Church,.
f Toh. Aug. Eberhard. Spiric of Primitive Christianity, Halle,
1807-8, 3 vols. 8vo.
"f Fr. Koppen, Philosophy of Christianity, 2 parts, Leips. 1813-15,
Svo. Second edition, 1825.
Baur, Der Begriff der christlichen Philosophic In den Theolo-
gischen Jahrbtichern, 1846, pp. 29-72.
t J W. Schmid, On the Spirit of the Morality of Jesus and his Apos-
tles, Jen. 1790, 8vo.
t J. Ltjd. Ewald, Spirit and Tendency of Christian Morality, Tub.
1801, 8vo.
+ C. Fr. Rosler, Dissertation on the Philosophy of the Primitive
Christian Church, in the fourth vol. of his Library of the Fathers. See
also his work : De Originibus Philosophise Ecclesiastics, Tubing. 1781,
4to.
Joh. Ge. Rosenmuller, De Christians Theologis Origine, Lips.
1786, 8vo.
t Marhetencke, On the Origin and Progress of Orthodoxy and He-
terodoxy, in the three first Ages of Christianity, Studien, torn. Ill,
lleidelb. 1807, 8vo.
i Flourished about the middle of the sixth century.
Jo. Gottl. Buhle, De Simplicii Vita, ingenio, et meritis, Gott. Anz.
1786, p. 1977. The Commentaries of Simplicius on Aristotle's Catego-
ries, Physica, and the books De Ccelo, and De Anima, were published at
Venice, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Schweigeleuser has
given his Commentary on the Enchiridion of Epictetus : Monum. Epict.
Philos. torn. IV. * A. D 529.
223 — 224.] THE CHURCH FATHERS. 195
+ C. W* Fe. Walch, Outline of a complete History of Heresies,
2 vols. Leips. 1762-85, 8vo.
Neander's Denkwurdigkeiten aus der Geschichte des christlichen
Lebens, 1845 (Sketches of Christian Life, translated by J. E. Ryland,
Bohn's Standard Library, 1852).
Milman's Hist, of Christianity, 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1840.
Neander's Church History, 8 vols. Bohn's Standard Library,
1849-52.
Gieseler's Text Book of Ecclesiastical History, 3 vols. 8vo., Philad.
1836.
C. Ch. Fr. Schmid, Progr. de ignavia Errorum in Religionis Chris-
tians Disciplina vulgarium principe causa, Jen. 1698, 4to.
f W. Munscher, Manual of the History of Christian Doctrines, I
and II vol. second edition, Marl. 1802-4; III and IV vol. 1802-9,
Svo. ; third edition, 1817, etc.
F. Volk. Reinhardt, Essay on the plan proposed by the founder of
the Christian Religion, Wittenberg and Zerbst, 1781 , 4th ed. 1798, 8vo.
G. Traug. Krug, Diss, de principio cui relig. christ. Auct. doctrinam
<Ie moribus superstruxit, Vitt. 1792, 4to.
Item. Letters on the perfectibility of revealed religion. Jence et
Zips. 1795, 8vo.
J. Rust, Philosophy and Christianism, Mariheim, 1825, 8vo.
Gfrorer, Geschichte des Urchristenthums.
223. The disciples whom Christianity was continually
gaining in different countries, were imbued with very
different principles and feelings, and many of them had also
imbibed some philosophical system or other. The know-
ledge which such had already acquired of the theories of
the Greeks; the necessity of replying to the attacks of
Heathen adversaries ; and the desire of illustrating, defining,
and substantiating the Christian doctrines, and forming into
a whole the solutions which were offered from time to time
of the questions and cavils of their adversaries, — all these
causes gradually led to the formation of a species of philo-
sophy peculiar to Christianity, which successively assumed
different aspects, as regarded its principles and object.
By these means something of the Grecian spirit of philo-
sophy was transfused into the writings of the Fathers of the
Church ; and in after times proved the material germ of
original speculations.
224. The Christian religion was formed for universality
by its simplicity, its close alliance with Morality, and the
spirit of its worship, at once mild and severe. Its first
teachers considered it as a divine doctrine, based on Eevela-
o 2
196 FIRST PEBIOD. [SECT.
tion, on account of the moral greatness and divinity of its
Founder. Wisdom, which had so long been sought for by
human Eeason, seemed at last found. The limits of Truth
aud of Duty had (if mankind would have been satisfied)
been at last denned, and the strange dissensions of inquirers
after both reconciled. But the fact of the divine origin of
the religion gave occasion to various representations ; and it
was asked how Revelation can be established ? how it can
be ascertained that a doctrine is divine ? and what is its
true import ? Hence the various degrees of authority
allowed by different parties to the pretensions of Tradition
and Philosophy.
225. Many of the Fathers of the Church, especially the
Grecian, considered Philosophy as in harmony with the
Christian religion (or at least partially so), inasmuch as
both were derived from the same common source. This
source of truth in the Heathen philosophy was, according to
Justin Martyr (§ 227), derived from Internal Eevelation by
the \070s and Tradition •} according to St. Clement2 (§ 227)
and the other Alexandrians, it was drawn from Tradition
recorded in the Jewish Scriptures ;3 according to St. Augustin
(§ 233) it was simply Oral.4 In the estimation of all these
Fathers Philosophy was, if not necessary, at least useful for
the defence and confirmation of the Christian doctrine.
226. Other Fathers of the Church, especially certain of
the Latin, as Tertullian,5 Arndbius^ and his disciple Lactan-
tins,'1 surnamed the Christian Cicero, deemed philosophy a
superfluous study, and adverse to Christianity, as tending to
alienate man from God : — nay, some of them did not scruple
1 Apolog. II, p. 50, 51, 83.
2 Jo. Aug. Neandek, De Fidei Gnoseosque idea, et ea qua ad so
invicem et Philosophiam referentur ratione secundum mentem de-
mentis Alexandrini, Heidelb. 1811, 8vo.
3 Justini Cohortatio ad Graecos. Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. I,
p. 298. 312 ; Euseb. Pnep. Evang. XIII, 12, 13.
4 Aug. De Civit. Dei. VII, ll,
6 Of Carthage ; became Christian about 185 A.C., died 220.
6 Taught eloquence at Sicca, and died about 32 G A.C.
7 L. Ccelius Lactantius Firmianus, teacher of eloquence at Nico*
media, died about 330.
225—227.] pateistic philosophy. 197
to pronounce it an invention of the Devil, and a fruitful
source of heresy.1
227. Nevertheless the party which favoured such pursuits
gradually acquired strength ; and the Fathers came to make
use, on the Eclectic system, of the philosophy of the Greeks.2
Accordingly Julian thought that he was taking an effectual
method of obstructing the Christian religion when he inter-
dicted to its followers the study of that philosophy. Yet
all the schools of the ancients were far from meeting with
a like acceptation on the part of the Fathers. Those of
Epicurus, the Stoics, and the Peripatetics were little con-
sidered, on account of the doubtful manner in which they
had expressed themselves with regard to the immortality of
the soul, the existence of a Supreme Being, and his Provi-
dence ; or the opposition which existed between their views
and those of Christianity. The Platonic system, on the
other hand, from the degree of affinity they affected to dis-
cover in it to the Jewish and Christian Revelations, was
held in high esteem.3 Nay, the earliest Fathers themselves
belonged to the school of Alexandria.4 Justin Martyr
affirmed that the Xo'705, previously to His incarnation, had
1 Ekn. Sal. Cypeiani Diatribe Academica, qua expenditur illud Ter-
tulliani: JHaereticorum Patriarchse Philosophy Helmst. 1699, 4to.
Ad. Rechenbergeri Diss, an Hsereticorum Patriarchse Philosophi,
Lips. 1705, 4to.
Chr. Gottfr. Schutz, Progr. de Eegula Fidei apud Tertullianum,
Jen. 1781, 4to.
E. W. P. Ammon, Coelii Lactantii Firmiani Opiniones de Religione
in Systema redacts, Erl. 1820, 8vo.
Tcrtullian. Apologia, c. 47 : De Praescript. Haeres., c. 7 ; Adv. Mar-
cion. V, 19; Lactant. Div. Instit. IV, 2; passim. De Falsa Sap. lib.
Ill, c. I, § 10, sqq. ; Clem. Alex. Strom. I, p. 278. 308; VII, p. 755.
Basilius adv. Eunomium. I ; Chrysostomi Homilia in MattliEeum.
2 Clem Alex. Strom. I. p. 288 ; Lactant. Div. Inst. VII ; Augustin.
de Doctr. Christ. II, 11, 39.
3 Cf. the work of Staudltn, referred to in § 135 (note).
4 f Souverain, Platonism unveiled, or an Essay concerning the Pla-
tonic \6yog, Cologne, 1700, 8vo. Translated into German, with a
Preface and Remarks by J. Fr. Lceffler, second edition, Zudichau and
Freystadt, 1792, 8vo.
t Baltus, Defence of the Fathers against the Charge of Platonism,
Paris, 1711, 4to.
J. Laur. Mosheim, Comment, de turbata per recentiores Platonicos
Ecclcsia. In Diss. Hist. Eccl. torn. I, p. 85.
198 FIBST PERIOD. [SECT.
revealed Himself to the philosophers of antiquity.1 Clement
of Alexandria2 enlarged on the same idea, and professed to
consider Pagan philosophy as an introduction to Chris-
tianity {Trpoiraibeia toD r^woaiKov). To these may be added
Athenagoras* of Athens, and Tatianus the Syrian,3 the
Apologists, who both discovered, as they thought, many
points of resemblance between the Christian religion and
Platonism. Origenf the disciple of Clement and the ad-
versary of Celsus, pronounced, with his master, that happi-
ness consists in the intuition {Oewpia) of the Divinity;
and drew a distinction between the popular acceptation of
Religion, and the same when thus explained by the learned,*
— (on which account he came to be considered by some as
the first who hinted at the philosophy of Christianity).6 To
the same class also belonged Synesius of Cyrene,7 a pupil of
Hypatia, who flourished about 410, and died in 431, bishop
of Ptolemais, and who succeeded very imperfectly in dove-
f J, A. Cramer, On the Influence of the Alexandrian School on the
Progress of the Christian Religion , (in his continuation of Bossuet, II,
268.)
Cas. Aug. Theoph. Kiel, Exercitationes de Doctoribus veteris Eccle-
siae culpa corruptee per Platonicas sentcntias Theologiae liberandis, Lips.
1793, sqq. 4to. comment. I — XIV.
Henr. Nic. Clausen, Apologetee Eccl. Christianae Ante-Theodosiani
Platonis ej usque Philosophise arbitri, Hafn. 1817.
1 Justin Martyr was born of heathen parents, at Flavia Neapolis in
Palestine, A.D. 89 ; died a Christian 165. Apol. II, p. 83.
a Dj:hne, De Gnosi Clementis, et de vestigiis neoplaton. philosophise
in ea obviis, 1831.
Eylert, Clemens als Philosoph und Dichter, 1832.
* I have not thought it necessary to add the works, and editions of
the works, of the Fathers, as they only incidentally belong to the subject
of this Manual. — Ed.
3 Both he and Athenagoras were originally heathens, and both flou-
rished about 170 A. D.
4 Of Alexandria, born 185, died 253.
Schuitzer, Origenes liber die Grundlehren der Glaubenswissenschaft,
1835.
Redepenning, Origenes Leben und Lehre, 1841 u 1846, 2 Abth.
Thomasius, Origenes, 1837. 5 FTepi apx<»v, lib. I, 1.
6 Uepi apx^v, Praef. § 3. Sec § 230. ' Flourished about 450.
De Synesio philosopho, commentatus est Klausen, 1831.
228 — 229.] pateistic philosophy. 199
tailing his old Platonism with his new Christianity ; JEneas
of Graza,1 and even, in some respects, St. Augustin (§ 233).
In this manner the Church gradually became reconciled
to philosophy, especially after the discussions with Arianism
had taught them the necessity for a more subtle logic.
Nemesius? bishop of Emesa, in his Essay on Man, followed
Aristotle (§ 231), and Boethius the Roman translated and
commented on several of his works on Logic (§ 235).
228, Philosophy was at first employed as an auxiliary to
the Christian Religion to assist in winning over the more
cultivated of the Greeks to whom it was addressed ; subse-
quently it was turned to the refutation of heresies; and
lastly applied to the elucidation and distinct statement of
the doctrines of the Church. Through all these successive
gradations the relations of Religion and Philosophy con-
tinued always the same : the former being looked upon as
the sole source of knowledge, the most exalted and the only
true philosophy ; the latter being regarded as merely a hand-
maid to the former, and a science altogether earthly (scientia
mundana.y Logic was exclusively devoted to polemics.
229. The prevailing system therefore of the Fathers is a
Supernaturalism more or less blended with Rationalism.
The former daily acquired additional predominance in con-
sequence of the perpetual disputes with the heretics, who
were inclined to place Reason side by side with Revelation ;
and in consequence also of the resolution of some Christian
teachers to preserve the unity and purity of the faith.
Revelation came to be regarded not only as the source of all
Christian belief, but as the fountain also of all knowledge,
speculative and practical. As a rule for instruction, they
established a formulary of belief (regula fidcsi) , which was
founded equally on written revelation, and on tradition
orally transmitted. They did even more than this: faith
1 Flourished about 487 ■ see § 219.
Botssonade, iEneas et Zacharias De immortalitate Animge, 1832.
2 Flourished about 380.
3 Tertull. De Prescript. Haeret., c. 7 Lactant. Div. Instit. I, 1 ; V,
1 ; III, 1. Salvianus, De Gubernat. Dei Praefat. Euseb. Prsep. Evang.
IV. 22. Damasceni Dialectice, c. 1, sqq. Didymus in Dama&ceni Pa-
rallclis, p. 685.
200 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
itself, and the virtuous resolution of loving God and jour
neighbour, were also represented, according to this view, as
an effect of divine grace ; for the human mind, since the fall
of man, has been rendered incapable of knowing truth by
itself, and of rising to virtue (Passivity of Keason).
Observation. The inquiries and conclusions of the Fathers in the
discussion of the particular objects of Christianity (for they meddled
less with the fundamental principles) doubtless belongs to the History
of Religion, on account of the peculiar Supernaturalist point of view,
and its connection with various articles of the Christian creed. Never-
theless, a review of the philosophical matter which was involved, and
a sketch of the system of Augustin, appear necessary for the elucidation
of the opinions of following ages. (See Munscher, Hand, der Christl,
Dogmengesch. I and II parts.)
§ 230.
Chr. Fried. Rosler, Philosophia veteris Ecclesise de Deo, Tubing.
1782, 4to. Idem : Progr. Philosophise veteris Ecclesise de Spiritu et
de Mundo, ibid. 1785, 4to.
Alb. Chr. Roth, (prses. Jo. Ben. Carpzov), Trinitas Platonica,
Lips. 1693, 4 to.
Jo. Wilh. Jani, Diss, (prses. J. G. Neumann), Trinitas Platonismi
vereet false suspecta, Viteb. 1708, 4to.
See also the work of Souverain, § 227 (note).
The Deity, and the relation in which the world and
mankind stand to God, are the principal subjects of the
speculations of the Fathers ; and in these we may observe
an evident effort to erect a rational conviction.
The Deity. There are three ways in which God may
be known : by His image ; from external nature ; and by
immediate revelation. We find different proofs of the
existence of a God drawn from mixed Physics and Theology,
from Cosmology1 and Ontology,2 noticed by the Fathers;
though in general they treat It rather as a matter of faith
than knowledge, and appear to have considered the idea of
a Divinity as innate, because universal. God is One,
Invisible, raised in perfection above every being, immea-
surable and unsearchable. Clemens says, " We cannot so
1 Greg. Naz. Orat. XXXIV, Opp. ed. Colon. 1690, torn. I, p. 559.
Joh. Damascenus, De Fide Orthod., lib. I, 3.
2 August. De Libero Arbitio, II, 5—15. See also lib. VIII, 3 ; De
Genesi ad lilt., lib. VIII, cap. 14.
230 — 231.] PATEISTIO PHILOSOPHY. 201
much discover what G-od is as what He is not."1 Some of
the Fathers assumed mystical intuitions of God.2 The
greater part of them at first represented the Deity as asso-
ciated with Space and Time, like a corporeal being ;3 but
gradually they corrected these notions, and reduced them to
those of Immateriality, or at least assigned Him infinite
extension.4 St. Clement expressly admits the Immateriality
of G-od. Their reflections were more profound than those
of the Heathen philosophers respecting the attributes of the
Deity, bat were not altogether free from the charge of
inconsistency. The doctrine of the Trinity,5 in particular,
engaged their attention as a revealed dogma. Nevertheless
Origen (against Celsus), St. Clement (Strom. V), and espe-
cially St. Augustin, laboured to give it a rational basis.
231. Relation of God to the World. The Fathers, in
opposition to the Manicheans and Gnostics, maintained the
Scriptural doctrine of the Creation of the world by the will
of God, and its formation out of non-existence. On this a
question was moved: Did the Creation take place within
the limits of Time? (which St. Athanasius,6 Methodius,
and St. Augustin affirmed) ; or from all Eternity ? (as
thought Clement of Alexandria and Origen) :7 and to what
end was it created ?
The Fathers admit a general and particular Providence ;8
assert the maintenance and government of the world by
the ministry of angels ;9 or, some of them, without their
ministry.10 They opposed the fatalism of the astrologers
and Stoics,11 in order to maintain the doctrine of Free-will,
and sometimes pushed their speculations on this head
1 Orig. Adv. Cels. I, § 23, p. 340. Athenag. Leg. pro Chr. p 282-
285. Justin. Dial. c. Tryph. p. 16. Theophyl. Ad Autolyc. lib. I,
p. 339. Damas. De Fid. Orth. I, 4. Clem. Strom. V, p. 689.
2 Dionys. Areop. Ep. 5 ; et De Mystica, Theol., c. 4, sqq.
3 Tertull. Adv. Prax. c. 7. Aenob. Adv. Gent., lib. I, p. 17.
4 Augustin. De Div. Q. XX, Ep. 57.
5 Baur, Die Dreieinigkeit's Lehre, in seiner geschichtlichen Ent-
wickelung. Tubingen, 1841-43. 3 vols. 8vo.
e Mohler, Athanasius der Grosse, und die Kirche seiner Zeit, ',827<.
* Yltpt (ipxuv, II J, 5.
8 Lactant. De Ira, Dei, c. 30. Nemesius, De Nat. Horn. c. 42, 44.
■ Just. Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Augustin, John of Damascus
10 Nemesius, lib. 1. " Nemes. 68. 34. Augustin. De Civ. Dei,Y,9,
202 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
farther than, it is probable, they themselves intended.1
They endeavoured to reconcile the doctrine of the omnis-
cience of Grod with that of the free-agency of man;2 and
entered largely into the discussion of the origin of physical
and moral Evil. Most of them taught that it was unavoid-
able,3 and maintained that it took place neither with nor in
opposition to the will of God , in other words, that it was
simply permitted by Him. They attributed it in part to
human agency, in part to the influence of evil Spirits.4
They asserted the existence of spiritual beings endowed
with a subtile essence,6 who minister to the Deity in the
government of the world. On the origin of evil spirits are
found some superstitious and extravagant notions in the
writings of Dionysius the Areopagite,6 and Psellus.7
Anthropology. Is man composed of two or of three
essential elements, Body, Soul, and Spirit ? — as Justin and
all the Fathers his immediate successors (all of whom in-
clined to Neoplatonism) asserted. The human soul was at
first thought material ; subsequently, however, it was pro-
nounced immaterial and spiritual by the Platonist Fathers ;
as also by Nemesius and St. Augustin.8 As to the origin
of souls, they were conceived to be created, by some, im-
mediately, by others, mediately (Perpetual creation, or
pre-existence of souls). The immortality of the soul was
thought by some (St. Augustin) to be inseparable from its
essence; by others (Justin, Arnobius), a peculiar gift of
God, either bestowed on all, or specially on the elect.
§ 232.
i Barbeyrac, Treatise on the Morality of the Fathers ot the
Church, Amsterdam,, 1728, 4to. (French). See also his Introduction
to his translation of the Natural Law of Pufendorf.
1 Nemes. lib. 1. c. 38. 2 Augustin. lib. 1.
3 Lactantius, Div. Instit. II, 8. 12; V,7.
4 Of the Devil. Tertull., August. See § 232.
5 Orig. mpt apy. I, 6. Jo. Damasc. De Orth. Fid. II, 3.
6 De Hierarchia Coelesti. 7 De Dsemonibus.
8 August. De Quantitate Animae. c. 1 ; et al. Claudianus Mamer-
tinus, a presbyter of Vienne in Gaul, composed, about 470, a treatise,
De Statu Animae, libb. Ill; ed. P Mosellanus, Bas. 1520, 4to. and
subsequently Cas. Barth, Cygn. 1655, 8vo.
232. PATEISTIC ETHICS. 203
+ Ceillier, Defence of the Ethics of the Fathers of the Church,
Paris, 1718, 4to.
t [Baltus], Opinions of the Fathers on the Ethics of the Heathea
Philosophers, Strasb. 1719, 4to. (French).
t J. D. Michaelis, Morals, part ii, Gotting. 1792, 8vo
Car. Fred. Staudlin, Progr. de Patrum Ecclesiae Doctrin& Morali,
Gotting. 1796. t The same: History of Christian Morals, ibid.
1799, 8vo.
f Essay towards a History of Christian Morals, Ascetism, and
Mysticism, with a review of all the works on these subjects, vol. i,
Dortmund, 1798, 8vo.
Ethics, or the relation of Han to God. The Ethics of
the Fathers of the Church are deficient in systematic
character ; but in detail they are of uncompromising strict-
ness, and tend to elevate man above the dominion of the
senses. Their fundamental principle is the will of God,
either subjectively or objectively, and, on the part of man,
obedience to that will. The means of becoming acquainted
with it are the Scriptures and Eeason; the latter sub-
ordinate to the former. According to some, God requires
the fulfilment of His will in virtue of His almighty power f
according to others, with a view to the eternal welfare and
felicity of man.2 According to a third theory, God is at
the same time the Sovereign legislator and the Supreme
Good and End of all reasonable beings. To be united to
Him is the height of happiness.3 To this was appended
the doctrine of Duty and Conformity to His will, or Virtue.
Sincerity, disinterested love of our neighbour, patience,
and chastity, are virtues pre-eminently commended by the
Fathers; the three last especially being enforced with
peculiar strictness. Free-will is admitted by the Fathers
as the subjective condition of the moral act, but it was suc-
cessively limited and almost annulled, by a more consistent
development of the supernaturalist system, by the dogmas
of the Fall of man, of Hereditary Depravity, of Grace, and
Predestination.4 Finally, this morality being directed to the
object of a negative holiness, or purification from all sin,
1 Tertull. De Poenitentia, c. 4.
2 Lactant. Institut. Divin. lib. Ill, c. ll, sqq
3 Augustin. De Libero Arbitrio, I, 6; II 19
4 Baur, Die Lehre der Versohnung in seiner geschichtlichen Ent«
wickelung, Tubingen, 1838.
204 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
was transformed into a sanctifying praxis and a pure ascetic
Mysticism.
§ 233.
Augustini Confessiones, etc. Opp. torn. i.
Possidii Vita Augustini, ed. Jo. Solinas, Rome, 1731, 8vo. In the
Acta Sanctorum, torn. V, p. 213, sqq., and in the Benedictine edition
of the Works of Augustine, Paris, 1677-1700, 11 vol. fol.: 1700-3,
12 vol. fol.
Bindemann, Der heilige Augustin, 1844.
Wiggers, Versuch einer pragmatischen Darstellung des Augusti-
nismus und Pelagianismus, 1821 und 1833, 2 Theile.
St. Augustin1 was one of the greatest luminaries of the
Latin church. After having studied the Scholastic philo-
sophy, and become an ardent disciple of the Manicheans,
he was converted to the orthodox faith by the powerful
eloquence of St. Ambrose, at Milan (A.D. 387), and sub-
sequently (A.D. 405) was appointed bishop of Hippo, and
distinguished himself as a zealous preacher, a champion
against heresy, and a copious writer. He employed his
philosophical acquirements, and his great and versatile
powers, in reducing to the form of a system the doctrines
of Christianity ; and ultimately produced a theory by which
it was associated with much of Platonism. According to
him, God, the most perfect and exalted of essences, exists of
necessity (§ 230) : He is the Creator of the world (§ 231) ;
Eternal Truth and the Eternal Law of Eight; of which
man has certain innate ideas in his reason, by means of an
intuitive perception of the supersensuous.2 God is the
supreme good of the Spiritual world, to whom we labour to
reunite ourselves.3 He has called all reasonable beings to
the enjoyment of happiness through the practice of virtue ;
and to that end has endowed them with reason and free-
will (§ 232). The use of this free-will is committed to the
option of the agent, who, according to his employment ot
it, approaches to or withdraws himself from God, and
renders himself more worthy, or more unworthy, of felicity.
Moral evil is negative, and has not any positive cause. Evil
1 A.urelius Augustinus, born at Tagaste in Africa, A. D. 354 :
died 430.
2 De Quantit. An. c. 20.
3 De Civit. Dei, X, 3. De Vera Religione, c. 55.
233—234.] ST. augustin. 205
men are necessary to complete the sum of the Universe,
which is perfect ; and which would not be perfect without
them, inasmuch as it supposes the existence of all possible
classes of beings, in all possible degrees.1 Such was the
system of Augustin respecting the Divine Government.
In his latter years he rejected this for another : that man,
since the fall, has lost immortality and free-will, so far as
the doing of good is concerned, but not as affects the
commission of evil; from which principle he deduced the
doctrine of Absolute Predestination and Irresistible Grace.2
He was led to this system by a literal adherence to some
expressions of Scripture to which he had occasion to refer
in his dispute with Pelagius, a British monk; who, with
his friend Ccelestius, came out of Ireland into Africa, and
asserted the free-will of man to do good.3 St. Augustin
likewise originated several new views respecting the soul
and its faculties, e.g. respecting the inner and outer senses,
and the five degrees of Intellectual Power, which have been
often revived.*
234. The latter supernaturalist system of St. Augustin's
became the pivot of dogmatical science in the West, owing
to the weight attaching to his name. The custom of depre-
ciating reason, and the attempt to inclose the liberty of
thought and action within certain limits, which are the un-
avoidable consequences of Supernaturalism,* were promoted
by the destruction of the Roman Empire, the inroad of
barbarians, and the loss of ancient civilization, at the same
time that all these things concurred, in their turn, in
riveting an ecclesiastical despotism on the minds of men.
1 De Libero Arbitrio, I, 14 : II, 1. 19, 20 ; III, 9; lib. 3, Qu. 41.
2 De Civ. Dei, XIV, 10; XV, 21; XXI, 12; XXII, 30. De
Kuptiis et Concupiscentia, II, 34; De Natura et Gratis ; De Gestis
Pelagii ; contra duas Epp. Pelagianorum ; contra Julianum de Cor-
ruptione et Gratia; De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio; De Praedestinationc
Sanctorum.
3 + Phil. Marheinecke, Dialogues on the Opinions of Augustine,
with respect to Free-will and Divine Grace, Berl. 1821, 8vo.
+ G. F. Wiggers, Essay towards an Historical Statement of Augus-
tinianism and Pelagianism, etc., Berl. 1821, 8vo.
4 De Quantit. An. n. 70, sqq.
* This censure of Supernatural ism betrays the partial spirit of
the Kantian and all other Rationalisms.— Ed.
206 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
Under such circumstances, the writings of the Fathers
were beneficial to philosophy also, as preserving some
vestiges of ancient discussions. This was especially true
of the works of Augustin, and applies to the treatises on
Logic, falsely imputed to him ;* and which were recommended
during the middle ages by the stamp of his name.
Boethius, Cassiodorus, and other Eclectics.
235. Besides the dry abstract of what were called the
seven liberal arts, by Marcianus Cajpella? we remark among
the works which served as text-books to the ages following,
and took a rank intermediate between the ancient and mo-
dern philosophies, the works of two Patricians of the king-
dom oi the Ostrogoths, Boethius and Cassiodorus, the last
champions of classical literature in the West. Both were
Eclectics, and endeavoured to reconcile the doctrines of
Plato and Aristotle. Boethius* lived at the court of the
Gothic king Theodoric, who caused him to be beheaded
under a false suspicion of high treason.4 By him principally
was preserved in the West some faint knowledge of the
system of Aristotle. He translated some treatises of that
philosopher on Logic, and wrote a commentary on the trans-
lation of the Isagoge of Porphyry by Victorinus, which was
looked upon as a preparation for the study of Aristotle. He
also composed, in his prison at Pavia, his treatise De Conso-
latione Philosophic?, which became a great favourite with
following ages. His contemporary Cassiodorus,5 also pre-
1 Principia Dialectica et Decern Categorise, vol. I, edit. Bened.
2 Marcianus Minseus Felix Capella, flourished about 474. His work
entitled Satyricon has been frequently printed (see Fabric. Bibl. Lat.
torn. I, p. 638), and lastly by J. A. Goez, Norirnb. 1794, 8vo.
3 Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius, born A.D. 470.
Baub, De Boethio, 1841.
+ Geevaise, History of Boethius the Roman senator, Paris, 1715.
His works: Basil. 1570, fol. ; De Consolatione, published by
Pertius, Lugd. Bat. 1671, 8vo. Lips. 1753, 8vo. Ed. et Vitam.
Auctoris adjecit Jo. Theod. Bj. Helfeecht, Hof. 1797, 8vo.
4 Between 524 A.D. and 526.
5 Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, born at Squillacci about 480; died
in a convent, 575.
+ Fe. D. de Sainte-Mabthe, Life of Cassiodorus, Paris, 1695,
12mo. Buat, Life of Cassiodorus; among the Dissert, of the Acad, of
Sciences of Bavaria, vol. I, s. 79.
235 — 236.] christian eclectics. 207
served, especially in his work De Septem Disciplinis, some
relics of Grecian philosophy, and encouraged the monks to
transcribe the ancient MSS. In Spain, under the dominion
of the Visigoths, Isidorus, archbishop of Seville (Hispalensis),
rendered a real service to learning by the composition of his
useful book of reference.1 In England and Ireland science
survived longer than elsewhere. Bede, the Anglo-Saxon,
surnamed the Venerable,2 enjoyed there a great celebrity:
and, assisted by the works above mentioned, composed his
Abstracts, of which some time afterwards, Alcuin availed
himself. (See § 245, sqq).
236. In the East the pretended works (of a mystical cha-
racter) of Dionysius the Areopagite,3 believed to be the
contemporary of our Lord and his Apostles, and first bishop
of Athens, acquired considerable celebrity, and in the middle
ages proved a rich mine to the Mystics (§ 229, 230, and
246). They embraced a sort of adaptation of the doctrine
of Emanation and of Platonism m general to Christianity ;
and are generally supposed to belong to the third or fourth
century , though some, as Dallseus, refer them to the sixth.4
It is true that literature in general still survived in the
Grecian Empire, but without spirit or originality. It owed
its existence to the aristocratic constitution which still sub-
Cassiodori Opera Omnia op. et stud. Garetii, Rotomag. 1679,
2 vols. fol. ; et Venet. 1729. > Died A.D. 636.
Isidori Hispalensis Originum seu Etymologiarum libri XX. Aug.
Vind. \i*I2, fol.,c. not. Jac. Gothofredi in Auctorib. Lat. p. 811:
and in the edition of his Opp. ed. Jac. Du Breuil, Paris, 1601 fol.
col. 1617. 2 Born 673 ; died 735.
Bedse Opera Omnia, torn. I, III, Paris, 1521 et 1544; Colon, 1612
and 1688, 8 vols. fol.
3 De Coelesti Hierarchic, de Divinis "Nominibus, de Ecclesiastic^,
Hierarchic, de Mystica Theologia. Dionys. Areop. Opp. Gr. Bas.
1539; Ven. 1558; Paris. 1562, 8vo. ; Gr, et Lat. Paris. 1615, fol.;
Antverp. 1634, 2 vols, fol.; and with Dissertations on the Author,
Paris, 1644, 2 vols. fol.
4 The most recent inquiries on this subject are those of Jo. Ge.
Vital. Engelhardt, Diss, de Dionysio Areopagita Plotinizante, prse-
missis Observationibus de Historia Theologiae Mysticge rite tractanda,
§ I et II, EH. 1820, 8vo. L. Frid. Otto Baumgarten-Crusius, Progr.
de Dionysio Areopagita, Jen. 1823, 4to.
Helfferich, Die Christliche Mystik, *n ihrer Entwickelung und in
ihren Denkmalen, 1842, 2 Bande.
208 FIRST PERIOD. [SECT.
sisted in the Greek Church (differing in this respect from
the Latin, which fell under the dominion of Papacy) and to
the degree of attention still bestowed on the Greek philo-
sophers. In the sixth century, John Stobceus, who was in-
clined to the doctrines of Neoplatonism (§ 222) ; and subse-
quently, in the ninth, the patriarch Photius,1 formed valuable
collections of extracts from different ancient authors. Aris-
totle also was better appreciated in this part of the empire.
James of Edessa, the Monophysite, caused the dialectic trea-
tises to be translated into Syriac. John of Alexandria, sur-
named Philoponus? (an Eclectic), distinguished himself by
his Greek Commentaries on Aristotle; from whom, never-
theless, he differed on the question of the eternity of the
world ; and after him John of Damascus? not only gave to
the East for the first time a system of Theology (§ 230,
231); but by his works4 continued to direct public attention
to the study of the Aristotelian philosophy, which was not
extinguished till the downfall of the Greek Empire (§ 283).
1 Born A.D. 858, died 891.
Mvpioj3i(5\iov, ed. Hoeschel, Aug. Vind. 1601.
2 Died about 608.
Trechsel, Ueber Johannes Philoponos. In den Studien und
Kritiken von Altmann und Umbreit, 1835.
His Commentaries — Or the Analytics (First and Second), On the
Physics, Metaphysics, De Anima, and other works of Aristotle, ap-
peared, for the most part, at Venice, in the sixteenth century.
3 Died about 754 ; also known by the name of Chrysorrhoas.
4 "Eic0t<jtQ rijg dpOoSofyg irioTtwg. — Opera ed. Le Quien, Paris.
1712, 2 vols. fol.
236 — 237.] obigin or scholasticism. 209
PART THE SECOND.
SECOND PERIOD.
HISTORY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OP THE
MIDDLE AGES,
OB, THE SCHOLASTIC SYSTEM; EBOM THE COMMENCEMENT
OE THE NINTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Attempts of the Reason towards the cultivation of Science,
under the influence of an extraneous principle and positive
laws.
History of the Philosophy of the Middle Ages and of the
Schoolmen. {From 800 to the Fifteenth Century.)
237. The spirit of philosophical curiosity which had pos-
sessed so much influence throughout the preceding period,
dwiadled to a very slender thread, and influenced in a very
inferior degree the public mind during the days of barbarism
and ignorance, on which we are about to enter. At the
same time a new System and new Method were contained
in embryo in the precious remains of old philosophy, and
acquired the name of the Scholastic ; because it was prin-
cipally formed in the schools founded since the time of
Charlemagne.1 That great monarch, so astonishingly superior
to the age in which he lived, very properly began the work
1 See the Work of Launot, § 245 ; and J. M. Unold, Dc Societate
Literaria a Carolo M. instituta, Jen. 1752, 4to.
It must not be forgotten, however, that such studies were cultivated
at a still earlier period in Great Britain. See Murray, De Britannia
atque Hibernia saaculo a sexto inde ad decimum literar. domicilio; in
the Nov. Comment. Soc. Gott. torn. II, part II, p. 72.
r
210 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
of civilization by establishing elementary schools for the
clergy, where were taught, in the jejune sketches of Ifarci-
anus Capelln, Cassiodorus, and Bede, the seven liberal arts,
or, as they were termed by Boethius, the Trivium and Qua-
drivium. Charlemagne founded likewise an Academy at-
tached to his court, as well as a school for the instruction of
those destined for public affairs ; and for the improvement
of the latter he invited, principally from England, several
men of eminent merit. (See Alcuin, § 245). His successors
also encouraged the establishment and maintenance of schools
for the clergy, in the convents and episcopal sees.
238. In these schools, and still more in the universities
which were subsequently formed, especially in that of Paris,
the model of all the rest, a degree of zeal for science, as
considerable as could be expected from the information, posi-
tion, and circumstances of the ecclesiastics for whom these
seminaries had been principally designed, gradually unfolded
itself. An alliance was now formed between faith in the
objective value of revealed truths, out of which the dogmas
of the church had gradually arisen and had been carefully
preserved by its hierarchy, and the daily increasing desire of
penetrating to the principles themselves, or to the objective
certitude of these truths. The means employed were Logic
and Metaphysics, or Dialectics. This was the origin of the
scholastic philosophy, which was engaged in the applica-
tion of Dialectics to Theology (such as it was established
by St. Augustin), and an intimate association of these two
sciences.
239. The human mind thus endeavoured at once, without
any substantial knowledge or previous discipline, to grapple
with the greatest of all questions, the Nature of the Divi-
nity ; and by a course the reverse of that pursued by Gre-
cian philosophy, beginning with this great principle, sought
in its descent to embrace the circle of all acquired knowledge.
The impulse was given by Theology ; which always conti-
nued to be the principal moving power as well as object.
At first nothing more was designed than the confirmation of
certain isolated doctrines by the authority of an appeal to
Season as well as Revelation; subsequently men were de-
sirous of binding together into a sort of system, the results
238 — 242.] CHAKACTER OE SCHOLASTICISM. 211
of these reasonings ; in the end it was their endeavour to
consolidate, confirm, and define, by means of a closer deter-
mination and combination of conceptions, the sphere of
knowledge which by such means they had extended.
240. Revelation had already supplied the highest results
of such inquiries as regards the matter and contents. All
that remained to be sought was the form of Rational Science
and the clearness and certainty of Knowledge. All that
could be obtained by investigation had been already defined,
and all deviation was strictly forbidden by the Church ; nor
were the means employed — Dialectics — less absolutely fixed
by usage. The circle of mental activity was consequently
confined; and a spirit of minute subtilty began to prevail,
more especially in establishments cut off from large commu-
nication with the great world, which amused the inquisi-
tiveness of the human mind by the discussion of puerile
formularies. In opposition to Dialectics arose Mysticism,
which tried to establish the claims of Sentiment.
241. Dialectics themselves were a mere logical skeleton
after the manner of Boethius and Cassidorus ; and more
recently, in conformity to the sketch of Bede (§ 235),
which was adopted as his model by Alcuin; and finally,
after the system attributed to St. Augustin, (§ 233). It
became indeed somewhat more enlarged after they had ac-
quired from the Arabs some slight acquaintance with the
Aristotelian philosophy, by means of rude translations from
the Arabic and Greek. In spite of the opposition it at first
encountered, and the imputation of heresy, this philosophy
became daily more prevalent, and ultimately of universal
influence, in consequence of being allied to Theology.
242. It is not possible to define with accuracy the dura-
tion of the empire of scholastic philosophy. It began in the
ninth century,1 and has in some degree survived to our own
days ; but the revival of classical literature and the Refor-
mation deprived it for ever of that unlimited authority which
it possessed before.
1 The origin of Scholastic philosophy is often referred to the epoch
of Roscellin, about the end of the eleventh century; or lastly (as
Tiedemann does), to the commencement of the thirteenth.
p 2
212 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
243. Four epochs may be defined in the history of this
philosophy, deducible from the history of the question con-
cerning the Reality of Conceptions ; and the relations of
Philosophy to Theology. First period, down to the eleventh
century: — A blind Realism,1 with scattered attempts to
apply the elements of Philosophy to Theology. Second
period, from Ftoscellin to Alexander of Hales or Alesius, at
the commencement of the thirteenth century. The first
appearance of Nominalism and of a more liberal system of
inquiry, quickly repressed by the ecclesiastical authorities,
which established the triumph of Realism. An alliance was
brought about between philosophy and theology in generals.
Third period, From Alexander and Albert, surnamed the
Great, to Occam : thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
During this period, Realism had exclusive dominion: the
system of instruction adopted by the Church was con-
solidated by the introduction of the Arabic-Aristotelian
system ; and philosophy became still more closely connected
with theology. The age of St. Thomas Aquinas and Scolus.
Fourth period, Prom Occam to the sixteenth century. A
continued contest between Nominalism and Realism, where-
in the former obtained some partial successes. Philosophy
was gradually detached from Theology, through the renewal
of their old debates. Some other attempts to introduce
reforms in the systems of both appear as subordinate
phenomena.
Observation. Three different relations subsisted between Philosophy
and Theology during these periods: 1st. Philosophy was considered
merely subordinate : as the Ancilla Theologice : 2ndly. It was asso-
ciated with the latter on a footing of equality : 3rdly. They were
mutually separated and divorced.
244. In examining the philosophy of these ages we ought,
(making due allowance for the circumstances of the times,
and not appreciating what was effected then by what might
be achieved now), to allow all their merit to superior minds
without laying to their charge the faults of their age and
their contemporaries : and to show ourselves sensible to the
good as well as to the evil of the Scholastic system. Among
1 Eealism supposes our ideas to have a real essence ; Nominalism
the contrary, — Ed.
243 — 244.] TREATISES OS SCHOLASTICISM. 213
its good results were a dialectic use of the Understanding,
a great subtilty of thought, an extension of the domain of
Dogmatical Metaphysics, and a rare sagacity in the develop-
ment and distinction of ontological notions, with individual
efforts on the part of several men of genius, notwithstanding
the heavy bondage in which they were held. The ill effects
were, the dissemination of a minute and puerile spirit of
speculation, the decay of sound and practical sense, with a
neglect of the accurate and real sciences and the sources
whence they are to be derived, that is : — Experience, History,
and the Study of Languages. To these must be added the
prevalence of the dominion of authority, and prescription;
bad taste ; and a rage for frivolous distinctions and subdivi-
sions, to the neglect of the higher interests of science. Such
were the ulterior consequences of these protracted habits on
the intellectual culture and the social progress of the human
race. In conclusion, we have to consider its further effects
on the scientific culture and advancement of humanity.
General Treatises on the History of Scholastic Philosophy*
Lud. Vives, De Causis Corruptarum Artium (in his Works), Bas.
1555, 2 vols, folio, or ed. Majansius, Valent. 1782-90.
History of the Decline of the Arts and Sciences, to their Eevival in
the XIV and XV Centuries; serving as an Introduction to a Literary
History of these two Centuries, London.
C;es. Egassii Buljii Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, etc. Paris.
1665-73, 6 vols. fol.
T J. B. L. Crevier, History of the University of Paris, from its
foundation, etc. Paris, 1761, 7 vols. 12mo.
Joh. Launojus, De Celebrioribus Scholis a Carolo M. instauratis,
Par. 1672. Idem: De Varia Aristotelis Fortuna in Academia Pari-
siensi, Par. 1653, 4to, ; accessere J. Jonsii Diss, de Historia Peripa-
tetica et editoris de varia Aristotelis in Scholis Protestantium Fortuna
Schediasma, Vitemb. 1720, 8vo.
Chph. Binder, De Scholastica Theologia, Tub. 1614, 4to.
Herm. Conring, De Antiquitatibus Academicis Dissertt. Helmst.
1659-1673, 4to. Cura C. A. Heumanni, Gutting. 1739, 4to.
Ad. Tribbechovii De Doctoribus Scholasticis et Corrupta per eos
Divinarum et Humanarum rerum Scientia liber singularis, Giss. 1665,
8vo. ; ed. II cum Praefat. C. A. Heumanni, Jen. 1719, 4to.
Jac. Thomasius, De Doctoribus Scholasticis, Lips. 1676, 4to.
* See the Prize Essay of Jourdain : History of the Aristotelian
Writings in the Middle Ages. Translated into German by Ad.
Stahr, 1831.
214 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
+ J. A. Cramer, Continuation of Bossuet, part V, torn. II, sqq.
f Schrockh, Ecclesiastical History, part XXII — XXXIV.
Fabricii Biblioth. Lat. Mediae et Infr. ^Etatis.
F. Bruckeri De Natura Indole et Modo Philosophise Scholastics;
in his Hist. Philos. Crit., torn. Ill, p. 709, and his Hist, de Ideis,
p. 198.
t Tiedemann, Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, Parts IV and V.
+ Buhle, Manual of the History of Philosophy, torn. V. and VI.
*'r Tennemann, History of Philosophy, torn. VIII, sqq.
t W, L. G. Baron von Eberstein, Natural Theology of the School-
men, with Supplements on their Doctrine of Free-will, and their
Notion of Truth, Leips. 1806, 8vo.
Baur, Der Begriff der christlichen Philosophie und die Haupt-
momente ihrer Entwickelung. In den Theologischen Jahrbuehern,
1846. Dritter Artikel : Die scholastische Philosophie, § 183-233.
Bitter, Geschichte der Christlichen Philosophie. 4 Theile der
Geschichte der Philosophie ; 5—8 Theil, 1841, fg.)
Ditto, translation, published by Bohn, London, 1846.
Marbach, Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, 1841. (2 Theil
des Lehrbuchs der Geschichte der Philosophie.)
PIEST PEEIOD OF THE SCHOLASTIC
PHILOSOPHY.
I. Absolute 'Realism down to the commencement of the
Eleventh Century.
Alcuin.
2-15. Trie attempts of philosophising Reason at this period
were feeble and imperfect, though they might have been more
successful but for the constraint imposed by the hierarchy.
Such a state of things permitted the existence of only a
small number of superior writers, who shed a doubtful light
amid the general gloom of ignorance, and laid the founda-
tions of the Scholastic system. The first of these, in the
order of time, was the Englishman Alcuin or Albinus,1 whom.
Charlemagne brought with him from Italy to his court.
This very learned writer (for the times in which he lived)
wrote upon the Trivium and Quadrivium2 (§ 237). His pupil
Mhabanus Maurus introduced his dialectics into Germany.3
1 Born at York 736, died 804.
2 In his work De Septem Artibus. See his Opp. Omnia de novo
collecta et ed. cur. Frobenii, Ratisb. 1777, 2 vols. fol.
3 Born at Mentz 776 ; died archbishop of that city 856.
245 — 246.] jonN scottjs eeigexa. 215
Johannes Scotus Erigena.
+ Johannes Scotus Erigena, or an Essay on the Origin of Christian
Philosophy, and its sacred character, by Peder Hjort, Copenh.
1823, 8vo.
Staudenmaier, Johannes Scotus Erigena, 1 Theil, 1834.
246. John Scotus, an Irishman (hence his surname of
Erigena), belonged to a much higher order: a man of great
learning, and of a philosophical and original mind; whose
means of attaining to such a superiority we are ignorant of.
He was invited from England to France by Charles the
Bald, but subsequently obliged to quit the latter country;
being persecuted as a heretic. At the invitation of Alfred
the Great he retired to Oxford, where he died about 886.
His acquaintance with Latin and Greek (to which some
assert he added the Arabic) ; his love for the philosophy of
Aristotle and of Plato ; his translation (exceedingly esteemed
throughout the West), of Dionysius the Areopagite (§ 236);
his liberal and enlightened views (which the disputes of the
day called upon him to express) respecting predestination1
and the eucharist ; — all these entitle him to be considered a
phenomenon for the times in which he lived. Add to this,
that he regarded philosophy as the science of the principles
of all things, and as inseparable from true religion ; that he
adopted a philosophical system2 (a revived Neoplatonism) of
which the foundation was the maxim: That God is the
essence of all things ; that from the plenitude of His nature
First Causes (iBeai), from which Nature is begotten, are all
derived, and to Him ultimately return (Primordiales caused
— natura naturata). His labours, enlightened by so much
learning and suggested by so much talent, might have
accomplished more if they had not been blighted by the
imputation of heresy.
1 See on this subject his treatise, De Diving Prsedestinatione et
Gratia, in Gilb. Manguini Vett. Auctorum qui IX Saac. de Prsedesti-
natione et Gratia scripserunt, Opera et Fragmenta, Paris. 1650,
torn. I, p. 103, sqq.
2 De Divisione Naturae libri V, ed. Th. Gale, Oxon. 1681, fol.
Extracts from Erigena are to be found in Heumanni Acta Philos.
torn. Ill, p. 858; and in Dupin, Auct. Eccles. torn. VIIV p. 79.
216 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
JBerenger and Lanfranc.
Oudtni Diss, de Vita, Scriptis, et Doctrina Berengarii, in Comment,
t. II. p. 622.
G. E. Lessing, Berengarius Turonensis, Bruns. 1770, 4to. t See
Historical and Literary Miscell.. extracted from the library of Wolfenb.,
V vol. (Complete Works of Lessing, t. XX.)
Berengarius Turonensis, Dissert by C. F. St^eudlin, in his
Archives of Ancient and Modern Ecclesiastical Hist. (publ. with
Tzchirner), vol. II, fasc. 2, Leips. 1814. The same: Progr. Annun-
tiatur editio libri Berengarii Turonensis ad versus Lanfrancum ; simul
omnino de ejus scriptis agitur, Gott. 1814, 4to.
Milonis Crispini Yita Lanfranci, apud Mabillon Acta Sanctor.
Ordin. Bened. Ssec. VI, p. 630 ; and his Opp. ed. Luc. Dacherius
(D' A chert), Paris, 1648, fol.
247. Next in order comes Gerbert, a monk of Aurillac,
who afterwards became pope Sylvester II.,1 and acquired, at
Seville and Cordova, extraordinary information, for that,
time, in the mathematics and Aristotelian philosophy of the
Arabs, which he disseminated in the schools or monasteries
of Bobbio, Rheims, Aurillac, Tours,2 and Sens. After him
appeared Berenger of Tours,3 who was distinguished for his
talents, his learning, and his freedom of opinion, by which
he drew upon himself some severe persecutions, in conse-
quence of discussions on the subject of transubstantiation.4
His opponent Lanfranc? as well as the cardinal Peter
Damianus, or Damieji,6 brought to perfection the art of
Dialectics as applied to Theology ; and his skill therein gave
to the former (in the opinion of his contemporaries), the ad-
vantage over Berenger. This discussion, which was subse-
quently revived, had the effect of tightening still more the
bonds of authority.
1 Born in Auvergne; pope A.D. 999; died 1003.
2 His Dialectic treatise, De Rationali et Ratione Uti, is to be found
in the Thesaur. Anecdot. Pezii, 1. 1, part 2, p. 146 : and his Letters in
Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script., t. II, p. 789, sqq.
Hock, Gerbert, oder Sylvester II, und sein Jahrhundert, 1837.
3 Con. Berengarius, born about the commencement of the eleventh
century, died 1088.
4 Liber Berengarii Turonensis ad versus Lanfrancum ex Cod. Mscpt.
Guelpherbit. edit, a St^udlino, Gott. 1823, 4to. (Progr. III.)
5 Born at Pavia 1005; died archbishop of Canterbury, 1069.
6 Of Ravenna; born 1001, died 1072.
247—248.] bt. anselm. 217
St. Ansehn of CcMterbury.
Anselmi Cantuariensis Opp. lab. et stud. D. G. Gerbebon, Paris.
1675; second edition, 1721 ; Venet. 1744, 2 vols. fol.
Eadmeri Vita S. Anselmi, in the Acta Sanctorum, Antw., April,
t. II, p. 685, sqq., and in the edit, of the Works of Anselm above.
t A. Kaineri, Panegyrical Hist, of St. Anselm, Modena, 1693 —
1706, 4 vols. 4to. : and Jo. Sarisburiensis, De Vita Anselmi, Whar-
ton's Anglia Sacra, part II, p. 149.
France, Anselm of Canterbury, 1842.
Hasse, Amselm of Canterbury, 1 Th. 1843.
248. St. Anselm, the pupil and successor of Lanfrane
(whom we must not confound with the schoolman his con-
temporary, Anselm of Laon),1 was born at Aosta in 1034,
(or, according to Carriere, in 1033) ; became prior and
abbot of the monastery of Bee, and died, archbishop of
Canterbury, 1109. He was a second Augustin; superior
to those of his age in the acuteness of his understanding and
powers of logic ; and equal to the most illustrious men of
his day for virtue and piety. He felt a lively want of a
system of religious philosophy, to be effected by combining
the results of controversies on such subjects, in accordance,
for the most part, with the views of St. Augustin. For this
purpose, he composed his Monologium sive Fxemplum Medi-
tandi de rations Fidei ; in which he endeavoured to develope
systematically the great truths of religion on principles of
Beason, but at the same time presupposing Faith. To this
he added his Froslogium, otherwise called, Fides qucerens
Intellectum ; where he seeks to prove the existence of God
from the notion of the Greatest Thing that can be thought
(the most perfect Being). A monk of Marmoutier, named
Gaunilon, ably attacked this sort of ontological argument,2
which received from its author the name of the Anselmian
proof, though it exchanged it at a later period for that of
the Cartesian, and which Kant, in his Critique of pure Rea-
son, shows to be nothing more than an assumption of the
1 Died A.D. 1117.
2 Gauntlonis Liber pro Insipiente adversus Anselmi in Proslogia
ratiocinantem ; together with Anselmi Apologeticus contra Insipientem.
(In the works cited above).
218 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
thing to be proved. Anselm may be looked upon as the
inventor of Scholastic Metaphysics, inasmuch as he afforded
the first example of it ; though other systems subsequently
superseded his own, and some of his ideas were never
followed up.
Hildelert of Tours.
Hildeberti Turonensis Opera, ed. Ant. Beaugendre, Paris. 1708,
fol. ; and in the Biblioth. Patrum of Galland, t. XIV, p. 337, sqq.
f W„ C. L, Zieglee, Memoirs towards a Hist, of the Theological
Belief in the Existence of a God, with an Extract from the first Dog-
matical System [in the West] of Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, Gott.
1792, 8vo. •
249. Hildebert of Lavardin, archbishop of Tours,1 and as
is probable, the disciple of Bereuger, was equal to Anselm
in sagacity and ability as a logician; and surpassed him
in clearness and in the harmonious culture of his mind.
To an acquaintance with the Classics and other accomplish-
ments, rare in his age, he added independence of mind,
practical sense, and a degree of taste which preserved him
from falling into the vain and puerile discussions of his con-
temporaries. His Tractatus Philosopliicus2 and his M oralis
JPhilosophia, are the first essays towrards a popular system
of Theology. Othlo and Honorius, two monks of the same
period, opposed themselves to the Logicians, and were
devoted to a practical Mysticism.3
SECOND PEEIOD OF THE SCHOLASTIC
PHILOSOPHY.
II. Disputes between tlie Nominalists and Realists, from
Hoscellin (end of the Eleventh Century) to Alexander of
Hales.
Jac. Thomasii Oratio de Sect& Nominalium; Orationes, Lips,
1682—86, 8vo.
1 Born between 1053 and 1057 ; died about 1134.
2 Part of this treatise is comprised in the works of Hugo de St.
Victor.
3 The latter (from Augt, near Bale; died 1130) adopted the new
riatonic-Augustinian Theology.
249—250.] eoscellin. 219
Chph, Meiners, De Nominalium ac Realium initiis ; Commentatt.
Soc Gott., t. XII, n. 12.
Lud Frid. Otto Baumgarten-Crustus, Progr. de vero Scholasti-
corum Realium et Nominalium discriraine et sententia Theologica,
Jen. 1821, 4to.
Joh. Mart. Chladenii Diss. (res. Jo. Theod. Ktjnneth) de vita et
haeresi Roscellini, Erlang. 1756, 4 to. See also Thesaurus Biog. et
JBibliographicus of Geo. Ern. Waldau, Chemnit. 1792, 8vo.
Hoscellin.
250. The practice of Dialectics, and the questions arising
out of a disputed passage in Porphyry's Introduction to
the Organum of Aristotle (jrepl irevre (fruovubv), respecting
the different metaphysical opinions entertained by the
Platonists and Peripatetics of the nature of Class Concep-
tions— such were the causes which led to the division between
the Nominalists and Realists, in part adhering to Plato, and
in part to Aristotle: disputes which stirred up frequent
and angry debates in the schools, without any other result
than that of sharpening their powers of argumentation.1
This long discussion was begun by John Boscellin (or
Roussellin), a canon of Compiegne,2 who, (on the testimony
of his adversaries), maintained that the notions of Genus
and Species were nothing but mere words and terms (Jlatus
vocis), which we use to designate qualities common to
different individual objects.3 He was led on by this doc-
trine to some heterodox opinions respecting the Trinity,
which he was ultimately compelled to retract at Soissons,
A.D. 1092. It is certain that Hoscellin is the first author
who obtained the appellation of a Nominalist, and from his
time the school previously established, which held the creed
that Genus and Species-notions were real essences, or types
and moulds of things ( Universalia ante Rem according to
the phrase of the Schoolmen), was throughout the present
period perpetually opposed to Nominalism, whose partisans
maintained that the Universalia subsisted only in ref qt post
rem: nor was the difficulty ever definitively settled.
1 Joh. Sarisruriensis Metalog., c. II, 16, 17.
2 About 1089.
3 See the treatise of Anselm, De FideTrinitatis, seu De Incarnatione
Verbi, c. 2 : and John of Salisbury.
220 SECOND PEBIOD. [SECT.
Abelard.
Petr. Abelardi et Heloisse Opera nunc prim, edita ex MSS. codd.
Fr. Amboksii, etc. stud. Andr. Quercetani (And. Duchesne), Paris.
1616, 4to. Idem : In Historia Calamitatum suarum.
+ [Gervaise], Life of P. Abeillard, Paris, 1720, 2 vols. 12mo.
John Berington, The History of the Lives of Abelard and Heloise,
etc., Birm. and Lond. 1787, 4to.
f F. C. Schlosser, Abailard and Dulcin. Life and Opinions of an
Enthusiast and a Philosopher, Gotha, 1807, 8vo.
J. H. F. Frerich, Comment. Theol. Crit. de P. Abelardi Doctrina
Dogm. et Morali, (prize comp.), Jen. 1827, 4to.
Carriere, Abiilard und Heloise. Eingeleitet durch eine Darstellung
von Abalard's philosophic, 1844.
Petr. Abelardi Opera, ed. V. Cousin, 1850.
Abelardi et Heloisse Epistolse, ed. Rawlinson, 8vo. Lond. 1718.
Lettres d'Abelard et d'Heloise, trad, par Oddoul, precedees d'un
Essai histor. par Guizot, 2 vols. 8vo. Par. 1839.
251. A celebrated discussion took place in the School of
Paris on the mode in which the Universal is contained
in the Individual, between William de Cliampeaux,1 a
renowned Logician, and Peter Abelard, or Abeillard, his
pupil and opponent. Abelard, who by some has been con-
sidered the first in point of time of the Scholastic philo-
sophers, employed in the debate none but negative argu-
ments ; but proved himself to be endowed with some
qualifications superior to the narrow dispute in which he
was engaged. He was born at Palais, a village near to
Nantes, A.D. 1079, and possessed rare abilities, which were
sedulously cultivated. To great talents as a logician, he
added an extensive acquaintance with Grecian philosophy ;
borrowed, it is true, only from St. Augustin and Cicero.
The perusal of the Classics had imparted to his mind a
certain elegance as well as a thirst for scientific fame, which
set off his style in teaching and writing, and which at this
period was rare, and proportionably admired. He evinced
even greater boldness than Anselm in his attempts to
demonstrate, on rational principles, the obscure dogmas of
the Christian religion, particularly that of the Trinity.2 In
this doctrine he assumes unity in the Divine Being, along
1 G. Campellensis : he died the bishop of Chalons, A.D. 1120.
2 In his Introductio ad Theol. Christian., libb. III. seu de Fide
Trinitatis, libb. Ill : see his Works, p. 973 sqq. : and in the larger
Treatise : Theologia Christiana, libb. V. given by Edm. Martene, Thes.
Nov. Anecdot.. t. V.
251—252.] ABELABD. 221
with diversity in his relations (relationwm diversitas), in
which consist the Divine Persons. He also maintains a
cognition of God (as the most perfect and absolutely inde-
pendent Being), by means of the Beason, which he ascribes
to the heathen philosophers, without derogating from the
incomprehensibility of God. He also attempted, as Hilde-
bert had done before him (§ 249), to explain, on philoso-
phical principles, the chief conceptions of Theological
Morality, as, for instance, the notions of Vice and Virtue.
He made both to consist in the mental resolution, or in the
intention ; and maintained, against the moral conviction of
his age, that no natural pleasures or sensual desires are in
themselves of the nature of sin.1 He discovered the
evidence of the morality of actions in the frame of mind
and maxims according to which those actions are under-
taken. His talents as a teacher attracted an immense
crowd of admirers from among the young men at Paris, and
increased the celebrity of its university; but at the same
time, his reputation drew upon him the envy of others,
which, backed by his" ill-fated passion for Eloisa, and the
zeal of theologians rigidly attached to the doctrines of the
"Romish church, and in particular the jealousy of St.
Bernard, embittered the remainder of his life, and dimi-
nished the influence his talents would otherwise have pos-
sessed. He died at Clugny, 1142. The epistolary cor-
respondence of Abelard and Heloise which has been pre-
served, bespeaking the painful reminiscence of their past
happiness, and overflowing with a spirit of sublime melan-
choly, is a glorious monument of romantic love. The most
remarkable of Abelard' s scientific works are his Logic or
Dialectics, his Introduction to Christian Theology, contain-
ing his doctrine of the Trinity, and his Christian Theology.
He also published sermons for the nuns of the Holy Spirit,
and a Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.
252. In spite of the persecutions of Abelard a great
number of men of talents were willing to tread in his steps,
and attempted, with various success, to associate Philosophy
with Theology. The principal were G. de Conches,2 and
Guilb. de la JPorree, born in Gascony, and bishop of Poitiers;3
1 Ethica, seu liber dictus Scito Teipsum, in Pezii Thes. Novisa.
Anccdotorum, t. Ill, part 2, p. 625. " Died 1150.
3 On that account surnamed Pictaviensis. Died 1154.
222 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
Hugh de St. Victor, of Lower Saxony or Flanders f Robert
(Folioth?) of llelun;2 Robert Pulleyn, an Englishman;3
Peter, surnamed Lombarchis, bishop of Paris, born in a
village near Novara, in Lombardy, and died 1164. To these
must be added the disciple of the latter, Peter of Poitiers ;4
Hugh of Amiens ;6 Richard de St. Victor the mystic ;6 Alain
de Ryssel, etc. The most distinguished was Lombardus, in
consequence of his Libri Senientiarum, which procured him
the additional appellation of Magister Sententiaruni.8 In
these he put together extracts from the Fathers on different
points of faith, without adding any solution of the diffi-
culties that occurred; supplying an abundant treasury of
disputation for the logicians of his time. His works became
popular — a sort of storehouse and armoury for ecclesiastical
polemics ; though others of those we have mentioned pos-
sessed more real merit ; for instance, the two mystics, Hugh
de St. Victor, surnamed the Second Augustin, a man of an
elegant and philosophical mind; and his pupil Richard de
St. Victor, who to his mysticism added considerable acute-
ness. Pulleyn also was the author of a clear and enlarged
distinction of Dogmas, mixed up with Reason ; and finally,
Alain de Ryssel applied to these matters the exactness of
a mathematical method.
Neander, Der heilige Bernard und sein Zeitalter, 1838.
Ellendorf, Der heilige Bernard und die Hierarchie seiner
Zeit, 1838.
1 Born 1096, died 1140.
Ejusd. : Opera stud, ed industr. Canonicorum Regiorum Abbat. St.
Vict. Roihomag. 1618, 3 vols. fol.
See C. Gfr. Derling, Diss, (praes. C. Gfr. Kenffel), de Hugone a
St. Victore, Helmst. 1745, 4to.
2 Melidunensis ; died 1173 A.C., according to the Literary History
of France, torn. XIII, p. 1164.
3 Pullus; died between 1150 and 1154.
4 Pictaviensis ; died archbishop of Embrun, 1205.
5 Died archbishop of Rouen, (hence called Rothomagensis), 1164.
6 A Scotchman; died 1173. Opera, Venet. 1506, 8vo. Par. 1518.
7 Called also Alain de l'lsle, and Alanus ab Insulis. Died 1203.
Carl, de Visch, Oratio de Alano, in the Works of Alain, ed. by
Yisch, Antwerp. 1653, fol.
8 Petri Lombaedi libri IV Sentcntiarum : frequently published,
particularly Ven. 1477. fol.; Colon, 1576, 8vo. See Bossuet and
Cramer's Hist. part. VI, § 586.
253 — 254.] john of salisbuet. 223
Eosenkeanz, Zur Geschichte der Deutscken Literatur, 1836.
Helfpeeich, Die Christl che Mystik in. ihrer Entwickelung und in
ihren Denkmalern, 1842, 2 Theile.
Schmidt, Der Mysticismus des Mittelalters in seiner Entstehung,
1824.
J. Goeres, Die Christliche Mystik. 4 B'ande, 8vo. Begensburg und
Tubingen, 1836.
253. The philosophy of religion was promoted by these
labours and efforts. For the aim of thinkers was now evi-
dently directed to matters of a vast and comprehensive
nature, to the welding of conflicting religious opinions into
one whole, and at the same time to an extension of their
limits through a farther determination of doctrines, and by
answering a multitude of questions which had been started
by an idle and wearisome subtilty. Their aim, however,
was more especially directed to a founding and establishing
of the greatest mysteries, partly by means of Cognition
through notions, partly from Intuition (rational and mystical
dogmatism). This tendency struck out daily deeper roots,
notwithstanding the zealous opposition of the supernatu-
ralist party — which was headed by St. Bernard de Clair-
vaux, (born 1091, died 1153) and Waltlier, Abbot of St.
Yictor, (about 1180) who attempted to condemn these
efforts as heretical, and to decry the Dialectics of Aristotle,
which had already attained the highest consideration. It is
true, that the latter defined the limits of Dialectics with
tolerable accuracy ; but this alone was quite insufficient to
check the tendency to rational insight deeply rooted in the
human mind, and favoured by the spirit of the age.
254. John of Salisbury (J. parvus Sarisburiensis), a
pupil of Abelard, and a man of classical erudition, in spite
of his predilection for Aristotle clearly perceived the faulti-
ness of the philosophy of his age, and the futility of that
logic which he attacked with considerable ability. Together
with these abuses there was manifested a certain energy of
reason, which, although it was as yet imperfectly restrained,
wa3 nevertheless well adapted and inclined to grapple with
1 In his Policraticus, sive de Nugis Curialium et Vestigiis Philoso-
pkorum, libb. VIII, folios. I. vela. {Colon. 1472]); et Metalogicus,
libb. IV, 8vo. Par. 1610; Lvgd. Bat. 1639; Amst. 1664, 8vo.; and
in his CUCI Epist., Paris, 1611, 4to.
224 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
authority. The adverse party, however, succeeded for a
time iu bridling it by means of persecutions, interdicts, and
anathemas. Dialectics came in the end to be employed both
for and against the system of the Church, as was shown
by the example of Simon de Tournay (Tornacensis) of
Amalric (or Amauric de Bene, in the district of Chartres),
who died 1209 ; and by his pupil David de Dinant.1 Besides
a great number of paradoxical doctrines, the last taught a
species of Pantheism, borrowed, it is probable, from J. Scot
Erigena.2 Their heresy naturally turned into derision and
well-founded contempt the School Dialectics.
THIED PERIOD OF THE SCHOLASTIC PHILO-
SOPHY : EEOM ALEXANDER OE HALES TO
OCCAM.
Exclusive dominion of 'Realism ; Complete alliance hetween
the Church and the Aristotelians.
J. Launojus, De Yaria Aristotelis Futura. (Above, at the head
of § 245).
255. It was precisely at the time when everything ap-
peared to have a tendency to discard the philosophy of
Aristotle from all interference with the doctrines of the
church, that it acquired the greatest ascendancy. About
the year 1240 men began to be better acquainted with his
works collectively, in consequence of being brought into
contact with the Greeks, who had never altogether deserted
him ;3 and still more through the Arabians. The very cir-
cumstance that the perusal of these works was prohibited
in 1209, 1215, and 1231, increased the avidity with which
1 David de Dinant was moreover the author of a system of Christian
Socialism. See the article on his name in -Bayle's Dictionary.
a Gerson, De Concordia Metaphysicae cum Logica, part. IV. Thomas
Aq. Lib. Sent. II. dist. 17, Qu. I, a. I. Alberti Summa Theol. part I.
Tract. IV. Qu. 20.
3 In the eleventh century appeared in the Greek empire the philolo-
gist Michael Constantine Psellus, born 1020, died about 1100 : the
author of Commentaries on Aristotle and Porphyry ; Paraphrasis Libri
Arist. de Interpretatione, Gr., with the Commentaries of Ammonius
and Magentinus, about 1 503. Compendium in Quinque voces Porphyrii
ct Aristotelis Prsedicamenta, Gr., Paris. 1541; and ovvo^iq kg rrjv
255 — 256.] akaeia:nts. 22
40
they were read to such a degree, that the Dominicans and
Franciscans, the staunchest maintaiuers of orthodoxy, who
had recently assumed authority in the University of Paris,
eagerly devoted themselves to the same study. The ques-
tion appears of interest: How was it that the works of
Aristotle came to be known in the West ? From the
East by the way of Constantinople, or by the way of Spain
through the Arabs F1 From this question is to be excepted
the Organum, which was known as early as the time of
Charlemagne; having been sent as a present to him from
Constantinople.
Arabians.
256. The Arabians, a nation gifted with powerful and
active faculties, originally devoted to Sabeism, had derived
a religious and warlike enthusiasm from the religion of
Mahomet, which combined the sensualistic and the rational-
istic elements. The stirring addresses of his successors
'Apkttot'eXovq Aoyiicrjv, Gr. et Lat. Aug. Vind. 1597; besides Intro-
ductio in sex Philos. Modos, etc., Gr. c. Lat. vers. Jac. Foscarini, Ven.
1522, Paris. 1541, 12mo.; and a book on the Opinions of the old
Philosophers respecting the Nature of the Soul, Gr. et Lat., with,
Origenis Philocalia, Paris. 1618 and 1624, 4to., subsequently reprinted.
To Psellus succeeded Eustkatius, metropolitan of ISTiceea, in the begin-
ning of the twelfth century (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. lib. Ill, c. 6, p. 151, sqq.
note A), and other writers of the thirteenth century, who abridged the
Logic of Aristotle ; such as Nicephor. Blemmydes (nourished about
1254) and Gegr. Aneponymus (Nicephoree Blemmydge Epitome Logicae
Doctrinae Aristotelis, Gr. et Lat. Aug. Vindel. 1606, 8vo.; Georgii
Aneponymi Compendium Philos siv. Organi Aristot. Gr. et Lat. Aug.
Vind. 1600); Geor. Pachymerus. who survived till 1310, author of
a Paraphrase of the Philosophy of Aristotle in general, of which extracts
have been published (Gr. et Lat. Oxon. 1666, 8vo. ; Epitome Philos.
Bas. 1560, Lat. fol.) ; and Theod. Metochites, who survived till 1332,
and commented on the works of Aristotle relating to Physics (Fabric.
Bibl. Gr. vol. IX.)
1 See Buhle, Manual of the History of Philosophy, part V. p. 247.
Heeren, History of the Study of Classical Literature, vol. I, p. 183.
This question has been thoroughly discussed, and decided in favour of
a Saracenic origin, in the following prize composition of the Academy
of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, at Paris : Critical Inquiry respect-
ing the Age and Origin of the Latin Translations of Aristotle, and the
Greek or Arabic Commentaries employed by the Schoolmen, etc., by
M. Jourdain, Paris, 1812. 1819, 8vo. On this work see Gutting. Gel.
Anz. 1819, No. 142.
Q
226 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
respecting the revelations of the Divinity to their Prophet
contributed to influence their ardent temperaments. He
died 632 ; but the flame was kept alive by the fiery zeal of
his successors, who insisted more and more on his pretended
mission from on high. In a short time they had subjected
to their belief a large portion of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Their relations with the conquered nations, especially the
Syrians, Jews, and Greeks ; the progress among them of
luxury, and all its consequences ; the demand for foreign
physicians and astrologers, and the influence acquired by
the latter, engendered among them an ardent emulation for
the sciences, which was encouraged in every way by the
Caliphs of the house of the Abbassides, Al Mansour,1 Al
Mohdi,2 Haroun al llaschid (the contemporary of Charle-
magne),3 Al Mamoum,4 and Motassem ;5 who caused the
Greek authors to be translated into Arabic, founded schools,
and collected valuable libraries.6
§ 257.
Chph. Chr. Fabricti (resp, J. Andr. Nagel), De Studio Philosophise
Graecas inter Arabes, Aldt. 1745, 8vo. ; id. : in the Frag. Hist Philos.
of Windheim, p. 57.
1 Reigned from 753 to 775.
2 Died 784. 3 Reigned from 786 to 808.
4 From 813 to 833. 5 Died 841.
6 Abulfed^; Annales Moslemici Arab, et Lat. Opera Reiskit, etc. ed„
J. G. C. Abler, Havn. 1789, sqq. torn. I — V, 4to.
G. Elmacini, Historia Saracencia, ed. i\ Erpenius, Lugd. Bat.
1625, fol.
f K. E. Oelsner, Mahomet : Influence of his Religion during the
Middle Ages : prize composition of the Institution, 1809; translated
and enlarged by E. D. M., Francf. 1810, 8vo.
Olai Celsii Hist. Linguae et Eruditionis Arabum, Upsal. 1694, 8yo.
Richardson, Dissertation on the Languages, Manners, and the
Literature of the Eastern Nations ; prefixed to his Persian, Arabic, and
English Dictionary, Oxford, 1777, fol.
J. Gottl. Buhle, Commentatio de Studii Graecarum Literarum inter
Arabes initiis et rationibus. Comment. Soc. Gotting. vol. XL p. 216.
Jo. Leo Africanus, De Viris quibusdam illutribus apud Arabes
Libellus; in Fabric. Bibl. Gr., torn. XIII.
Chr. Friedr. Schnurrer, Bibl. Arabicae Specimen, part- 1 — V, Tub.
1799—1803, 4to ; et Bibliotheca Arabica, Hal 1811, 8vo.
Henrici Middeldorpii Commentatio de Institutis Literariis in
Hispania quae Arabes auctores habuerunt, Gott. 1811, 4to.
257.] ARABIAN SECTS. 227
Car. Solandri Diss, de Logica Arabum, Ups. 1721, 8vo.
Eusebii Renaudoti De Barbaricis Aristotelis Librorum Versionibus
Disquisitio, in Fabric. Biblioth. Gr. torn. XII.
t Tiedemann, Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, torn. IY, and
Brucker, Hist. Philosophise, torn. III.
Taylor, History of Mahomedanism and of its sects, drawn from
Oriental sources, 1837.
f Jos. von Hammer, A Brief History of Arabian Metaphysics, ar.d
an Article of the Leipz. Lit. Gaz. 1826, No, 161—163.
Schmcelders, Documenta philosophise Arabum, 1836.
Wustenfeld, Die Akademie der Araber und ihre Lehrer, 1837.
Schmoilders, Essai sur les ecoles philosophiques chez les Arabes,
1842.
On Mohammedan History, consult :
The Life of Mahomet and his Successors, by Washington Irving,
2 vols. 1850.
Sam. Ocklet's History of the Saracens. Bohn, Land. 1848.
Price's Mohammedan History, compiled from Persian authorities,
4 vols. 4to. 1821.
As early as the second century of the Hegira there arose
variations in doctrine, and there appeared orthodox and
heterodox parties which were respectively subdivided into
sects. In this manner a sort of natural reasoning was
developed among the Arabians, which at a later date was
built on the foundation of the Aristotelian Metaphysics.
Aristotle and his commentators down to J. Philoponus,
were almost the only philosophers who found favour with
the Arabians. The body of his philosophy they received
indeed only through the doubtful medium of Neoplatonism,
and by means of inadequate translations.1 To the study of
these they added Mathematics, Natural History, and Medi-
cine. But many obstacles were in their way. In the first
place, the Koran, which opposed limits to the free exercise
of their understandings : the opposition also of a formidable
party who pretended to maintain the orthodox belief: the
difficulty of understanding Aristotle himself: and the abso-
lute supremacy they presently accorded to him : lastly,
their national tendency to exaggeration and superstition.
All therefore they effected was to interpret, and very fre-
quently, to misinterpret, the system of that philosopher,
without ever advancing beyond him; attempting to apply
his principles to their own blind faith. Hence arose amongst
them a philosophy not very dissimilar to that of the Christian
1 See the works of Jourdain and Buhle mentioned in p. 225 (note).
Q 2
228 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
nations in the middle ages, who were also preoccupied
with dialectic quibbles, having a positive religion for their
basis. The consequence was an abundant harvest of futile
refinements. To such a philosophy was superadded, acci-
dentally, a sort of Mysticism; especially among the Pan-
theistic sect of the Sqfis or Sstcfis (Sqfismus, Sufismus),
founded before or during the second century of the Hegira,
by Abu Said Abul Cheir ; a sect which continues to survive
in sufficiently large numbers in Persia and India.1
After all, the records of Arabic philosophy have been too
little investigated to enable us to speak of them with suffi-
cient certainty.
258. The principal Arabian philosophers (for the most
part exclusively devoted to the system of Aristotle) , were :
1. Alkendi, or Alkindi,2 of Basrah, a physician and philo-
sopher, the master of copious and various learning, and well
versed in the Sciences. He flourished A.D. 800, under the
reign of Al Mamoum. 2. AlfarabP of Balah, in the pro-
vince of Farab, who died A.D. 954 ; a man of superior parts ;
and styled the second teacher of intellectual knowledge.
His Logic, as well as his treatise on the origin and sub-
division of the Sciences, was greatly in vogue with the
schoolmen. 3. Avicennaf born about 980, at Bokhara : died
1036. Pie devoted himself especially to Logic and Meta-
physics (which he thought the first of the Sciences, inas-
much as it has for its subject the Thing itself, per se) ; as
well as to Medicine and Alchemy. He manifested an ori-
ginal vein of thought in his commentary on the Metaphysics
of Aristotle.5 He there asserts that it is no more possible
to assign a definition of a Thing per se, than it is to give
1 Ssufismus sive Theosophia Persarum Pantheistica, quam e MSS.
Biblioth. Regise Berol., Persicis, Arabicis, Turcicis eruit atque illus-
travit Friedr. Aug. Deofidus Tholuck, Berlin, 1821, 8vo. The
opinion of this author is, that Sofism had its origin neither in India
nor Persia, but in the religion of Mahomet itself. His hypothesis is
controverted by the author (Qu. Von Hammee 1) of a critique in the
Lit. Gaz. of Leipsic (1822, Nos. 252—258), on an important work
relative to Oriental Mysticism, entitled, Reschati Ainol Hajat, etc.
2 Otherwise called Abu Yusuf Ebn Eschak Al Kendi.
3 Abu ISTasr Mohammed Ebn Tarchan Al Farabi.
4 Abu Ali Al Hosain Ebn Sina Al Schaiich Al Raus.
5 Metaphysica, per Bernard. Venetuni, Ve?iet. 1493. Opera, Ven.
1523, 5 vols, fol.; Bas. 1556, 3 vols.
258—259.] ayerkoes. 229
one of the Necessary, the Possible, and the Real. From the
abstract notion of Necessity, he concludes that what is
necessary is without an efficient cause ; and that there is
only one Being existing of necessity. He assumed that
matter is eternal, and that the substantial form is created
by the active understanding which is a substance separate
from man. He admits the eternity of matter, and that
substantial forms are apperceptive to the active intellect,
which is a substance distinct from man. 4. Algazel of Tus,1
an acute Sceptic, who proved himself able to defend the
cause of a supernatural Revelation with ability in opposition
to the doctrine of Emanation, as well as that of the harmony
of causes, and the materiality of the soul ; with many others
of the opinions of the Aristotelians and Neoplatonists. He
maintained the infallibility of the Koran, and asserted the
miracles of Mahomet to be incontestible proofs of his
mission. 5. Thophail, or Abubekr,2 of Cordova; died at
Seville, 1190. He was distinguished for his philosophical
romance Hai Ebn YoJcdan, or the Man of Nature ;3 in
which he sets forth in an original manner the enthusiastic
doctrine of the Neoplatonists respecting Intuition.
Averroes.
Commentary of Averroes on the Arabic trans, of Aristotle, viz.,
Averrois Commentaria et Introductiones in omnes libros Aristotelis,
cum eorum Vers. lat. 11 vols. 8vo. Venet. 1562-74, and in various
editions of the Works of Aristotle. Also his work ; Destructio destruc-
tions Philosophise Algazelis, in the Latin translations, Venet. 1497,
and Venet. 1527, fol. See Fabeicii Bibl. Gr. XIII, p. 282, sqq.
259. 6. Averroes,^ the disciple of Thophail, was born at
Cordova, and died at Morocco, 1206 or 1217. He was the
most celebrated of the learned men of his nation, and the
close and almost servile follower of Aristotle. He was
styled, by way of eminence, the Commentator; and, in spite
of the great number of his secular employments, was a most
copious writer. His treatment of Aristotle ought to be
1 Abu Hamed Mohammed Ebn Mohammed Ebn Achmed Al Gazali,
born 1062, died 1111.
2 Abu Dsafar Ebn Thophail.
3 Philosophus Autodidactus, tr. Lat. per Ed. Pococke, Oxon. 1761,
4 to.
4 Abul Walid Mohammed Ebn Achmed Ebn Mohamed Ebn Rashid.
230 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
appreciated by a reference to the state of opinions in his
day. Though he professed to do no more than interpret
him, he imputed to him many opinions which in reality
were not his : blending with his system the Alexandrian
doctrine of Emanation, in order to assign a living First-
principle to account for all contingent things. His theory
of the active Understanding is a necessary consequence of
this manner of interpreting the doctrine of Aristotle. The
great Primal Essence produces all the various modifications
of things, not by the way of Creation, (because ex nihilo
nihil fit) but by uniting matter and form, or by developing
the form involved and contained in the matter.1 Thought,
as well as sensible Representation, supposes three things : a
receptive material, and, as it were, a formal Understanding ;
the Understanding receiving the forms of Thought as the
thing that is thought ; as well as an active operating Under-
standing, which causes both the material and the abstract
forms of Thought to be thought of as operating principles.
There exists an universal Active Understanding, in which all
mankind partake equally, and which is derived to us from
without: its principle being, perhaps, the same which in-
fluences the moon.2 Averroes was a man of a clear-sighted
enlightened mind, who believed in the authority of the
Koran, but regarded it as a sort of exoteric doctrine, the
foundation of which he sought to place on scientific
grounds. Besides these philosophers, M. von Hammer
mentions others, such as Al Easi, who died 1209; Seiffedin,
who died 1233 ; Nasireddin of Tus, who died in 1273 ;
Beidhair, born in 1286, and Adhaddedin Aldschi, who died
in 1355.
Sects of Arabian JPJiilosopJiers.
260. Speaking generally, the Arabian philosophers were
divided into two parties ; viz. the philosophers simply so
called (Idealists), who, according to the belief of the
Platonists of Alexandria, held that the world was eternal,
and endeavoured to unite this belief to their own prescribed
1 Averroes, lib. XII, Metaphys.
2 Ibid., De Animee Beatitudine. Epitome Metaph. Tract. IV. Coel.
Ehodog. Ant. Lect. lib. Ill, c. 2.
260—261.] the jews. 231
religion; to which school belonged also the Ascetics or
Sons (§ 257) : and, secondly, the Medabherins (dialectic
Philosophers, or Reasoners), who took their ground on the
positive doctrines of the Koran; endeavoured to explain,
on philosophical principles, the origin of the world; and
combated the Idealists.1 We are not as yet perfectly
acquainted with these two sects. A third likewise is men-
tioned, that of the Assariah, or fatalists, who referred every-
thing to the will of Grod.
Jews,
261. The doctrines of the Arabians were communicated
to the Christian world principally through the medium of
the Jews, who imported them from Egypt, where the
sciences had been prosecuted with great ardour. The Jews
themselves took a prominent part in these philosophical
researches, and were distinguished for more than one philo-
sopher. Of this number was Moses Maimonicles ;2 born at
Cordova, A.D. 1139, and brought up under Thophail and
Averroes, and inclined to the study of Aristotle ; but for
these reasons persecuted by the fanatical part of his own
countrymen up to the period of his death, which happened
in 1205. In his work entitled More Nevoehim (Ductor Per-
plexorum),3 he manifests an acute and enlightened under-
standing in the exposition of the Jewish religion, and in
the philosophical principles which he assumes. As a proof,
he resists his inclination for the Arabic- Aristotelian system
so far as to call in question many of its hypotheses, e. g.
that of the Intelligences of the spheres, and of the Active
Universal Intelligence.
It may be observed, that during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, the Jews acted as interpreters between the
Saracens and the Western nations, by their frequent trans-
lations into Hebrew of the works of the Arabians ; which
were re-translated from the Hebrew, (a language then
1 Averroes in Metaph. lib. XII, c. 18. Moses Maimonides, More
Nevoehim, lib. I, c. 71, p. 133—135.
* Rabbi Moses Ben Maitnon.
Beer, Leben und Wirken des Eabbi Moses Ben Maimon, 1834.
Falkenheim, Die Ethik des Maimonides deutsch bearbeitet, 1832.
3 Translated into Latin by J. Buxtorf, Basil, 1629, 4to.
232 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT
better known than the Arabic), into Latin; very imper-
fectly indeed, but pretty generally.
262. The consequence of this dissemination of the Aris-
totelian philosophy from an Arabian source, was the in-
creased reputation of that philosopher, who was in a manner
installed the sovereign and infallible arbiter of truth and
falsehood in all matters of science. The circle of the
sciences and the field of inquiry was enlarged, new ideas
and new combinations were developed to the advantage of
Dialectics, the exercise of which they called forth. Philo-
sophy came to be less and less confounded with the sciences,
and was allowed to retain a place distinct from them. One
of the principal co-operating causes was the formation of
the University of Paris, and of similar institutions in other
cities. Out of this arose a sort of polemical contest between
Theology and Philosophy, in which the former obtained the
ascendancy ; the latter being depressed to an inferior posi-
tion, and a distinction established between Theological and
Philosophical truths. To this succeeded an attempt to
reconcile and associate the two, which was for some time
successful.
Alexander of Hales and Ms Contemporaries.
263. The first author who turned to account the works
of the Arabians was Alexander of Hales {Alesius), so called
from a convent in Gloucestershire, and surnamed Doctor
Irrefragabilis. Tiedemann makes him the first Schoolman.
He taught Theology at Paris, and in his Summa Theologies l
enlarged upon the Manual of Lombardus (§ 252), by a
rigorous syllogistical statement of the different opinions
contained in his book. William of Auvergne2 devoted him-
self to the statement and discussion of philosophical ques-
tions respecting Morals and Metaphysics, with less general
views. Vincent of Beauvais? in his books of reference
1 Ven. 1475, fol. Norimb. 1481. Ven. 1576, 4 vols. fol.
2 Gulielmus Arvernus, and Parisiensis, because bishop of Paris, died
1249. Opera, Ven. 1591, fol. Aurel 1674, 2 vols fol.
3 Bellovacensis. Died about 1264. Speculum Universale, Argent.
1473, fol. Speculum Quadruplex, opera et stud. Theologor. Bened.
Duaci, 1624, 4 vols. fol. See Vincent de Beauvais. etc. by Fr. Chph.
Schlosseb, Franc/, a. M. 1819, 2 vols. 8vo.
262—261.] ALBEET THE GREAT. 233
(Specula), gave a picture of the state of the Sciences at this
period, particularly of moral philosophy, and has enlightened
us with respect to the discordant opinions of the Nomi-
nalists and Realists* Michael Scott (was living at Toledo
A.D. 1217) translated the works of Aristotle, Dc Ccelo et de
31icndo, and De Animd, as well as the Historia Naturalis ;
according to the Arabian arrangement : a labour in which
he was assisted by a Jew named Andrew. He commented
on Aristotle, and availed himself of his Logic. Robert
Grosseteste, or Greathead (JRdbertus Capito), who taught at
Paris and Oxford, and died bishop of Lincoln A.D. 1253,
besides other treatises, composed some Commentaries on
Aristotle.
Albert tlie Great.
Rudolphus Noviomagensis de Yita Alberti M. libb. Ill, Colon. 1499,
et : Alberti M. Opera ed. Pet. Jammy, Lyon. 1651, 21 vols. fol.
264. Albert of Bollstddt, or the Great, was the first who
gave a decided direction to the general tendency in favour
of the Aristotelian system. He was born at Lauingen in
Swabia, A.D. 1193 or 1205, and studied at Pavia, where he
entered the order of the Dominicans, and by his great appli-
cation to study, especially to that of Natural History, (a
department then very generally neglected), he acquired so
great a mass of information that he came to be looked upon
as a prodigy, and a sort of enchanter. He lived principally
at Cologne and Paris: in 1260 was made bishop of Batisbon,
but subseguently resigned that dignity, in order to devote
himself to study. He died in his convent at Cologne, 1280.
He was rather a learned man and a compiler of the works of
others, than an original and profound thinker. He wrote
commentaries on most of the works of Aristotle, in which
he makes especial use of the Arabian commentators, and
blends the notions of the Neoplatonists with those of his
author. Logic, Metaphysics, Theology, and Ethics, were
rather externally cultivated by his labours than effectually
improved. With him began those minute and tedious in-
quiries and disputes respecting Matter and Form, Essence
and Being (Essentia or Quidditas, and Existentia, whence
subsequently arose the farther distinction of Esse Essentia
and Existentice). Of the Universal, he assumes that it
234 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT,
exists partly in external things and partly in the Under-
standing. Eational Psychology and Theology are indebted
to him for many excellent hints. The latter science he
treated in his Summa Theologice, as well according to the
plan of Lombardus as his own. In the former he described
the soul as a totum potestativum. In his Theology he
laboured to define our rational knowledge of the Nature
of God (excluding from such inquiries the doctrine of the
Trinity), and enlarged upon the metaphysical idea of Him,
as a necessary Being (in whom pure Esse and his deter-
minate or qualified Nature (Seyn und Weseii) are identical),
endeavouring to develope in this manner His attributes.
These inquiries are often mixed up with idle questions
and dialectic absurdities, and involve abundant inconsist-
encies ; as for instance, when he would account for the
creation by the doctrine of Emanation (causatio univoca),
and nevertheless denies the Emanation of Souls : he insists
upon the universal intervention of the Deity in the course of
Nature, and yet asserts the existence of natural causes,
defining and limiting His operations. He considered Con-
science to be the highest law of reason, and distinguished
the moral disposition (synteresis, cwT)]pyai<i) from its habitual
exercise {conscientici) . All virtue which is acceptable to
God is infused by Him into the hearts of men. His scholars
were distinguished by the name of Albertists.
Bonaventura.
•f* Abridged History of the Life, Virtues, and Religious System of
St. Bonaventura, etc. Lyon, 1749, 8vo. and : Bonaventurse Opera,
Argent. 1482, fol. Idem: Jussu Pii V, Bomce. 1588-96, 7 vols. fid.
(best edition).
265. The contemporary of Albert, John of Mdanza or
Bonaventura,1 surnamed Doctor Seraphicus; was possessed
of less extensive learning than the other, but of more talent;
and a pious frame of mind, tinctured with mysticism.2 It
was his endeavour to reconcile the views of Aristotle and
1 Born at Bagnarea 1221, died 1274, at Lyons.
2 Bonaventura's Weg des Geistes zu Gott. Aus dem Lateinischen
iiebersetzt. Herausgegeben von Luttenback, 1836.
Widmer, Bonaventura's kurzer InbegrifF der Theologie. Aus dem
Lateinischen iibersetzt, 1839.
265.] THOMAS AQUINAS. 235
the Alexandrians. In his commentary on Lombardus1 he
contracts the sphere of speculation, and studies to employ
the principles of Aristotle and the Arabians, not so much
for the satisfaction of a minute and idle curiosity, as for the
resolution of important questions, and to reconcile opposite
opinions; especially in the important inquiries respecting
Individuation and Tree "Will. Occasionally he rests his
arguments rather on the practical destination of man than on
theoretical notions ; for instance, respecting the doctrine of
the Immortality of the Soul. The Supreme Good he affirms
to be Union with the Deity; by which alone mankind can
attain a perception of Truth, and the enjoyment of happi-
ness. This leads him to ascribe2 all knowledge to Illumi-
nation from on high; which he distinguishes into four
species : Exterior — Inferior — Interior — and Superior. He
defines also3 six degrees whereby man may approximate the
Deity; and refers to these six as many distant faculties of
the Soul: an ingenious idea and copiously detailed, but in a
great degree arbitrary and forced.
Finding speculation insufficient for the attainment of the
Supreme Good, he abandoned himself with all his heart to
Mysticism.
Thomas Aquinas.
Thomse Aq. Opera Omnia, stud, et cura Vinc. Justiniani et Thojle
Manriquez, Rom. 1570-71, 18 vols. fol,, (best edition). Idem: cura
Fratrum ordin. Prsedicat. Par. 1636-41, 23 vols. fol. (containing the
dubious works, but less correct). Opera Theologica cura Bern, de
Rubeis, Ven. 1745, sqq. 20 vols. 4to.
Bern de Rubeis (de' Rossi), Discertatt. Criticae et Apologeticee de
Gestis et Scriptis ac Doctrina S. Thomse Aquinatis, Venet. 1730, fol.
Idem (prefixed to the above edition).
+ A. Touron, Life of St. Thomas Aquinas, with an account of his
Doctrines and Works, Par. 1731, 4to.
Lud. Carbonis a Costaciario Compendium Absolutissimum totius
Summoe Theologicse S. Thomas Aquinatis, Venet. 1587, 8vo.
Thomae Aquinatis Summa Philosophise per S. Cas. Alemannium.
Par. 1640, fol.
Summa S. Thomae hodiernis Academiarum moribus accommodata,
sive cursus Theologiae opera Caroli Renati Belluart, Ultraj. 1769, 8vo.
1 Comment, in Magistrum Sententiarum.
2 Reductio Artium ad Theologiam.
3 Itinerarium Mentis in Deum. See his works above.
236 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
Placidi Rentz, Philosophia ad mentem D. Thomse Aquinatis ex-
plicata, Colon. 1723, 3 vols. 8vo.
Put. Zorn, De Varia Fortuna Philosophise Thomee Aquinatis.
Opusc. Sacr. torn. I.
Kling, Ueber die Theologie des Thomas. In Sengler's Religioser
Zeitschrift fur das Katholische Deutschland, 1833. Bd. Ill, H. 1.
26G. Nearly at the same time with. Bonaventura, St.
Thomas Aquinas (or ah Aquino), obtained a celebrity which
eclipsed that of almost every writer of his age. lie was
born A.D. 1224, in the castle of Eocca Sicca in the kingdom
of Naples, of a great feudal family; and in opposition to the
wishes of his parents, was determined by his ardent love for
study to enter the order of the Dominicans, (1243). The
same attachment to letters carried him to Paris and to
Cologne, to profit by the lessons of Albertus, and caused
him to decline all offers of advancement in his order, beyond
that of Definitor; while it procured him the reputation of
the greatest Christian philosopher of his century, and the
appellations of Doctor Universalis and Angelicus. He died
1274, and, as well as Bonaventura, was canonised. Thomas
Aquinas was endowed with a genius truly philosophical; had
amassed great knowledge; and cherished an ardent zeal for
the advancement of fundamental science. He rendered real
service to the Aristotelian philosophy by the pains he took
to effect a translation of the works in which it was con-
tained, and by his commentaries on them. He was a Kealist,
inasmuch as he maintained that the Universal did not exist
actually, but as a possibility, and regarded the object of the
understanding or the abstract Form of things as the original
nature of things. This system he endeavoured to place on a
firmer basis by extending the theory of Thought propounded
by Aristotle, to which he superadded some ideas of the system
of Plato and of the Alexandrians. With this is connected his
explanation of the conceptions* of Matter and Form, as ele-
ments of compound substances, as also his explanation of
the principle of Individuation. The rational Soul, the nature
of which he discusses after Aristotle's system, is the Substan-
* It may be well to refresh the memory of the reader, by reminding
him that Notions or Conceptions are viewed in this work as the
offspring of the Understanding, and subordinate to Ideas, which are
the product of the Reason or Intuition. — Ed.
266.] THOMAS AQUINAS. 237
tial Form of man, immaterial and indestructible. But his
meditations were principally devoted to the study of Theology,
which he endeavoured to reduce to a systematical form by a
more accurate determination of Notions in the manner of the
Aristotelian and Alexandrian Schools. Such was the design
of his Commentary on Lombardus, of his work against the
Heathens,1 and of his Summa Theologies. The latter is the
first attempt at a complete system of Theology comprehend-
ing one of Ethics, and is enriched with many solid and wise
observations, without the observance of any rigorous order
in its details. Its principles are not laid down with sufficient
precision, and the different sources of information are not
clearly distinguished. He taught that Evil, or the negation
of Good, is necessary to the completion of the Universal sys-
tem, and that God is only the accidental cause of it. We
may observe in this system (as well as in St. Augustin's,
from whom he derived them), many of the principal features
of that of Leibnitz respecting the Divine Government. He
treats the subject of Morals, which he divides into General and
Special, in part according to the conceptions of Theology, and
partly after those of Aristotle: and although his fundamental
conceptions are not very clearly defined or largely developed,
that science is much indebted to his labours. He continued
to be for a long time the highest authority in matters of Reli-
gion and Philosophy, and had a large number of disciples,
(especially among the Dominicans and Jesuits) who called
themselves by his name. The aim of Aquinas, as a Christian
philosopher, was to prove the reasonableness of Christianity,
which be attempted to accomplish by showing, 1st, that it
contains a portion of truth ; 2nd, that it falls under the
cognizance of reason ; and 3rd, that it contains nothing con-
tradictory to reason. In connection with the latter argument
he starts from the assumption that the truths of reason are
essentially one with Divine truth, because reason is derived
from God. Philosophy consists, according to him, in Science
searching for truth with the instrument of human reason ;
but he maintains that it was necessary for the salvation of
man that Divine Revelation should disclose to him certain
things transcending the grasp of human reason. He regarded
Theology, therefore, as the offspring of the union of philoso-
1 Summa Catholic* Fidei adversus Gentiles, Biirdig. 1664, Svo.
238 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
phy and religion, and as a science derived from the principles
of a higher Divine and spiritual science. Among the fol-
lowers of Aquinas we remark JEgidius Colonna, a Roman,
Hervceus (§ 269), Thomas de Vio Cajetanus, Gabr. Velasquez,
Fetrus Hiertadus de Mendoza, F. Fonseca, Dominic of Man-
ders (died 1500) and Fr. Suarez (died 1617).
Contemporaries of Thomas Aquinas,
267. Other contemporaries of Thomas deserve to be briefly
mentioned ; for intance, Fetrus His-panus, of Lisbon, after-
wards pope, under the style of John XXI, and who died
1277. He distinguished himself by the Summulce Logicales,
an abridgment of the Scholastic Logic ; and it is to him we
probably owe the ingenious arrangement of the different
forms of argument, so often republished.1 To him must be
added H. Goethals, of Muda near Ghent, better known
under the name of Henricus Gandavensis, surnamed Doctor
Solemnis, who became a professor at Paris, and died arch-
deacon of Tournay, 1293. 2 He was endowed with great
sagacity of understanding, attached to the system of the
Realists, and blended the Ideas of Plato with the formularies
of Aristotle : attributing to the first a real existence inde-
pendent of the Divine Intelligence. He suggested some
new opinions in Psychology, and detected many speculative
errors, without, however, suggesting corrections of them,
owing to the faultiness of the method of the philosophy of
his time. He frequently opposed Thomas Aquinas himself.
To these we may add Richard de Middleton (Ficardus de
Media Villa), surnamed Doctor Solidus, Fandatissimus, and
Copiosus, who died a professor at Oxford, A.D. 1300, and was
a skilful interpreter of Lombardus.
Duns Scolus.
His works are very numerous. A list will be found in Brucker,
Panzer, &c. They were published collectively, viz. : Joh. Dunsii Scoti
Opera Omnia, collecta, recognita, Notis, Scholiis et Commentariis illus-
trata (ed. Wadding), Lugd. 1639, 12 vols. fol.
1 f Joh. Tob. Kohler, Complete Account of Pope John XXI,
celebrated as a Physician and Philosopher under the name of Petrus
Hispanus, Gotting. 1760, 4to.
2 Henk. Gandavensis Quodlibeta in IV libb. Sententiar. Par.
1518, fol. Summa Theologise, ibid. 1520, fol.
267—268.] duns scotus. 239
Hugonis Cavelli Vita Joh. Duns Scoti ; prefixed to Qusestiones in
Sententias, Antwerp. 1620. Apologia pro Joh. D. Scoto ad versus
Opprobria, Calumnias, et Injurias quibus P. Abr. Bzovius eum onerat,
Par. 1634, 12mo.
Lud. Wadding, Vita Joh. Duns Scoti, M ont. 1664, 8vo. (Id.: in
his edition above).
Math^i Veglensis Vita Joh. Dunsii Scoti, Patav. 1671, 8vo. Id. :
in the Thesaurus Biog. Bibliographicus of Waldau, part I, p. 15, sqq.
J. G. Boivin, Philosophia Scoti, Par. 1690, 8vo. The same: Phi-
losophia quadripartiti Scoti, Par. 1688, 4 vols. fol.
Joh. Santacrucii Dialectica ad mentem Eximii Magistri Johannis
Scoti, Lond. 1672, 8vo.
Fr. Eleuth. Abergoni Resolutio Doctrinse Scoticae, in qua quid
Doctor Subtilis circa singulas, quas exagitat, quaestiones sentiat, etsi
oppositum alii opinentur, brevibus ostenditur, in subtilium studiosorum
gratiam, Lugd. 1643, 8vo.
Joh. Duns Scotus (Doctor Subtilis) per Universam Philosophiam,
Logicam, Physicam, Metaphysicam, Ethicam contra adversantes de-
fensus, Quasstionurn novitate ampiificatus, ac in tres tomos divisus.
Autor Bonaventura Baro, Colon. Agr. 1664, fol.
Joh. Arada, Controversise Theologicae inter S. Thornam et Scotum
super quatuor libros Sententiarum, in quibus pugnantes Sententiae
referuntur, potiores difficultates elucidantur, et Responsiones et Argu-
menta Scoti rejiciuntur, Colon. 1620, 4to,
Joh. Lalemandet, Decisiones Philosophicse, Monacli. 1664-1645, fol.
Crisper, Philosophia Scholae Scotisticae, Aug. Vindel. 1735; et
Theologia Scholae Scotisticae, 4 vols., ibid. 1748, fol.
L. F. Otto Baumgarten-Crusius, De Theol. Scoti Prog. Jen.1816, 4to.
268. John Duns Scotus, born at Dunston in Northumber-
land (about 1275 ?), became a Franciscan, and was surnamed
Doctor Subtilis, which he deserved by the pregnancy of his
parts. He studied at Oxford and Paris, and died prema-
turely, A.D. 1308. His celebrated attack on the system of
Thomas Aquinas occasioned his having recourse very fre-
quently to vain and idle distinctions, but in all his dialectic
disputes he maintained a steady zeal for a deeper foundation
of true science. He endeavoured to ascertain a fundamental
basis for the certainty of knowledge, whether rational or
empirical, and applied himself to demonstrate the truth and
necessity of Eevelation. As a Eealist, he differed from
Thomas Aquinas, by asserting that the Universal is based
upon Objects, not merely in posse but in aciu : that it is not
created by the Understanding but communicated to it : that
Neutral Eeality or Essence (die SachJieit) being indifferent,
must be determined to particular or universal by a higher
principle intimately united with the former Neutral Eeality
210 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
or essence.*' This higher principle is a Greater Unity, i.e.
the principle of Individuation (Jiceccitij) . In Psychology he
combated the real difference of the Soul's Faculties, and
maintained an undetermined Freedom. The object of Phi-
losophy was, in his opinion, to become cognizant of the
nature of things, or what is. Although human philosophy
teaches the sufficiency of reason, and that supernatural dis-
closures are superfluous, the theologian regards a certain
supernatural revelation as necessary; because man can
never attain to certain truth by inspecting effects or se-
condary causes, whether Ideas or Sensations.
The object of theology is God, an Infinite Being, and the
first principle of all things. Yet Fie is not to be regarded in
the light of his Infinity but of his Divinity, the latter
idea being more perfect than the former, because God
cannot be conceived apart from Infinity, though Infinity
can be conceived without God. He attributed indetermi-
nate Freedom to God, and hence regarded the subjective
will of God as the principle of Morality. Sometimes he ex-
pressed doubts as to the possibility of a rational Theology.
Duns Scotus was the founder of a school, the Scotists,
who distinguished themselves for subtlety of disputation, and
for incessant disputes with the Thomists. These disputes
were so frequently mixed up with human passions, that
Science derived from them little benefit* and it very fre-
quently happened that the points in question, instead of
being elucidated, were obscured through their controversies.
Disciples of Thomas ; or Thomists.
2G9. Among the Thomists of the thirteenth century we
may remark : 1. jEgidias Colonna, a Eoman,1 a consistent
Eealist; according to whom, Truth resides in the under-
standing as well as the object. His principal merit was
that he unravelled with perspicuity certain metaphysical
problems, and endeavoured to reconcile discordant opinions
respecting the questions of Being, Form, Matter, and Indi-
* The subtle nature of this argument, and the peculiar structure of
the German tongue, render this passage necessarily obscure. The idea
to be conveyed is, that there is an Absolute principle determining both
the universal and particular nature of things.— Ed.
1 JEgidius Columna Komanus, surnamed Doctor Fundatissimus
e. Theologorum Princeps : born 1247, died 1316.
269—271.] EOGEE BACON. 241
viduality. 2. ITervcsus,1 whose learned but abstruse logic
was even yet more unintelligible than that of his prede-
cessors.
Scotists.
270. The most celebrated contemporary disciples of Scot
were Fr. Mayronis, a Franciscan,2 who first set the example
of disputes in the Sorbonne {Actus Sorbonici), and wrote
esteemed commentaries on Aristotle, St. Augustin, St.
Anselm, Lombardus, etc. : — Ilieron. de Ferrariis, Antonius
Andrece,3 Walter Burleigh (§ 274). To these may be added
the Franciscan Pet. Tartaretus (in the fifteenth century),
J. B. Monlorius (flourished about 1569) and Major.
271. At this period also appeared two men highly remark-
able for the reformation which they attempted, but were not
able to effect, in the philosophy of the age. The first of
these, Roger Bacon, a Franciscan, was born at Ilchester,
1214 ; and acquired some celebrity by his knowledge of
Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, and Languages, as well
as by the fertility of his original ideas and inventions. He
was surnamed in consequence Doctor Mirabilis ; but unhap-
pily, also, was accused of witchcraft, and imprisoned by
command of the general of his order. He had the perspi-
cacity to detect the false principles of the philosophical sys-
tem of his time, and instead of the frivolous distinctions
then established, was desirous of opening new paths to
inquiry through the study of Nature and the Languages.
Unfortunately the monkish spirit of the time repressed his
investigations, and the influence they would have insured to
him. He taught at Oxford, A.D, 1240, and died 1292 or
1294.4 Baymond Lulli (Lullus or Lullius, born at Palma
in the isle of Majorca, 1234), was as distinguished in his
1 Herve Noel, or Heraeus Natalis, born in Bretagne; at first a
monk, then general of the order of the Preachers ; professor of Theology
and rector of the university of Paris. Died at Narbonne, 1323.
2 Franciscus de Mayronis, Doctor Illuminatus et A cuius, Magister
Ahstractionum. Died at Placentia, 1325.
3 Doctor Dulcifluus, born in Arragon. Died about 1320.
4 See his Opus Majus ad Clemciitem IV, Sam. Jebb, Lond. 1733,
fol. ; Epistolse de secretis operibus Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate
Magiee. Opera J. Dee castigata et restitute 8vo. Hamb. 1618 ; and the
Biographia Britannica, IV, 616, sqq.
3J
242 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
mature days for a devout piety, as he had been notorious in
youth for his love of pleasure. He devoted himself to the
conversion of the Mahometans and Pagans, asserting to
this intent illumination from above, and the gift of the
Great Art (Ars Magna1). His endeavours not being as
successful as he had hoped, he devoted this Great Art to the
reformation of Philosophy and the Sciences. His art was
nothing more than a Mechanical Logic, calculated to solve
all questions without any study or reflection on the part of
him who should use it. Pie added thereto some hints bor-
rowed from the philosophy of the Arabians and the Cabbala,
which he appears to have been the first Christian author to
cultivate. In his numerous works and those of his School
we frequently discover more clear and elevated views of Mo-
rality, though he was not able to escape canonical censure
on this head. He died 1315. His followers (Liillists), dis-
seminated a superstitious enthusiasm, together with the
belief he entertained in the possibility of making gold ; but
occasionally struck out new and valuable ideas. Long
after his death the Ars Magna of Raymond Lulli found
admirers among men of talent, (e.g. Giordano Bruno).
At this period also appeared Petrus ab Apono (or Abano),
near Padua, born 1250, died 1315 or 1316; a physician,
attached to the Arabian doctrines, and author of a book
entitled, Conciliator Dijferentiarum Philosophicarum et p>r(B-
cipue Medicorum :2 — and Arnold de Villanova, who died in
1312, a zealous fellow-labourer with the former, and inclined
to the opinions of Raymond Lulli.3
1 Jacobi Custerer, De Eaimundo Lullio Dissertatio in Actis SS.
Antwerp, torn. V, p. 697. f Perroquet, Life of Raymond Lulle,
Venddme, 1667, 8vo.
Raymundi Lulli Opera Omnia, ed. Salzinger, Mogunt. 1721 — 42,
10 vols. fol. Et: Opera ea qiue ad Inventam ab ipso Artem Univer-
salem pertinent, Argent. 1598, 8vo.
See also J. H. Alstadtii Clavis Artis Lullianse et Verse Logicse,
Argent. 1609, 8vo. ; and, Bruck, Hist. Phil. p. 1353, sqq.
He obtained the appellation of Doctor Illvm.lnatis.v.mus.
2 Ven. 1471 — 1483, fol. His life is to be found in the Quartal-
schrift of Canzler and Meissner, second year, No. IV, fasc. 1.
3 Opera Omnia cum Nic. Taurellii Aanotat. Bas. 1585, fol.
272—273.] Occam. 243
EOUBTH PEEIOD OF THE SCHOLASTIC
DOCTBINE.
TIL Disputes betiveen the Nominalists and Realists renewed
7)y Occam, in which the former gain ground. (From the
Fourteenth Century to the end of the Fifteenth.)
272. About the close of this century a man of great merit
contributed much to the downfal of Realism, and the ces-
sation of those endless logical disputes, by removing diffi-
culties after a clearer and more precise manner, and esta-
blishing the foundations of a more exact knowledge of the
properties of the Object and Subject. This was G. Durand
de St. Pourgain.1 He was at first a Thomist, but subse-
quently became a candid adversary of that School.3
Occam.
Joh. Salaberti Philosophia ISTominalium vindicata; or, Logica in
Nominalium Via, Lut. Par. 1651, 8vo. (very scarce). Some extracts
are to be found in Cramer, Continuation of Bossuet, VIT, p. 867.
Ars Kationis ad Mentem Nominalium, Oxf. 1673, 12mo.
Guil. Occam, Qusestiones et Decisiones in IV libb. Sententiar.
Lugd. 1495-6-7, fol. Centiloquium Theologicum, ibid. 1494-5-6, fol.
Summa Totius Logicae, fol. Par. 1488 ; Bonon. 1498; Oxf. 1675, 8vo.
Opus nonaginta dierum, folio, Lov. 1481 ; Lugd. 1495-6.
Dialogorum Libri VII advers. Hereticos, et de Dogmatt. Johannis
Papa? XXII, folio, Par. 1476; Lugd. 1495-8.
Quodlibeta VII, una cum Tract, de Sacram. Altaris, folio, Par. 1487 ;
Arg. 1491.
Compendium Errorum Johannis Papse XXII, folio, Lov. 1481 ; Lugd.
1496.
Commentum in I Librum Sententiarum, 1483.
Summulas in Physic. Aristotelis, Bon. 1494.
Decisiones octo queestion. de Potestate summi Pontificis, Lug. 1496.
Disputatio inter Clericum et Militem super Potestate Prelatis atq.
Principib. terrar. commissa, Par. 1498.
273. William of Occam (or Ochham), an Englishman,
born in Surrey, and surnamed Doctor Singidaris, Invicihilis
et Venerablis Inceptor, a disciple of Scot, and, like him a
[Franciscan, began a new era in philosophy and history by his
talents, and the courage with which he opposed himself most
1 Durandus de Sancto Porciano, bishop of Meaux, named Doctor
Resolutissimus, was born at Auvergne. Died 1332.
2 Launoii Syllabus Kationum, quibus durandi causa Defendirur, in
Opp.; torn I, p. 1. See his Comment, in Magistr. Sentent. Par. 1508.
E 2
244 SECOND PEEIOD. [SECT.
zealously to the despotism of the prevailing dogmata. He
was a teacher at Paris at the beginning of the fourteenth
century, and having defended the rights of the king of
Prance and the emperor against the usurpations of the pope,
died, persecuted but not subdued, at Munich, 1347 or 1353.
He proposed to effect no more by his Logic than a better
demonstration of common opinions ; refused to submit im-
plicitly to authority ; and closely following the principles of
more rational Dialectics, and in particular the dictum that
— JEntia non sunt multiplicanda proeter necessitatem : he de-
monstrated the absurdity of Realism ; refuted it in a variety
ot particulars, and directed the attention of others to the doc-
trine of the Nominalists. He denied that universal concep-
tions had any other objective existence than what they possess
in the understanding; because such an hypothesis is not
necessary either for the purposes of the possibility of judg-
ment, or of a real science, and because it leads to extravagant
consequences : on the contrary, such notions have only an
objective being in the mind itself, are a product of Abstrac-
tion, and either images (Jic/menia) of the same, or qualities
subjectively present in the Soul, which it employs to designate
classes of external objects.1 He did but sketch the princi-
ples of a philosophy afterwards completed ; but his labours
sufficed to withdraw the attention of his followers from the
all-engrossing question of the principle of Individuality, and
directed them rather to the acquirement of fresh knowledge.
In his theory ot knowledge, Occam receded still farther
from the opinions of the- Realists, and by maintaining that
Thought was Subjective, afforded a greater handle to Scep-
ticism and Empiricism than possibly he himself might have
intended. Though too absolutely laid down, such a propo-
sition, was, nevertheless, in the circumstances of the times,
serviceable to the cause of philosophy. William of Occam,
by controverting established dogmata, by his Scepticism,
and by the new ideas he started, impaired the authority of
existing principles, and gave occasion to more extended
inquiries. On the same ground, he endeavoured, in The-
ology, to circumscribe the subjects of investigation, and
rejected the established Scholastic proofs of the Existence,
Unity, and Omnipotence of the Divinity; as also of His
"Wisdom, and that he is an Intelligence and the Free Cause
1 Comment, in Lib . I, 2; Queest. 4 and 8.
274.] EMINENT NOMINALISTS. 245
of the World ; asserting that all these are matters of faith
alone. Nevertheless, he departed so far from his own prin-
ciples as to offer a proof of the existence of God, derived
from the preservation of all things in their original state ;
asserting that for such preservation some active efficient
cause must be assigned, which can be no other than the
First Creative Principle. In Psychology he threw out some
ingenious notions respecting the Soul, the diversity of its
faculties, and their relations to their objects. He refuted
at length the hypothesis of Objective Images (Species);
up to this time regarded as necessary to a theory of intui-
tional and sensational Perception and Thought. On many
points Occam adhered to the opinions of his master, Scofcus;
for instance, respecting Free-will, and the origin of Morality
in the subjective Will of God.
Erner, Ueber Nominal ismus und Realismus, 1842.
Opponents of Nominalism.
274. Occam in his turn was opposed by the partisans of
Healism, though in a much more feeble manner ; and among
others by his fellow-student Walter Burleigh,1 or Burlceus
(Doctor Planus et Perspicuus), born 1275 ; at first a pro-
fessor in England, then at Paris, and lastly at Oxford, and
who died about 1337. The debates between the two schools
appear now to have been mainly confined to oral disputa-
tion. With regard to the writings of Thomas de Bradwar-
dine,2 and Thomas de Strasbwr/,3 we need only remark that
the former resisted the tendency to Pelagianism contained
in the theory of Scotus, and the second did but reproduce
what had been already taught by iEgidius Colonna. Mar-
1 He composed Commentaries on the Ethics and Physics of Aristotle
and a Biography of the Philosophers and Poets, " De Vita et Moribus
Philosophorum et Poetarum," Colon. 1472, often reprinted ; A Defence
of the Metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas, Venet. 1494, folio ; and various
other works. See Heumann, Acta Philos., No. 14, p. 282, sqq.
3 Of Hertfield; died archbishop of Canterbury, 1339. Wrote De
Causa Dei contra Pelagium et de. Virtute Causarum, lib. Ill, ed. Henr.
Savile, Lond. 1618, fol. Thomas de Bradwardine was also celebrated
for his mathematical works.
3 Thomas Argentinensis, died prior-general of the order of the
Hermits of St. Augustin, A.D. 1357 ; composed Comment, in Magistr.
ntentiarum, Argent. 1490, fol.
246 SECOND PERIOD. [SECT.
silius of Inghen l appears to have been a moderate Kealist
according to the principles of Occam and IScotus, as re-
spected the theory of Volition.
Nominalists.
275. The most celebrated Nominalists who succeeded,
were John Buridan and Peter D'Ailly. John Buridan of
Bethune, professor of philosophy and theology at Paris,2
was looked upon by his contemporaries as one of the most
powerful adversaries of Realism, and distinguished himself
also by his rules for finding the Middle Term in Logic ; a
species of contrivance denominated by some the Ass's*
Bridge; as well as by his inquiries concerning Free-will,
wherein he approached the principles of Determinatism,3
maintaining that we necessarily prefer the greater of two
goods. As for the celebrated illustration, which bears his
name, of an ass dying for hunger between two bundles of
hay, it is not to be found in his writings. Peter D'Ailly, a
cardinal (died 1425), 4 assisted to mark still more broadly
the limits between Theology and Philosophy, and opposed
the abuses of the Scholastic system. His opinions respect-
ing the degree of certainty belonging to human knowledge,
and his examination of the proofs advanced of the existence
and unity of God, deserve particular attention.5 The other
1 Surnamed Ingenuus : He taught at Paris and Heidelberg, which
latter University he helped to form. Died 1396. He composed Com-
mentt. in IV libb. Sententiarum, Hagen. 1497, fol.
Dan. Lud. Wundt, Commentatio Historica de Marsiliio ab Inghen,
primo Universitatis Heidelberg. Rectore et Professore, Heidelb. 1775,
8vo. The same, in the Thesaurus Biog. et Ribliograph. of Waldau.
2 In the year 1358 he was still living at Paris.
3 See his Qusestiones in X libb. Ethicorum Aristot. Paris. 1489, fol. ;
Ox/. 1637, 4to, Qusest. in Polit. Arist. ibid. 1500. fol. ; Compendium
Logicse, Ven. 1499, fol. Summula de Dialectic^, Paris. 1487, fol. See
r> a tub's Diet.
4 Peter de Alliaco, styled Aquila Gallia, born 1350 at Compiegne:
chancellor of the University of Paris, 1389, bishop of Puy and
Cambrai, and finally a cardinal.
5 Petri de Alliaco Cardinalis Cameracensis Vita, by Dupin, in 1st
vol. of Opp. Gersoni, p. 37.
Petri de Alliaco Questiones super IV libb. Sententiarum, Arg.
1490, fol. De Concordantia Astronomise cum Theologia, Aug. Vind.
1490. Ven. 1494. Tractatus super Meteora Aristot. Lips. s. a. Tract,
de Potestate Papse et Auctoritate Cardd., s. I. vel a., 4 to. ; and many
other works.
275—276.] geeson. 247
partisans and supporters of Nominalism were Robert Holcof,
an Englishman (died 1349), Gregory of Rimini,1 Richard
Suisset (or Swinshead) , an Englishman and a Cistercian
monk (taught at Oxford about 1350), Henry of Oyta, and
Henry of Hesse,2 Nicolas Oramus? Matthew of Cracow,4' and
Gabriel Biel,s who died 1495., and was the author of a
brief and luminous exposition of the principles of Occam.
Almost all were celebrated as professors, and men of cul-
tivated parts, but without any true philosophical talent,
though Henry of Hesse6 distinguished himself by some dis-
coveries in Mathematics and Astronomy.
27G. Up to this time the disputes between the two sects
continued to be pursued with the like animosity, and with
equal admixture on both sides of human passions. Though
Nominalism had been proscribed at Paris,7 it nevertheless
made good its ground, and even gained from day to day
fresh adherents ; nay, it more than ouce obtained, even at
Paris, as well as in the universities of Germany, the pre-
eminence, but without completely defeating the opposite
party. The same scenes were perpetually acting on both
these theatres of contention; the metaphysical contest
respecting Universal Conceptions not being the only point
of dispute, but combined with a complete diversity of
opinions in general. On the part of the Nominalists might
be noticed the gradual increase of a spirit of independence
and a tendency to more liberal principles, and a more fun-
damental cast of thought, though asserted by very imperfect
philosophical methods. This spirit especially manifested
itself in opposition to the theses of the Idealist Nicolas of
1 Greg. Ariminensis, died at Vienna, 1358. A distinguished divine,
and general of the Augustinian order.
2 Both Germans; the latter died 1397.
3 Or Oresmius, died bishop of Lisieux, 1382.
4 Or Chroehove, in Pomerania; died 1410.
5 Born at Spires; provost of Aurach, and professor of theology and
philosophy at Tubingen.
Epitome et Collectarium super IV libb. Sentential". Tab. 14%,
2 vols. fol. ; Epitome Script. Guil. Occam circa Duos Priores Senten-
tiarum.
HlERON. WlEGAND BlEL, Diss. fprEGS. GOTTLIEB WERNSDORF) (le
Gab. Biel celeberrimo Papista Antipapista, Vitab. 1719, 4to.
6 Henricus Hessi.e, Secreta Sacerdotum in Missa, Heidelb. 1480,
4to, often reprinted ; and many other works.
7 In 1339, 1340, 1409, 1473.
248 SECOKD PERIOD. [SECT.
Autricuria (bachelor of Theology at Paris, 1348), and of
John de Mer curia (about the same year),1 yet eventually
proved abortive, and the customary opinions of the age
resumed their sway.
Hundeshagen, Ueber die mystische Theologie Gerson's, 1831.
Liebner, Ueber Gerson's mystische Theologie, 1835.
277. The ultimate consequence of these repeated dis-
cussions was a diminution of the credit and influence of the
Scholastic system, and at the same time a diminished regard
for philosophy, especially for Logic, of which in his time
Gerson already saw reason to complain ; and this induced
a disposition to Mysticism, arising out of a feeling of
disgust for unmeaning verbal disputes. Mysticism was
accordingly preached with ardour by John Tattler, who died
at Strasburg, 1361, and more especially by the celebrated
John Chalier de Gerson of Rheims, born 1363, the disciple
of Peter D'Ailly, and his successor as chancellor of Paris,
in 1395 ; died almost in exile in 1429, at Lyons. He de-
voted his principal attention to discussing the obligations
of practical Christianity, which procured for him the appel-
lation of Doctor Christianissimus ; and held mystical the-
ology to be true philosophy, if it is founded on internal
experiences of God in devout minds, or in other words, on
Internal Perception or Intuition.8 He nevertheless opposed
himself to enthusiastic extravagancies, retaining the use of
Logic, and employing it after a new method.3 Next to him
we must place Nicolas de Clemange (de Clemangis), a cou-
rageous thinker ; who opposed the narrow subtilties of the
Schools.4 He was rector of the university of Paris (1393),
and died about 1440. But the man who, as a religious
writer, possessed the greatest influence in his own and
succeeding ages, was the ascetical mystic Thomas Uamerlceii5
1 See Boullay, Hist. Univ. Paris, torn. IV, p. 308, sqq.
2 De Mystica Theol. Consideratt. II.
3 Centilogium de Conceptibus, liber de Modis Significandi et de
Concordi& Metaphys. cum Logica\
J. G. Engelhakdti Commentationes de Gersonio Mystico, part I,
Erl. 1822, 4to.
Gersonis Opera, Bas. 1488, vol. Ill, fol. ; ed. Edm. Richek, Paris.
1606, fol., et Lud. Ellies Dupin, Antverp. 1756, 5 vols. fol.
4 Opera ed. Jo. Mart. Lydius, Lugd. Bat. 1613, 4to.
5 Especially by his well known book De Imitatione Christi. A
good edition of his Works by Sommel, Antwerp, 1600 — 1607, 4to.
277.] EAYMOND DE SEBOKDE. 249
(Malleolus), styled Thomas a Kempis, from the name of a
village, Kempen, in the archbishopric of Cologne, where he
was born A.D. 1380. He died 1471. Another eminent
mystic * was John Wessel, surnamed Gansford, or Goesevot
(Goose-foot),1 styled by his contemporary admirers Lux
mundi et Magisier contradictibnum. He was at first a
Nominalist, and an opponent of the dogmatism of the
Schoolmen. The same dislike of the same system may be
observed in the Natural Theology of Raymond de Sebonde
(or Sebunde) who taught at Toulouse in the first half of
the fifteenth century, about 1436. He asserted that man
has received from the Almighty two books, wherein he may
discover the important facts which concern his relation to
his Creator, — namely, the book of Revelation and that of
Nature: the latter he affirmed to be the most universal in
its contents, and the most perspicuous. He endeavoured
by specious rather than solid arguments to deduce the
theology of his age, even in its more peculiar doctrines, from
the contemplation of Nature and of Man. His attempt
deserved, for its just observations on many subjects, espe-
cially on Morals, greater success than it met with, until
Montaigne directed to it the attention of his contem-
poraries.2
Observation. It cannot be expected that a minute account should
have been rendered of the respective opinions, in detail, of each
Schoolman, involved as they are in endless disputes and distinctions
respecting the same subjects : — such a specification, if it had been
possible, would, in an abridgment like the present, have been super-
fluous. The Sentences of Lombardus and the works of Aristotle were
the constant subjects of their discussions from the time of Albert the
Great; respecting which their commentaries and disquisitions were as
minute as they were voluminous and unprofitable.
* It is well to remark that the term Mystic, as employed by our
author, and all liberal minded German philosophers, doe3 not imply,
as in England, any stigma on the capacity of the thinker. — Ed.
1 Born at Groningen, 1409; died 1469. He must not be con-
founded with his contemporary the Nominalist, John Burchard von
Wessel. See Gotze, Comment, de J. Wessel o, Lut. Par. 1719, 4to.
J. Wesselii Opera, ed. Lydius, Amst. 1717, 4to.
2 Montaigne has translated, under the title of Natural Theology, his
Liber Creaturarum sive Naturaj. The Latin editions are, Franco/.
1635, and Am&tel. 1761. See Montaigne's Observations, in his Essays,
lib. II, c. 12.
250 SECOND PEItlOD. [SECT,
PAET THE THTED.
THIRD PERIOD.
MODERN PHILOSOPHY.
THE SCHOLASTIC SYSTEM OPPOSED BY A EETITEN TO, AND
BY NEW COMBINATIONS OF, FOEMEB, SYSTEMS
OF PHILOSOPHY.
From the Fifteenth Century to the end of the Sixteenth.
Feuerbach, Geschichte der neuern Philosophic, von Bacon bis
Spinoza. (1833-1844) § 150-214.
Carriere, Die philosophische Weltanschauung der Reformations
Zeit, 1847, § 609-725.
Blakey, History of the Philosophy of Mind. 4 v. 8vo.
Eixner, Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophic, vol. 3 : Geschichte
der neuern und nuesten Zeit, 2te Ausg. Sidzb. 1829.
Bitter, Geschichte der 1 hilosophie, 9 Theil. Geschichte der neuern
Philosophic, erster Theil, 1850.
Sigwart, Geschichte der Philosophic 2 und 3 Band, vom 16ten Jahr-
hunderte bis auf die Gegenwart, 1844.
278. Scholasticism, which had now accomplished its mis-
sion, may be defined as the one-sided course of dogmatising
Reason attempting to bring about philosophical knowledge
through the solution and combination of conceptions under
the dominion of a foreign principle, and in conformity with
the fundamental axioms of the Aristotelian philosophy,
which were adopted without submitting them to any test.
The disputes of the two adverse sects into which its sup-
porters were subdivided, gradually loosened its hold on the
public mind, and the Nominalists in the end openly attacked
its authority ; so that men became more and more awakened
to the necessity (though as yet imperfectly understood) of
giving Science a new foundation and fresh fuel, by a more
accurate observation of Nature, and by increased study of
the Languages. The party of the Mystics especially, ani-
mated as they were by a deep want and longing tor a better
278 — 280.] DOWNFALL OF SCHOLASTICISM. 251
spiritual nourishment, were dissatisfied with the meagre and
pedantic forms which were, as yet, their only support.
Nevertheless, it was from another quarter that the revolution
was destined to commence.
279. The human mind had too long lost the true path of
Science, to be able immediately to recover it. In conse-
quence of its long subjection to prescriptive notions, we find
that it continued for some time to labour to unravel the
consequences of those it had inherited, rather than apply
itself* to the legitimate objects of inquiry — the principles of
knowledge, and of its objects. From want of skill to detect
the concatenation of different branches of knowledge, and
from the habit of confounding cognitions derived from very
different sources, the human mind was unable to discover
the faultiness of its own method, and the influence of the
old manner was necessarily prolonged. Other circum-
stances contributed to the same result : the inveterate
reverence for Aristotle's authority — the want of real and
accurate knowledge — the bad taste of the age, and the low
state of classical learning — added to the redoubtable autho-
rity of the Papal Hierarchy, slavish attachment to the
dogmas handed down and sanctioned by the Church, and
the jealous zeal with which the guardians of the ancient
Dogmatism protected their errors ; — all these auxiliary cir-
cumstances long continued to make it difficult to shake off
the intolerable yoke imposed on the reason, against which
some bolder spirits had already begun to rebel.
280. Nevertheless certain political events in Europe gra-
dually prepared the way, though at first distantly, for a
complete change in its civil and ecclesiastical constitution ;
shook the supports of the old philosophy ; and, by ultimately
destroying it, helped to produce a revolution in the literary
world, rich in important consequences. These were : the
Crusades — the Invention of Printing — the Conquest of
Constantinople — the Discovery of the New "World — and
the Reformation ; with the direct or indirect results of these
events ; such as the formation of a Middle Class of citizens
— the influence acquired by public opinion — the increase of
the Temporal at the expense of the Spiritual Power — the
consolidation of civil authority on firmer and better-estab-
lished bases — the advancement of experimental knowledge
and the sciences — the acquisition of models for imitation
252 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT
and sources of instruction m the recovery of the authors of
antiquity — and, lastly, the improvement and cultivation of
the languages of Modern Europe. The human mind became
sensible of its need of instruction and of the imperfection
of its present systems, and demanded a better philosophy ;
but, too weak as yet to support itself without .such assist-
ance, it leaned upon the authors of antiquity for guidance
and support. The cultivation of this study brought with it
an improved spirit of refinement and moral improvement,
and at the same time showed by reflection the evils of that
state of mental subjugation to which so many centuries of
mankind had been reduced, and awakened in those who
prosecuted it a desire to liberate themselves from such
thraldom.
281. At the same time that these circumstances from
without operated, or contributed to operate, so great a
change in the freer use of Reason, a strong desire prevailed
among many for a higher knowledge and wisdom revealed
hy God ; because, owing to the path which mental cultiva-
tion had followed, and from the still imperfect development
of the Reason, there had arisen a conviction that certainty
of knowledge and a completely satisfying wisdom could
alone come from God; and, consequently, to the Bible was
added also the Cabbala, as a frequent source of Philosophy.
A prejudice which appears to have been derived by the
Fathers, and which was in part kept alive and recommended
by the constant disputes and uncertainties of a vast number
of contending sects, into which the Philosophical world was
soon divided, fostered this thirst for secret Divine Wisdom.
282. The consequence of all these different causes was
that a variety of systems of greater or less validity began to
prevail ; knowledge was cultivated and improved j1 some of
the Grecian systems of philosophy were cultivated and
adopted ; discussions were set on foot with regard to their
respective merits, and the attempt was made to combine
them (either partially or entirely), and to reconcile them
with Christianity. The systems themselves were conse-
quently submitted to examination, attempts were made to
extend the dominion of Science, more especially in the
1 Ekhard's Geschichte des Wicderaufbluhens wissensschaftlicher
Bildunff. 1827--32. 3 Biinde.
281 — 283.] eeviyal or letters. 253
department of Natural History (as yet so imperfectly culti-
vated), though accompanied with a thirst for occult and
mysterious wisdom. Lastly came the desire to combine
several of these controversies in one system, with a special
reference to the fundamental principles of Christianity.
An attempt was also made to unite Theology and Philo-
sophy, Ideas and Conceptions ; — the doctrines of Plato and
those of Aristotle.
Revival of Greeh Literature in Italy ; with its immediate
consequences.
283. "When the Greeks, wrho had always retained a cer-
tain degree of attachment for letters, derived from their
renowned ancestors (§ 236), came to solicit in Italy assist-
ance against the Turks, and, after the capture of Constan-
tinople, sought there a safer residence than in their own
country, they brought with them a rich fund of various arts
and literary treasures, and infused a new energy into the
minds of the Western nations, who were already in a state
to profit by such acquisitions.1 Among these precious
remains of Ancient Greece were the works of Aristotle and
Plato in their original form : the knowledge of which was
presently disseminated through Europe with remarkable
celerity. The Greeks who respectively supported the two
systems of those great philosophers (such as George Gemis*
thus Fletho,2 on the one side, a partizan of the JNeoplatonic
1 To this age belong the poets Dante Alighieri, Petrarca, and Boc-
caccio, who contributed much to the general diffusion of a literary-
taste, though not immediately and directly to that of philosophy.
For the learned Greeks who were instrumental in bringing about this
revival of Classical literature, {Emmanuel Chrysoloras, Th. Gaza,
George of Trebizond, John Argryopulus, etc.), see Humphr. Hodius,
De Grsecis illustribus Linguae Gr. Literarumque Humaniorum restau-
ratoribus, Lond. 1742, 8vo. Heeren, Hist, of the Study of Class. Lit,
Chph. Fr. Bokner, De Doctis Hominibus Graecis Literarum Greecarum.
in Italia restauratoribus, Lips. 1750, 8vo. Chph. Meiners, Biography
of celebrated Men.
2 Of Constantinople; came to Florence 1438.
Geo. Gemisthi Plethonis De Platonics© atque Aristotelicae Philo-
sophise Differentia, Gr. Ven. 1540, 4to.
Among his Philosophical Works, was :
Libellus de Fato, ejusd. et Bessarionis Epist. Amoebocse de eodem
254 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
doctrine ; and on the other George Scliolarius, subsequently-
called Gennadius, Theodore Gaza,1 and more especially
George of Trebizond? all Aristotelians), engaged in a warm
dispute respecting the merits of their favourite systems,8
which it required all the moderation of cardinal Bessarion4
in any degree to temper.
Attack on tJie ScJiolastic System.
284. The first result of all these circumstances was a con-
flict with the Scholastic system, which, beside the inherent
causes of its barbarous style, bad taste, and narrow views,
was occasioned also by the recent discovery of the great
difference between the Aristotelian theory as taught in the
Schools, and the freer, purer spirit that runs through the
original writings of Aristotle and Plato. The philolo gists
Hermolaus Barbaras,5 the translator of Aristotle, of Themis-
tius, and Dioscorides, and AngeJus Politiamis,6 were the first
to enter the lists with its champions : Laurentius Valla?
Arguments cum Yers. Lat. H. S. Reimari, Lugd. Bat. 1722, Svo. De
Quatuor Virtutib. Cardinalib. Gr. et Lat. Adr. Occone interprete, Bas.
1522, 8vo., et. al. De Virtutibus et Vitiis, Gr. Lat. ed. Ed. Fawconer,
Oxon. 1752, 8vo. See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. torn. X, p. 741.
1 Came into Italy about 1430; died about 1478. He was born at
Thessalonica.
2 Born 1395, in the isle of Crete; professor of Greek literature in
various places in Italy; died 1484 or 86.
Besides several commentaries, he wrote the dissertation styled,
Comparatio Aristotelis et Platonis, Yen. 1523, 8vo.
3 On this subject see a Dissert, of Boivin in the Mem. of the Acad,
of Inscript., torn. II, p. 775, sqq.
See his work: In Calumniatorem Platonis libb. IV, Ven. 1503 et
1516, directed against the Aristotelians. Ejusd. ; Epist. ad Mich.
Apostolicum de prccstantia Platonis pne Aristotele, etc., Gr. cum vers.
Lat. ; Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript., torn. Ill, p. 303.
4 Born in 1395, at Trebizond, came to Florence in 1438, died in 1472.
<> Hermolao Barbaro, of Venice; born 1454, died 1493.
6 Properly Angelo Ambrogini, or Cino; surnamed Poliziano: born
at Monte Puldanp 1454; died 1494.
7 Lorenzo Valla of Rome; born 1403, died 1457.
Laurentii Valise Opera, Basil. 1543, fol. De Dialectic^ contra
Aristotelcos. Venet, 1499, fol. De Voluptate et Vero Bono libb. Ill,
Basil. 1519, 4 to. De Libero Arbitrio, ibid. 1518, 4to.
284 — 285.] OLD SYSTEMS EENEWED. 255
and Bodolph Agricola1 the German, endeavoured, by re-
moving the rubbish with which the field of Dialectics was
encumbered, to render them more available for useful pur-
poses : then succeeded H. Cornelius Agrippa of Neltesheim
(see § 289), JJlricli von Hutten,2 Erasmus* and his friend
J. L. Fives* Philip Melanchtlion (§ 294), Jacobus Eaber,5
Marius Nizolius? Jac. Sadoletus,1 and Jac. Acontius? The
methods pursued by these learned men in their attacks on
the system of the Schools were very dissimilar, according to
the different lights in which they viewed that system, and
the different objects which engrossed their attention.
Renewal of the Ancient Systems.
285. In consequence of these pursuits the systems of the
Grecian and Arabian philosophers were brought into discus-
sion, and the opposition to the Scholastic system reinforced.
The doctrines of Aristotle and Plato were the first which
thus regained their place ; (the sort of knowledge then cul-
tivated favouring their reception) ; and, subsequently, other
theories allied to theirs. In this manner the Cabbala, the
1 Rudolph Husraann or Hausmann ; bom at Bafflen, near Groningen,
1443, died 1485.
Rudolphi Agricola De Invcntione Dialectica lib. Ill, Colon. 1527,
4to. Ejusd. : Lucubrationes, Basil. 1518, 4 to.; et Opera, cura Alardi,
Colon. 1539, 2 vols. fol.
2 Bora 1488, died 1593. Opera (ed. Munch) torn. I— V, Berol.
1821-5, 8vo.
3 Desiderius Erasmus, born at Rotterdam 1467, died 1536.
Des. Erasmi Dialogi et Encomium Moriae. Opera, ed. Clericus,
Lond. 1703, 11 vols. fol. 4 Bora at Valencia 1492, died 1540.
Ltjdovici Vives, De Causis Corruptarum Artium, Antverp. 1531;
and De Initiis, Sectis et Laudibus Philosophise. Idem: De Anima et
Vita lib. Ill, Bas. 1538. Opera, Basil. 1555, 2 vols, fol.; or, ed. Majan-
sius, 8 vols. fol. Valent. 1782-90.
8 J. Lefevre, of Etaples in Picardy; died 1537.
6 Of Bersello; died 1540.
Jac. Nisolii Antibarbarus, seu de Veris Principiis et Vera Ratione
Philosophandi contra Pseudo-Philosophos libb. IV, Parma. 1553, 4to.
Ed. G. W. Leibnitz, Franc/. 1674, 4to. 7 Of Modena; died 1547.
Jac. Sadoleti Pheedrus, seu de Laudibus Philosophise libb. II. In
Opp. Mogunt. 1607, 8vo. Patav. 1737, 8vo.
8 Born at Trent; died 1566.
Methodus sive Recta investigandarum tradendarumque Artium ac
Scicntiarum Ratio. Bas. 1558, in 8vo.
256 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
so-called Mosaic philosophy, Theosopliy and Magic, were
annexed to the theories of the Platonists ; and the Ionian
and Atomistic doctrines with the Aristotelian. The Stoic
and Sceptic systems at first had few defenders ; nevertheless,
as it is impossible that any of the ancient theories should
give entire satisfaction in an age so different from that in
which they first appeared, and as their effects were of course
gradually brought to light, it followed that attempts were
occasionally made to combine different views, while at other
times they were separately attacked with Sceptical objections.
In their choice of a sect, and their efforts to establish or
destroy a theory, men were influenced by two sets of con-
siderations, according as they proposed to themselves to
establish a Theological system, or to promote discoveries in
Natural Science.
I. Revived of Platonism : Cdbbalism, Magic, and
Theosopliy.
Besides the works mentioned § 283, see the Sketch of the History of
Philosophy by Buhle.
Ludw. Dankegott Cramek, Diss, de Causis Instauratee Saec. XV, in
Italia, Philosophise Platonicce, Viteb. 1812, 4to.
Sieveking, Die Geschichte der platonischen Akademie zu Florenz,
1812.
286. The Platonic philosophy, which was eagerly received
in Italy by men of fanciful minds, was fostered at Florence
by the two Medici, Cosmo and Lorenzo,1 and excited there
a vivid enthusiasm ; though wearing rather the character of
the Neoplatonic school than of the Academy. Among the
recommendations it possessed in their eyes was one which in
fact was purely gratuitous, viz., that it was derived, as some
of the Fathers believed, from the Jewish philosophy and
religion ; and hence its reputation of being allied to Chris-
tianity.2 A similar prejudice caused them to connect with
Platonism the Cabbalistical and Mosaical doctrines. In
addition to this, Platonism continually acquired fresh adhe-
1 Eoscoe, Life of Lorenzo de' Medici. Bohn, Lond. 1846.
Eoscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X, 2 vols. Bohn, Lond. 18 IQ.
2 Jon. Pici Heptaplus, p. I, Franc Pici Epist. lib. IV, p. 8S2.
286 — 287.] Nicholas ctjsantts. 257
rents in consequence of the meagre logical system of the
Schools, and its inaptitude to satisfy all the wants of human
nature. Hence it allied itself to Mysticism ; adopted the
interests of the ideas of Eeason ; supported by argument
the Immortality of the Soul ; and served to balance the
Naturalism of the mere Aristotelians ; but also unfortu-
nately in some respects favoured superstition, especially by
the doctrine of the Intervention of the Spiritual "World in
the government of nature.1* An honourable exception
must be made in the case of A strology, which it uniformly
rejected.
§ 287.
Scharpff, Der Cardinal und Bischoff Nikolaus von Cusa, 1843.
Clemens, Giordano Bruno und Nikolausvon Cusa, 1847.
C. Hartzheim, Vita Nicolai de Cusa, Trevir. 1730, 8vo.
Among the first of those who bade adieu to the Scholastic
creed was the Cardinal Nicolas Cusanus,2 a man of rare
sagacity and an able mathematician ; who arranged and
republished the Pythagorean Ideas, to which he was much
inclined, in a very original manner, by the aid of his Mathe-
matical knowledge. He considered God as the uncondi-
tional Maximum, which at the same time, as Absolute Unity,
is also the unconditional Minimum, and begets of Himself
and out of Himself, Equality and the combination of
Equality with Unity (Son and Holy Ghost). According to
him, it is impossible to know directly and immediately this
Absolute Unity (the Divinity); because we can make
approaches to the knowledge of Him only by the means of
Number or Plurality. Consequently he allows us only the
possession of very imperfect notions of God, and those by
mathematical symbols. It must be admitted that the Car-
dinal did not pursue this thought very consequently, and
that his view of the universe which he connected with it,
and which represented it as the Maximum condensed, and
1 Ficini Prsefatio in Plotinum ; Pomponatius, De Incantionibus, c. I.
* With our present imperfect knowledge of the mysterious agencies
opeiating in Nature we are hardly justified in stigmatizing as supersti-
tion what may after all turn out to be true.- Ed.
2 Nkolaus Chrypffs of Kuss or Kusel (hence called Cusanus) in the
archbishopric of Treves; born 1401, died 1464.
258 TIIIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
thus become finite, was very obscure. Nor was lie more suc-
cessful in his view of the owe-ness of the Creator and of
Creation, or in his attempt to explain the mysteries of the
Trinity and Incarnation, by means of this Pantheistic
Theism. Nevertheless, numerous profound though unde-
veloped observations on the faculty of cognition, are found
in his writings, interspersed with his prevailing Mysticism.
For instance, he observes, that the principles of knowledge
possible to us are contained in our ideas of Number {ratio
explicatd) and their several relations ; that absolute know-
ledge is unattainable to us {precisio veritatis inattincfibilU,
which he styled docta ignorantid), and that all which is
attainable to us is a probable knowledge {conjccturci). With
such opinions he expressed a sovereign contempt for the
Dogmatism of the Schools.1
§ 288.
Ficini Opera in II tomos digesfa, Bas. 1561, Far. 1641. fol.
Commentarius etc Platoiiicae Philosophise post renatas Literas apud
Italos restauratione, sivo Mars. Ficini Vita, auctore Jon. Corsio ejus
familiari et discipulo. Nunc prim am in lucem emit Angelus Maria
Bandini, Pis. 1772.
J. G. Schelhorn, Comment, de Vita, Moribus, et seriptis Marsilii
Ficini. In the Amrenitatt. Lit.erar. torn. I.
+ Life of J. Picas, Count of Mirandola, in Meiner's Lives of Learned
Men, 2 vols. : and Fici Opp. Bonon. 1496, fol. Opera utriusque 1'ici,
Bas. 1572-3 et 1601, 2 vols. fol.
The examples of Pletho and Bessarion (§ 283) were im-
proved upon by Marsilius Ficinus? a .Florentine physician,
who engraved with zeal and abilitv in the defence of the
Platonic philosophy ; both by his translations of Plato, Plo-
tinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, etc. ; and also his original pro-
ductions, devoted to the commendation of that system.
Cosmo de' Medici, (who died 1464), availed himself of his
services in the foundation of a Platonist Academy, about
14G0.3 But Eicinus was a Neoplatonist, who added to the
1 Nicolai Cusani Opera, Paris. 1514. 3 vols, fol; Basil. 1665, 3
vols. fol. De Docta Ignorantia. torn. III. Apologia Doctee Ignorantiae,
lib. I. De Conjecturis libb. II. De Sapientia libb. III.
2 Born at Florence 1433, died 1499.
3 + K. Sievekjng, History of the Platonist Academy at Florence,
Gotting. 1812, 8vo.
288.] ticinus and mirandola. 259
system of the Academy some Aristotelian doctrines, and
regarded the Hermes Trismegistus of the Alexandrians as
the inventor of the theory of Ideas. In his Theolcgia JBla-
tonica he displayed ability in the statement of certain argu-
ments to establish the Immortality of the Soul,1 and opposed
the doctrine imagined by Averroes, and maintained by the
Aristotelians, of an Universal Intelligence. The object he
proposed to himself was to apply his views of the Platonic
system to the defence and explanation of Christianity. His
enthusiasm won over John Ficus, count of Mirandola,2 a
learned man, of superior parts but extravagant imagination.
He had studied the Scholastic philosophy, and imbibed the
notion that the philosophy of Plato was derived from the
books of Moses, whence he was inclined to deduce all the
arts and sciences.3 In consequence of such a persua-
sion, he devoted himself to the study of the Oriental
languages and Cabbalistical books ; from which he drew
a large proportion of the theses which he proposed to
maintain in a public disputation as announced by him at
[Rome, but which never really took place.4 Prom the
same sources he drew the materials of his Essay towards a
Mosaical philosophy, in his Heptaplus. He held in great
esteem the Cabbalistical writings, to which he was tempted
to ascribe a divine origin, and considered necessary to the
explanation of the Christian religion ; at the same time
that he asserted their entire accordance with the philoso-
phical systems of Pythagoras and Plato.5 His favourite
design, which however he did not live to realise, was to
prove the consistency of the Aristotelian and Platonic sys-
tems.6 In his maturer age when he had emancipated him-
self from many of the common prejudices of his time, he
composed an able refutation of the superstitions of the
astrologers. The reputation of the Count ot Mirandola, his
works, and his numerous friends, contributed to establish
1 Theologia Platonica, sive de Immortalitate Animorum ac JEterna,
Felicitate libb. XVII. Idem : in Opp. torn. I, Paris. 1641, fol.
2 Count and Prince of Concordia, bora 1463, died 1494.
3 Heptaplus, part I, Basil. 1601.
4 Conclusions DCCCC. Rom. 1486, fol. ; Col. 1619, 8vo.
5 Apol. p. 82, 110, 116.
6 Joh. Pier Epist. ad Ficinum, torn. I, p. 753.
S 2
260 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
the credit of the Platonic and Cabbalistical doctrines. His
nephew, J. Fr. JPicusoi Mirandola (killed 1533), followed his
steps, without possessing his abilities ; but more exclusively
devoted than his uncle to Revealed philosophy,1 he opposed
at the same time the Heathen and the Scholastic systems.
Cabbalistic and Magical Systems.
+ Buhle, History of Cabbalistic Philosophy in the Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Century, in his History of Modern Philosophy, II, 1, 360,
sqq.
289. John Heuchlin? a zealous restorer of philosophy and
classical literature, travelled into Italy, where his intimacy
with Ficinus and Picus inclined him to the Pythagorico-
Platonic doctrine, and to the study of Cabbalistic writings ?
which he disseminated in Germany by means of his works,
De Verbo Miriftco* and De Arte Cabbalistical The extra-
vagant performance of the Franciscan monk Franc, Ciorgio
Zorzi* De Harmonia Mundi istius, Cantica tria, Venet. 1525,
doubtless was thought too full of daring reveries, and was
far from possessing the influence enjoyed by the works of
H. Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim.7 The latter united to
great talents universal information ; but his greediness of
reputation and money, and his fondness for occult sciences,
imparted a character of indecision and inconsistency to his
life as well as to his works. At Dole he gave with the
greatest success public lectures on the work of E-euchlin, De
Verbo Mirifico ; and at the suggestion of Tritheim, the most
celebrated adept of his time, he composed his treatise, De
1 He wrote : De Studio Divinee et Huraanse Sapientise, edid. J. F.
Buddeus, Hal. 1702, 8vo. Examen Doctrina? Vanitatis Gentilium.
De lJra3notionibus. In the Opp. utriusque Pici (see above) : Epp. ed.
Chph. Cellarius, Jen. 1682, 8vo.
2 Called also Capnio. He was born 1455, at Pforzheim, was pro-
fessor at Tubingen, and died 1522.
3 Life of Reuchlin, in the work of Meinees already quoted, part I,.
No. 2. S. F. Gehres, Life of John Reuchlin, etc., Carlsruhe, 1815, 8vo.
4 Libri III, Bos. fol. (1494).
5 Libri III, Hagen. 1517—1530, fol.
6 Franciscus Georgius, surnamed Venetus, because a native of that
city. He flourished in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
"t Born at Cologne, 1486.
289—290.] PAEACELSTJS. 2G1
Occulta PhilosopJda,1 a system of visionary philosophy, in
which Magic, the complement of philosophy, as he terms it,
and the key of all the secrets of Nature, is represented
under the three forms of Natural, Celestial, and Religious
or Ceremonial ; agreeably to the three-fold division of the
Corporeal, Celestial, and Intellectual Worlds.* He there
-enumerates, with a superficial show of scientific classifica-
tion, the hidden powers which the Creator has assigned to
the different objects of the Creation, through the agency of
the Spirit of the World. It was natural that Agrippa
should become a partisan of Raymond Lulli (§ 271), and he
accordingly wrote a commentary on his Ars Magna. Never-
theless his caprice sometimes inclined him to opinions
•directly the reverse ; and in such a mood he composed his
Cynical treatise, as he terms it, De Incertitudine et Vanitate
Scientiarum? This work, which had great reputation in its
day, occasionally presents us with sophistical arguments ;
occasionally with admirable remarks on the imperfections
and defects of scientific pursuits.3 Agrippa and his follower
John Weir,4, were of service to philosophy by opposing the
belief in witchcraft. After an adventurous life, Agrippa
died (1535) at Grenoble.
Tlieosopfiy.
290. The physician and theosophist Aureolus Theophrastus
Paracelsus (such were the names he assumed5), blended
Chemistry and Therapeutics with the Neoplatonic and Cab-
balistic mysticism. He was an ingenious and original man,
with much practical information, and a profound spirit of
J Lib. I, 1531 ; lib. II, Colon. 1533, 8vo.
* There is little doubt that several of the mystical writers of this
age were acquainted with the phenomena of Mesmerism, which unlocks
many of their secrets. — Ed.
2 Cologne, 1537; Paris, 1529; Antwerp, 1530, 4to.
3 On this writer cousult Meineks, Lives, etc. ; and Schelhorn, in
the Amsenitat. Litt., torn. II, p. 553.
Ejus Opera, in duos tomos digesta, Lugd. Bat. without date, 8vo.;
republished 1550 et 1600.
4 Born at Grave in Brabant, 1515 ; died 1588.
5 His real names were Philip Theophrastus Bombast von Hohen-
heim; born at Einsiedeln in Switzerland, 1493; died at Salzbourg,
1541.
262 TH.IKD PEEIOD. [SECT.
observation, who, though destitute of scientific information,
aspired to the character of a reformer in Medicine. To
effect this he made use of the Cabbalistic "writers, whom he
endeavoured to render popular, and expounded with a lively
imagination. Among the principal theosophic and theurgic
ideas which he enlarged upon without method or consistency
(very frequently so as scarcely to be intelligible), were
those of an internal illumination* — an emanation from the
Divinity, — the universal harmony of all things, — the in-
fluence of the stars on the sublunar world, — and the vitalitv
of the elements, which he regarded as spirits encased in the
visible bodies presented to our senses. His grand principle
was a pretended harmony and sympathy between Salt, the
Body, and the Earth : between Mercury, the Soul, and
"Water ; between Sulphur, Spirit, and Air. His views found
a great number of partisans.1 As a mystic and theosophist?
Valentine IVeujel? followed the steps of Paracelsus and
Tauler (§ 277) ; but the doctrines of the former were espe-
cially propagated by the society of the Hosy-Cross, formed
in the seventeenth century, probably in consequence of a
satiric poem3 of the theologian Valentine Andreoe (born at
Wurtemberg, 1586, died 1654).
* Evidently Clairvoyance.— See Colquhoun's Hist, of Magic, Witch-
craft, and Animal Magnetism, 1 vol. — Ed.
1 f J.J. Loes, Theophrastus Paracelsus von Hohenheirn : a Disser-
tation in the Studien of Creuzer and Daub, torn. 1. Cf. Sprengel,
Hist, of Medicine, part III. Lives and Opinions of the most cele-
brated Physicians of the close of the Sixteenth and commencement of
the Seventeenth Centuries, published by Thad. Anselm Rixner, and
Thad. Siber, fasc. I. Theophrastus Paracelsus, Sulzbach, 1819, 8vo.
Phil. Theophrasti Paracelsi Volumen Medicinse Paramirum,
Argent. 1575, 8vo., and Works of Parcelsus, published by Joh. Huser,
Bas. 1589, 10 vols. 4to. Strasb. 1616—18, 3 vols. fol.
2 Born at Hayne in Misnia, 1533; was a Lutheran minister at
Tschopau in Misnia, and died 1588.
Hilliger, De Vita, Fatis, et Scriptis Val. Weigelii; and Fortsch,
de Weigelio, in the Misccll. Lips. torn. X, p. 171.
Weigelii Tractatus de Opere Mirabili; Arcanum Omnium Arca-
norum; t The Golden Touch, or the Way to learn infallibly all
Things, etc. 1578, 4to., and 1616. Instruction and Introduction to
the Study of German Theology, Philosophy, Mysticism, etc. 1571.
Studium Universale; Nosce Teipsum, sive Theologia Astrologizata,
1618.
3 t The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosenkreutz, 1603. The
291—292.] JEKOME CAEDAN. 263
§ 291.
Cardanus de Vitft Propria ; in the first part of his Works, Lugd.
1663, 10 vols, fol— See Bayle's Dictionary. His Life, by W. R.
Becker, in the Quartalschrift of Canzlek and Meiners, year 3rd,
3 qu. fasc. V. Id. : In his Lives and Opinions of celebrated Physi-
cians, etc., fasc. II, Sidzback, 1820, 8vo.
Jerome Cardan,1 a celebrated physician, naturalist, and
mathematician, resembled Paracelsus in his eccentricities ;
but was greatly superior to him in information. During his
youth, a delicate constitution and tyrannical treatment
retarded his progress, and the prejudices of the day in
favour of astrology, and the imagination of a familiar spirit,
gave a misdirection to his studies, to be traced in his
writings ; which treat of all sorts of subjects, and without
any sj^stematic order.2 Sometimes he supports, sometimes
he opposes the superstitions of the Astronomers and Cab-
balists, and mixes up profound observations and ingenious
and elevated ideas with the most capricious absurdities.
The Theologians of his day, who condemned him as
heterodox, have accused him, without sufficient grounds, of.
atheism.
II. Revival of the System of Aristotle.
Opponents of the same.
See the work of J. Launoy, De Varia Aristot. Fort, etc., mentioned
§ 245.
W. L. G. Baron von Eberstein, On the Logical and Metaphysical
System of the Peripatetics, properly so called, Halle, 1800, 8vo.
292. Nevertheless, the theories of Aristotle had many
defenders. The Scholastic system had long nourished in
the minds of men a profound veneration for the author of
the Organum; and the education of the age .inclined men to
the reception of his philosophy. "When his works came to
be known in their original form, they were eagerly studied,
explained, translated, and abridged. Among the theolo-
same (Andrew); Universal .Reformation of the World by means of the
fama fratemitatis of the Ptosy-Cross, liatisb. 1614, 8vo.
1 Geronimo Cardano, born at Pavia, 1501 ; died 1576.
8 See especially his treatises . De Subtilitate, et Kerum Varietate.
264 TITLED PEEIOD. [SECT.
gians, and physicists in particular, was formed a numerous
school of his adherents. The latter especially, who were
inclined to Naturalism, were enabled to restate on his
authority certain doctrines belonging to natural religion and
philosophy. The distinction they drew between philoso-
phical Truth and the Belief of the Church, served to protect
them from the censures of some zealous theologians. In
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Aristotelians were
divided into two sects : the Averroists, attached to the com-
mentary of Averroes (§ 259), and the Alexandrists, or suc-
cessors of Alexander Aphrodisiensis (§ 183). These two
parties drew upon themselves so much notice by the acri-
mony of their disputes on the principles of Thought, and
the Immortality of the Soul, that in 1512 the Lateran
council endeavoured to cut short the dispute by pronouncing
in favour of the more orthodox party.
Italian Peripatetics.
293. Among the most renowned Peripatetics of Italy, we
may remark P. Pomponatius,1 of Mantua. His devotion to
the doctrines of Aristotle did not prevent his originating
many of his own, and detecting the weak points of his
master's system. He endeavoured to arouse his contempo-
raries to more profound investigations, discussing with sin-
gular force and acuteness various subjects, such as : the
Immortality of the Soul, — the relation of Free- will to Pate
and Providence, — Miracles and Sorcery ; or, to express
it more fully — the question whether the wonderful appear-
» Born 1462, died 1525 or 1530.
Petri Pomponatii De Naturalium effectuum admirandorum Causis
seu de Incantationibus liber. Ejusdem : De Fato, Libero Arbitrio,
Praedestinatione, Providentia Dei, libb. V, in quibus difficillima capita
et quasstiones Theologicae et Philosophies ex sana Orthodoxae Fidei
Doctrina explicantur et multis raris historiis passim illustrantur per
auctorem, qui se in omnibus Canonicas Scripturas Sanctorumque Doc-
torum judicio submittit, Basil. Ven. 1425 — 1556 — 1567, fol.
Ejusdem: Tractatus de Immortalitate *Animae, Bonon. 1516, etc.
The latest edition, published b^aCiiPH. Cottfr. Bardili, contains an
account of the life of Pomponatms. See also Jo. Gfr. Olearii Diss,
de Petro Pomponatio, Jen. 1709, 4 to.
Porta, De Rerum Naturalibus Principiis: de Anima et Mente
Humana, Flor. 1551, 4to.
293.] pomponatius. 265
ances of nature are produced by the agency of Spirits (as
the Platonists pretended), or that of the constellations.
He, moreover, distinctly pronounced the deviation of the
Aristotelian doctrine from the creed of the Church j1 and he
gave utterance to freer views than were then current, espe-
cially on the subjects we have enumerated, thereby exciting
a deeper spirit of research. Having asserted that, according
to Aristotle, there is no certain proof to be adduced of the
Immortality of the Soul, Pomponatius drew upon himself a
violent and formidable controversy, in which he defended
himself by asserting the distinction to be maintained
between natural science and positive belief. Many superior
men were formed in his school, such as Simon Forta or
Fortius? Faulus Jovius,3 Julius Ccesar Scaliger* who subse-
quently opposed Cardan ;5 the cardinal Gasparo Contarini
and Augustus Niplius* (who became his adversaries) ; the
Spaniard J. Genesius Sepulveda ;7 and lastly, the paradoxical
freethinker Lucilio Vanini,6 burnt at Toulouse in 1619.
Besides Pomponatius (who was the head of the School of
Alexandrists), this sect boasted other learned men who were
not among his disciples ; such as, Nicolas Leonicus, sur-
named Thomceus ;9 Jacobus Zabarella,10 who differed on some
points from Aristotle ; Ccesar Cremoninus,11 and Francis Fic-
» De Fato, III, 1. 2 Sim. Porta, died 1555.
3 Paolo Giovio, born at Como 1483, died 1559.
4 Delia Scala, born at Ripa 1484, died 1559.
5 In his Exercitationes de Subtilitate.
6 Born 1473, died 1546. Libri VI, De Intellectu et Daemonibus,
Ven. 1492, fol. Et : Opera Philos., Few. 1559, 6 vols. fol. Opusc.
Moralia et Politica, Paris. 1645, 4to.
' Born 1491, died 1572.
8 Lucilio, or Julius Caesar Yanini, was born at Naples, about 1586.
Amphitheatrum iEternae Providentiae, etc., Lugd. 1615, 8vo.
De Adrairandis Naturae Arcanis, etc., libb. IV, Paris. 1616, 8vo.
Life, Misfortunes, Character, and Opinions of Lucilio Vanini, an
Atheist of the seventeenth century, etc., by AY. D. F..Leips. 1800, 8vo.
9 Born at Venice 1457, died 1533.
. 10 Born at Padua 1532, die|l 1589. De Inventione Primi Motoris, Fcf.
1618, 4to. Opp. Philosophica, ed J. JL Havenreuter, Fcf. 1623, 4to.
11 Cesare Cremonini, born at Centi, in the duchy of Modena, A.D.
1552, died 1630.
Caes. Cremonini liber de PaediS. Aristotelis. Diatyposis Universal
Naturalis Aristotelicae Philosophiae. lllustres Contemplationes dc
266 TIIIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
colomini, etc. On the side of the Averroists, with the
exception of Alexander Achillinus of Bologna1 (who was
styled the second Aristotle) ; Marc Antony Zimara,2 of San
Pietro in the kingdom of Naples ; and the famous Aristote-
lian Andrew Cesalpini? we find no names of great celebrity.
Cesalpini turned Averroism into an absolute Pantheism, by
representing the Deity not only as the operating cause, but
as the constituting cause of the world, as the nature of
things, and the active intellect of the World ; and he, more-
over, identified with the Universal Intelligence the minds of
individual men, and even of animals. He asserted the
immortality of the soul, because Consciousness is inseparable
from Thought ; and the existence of Daemons.
German Peripatetics
See the Dissertation of Els wick, quoted § 243.
*t A. H. C. Heeren, A few words on the Consequences of the
Reformation as affecting Philosophy. In the Reformations-almanach
of Kayser, 1819. p. 114, sqq.
Carriere, Die Philosophische Weltanschauung des Reformations
Zeitalters, 1847.
294. Although Luther and llelanchihon* in the beginning
of the Reformation, entertained unfavourable sentiments
towards the Aristotelian philosophy, on the same principle
that they denounced the system of the Schoolmen, both,
nevertheless, lived to renounce this prejudice ; and Melanch-
thon, especially, not only asserted the in dispensability of
philosophy as an auxiliary to theology, but recommended
especially that of Aristotle, without confining this praise to
his logic.5 In Ethics, however, he maintained the principle
Anima. Tractatus tres de Sensibus Externis, de Internis et de Facul-
tate Appetitiva.
1 Alessandro Achillini, died 1512.
2 Died 1532.
3 Born at Arezzo 1509, died 7603.
Andreee Cesalpini Qusestion. Peripateticae libb. V, Venet. 1571, fol.
Dsemonum Investigatio Peripatetics,. Ven. 1593, 4to.
4 Born at Bretten 1497, died 1560.
5 Melanchthonis Oratio de Vit& Aristotelis, habita a. 1537, torn.
II. Declamatt. p. 381, sqq.; et torn. Ill, p. 351, sqq.; Dialectica,
Viteb. 1534. Initia Doctrinae Physicse, 1547, Epitome Philosophise
294.] MELANCHTHON. 267
of Morality to be the will of God. According to his view
the law of Morality is found in God's immutable and eternal
Wisdom and Justice. On one occasion only was war
afterwards declared against philosophy (about 1621), by
Dan. Hoffmann]- professor of Theology at Helmstadt ; and
his two disciples, J. Angelus JVerdenhagen and Wenceslaus
Schilling. The philosophy of Aristotle, disencumbered of
the subtilties of the Schoolmen (though these were
speedily succeeded by others), owed the favour which it
enjoyed in the Protestant universities, to the authority of
Melanchthon ; and a swarm of commentaries and abridg-
ments of this system presently appeared, which at all events
served to keep in practice those attached to such studies.
Among such we may particularise Joachim Camerarius, who
died at Leip.sic 1574.
The credit of Aristotle became in this manner re-esta-
blished, and so continued till about the middle of the seven-
teenth century ; nor was it materially affected by the deser-
tion of a few, who like Nicolaus Taurellus,2 the opponent of
Cesalpini, seceded a little from the prevailing doctrines.
Among this class of philosophers we must add Jac. SJier/k,
and his pupil JPhilij) Scherbius* as also Jac. and Corn*
Martini?
Moralis, Viteb. 1589; De Anima, 1540, 8vo. ; Ethicse Doctrine Ele-
menta, Viteb. 1550. These different works have been frequently re-
published, and were edited with his works at large by Caspak Peucer,
Viteb. 1562, 4 vols. fol. Editio nova, ed. Bretschneider, 4 to. Halce,
1834, &c.
1 Dan. Hofmann, Qui sit verse ac sobrise Philosophise in Theologia
usus1? Helmut. 1581. See Corn. Martini Scriptuni de Statibus con-
troversis, etc. Helmstadii agitatis inter Dan. Hofmannum et quatuor
Philosophos, Lips. 1620, 12mo.
2 Born at Mumpelgard 1547, died 1606.
Nic. Taurelli Philosophise Triumphus, Basil. 1573, 8vo. Alpes
Csesae [against Cesalpini] Fcf. 1597, 8vo. Discussiones de Mundo
adv. Fr. Piccolominium Amb. 1603, 8vo. ; Marb. 1603, 8vo. Discus-
siones de Coelo, Amb. 1603, 8vo. See Jac. G. Feuerlin, Diss. Apolo-
getica pro Nic. Taurello, De Eerum iEtemitate, Norimb. 1734, 4to.
With the Synopsis Aristotelis Metaphysices.
3 Professor of Nat. Phil, at Tubingen, died 1587.
4 Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Altdorf, 1605.
5 Corn Martini died as Professor at Helmstadt, in 1621.
268 THIED PERIOD. ^SECT
Opponents of the Aristotelian Philosophy.
295. Notwithstanding, the adversaries of the Aristotelian
system daily increased in number. Without touching upon
other Schools more or less opposed to his (whose univer-
sality of system impeded their progress), we may enumerate
besides Nicolaus Taurellus just mentioned, Franc. Patrizzi,
Bruno, Berigard, Magnenus, Telesius, and Campanella : (all
of whom we shall have occasion to mention hereafter) ; with
Peter Bamus,1 one of the ablest opponents of the Peripa-
tetic System, and a distinguished mathematician. He en-
gaged in the dispute from a disgust for the technicalities of
the Schools, and laboured to give popularity to a more
accessible kind of Philosophy, but was deficient in a true
philosophical spirit, and without an adequate comprehension
of the principles of Aristotle ; which he attacked without
measure or moderation ; asserting that they were a tissue
of error. Logic was the first point he objected to ;2 assert-
ing that it was altogether factitious, without order, and
without perspicuity ; at the same time that he composed a
new one,3 more adapted to practical use, which he wished to
substitute fur that of Aristotle. He defined it to be, " Ars
bene disserendi,1' and considered Rhetoric to be an essential
branch of it. Notwithstanding the attacks of his many ene-
mies, who were by no means temperate in their animosity,
he attracted some partisans (called after him Bamists),
-especially in Switzerland, England, and Scotland. Among
others, Audomar Talceus* (Talon), his two disciples Thorn.
Freights of Fribourg,5 and Franc Fabricius ; Fr. Beuchus ;
With. Ad. Scrihonius ; and Gasp. Bfaffrad* At last a party
1 Properly called P. de la Ram6e, of a poor family in Picardy ; born
1515; killed at Paris in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572.
Joh. Thom. Feeigii Vita Petri Rami, at the end of Audomari Talsei
Orationes, Marb. 1599. Besides the works of Ramus mentioned § 143
and 146 ; see the following notes.
2 Animadversiones in Dialecticam Aristotelis, libb. XX, Paris.
1534, 4to.
3 Institutiones Dialectics, lib. II, Paris. 1543. 8vo., 1508; Scholae
Dialecticae in Liberales Artes, Bas. 1559, fol. Orationes Apologeticae,
Paris, 1551, 8vo., et al.
4 The friend of Ramus. Died at Paris in 1562.
5 Died 1583. 6 Died 1622.
295—296.] Justus lipsius. 269
arose that tried to unite the Method of 'Ramus with the
Aristotelian Logic of Melancliihon. To these Eclectics
belong Eud. Goclenius,1 who was of service to Psychology,
and whose pupil Otto Cassman prosecuted his researches
into psychological anthropology.2 To these may be added
the celebrated English poet Milton. The principal oppo-
nents of Ramus were Ant. Govea, Jbach. Eerionius, and
Gharpentier the Aristotelian, (see bibliography of §§ 139,
141, 143); who also was his murderer on the day of St.
Bartholomew.
III. Revival of Stoicism.
296. The Stoic doctrines during this period were not
altogether without partisans and supporters ; but notwith-
standing all the advantage they may be supposed to have
derived from the dissemination of the works of Cicero and
Seneca, and their seeming consistency with the Christian
Morals, they did not gain as many adherents as some other
philosophical systems. This is ascribable in part to the
peculiar theories (in physics and morals) of the Stoics, and
partly to the influence of the prevailing spirit of the age,
and the established cultivation of the intellect. The wTriter
who principally attached himself to these doctrines, at the
period of which we are treating, was Justus Lipsius (Joost
Lipss)? Originally he favoured the Scholastic system,
which he abandoned for the cultivation of Classical litera-
ture ; particularly the works of Cicero and Seneca. Cele-
brated as a critic and philologist, he became (though never,
in the proper sense of the word, a philosopher) an able
expositor of the Stoic system. All that he wanted to make
him a true Stoic (as he himself has confessed), was Con-
stancy and Consistency. He seems rather to have aimed
1 Bora at Corbach 1547, died at Marburg 1628.
"^'uxoXoyi'a, h. e. De Hominis Perfectione, Anima et imprimis
Ortu, etc.. Marb. 1590 — 1597, 8vo. Ejusd. : Isagoge in Org. Aris-
totelis, Fcf. 1598, 8vo. Problemata Log. et Philos., Marb. 1614, 8vo.
Cf. § 129.
2 Psychologia Anthropologica, sive Animae Humane Doctrina,
Hanau. 1594, 8vo.
3 Born at Isea, near Brussels, 1547; died 1606.
Justi Lipsii libb. II, De Constants, Franco/. 1591, 8vo. EjuscL
Opera, Antverp. 1637, 4 vols. fol.
270 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
at preparing the minds of his readers for the study of these
doctrines, especially as given in Seneca, than to have at-
tempted the restoration of the system. Gasp. Scioppius
(Schoppe),1 a man of equivocal character, published extracts
from the works of Lipsius. Thorn. Gataker, an English-
man,2 occupied himself with the historical department of
this system, as well as CI. Salmasius. and Dan. Ileinsius?
ORIGINAL ESSAYS AND PAETICULAK COMBI-
NATIONS OF PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS.
I. Various Essays.
297. In the midst of these attempts to re-establish the
theories of antiquity, while the old and the new doctrines
were brought into constant competition, and the established
system not only endeavoured to repulse the attacks which
were constantly levelled at it, but to acquire fresh credit by
reconciling its discordant doctrines,4 might be remarked
from time to time some superior spirit who had the courage
to quit the beaten track, and attempt a new one of his own;
though unhappily, from the want of well-established princi-
ples for his guidance, he too usually fell into considerable
errors. Among these we must reckon the German, Nic.
Taurellus, already mentioned (§ 294), who laboured to draw
a still stronger line of demarcation between philosophy and
theology, and looked upon Reason as the proper source ot
philosophic knowledge. Of the Italians, Cardan (§ 291),
and Vxinini (§ 293), and of the French JP. Ramus, who
meditated a reform of philosophy. As by this time the old-
established Scholastic method of drawing all knowledge from
Conceptions, was insufficient to satisfy men's minds, they
attempted to attain more certain conclusions by the way of
experience. This principle was especially followed up by
the Political writers and Naturalists. Among the former,
1 Bora 1576; died 1649. 2 Born 1574; died 1644.
3 Dan. Heinsit Oratt. On the Works oi iScioppius and Gataker,
consult the Bibliog. § 158 and 163.
4 A wi iter who particularly distinguished himself on this side was
the Thomist Fr. Suakez (died 1617); by his Disputationes Ivletaphy-
sicse, Mogunt. 1614.
297 — 298.] TELESius. : 271
Mccolo Ilacchiavelli,1 a statesman, matured by the study of
the Classics and by knowledge of the world, had in his
Principe (1515) given with great ability a picture of poli-
tical men, such as he had generally found them : and John
Bodin2 (or Bodinus) having in his Republic discarded the
opinions of Plato and Aristotle, had endeavoured to explain
the principles of a form of government neither an absolute
Monarchy nor a Democracy, and regulated by mixed prin-
ciples of strict justice and accommodating prudence.
II. Telesius.
Fr. Baco, De Principiis et Originibus secundum Fabulas Cupidinis
et Cceli, sive de Parmenidis et Telesii et pnecipue Democrifci Philo-
sophic, tractate in Fabula de Cupidine. Opp. torn. Ill, ed. Elzev.
p. 208.
Jo. Ge. Lotteri Diss, de Benardini Telesii Philosophi Italici Yita et
Philosophic, Lip*. 1726-1733, 4to.
+ Lives and Opinions of the most celebrated Physicians at the end
of the Sixteenth and beginning of the Seventeenth Centuries. Pub-
lished by Th. Aug. Rixner and Siber, fasc. Ill, Sulzb.
298. A reformation was attempted in Natural Philosophy
by Bernardinus Telesius. Born 1508, at Cosenza, in the
kingdom of Naples, he received a classical education from
an uncle at Milan, and subsequently at Home ; and at Padua
devoted himself with ardour to philosophical and mathe-
matical studies, from which he imbibed a disinclination
for the doctrines of Aristotle, At a more advanced age, he
published with great success his De Natura juxta Propria
Brincipia? He became a teacher of Natural Philosophy at
Naples, and founded an academy named after him, Telesiana
1 Born at Florence 1496 ; died 1527.
Joh. Fr. Christii De Nic. Macchiavello libb. Ill, Lips, et Hal.
1731, 4to. Opere 1550, 4 to., etc., Milan. 1805, 10 vols. 8vo. ; Flor.
1.820, 10 vols. 8vo.
2 Born at Angers about 1550 ; died 1596.
Guhrauer, Das Heptaplomeres des Bodin, zur Geschichte der
Cultur und Litteratur im Jahrhunderte der Reformation, 1841.
Vergleiche die Anzeige dieser Schrift, in den Deutschen Jahr-
biichern fur Wissensch. und Kunst, No. 186-193, § 744-780.
De la Republique, Paris, 1576, fol. and 1578. In Latin 1586, fol.
3 The two first books appeared at Pome, 1565, in 4to. The entire
work was published at Naples in 1586 and 15S8.
272 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
and Consentina ; which was intended to demolish the Aris-
totelian philosophy. He was compelled by the persecutions
he underwent from the monks, which injured his health, to
retire to Cosenza, where he died 1588. His system is one
of Naturalism, and bears some resemblance to the views
of Parmenides and Anaxagoras (§ 99, 107), and is closely
connected with the doctrines relating to God and Morality.
His chief objection to those of Aristotle is, that he laid
down as principles mere abstractions (absiracta et non entia).
He himself maintained the existence of two incorporeal and
active principles, Heat and Cold; and a corporeal passive
principle, Matter; on which the other two exercise their
influences. He derived the heavens from Heat, and the
earth from Cold ; and attempted, in a very unsatisfactory
manner, to account for the origin of secondary natures by
a supposed perpetual conflict between the Heavens and
Earth. Having attributed sensation to his two incorporeal
principles, he went on to assign souls to plants and animals
in general. He drew, however, a broad distinction between
the immortal soul of Man, and that of other animals, and
asserted that it was the immediate gift of God at the time
of conception.1 He maintained that sensation was not
absolutely passive, but a perception of changes operated in
the mind itself.2 Knowledge acquired by means of inference
he described as a species of imperfect Sensation. Inde-
pendently of these theories, Telesius was an Empirist and
Materialist. His adversaries Mart a and Chiocci were, in
their turn, attacked by Campanella,3 (intra).
III. Fran. JPatrizzi, or JPatritius.
+ Lives and Opinions of the most celebrated Physicians, etc. ; pub-
lished by Rixner and Siber; fasc. I V : Fr. Patrizzi, Sulzb. 1823, 8vo.
299. Fr. JPatrizzi,4, the author of a new theory of emana-
tion, borrowed the materials of it from all quarters, but prin-
cipally from the Neoplatonists, and the records of Primitive
' De Rer. Nat., lib. V, c. 1, sqq. 2 Ibid. VIII, 21.
3 Cainpanellse Philosophia sensibus demonstrata, etc., Neaiiolis,
1590, 4to.
4 Bom at Clisso in Dalmatia, 1529; professor of the Platonic philo-
sophy at Ferrara and Rome, where he died 1593.
299.] GIOKDANO BEITffO. 273
Mysticism collected by them ; as well as from the system of
Telesius. He commenced tins undertaking by an elaborate
refutation of Aristotle.1 Nevertheless, he attempted2 a
theory of light according to the Aristotelian method. He
affects to divide his subject into four parts, viz. : Panaugia,
Pcmarchia, Pampsychia, and Pancosmia: and cites to support
his theories a number of apocryphal mystic books.3 Wisdom
Tie defines to be Universal Science. Light is in all things
the primal object of knowledge. Philosophy, therefore, or
the investigation of Truth, ought to begin with the contem-
plation of Light. 1. All Light is derived from the first
source of illumination — God. 2. God is the highest prin-
ciple of all things. 3. The universe is animated. 4. It is
endowed with the qualities of unity and cohesion by means
of Space and Light ; both of them incorporeal essences.
Such are among the principal ideas which Patrizzi follows
up in the work above mentioned. It may be observed that
this was not the last occasion when by metamorphosing
material forms into Spiritual Essences, an alliance was at-
tempted between the mysticism of the JNeoplatonists and
the philosophy of Aristotle.
IY. Giordano Bruno.
Steffens, Ueber das Leben des Jordanus Bruno ; In Steffens nach-
.gelassenen Schriften, 1846, § 43-70.
Clemens, Giordano Bruno und Nikolaus von Cusa (Die Philosophie
Bruno's), § 5-36, 1847.
+ For Giord. Bruno, see Brucker, torn. IV: and Buhle, History
of Modern Philosophy, torn. II, p. 703, sqq. Fulleborn, Beitriige,
etc., fasc. VI. Heumann, Acta Philos. fasc. Ill — IX. XV.
Car. Steph. Jordani Disquisitio Hi^torico-Literaria de Jordano
Bruno Nolano, Primislavice (no date\ 8vo.
Fr. Christ. Lauckhard, Diss, de Jordano Bruno, Hal. 1783, 4to.
+ Biographical Memoir of Giord. Bruno, by Kindervater ; In the
Memoirs of Caesar, relative to the Philosophical World, torn. VI,
!No. 5.
1 Discussiones Peripateticee, published at first separately, Ven.
1571—1581, 4 vols. See above § 139.
2 Nova de Universis Philosophia in qua Aristotelic? Meihodo non
per Motum sed per Lucem et Lumina ad primam causam sscenditur,
etc., Ferrat. 1591, fol., Ven. 1593, Lond. 1611.
3 Attributed to the ancient Persians.
T
274 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
+ Biography of Bruno, in Adelung : History of Human Folly, 1 vol.
Fr. Jacobi, Letters to Mendelssohn on the Doctrine of Spinoza;
second edition, Breslau, 1789, 8vo. Suppl. I.
+ Heydenreich, Appendix to the History of Revolutions in Philo-
sophy, by Cromaziano, p. 257, torn. I.
f Lives and Opinions of the most celebrated Natural Philosophers,
etc. (see prec. §).
300. The most interesting thinker of this age was another
Italian named Giordano Bruno (Jordanus Brunus ;) remark-
able for his history, as well as his learning and great abilities.
He was endowed with a comprehensive and penetrating
intellect, united to a fruitful imagination ; of an elevated,
but restless and passionate character ; and greedy of fame.
He possessed extensive knowledge of the mathematics,
physics, and astronomy ; and a mind splendidly enriched by
the influence of classical literature. He was born at Nola,
in the kingdom of Naples, about the middle of the sixteenth
century. Little is known of his early life. He professed
himself a Dominican, but the year and place of his novi-
ciate are not known. Some religious doubts and bold stric-
tures on the monkish orders obliged him to quit Italy, pro-
bably in 1580. He retired to Geneva, where his love for
dispute and paradox, and the intolerance of the adherents
of Calvin, brought him into trouble. Thence he retreated
to Paris, where he gave public lectures on the Ars Magna
of Raymond Lulli. After a visit to London, he returned to
Paris, 1585 ; and there openly announced himself the adver-
sary of Aristotle, which procured him a great number of
enemies. In 1586 he became a private teacher of moral
philosophy and mathematics at "Wittemberg ; afterwards he
took up his abode at Prague, at Helmstadt (where he taught
as professor of philosophy), and at Frankfort on the Maine.
In 1592 he returned once more to Padua, it is not known
for what reason ; and, after having passed some years in
tranquillity, was arrested (in 1598) by the Inquisition, sent
to Rome, and there, on the 17th of February, 1600, burned
as a heretic, and apostate from his religious vows.
301. Bruno was formed by the character of his mind to
reject the dry system which had prevailed under the sanc-
tion of Aristotle's name. He was naturally inclined to the
study and cultivation of the Classics, and m particular was
300 — 301.] GIORDANO BRUNO. 275
carried away by tlie bold and comprehensive views of the
Eleatae and Alexandrian Platonists, which at that time
found in Italy many minds disposed to receive them. He
dived deep into their mysteries, and transfused them into
his own writings with talent and originality. He assumed
the appellation of Pkilotheos, and under that name, in various
writings, composed with considerable fancy as well as learn-
ing,— occasionally with wit, and always with ability — he
maintained as his great thesis, the idea of the Oneness of the
Godhead and of the World; or, that God is the internal prin-
ciple and substantial essence of all things, and that in Him
power and activity — the Heal and the Possible, form at all
times one indivisible whole. He added to these notions
many more, for instance, that of carrying to perfection the
art of Lulli, whom he looked upon as the harbinger of his
own reform in philosophy ; and while he availed himself of
the bcld discoveries of Copernicus, (which possibly first
inclined him to doubt the traditional system), he associated
with the truth of these the prejudices of his age in favour
of Astrology and Magic. His ardent imagination and rest-
less temper were less fitted for testing such reveries with
cold criticism, than for detailing them with an exuberance of
fancy.
His books (especially those in Italian) are extremely
scarce : Eiilleborn and Buhle have been at the pains to make
a complete list of them. It is sufiicient to enumerate here
the principal.
Jordani Bruni Acrotismus, seu Eationes Articulorum Physicorum
adversus Peripateticos Parisiis propositorum, etc., Viteb. 1588, 8vo.
Philotheus Jordanus Brunus Nolanus de compendiostt archi-
tecture et complemento Artis Lullii, Paris. 1582, 12mo.
De Umbris Idearum, Par. 1582, 8vo. ; part II is entitled Ars
Memoriae.
Idem : Delia Causa, Principio, ed Uno, Venice (more probably
Paris), 1584, 8vo. An extract from it is to be found in the letters
already mentioned of Fr. Jacobi.
Idem : Dell' Innnito Universo e Mondi, Venet. (probably Paris),
1584, 8vo.
Spaccio della bestia trionfante, Paris, 1584, 8vo.
Degli Eroici Furori, ibid. 1585, 8vo.
La Cena delle ceneri, descritta in cinque dialoghi, s. I. 1584, 8vo.
Cabala del cavallo Pegaseo, con l'aggiunto dell' Asino Cillenico,
Paris, 1585, 8 vo.
T 2
276 THIRD PEEIOD. [SECT.
Cantus Circaeus, ad earn Memorise praxim ordinatus, quam ipse
Judiciariam appellat, Par. 1852.
Articuli de Natura et Mundo, a Nolano in principibus Europse
academicis propositi, &c , quos Jo. Hennequinus, &c, defendendos
evulgavit. &c. I avis. 1586.
Jordani Bruni, Recens et completa Ars Reminiscendi ; et, Candelaio,
Comedia far. 1582; Explicatio Triginta Sigiilorum ad omnium Scien-
tarum et Artium Inventionem, Dispositionem, et Memoriam; quibus
adjectus est Sigillus Sigillorum, s. I. vel a.
Idem De Lampade combinatoria Lulliana ad infinitas Proposi-
tiones et media invenienda, Viteb. ] 587, 8vo. De progressu et Lampade
venatoria Logicorum, etc.. Viteb. 1587, eod. De Specierum scrutinio
et Lampade combinatoria Raym. Lullii, Prag. 1588. Articuli CLX adv.
hujus temp. Mathematicos atque Philosopbos, item CLXXX I raxes
ad totidem I roblemata, ibid. De Imaginum, Signorum, et Idearum.
compositione ad omnia Inventionum, Dispositionum, et Memorise
genera libb. Ill, Frnncof. ad M 1591, 8vo. De triplici, minimo, et
mensura, ad trium Spcculativarum Scientiarum et muiTarum aetivaruni
Artium 1 rinopia libb. V, Franco/. 1591, 8vo. De Monade, numero
et figura liber consequens (libros) quinque de min:mo. magno, et
mensura. Item de Innumerabilibus, Immenso, et Infigurabili, seu de
Universo et Mundis libb. VI 1 1, Francof. 1614, 8vo.
The Italian works of Giordano Bruno have been recently published
in a collected form, 2 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1830.
302. The principal points of what may be termed his
Theology are the following: God — the First Principle, is
that which all things are, or may be. He is One, but in
Him all essences are comprehended. He is the substance
also of all things, and at the same time their Cause — (Final,
Formal, and Creative) : — Eternal without limit of duration ;
Natura naturans. As the first Efficient Cause, He is also
the Divine and Universal Reason which has manifested
itself in the form and fashion of the Universe : He is the
Soul of the Universe, which permeates all things, and be-
stows upon them their forms and attributes. The end
contemplated by this Great Cause is the perfection of all
things, which consists in the real development of the various
modifications of which the different parts of Matter are
susceptible. To be — to will — to have the power — and to
produce, are identical with the Great Universal Principle.
He is incomprehensible to us, because Absolute and Un-
compounded. His Esse and his creative energies are deter-
mined by his Nature ; He cannot act otherwise than he
acts ; Hi's will is necessity ; and this necessity, at the same
302 — 303.] HIS THEOLOGY AND COSMOGONY. 277
time, the most perfect freedom. The Divinity, as the first
and vital energy, has revealed himself from all eternity in an
infinite variety of productions ; yet continues always the
same ; Infinite, Immeasurable, Immoveable, and Unap-
proachable by any similitude. He is in all things, and all
things in Him; because by Him and in Him all things
live, act, and have their increase : He pervades the smallest
portions of the Universe, as well as its infinite expanse : He
influences every atom of it as well as the whole. It follows,
that all things are animated ; all things are good ; because
all things proceeded from good, and intended for good.
303. Bruno follows the same train of ideas in his reflec-
tions on the wrorld (Universwn, or Natura naturata), which
he represents as One, Infinite, Eternal, and Imperishable.
Nevertheless the world, in its external nature, and as con-
taining the development of all things, is but the shadow of
the Supreme Principle. Its element is Matter, as regards
itself, formless ; but identical with the primitive and eternal
Form, it develops out of itself all accidental form. He
maintained that none had better expressed than Pythagoras,
in his theory of Numbers, the manner in which all things
are derived from the Infinite Being as Unity : towards
which the human understanding perpetually aspires. By
the multiplication of its own Unity the First Principle
causes the production of multifarious beings ; but at the
same time that It is the source of species and individuals
beyond all calculation. It is Itself unlimited, and uneonfined
by Number, Measure, or Eelation. It remains always One,
and in every respect Indivisible ; at once Infinitely Great
and Infinitely Little. Inasmuch as by It all things are
animated, the Universe may be represented as a Living
Being : an immense and infinite animal, in which all things
live and act in a thousand and a thousand different ways.
Bruno endeavours to establish by a variety of proofs this
eternity of the world; from the immortal destiny of Man;
from the infinitude of the Creator's power, which must be
productive of like infinite effects ; from the goodness also of
the Divine Being ; as well as by metaphysical arguments
drawn from our ideas of Infinite Space, and the impossibi-
lity of finding a Central Point ; which last proof he inge-
niously applies to the defence and confirmation of the
278 THIKD PERIOD. [SECT.
Copemican system : refuting tlie opposite theories, espe-
cially that of the Peripatetics. As the material world is
but a shadow and reflection of the First Principle, so our
knowledge altogether consists in the perception of Simili-
tudes and Relations ; and as the First Principle, descending
from Its elevation, produced, by multiplication of Itself, the
infinite diversity of natural objects, so do we gradually
acquire the notion of Unity, by combining the Multifarious.
The end of all philosophy is this recognition of the Unity of
all in Contraries. In every individual the Soul assumes
a particular form : inasmuch as its nature is simple and
uncompounded it is immortal, without limits to its ener-
gies, and, by extension and contraction, it forms and fashions
its own body.
To be born is the consequence of such expansion of the
centre ; Life consists in the maintenance of a spherical shape,
and Death is the contraction into the same centre. The
highest end of all free agents is the same with that of the
Divine Intellect ; namely, the perfection of the Whole.
Bruno's system is nothing more than that of the Eleatae
and Plotinus purified and extended: a sort of Pantheism,
by many misunderstood as a system of Atheism ; set forth
with a persuasive eloquence springing from the author's
own conviction, and with great richness of imagination ;
and engaging the attention by a multitude of striking and
noble ideas. The system of Bruno continued long neglected
or misunderstood, till the theories of Spinoza and Schelling
directed towards it a degree of revived attention.*
V. Sceptical writers.
30 i. Many combined views and ideas now gave birth to
a new species of philosophical scepticism in certain calm
and vigorous minds, which manifested itself according to
the peculiar characters and habits of each. The causes
of these new views were, the renewed study of the old
* Pantheism is of various kinds, two of which are the most ohvious
and prevalent, i. e. the Idealistic and the Realistic Pantheisms. In
both cases the Absolute is unconscious, only becoming conscious in the
Finite. (Hegel, Strauss, &c, are Idealistic Pantheists of this class).
Bruno's Pantheism was of a neutral kind, as he admits a conscious
Absolute. — Ed.
304—305.] - montaigne. 279
philosophers ; the awakened spirit of original investigation ;
the extended sphere of experimental observation ; with the
craving which began to be felt for more certain knowledge
and better established principles; with all the discussions
and theories which these causes set in motion, diversified
according to the characters of their respective authors.
Montaigne.
Essais dc Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux, 1580; Lond. 1724;
Paris, 1725, 3 vols. 4to. ; Lond. 1739, 6 vols. 12mo. etc.
Eloge de Mich, de Montaigne, couronne a" l'Acad. de Bordeaux en
1774 (par l'Abbe de Talbert), Par. 1775, 12mo. Eloge Analytique
et Historique par De la Dixmerie, Par. 1781, 8vo.
305. Michel de Montaigne, or Montague,1 was the first of
his age who inclined to the philosophy of Doubt. With a
mind highly cultivated by the study of the Ancients and of
history ; with great knowledge of the world and men ; he
embraced the image of human life as it is in itself and also
in the phase of its multiplicity; without analysing these
discrepancies so as to arrive at unity. His acute observa-
tion of the disagreement existing between all philosophical
theories produced in him a way of thinking akin to positive
Scepticism in matters of philosophy; and he pronounced
the uncertainty of human knowledge and the feebleness of
human reason to be the grand conclusions to which all his
observations had led him ; reposing with a sincere faith on
the authority of Divine Revelation. The uncertainty which
he ascribed to all human science he extended even to
matters of practice, without however denying the truth of
practical obligations. His opinions are expressed with ad-
mirable candour and modesty in his delightful Essays, the
originality and graces of which have always made the book
a favourite with men of taste, and have exerted a great
influence ; though his philosophy has been very differently
estimated by different critics. Though his own character
and conduct were free from the reproach of immorality and
irreligion, his work has unquestionably the defect of easily
leading to an opposite mode of thought, and of strengthen-
ing and forwarding it, as has actually taken place.
Bom in a castle of the same name in Perigord 1533 ; died 1592.
280 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
Pierre Charron.
+ De la Sagesse: trois livres; par P. Charron, Bordeaux, 1601;
edit, expurg. Par. 1604.
Eloge de P. Charron, par G. M. D. R. (George Michel de Roche-
maillet), prefixed to the Works of Charron. Par. 1607. See Bayle.
306. Montaigne had great influence over two distin-
guished authors of his own day : Etienne Boetie (died 1563),
counsellor of the parliament of Bordeaux ; who in his Dis-
cours de la Servitude Volontaire, set forth with considerable
talent his republican principles : and Pierre Oharron (born
at Paris 1541), an excellent spiritual orator, and a man of
ability and spiritual character; but who, in consequence
of his intimacy with Montaigne, having contracted a habit
of Scepticism, expressed himself with greater freedom on
religious points. According to him, Wisdom {la Sagesse),
is the free investigation of what is common and habitual.
The desire of knowledge is natural to man ; but Truth
resides with God alone, and a description of his Nature is
undefinable by human reason. On this principle he grounds
another, of distrust and indifference with regard to all
science ; a bold disbelief of Virtue (in its manfestation) ;
and even of the great doctrines of Religion (particularly the
immortality of the Soul), as well as of the foundations
of all positive Eeligion, not excepting the Christian ; alleging-
that its external history did not correspond with its divine
original, and the ideal of God in the Eeason, and the
worship of God. On the other hand he insisted upon the
obligations of a certain Internal Eeligion connected with
Virtue, and founded in the knowledge of God and Self, and
exhorted with power and dignity to the practice of moral
duties derived from a certain everlasting and imperishable
law of Nature, which has been implanted in the reason by
God himself, and contains the highest good of Man. This
crude theory he expressed with some eloquence, and died
1603, decried by many as an atheist; which he did not
altogether deserve.
307. We perceive that the human mind had, in the
period of which we are treating, attempted many paths,
already opened, to the attainment of science, by the ways
of Revelation, Eeason, and Experience. None of them had
306 — 308.] SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 281
been pursued far enough, in order to lay a sure foundation ;
because, occupied with the pursuit of results and conclu-
sions, men had omitted to begin by giving them a solid
basis. They had not yet inquired in what respects Reve-
lation may be justly expected to be a source of knowledge :
nor had the pretensions of Experience and Reason to be
severally the fountain-heads of knowledge, been balanced or
adjusted. A sort of Scepticism, grounded on experience,
discouraged the pride of philosophical speculation, without
having the effect of silencing its inquiries ; and rather
busied itself with diving again into the exhausted mines of
ancient doubts, than attempted any fresh proofs of the
certainty of knowledge. A species of intellectual anarchy
and chaos seemed for a time to prevail : the more exact
knowledge derived from the writings of the ancients con-
tributing rather to increase than to still the commotion;
till it ended in something like an universal fermentation,
which slowly defaecated. An immense mass of unorganized
knowledge and manifold views contended together, till the
necessity came to be gradually felt of more systematic and
better-founded inquiries and knowledge ; and to attain this
end deeper and freer efforts were made, which became
continually more effectual and more universal.
MODERN PHILOSOPHY.
FROM THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TO OUR OWN"
TIMES.
A free and progressive spirit of inquiry into the principles,
the laws, and limits of human knowledge ; with attempts to
systematise and combine them.
308. It was time that the human mind should assume
confidence in itself, and, relying on its own powrers, force its
way through the deep labyrinth of knowledge. Many
causes which we have already enumerated combined to
stimulate its exertions ; and among the most powerful were
the desire of elucidating the grounds of Religious and Moral
knowledge; and the wish to reconcile and associate the
282 THIED PEEXOD. [SECT.
Empiric and Rational systems. The philosophical systems
of the Greeks continued to be examples of what might be
effected, though they were no longer adhered to as models.
The improvement in social habits, and the clearer views of
moral duties, which Religion and established forms of
Government had promoted, brought with them the necessity
for a more perfect system of Ethics than was to be found in
the theories of the Ancients ; while the Scholastic system
was found less and less capable of satisfying the demands of
an increasing curiosity. The improvement effected in the
mathematical sciences by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and
Torricelli, awakened a like enthusiasm among philosophers
of another class, which the analogy subsisting between their
pursuits tended to promote.
309. A want that appears to have been especially felt by
the philosophic mind about this time, and which the Greeks
had been unable to satisfy, was that of bringing the whole
mass of human knowledge to systematic unity. Greater
attention was bestowed on the questions of the Origin, the
Truth, and the Certitude of Knowledge, especially as relates
to the belief in God, Immortality, Eree Will, Human Des-
tiny, and the foundation and obligation of Morality. Hence
arose systems differing in their consequence and in their
principles, according as they admitted experience or reason
as sources of knowledge. Scepticism, which had been resus-
citated by the discordance of doctrines and the pretensions
of the Dogmatists, became more cautious and deliberate,
and confined its attacks chiefly to the sphere of false specu-
lation.
Revelation became daily less regarded as a source of
philosophical knowledge, and Reason gradually obtained the
casting-vote; yet Supernaturalism was maintained by a
strong party ; and as soon as an exclusive system of Dia-
lectics showed its head, Mysticism and Theosophy were sure
to rise up against it. The most influential philosophers
acknowledged the accord of Reason and Revelation; but
positive Theology still arrogated to itself the right of sum-
moning Reason before its own tribunal.
310. The following is a summary of the chief merits of
that period. 1. — Philosophy began at length to obtain the
right of occupying an independent field and domain of
309 — 311.] PERIODS Iff MODERN PHILOSOPHY. 283
human knowledge. 2. — The system of knowledge began to
be better studied as a whole and in its branches. 3. — Phi-
losophy began to be freer in its relations with Theology,
though the latter still maintained the right of admonition
and censure. 4. — Science daily gained in depth ; it passed
from the material to the formal, i. e., to the examination of
knowledge in its nature and origin. The same path is fol-
lowed by Scepticism. 5. — The Philosophic method was
applied more carefully to establish systematic unity in know-
ledge ; and attempts were made to find the art of introduc-
tion to philosophy (Propddeutih) .
311. This period may be subdivided into two : the first
extending to the end of the eighteenth century, and capable
of being distinguished into smaller epochs by the names of
the great men who illumined it ; the efforts at knowledge
then made being principally of a Dogmatic character. This
period also embraces the parallel movement of Mysticism
and Theosophy. The second part, from the last twenty
years of the eighteenth century to our times, presents the
attempt by which men tried, through the assistance of
the critical method, to set up philosophical Beason in its
proper independence, and, moreover, the systematic move-
ments and efforts to which this struggle has given birth.
284 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
PIRST PERIOD.
PROM BACON TO KANT.
PROM THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TO THE END OP THE
EIGHTEENTH.
Fresh and independent Essays of Reason, with a more
profound and Systematical Spirit of investigation.
312. Two great spirits, Bacon and Descartes, determined
the direction of the human mind for a long period ; they
respectively advocated Experience and Speculation as the
secrets for deciphering philosophy. This new teaching
originated first in Italy ; but it only obtained a fair held in
England, Prance, and Grermany. Both parties sought to
establish the nature of things on a sure foundation, and en-
deavoured to give currency and credit to their systems by
the manifold nature, the oneness, and the completeness of
their results. As, however, they neglected to lay firm foun-
dations, owing to the rapid erection of this structure, they
were not able to give them that degree of perfection which
would secure them universal supremacy. The Reason fell
into schisms, owing to the opposite tendencies to unscientific
Empiricism, or to an exaggerated love of Demonstration,
through the conflict existing between the interests of the
Understanding and the Reason, between Common Sense and
Speculation.
Philosophers had, previous to this time, a divided interest,
either in favour of theory or praxis. Hence there resulted,
of necessity, a onesidedness. It was, therefore, easy to find
defects in the conflicting systems ; and in these defects to
find a confirmation of one's own system. The opponents on
each side repeated the same game ; and from these causes
there originated struggles which resulted at last in a spirit-
less indifference to all peculiar philosophical researches.
312 — 314.] GltOWTH OF PHILOSOPHY. 285
313. Although the basis of philosophical Science had not
been fundamentally and exhaustively examined, yet the
philosophic spirit received continually additions to its power
and elasticity. The particular Scientific Sciences made con-
tinual advances towards a greater perfection, and philosophy
received the greatest extension through the application of
its form to the whole province of human knowledge. The
Method was, moreover, perfected, the language more de-
veloped, and a deeper and more penetrating research was
diffused.
314. Practical philosophy was long neglected, because the
aim of philosophers was principally directed to speculation.
Thomas Aquinas (§ 266), together with his numerous com-
mentators, the Casuists, and (among the Protestants) Aris-
totle, were long the leaders during this epoch. The Theolo-
gians sought zealously to appropriate to themselves the
entire province of practical knowledge as their property,
and to keep down all spirit of inquiry. A leading thought
had been inherited from the Scholastic age, i. e., that God,
as Creator of the World, is the intimate Basis of all Legal
Obligations which spring either from subjective or objective
motives and foundations in His Will.
This view, which is true in itself, found a support in the
consideration attached to divine Revelation ; and not only
Theologians, but also theologizing philosophers, sought to
develope and substantiate it in conformity with their indi-
vidual points of view. Municipal Legislation,1 which was
the farthest removed from Theology, and the juristic rela-
tions of states and peoples, gradually occasioned examina-
tions of these matters. The spirit of inquiry was gradually
guided into the province of practical philosophy, through
the effort of giving a firm hold to the ruling convictions by
means of rational insight and a rational faith ; and also, of
confirming revealed religion by rational grounds. Hence a
certain zeal was awakened for exploring the moral nature of
man, and for uniting theoretic and practical philosophy.
1 See Professor Savigny's Works on Jurisprudence, and the Develop-
ment of Municipal Institutions in Europe, especially his Geschichto
<dcs Romischen Rechts, 3 vols. 8vo. Heidelb. 1834.
286 THIED PERIOD. [SECT,
ATTEMPTS TO GKOUND PHILOSOPHICAL
SCIENCE ON EXPERIENCE.
I. The Empirism of Bacon.
Mallet's Life of Bacon, prefixed to his Works.
Kawlay, the same ; and 11. Stephen, Letters and Remains of Lord
Chancellor Bacon, Lond. 1734, 4to.
For the services rendered by Bacon to Philosophy, see Heydenreich,
in his translation of Cromaziano, vol. I, p. 306.
t Speengel, Life of Bacon, in the (Halle) Biographia, vol. VIII,
No. 1.
Feuerbach, Geschichte der neucrn Philosophic, von Bacon bis
Spinoza (1833), 1844, sec. 32—91.
315. Francis Bacon, lord Verulam, appeared in England
as a reformer of Philosophy ; a man of clear and penetrating
judgment, great learning, great knowledge of the world and
men, but of a character not free from reproach. He was
born in London, A.D. 1561 ; attained the highest offices in
the state, which he ultimately lost through his failings, and
died 1.626. In his youth he studied the Aristotelian system
of the schools, and the Classics. The latter study, as well
as the practical pursuits to which he presently devoted him-
self, taught him the poverty and insufficiency of the former.
In his maturer age he applied himself to consider the means
of reforming the Method of Philosophy, to which end he
composed some works,1 which by the new principles they
developed had even greater influence over the fortunes of
philosophy than if he had completed an entire system of his
own.
316. Bacon chose a new path, altogether opposed to the
beaten one : he wished to see the fabric of human know-
ledge built not on conceptions through conclusions, but on
Experience or perception through Induction, a method which
had already been imperfectly attempted by Telesius ("§ 298).
1 De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum (Latin) 1603; (English),
Lond. 1605.
His Works, Amsterd. 1662, 6 vols. 12mo., with a Life by W
Eawlay : Lond. 1740, fol. 4 vols, by Mallet : and 1765, 5 vols. 4to.
Novum Organum Scientiarum, Lond. 1620, fol.
F. Bacon's Neues Organ der Wissenschaften, aus dem Lateinischen
ubersetzt, mit einer Einleitung und Anmerkungen begleitet von Ant
Th. Bkuck, Leipz.
315 — 316.] FEANCIS BAC02T. 287
Although his views may be said to be in some degree
partial, yet he deserves the highest admiration and praise
for his triumphant attacks on the School-philosophy ; for
having applied for information to Nature and Experience ;
for having referred the question of Final Causes to Meta-
physics rather than Physics ; for a clear development of
certain notions in Psychology, e. g. that of the Association
of Ideas, as also by his well-digested refutation of some
of the superstitions of his age, and the composition of
his Organum, in which he sets forth a new method of extend-
ing knowledge by means of Induction ; and his systematic
review of all sciences, with his determination of their posi-
tion at that time, and suggestions for their improvement
and extension, in his book, De Augmentis Scientiarum.1
To show how far Bacon was from being a mere Empirist, it
is sufficient to refer to his expressions relative to the science
and object of Philosophy. Science, he says, is nothing
more than the image of Truth, inasmuch as the Truth oi
Being (esse,) and the Truth of knowing, only differ as a
direct ray of light does from a refracted one.2 The object of
Philosophy is threefold, Grod — Nature — Man. Nature pre-
sents itself to our understanding, as it were, by a direct ray
of light, while God is revealed to us only by a reflected one.3
II. Philosophical system of Campanella,
Thom^e Campanell^e De Libris propriis, et recta ratione studendi
Syntagma (ed. Gabr. Naud^eus), Par. 1642, 8vo. ; Amstel. 1645;
Rotterd. 1692, 4to. See also, Crenii Collectio Tractatuum de Philo-
logiae studiis, liberalis Doctrinse Informatione et Educatione Literaria,
Lugd. Bat. 1696, 4to.
Ern. Sal. Cypriani Vita et Philos. Thomse Campanellae, Amstel.
1705, 8vo.; ed. II, 1722, 8vo.
Consult German Museum, 1780, No. XII, p. 481; and Schrockh,
Biogr. etc., torn. I, p. 281.
Frodromus Philosophise Instaurandse, id est, Dissertationis de ISTatura
Rerum Compendium secundum Vera Principia ex scriptis Th. Campa-
nellae prsemissum (per Tob. Adami), Franco/. 1617, 4to.
1 It is very likely that the works of Bacon suggested to J. Barclay
his Treatise, called Icon Animorum, Lond. 1614, 8vo. We shall have
occasion to speak of Cumberland and Hobbes presently.
2 De Augm. Sc., I, col. 18. 3 Ibid. Sc. Ill, c. I.
288 TIIIED PERIOD. [SECT.
+ Doctrine of Campanella on Human Knowledge, with some
Remarks on his Philosophical System, by Fulleborn, Collect. Fasc.
VI. p. 114.
We have already had occasion (§ 298) to mention one work of
Campanella, to which we may add these :
De Sensu Rerum et Magia, Francf. 1620. Philosophise Rationalis
•et Realis partes V, Paris. 1638, 4to. Universalis Philosophise sive
Metaphysicarum Rerum juxta propria Dogmata partes tres, Paris.
1638, fol. Atheismus Triumphatus, Homes, 1631, fol. Ad Doctorem
•Gentium de Gentilismo non retinendo et de Prsedestinatione et Gratia,
Paris. 1636, 4to. Realis Philosophise Epilogisticae partes IV: hoc
est, De Rerum Natura, Hominum Moribus, Politica, cui Civitas Solis
adjuncta est, (Economica cum Adnotationibus I hysiologicis a Tobia
Adamo, nunc primum edita, Francf. ad M. 1623, 4to. Prodromus
Philosophise Instaurandae. Civitas Solis, Ultraj. 1643, 12mo.
Scelta d'alcune Poesie Filosoliche di Septimano Squilla, 1632,
{sine loco).
317. The contemporary of Bacon, Thomas Campanella,
{born at Stilo in Calabria, 15G8), made a like attempt to
deduce all knowledge from Nature and Experience. En-
dowed with admirable talents, and carefully brought up, he
entered the order of Dominicans, and pursued his philo-
sophical studies as a novice in the convent of Cosenza ;
but when, by his own reflections as well as in consequence
of the objection of Telesius,1 he was led to suspect the uni-
versal authority of Aristotle, he shook off the prejudices of
his education, and endeavoured to satisfy his doubts by
studying the remains of other ancient philosophers. But
finding that these, as well as the remarks of Telesius him-
self, who attracted him by the freedom of his inquiries,
were insufficient to set his mind completely at rest, he
sought for philosophy by a path of his own. He admitted
the existence of two sources, and only two, of all knowledge.
Revelation and Nature : the first the source of Theology, the
last of Philosophy : in other words, the Histories of God and
of Mankind. Scepticism, with Campanella, was but a tran-
sitory state of the mind : he was too eager to supply its
place by a dogmatic edifice of his own, without having
cleared his way to it by previous preparation (Propadeutik) .
He had embraced too great a diversity of pursuits, and as-
pired to effect a reformation in everjr art and science, without
1 Telesius was born at Cosenza, where he died, 1588.
317 — 319.] campanella' s metaphysics. 289
having acquired a sufficient command of the necessary de-
tails. The adversities of his life contributed much to impede
his progress as a philosophical reformer: for having been
accused of disloyalty to the Spanish government, he was
kept twenty-seven years in strict confinement ; and when at
last, in 1626, acquitted and set at liberty, he was obliged to
remove for security to Paris, where he died in 1639.
318. Campanella had a clear and philosophical head, and
extensive knowledge ; with a genuine love of Truth ; which
last he asserted to be the proper foundation of all philosophy.
He also proposed a new arrangement of the Sciences. His
views were often just and clear respecting philosophizing as
well as other matters, but his hasty and impatient spirit
prevented his bringing them to perfection. His principal
efforts were directed to the construction of a system of
Metaphysics containing the principles of Theology, Natural
History, and Morals. He looked upon the Metaphysics of
Aristotle (so called) as nothing more than a sort of Logic,
and a Vocabulary. Metaphysics is a necessary science, be-
cause our senses convey to us only that which is contingent
and individual, without informing us as to the general rela-
tions of things and their real nature. Logic is not a science
of that which is real and necessary — God and His creation ;
but an art of language adapted to philosophy (Phil. Eat. II,
2). The only avenue to knowledge is by the senses: Sen-
sation and Emotion (JEmpfindung) are the sources of know-
ledge (Sentire est Scire). Consistently with this theory he
resolved into Sensation all the operations of the mind. Sen-
sation or Feeling is the perception of being affected or
suffering : hence Memory is also Sensation, only under
certain conditions. He also asserted that Thought itself is
nothing but a combination of the results of Sensation ;
which combination itself is presented to us by means of
Sense or Peeling.
319. The object which Campanella had most at heart was
the completion of a system of Dogmatism, which might be
successfully opposed to Scepticism ; and of which he gave a
sufficiently accurate outline in his Metaphysics (lib. I). He
either replies to the causes of doubt assigned by the Sceptic
School, or invalidates them, or their consequences. He
v
290 THIRD PEEIOD. [SECT.
appeals to the natural desire of the reason to "know, and to
ascertain the truth of objects as they are. It is impossible
even to deny the certainty of knowledge, without some
ascertained principles of knowledge, which the Sceptic him-
self is compelled to refer to. He lays down certain incon-
testable principles of this kind drawn from universal notions.
These inform us, That we are ; and that we are possessed of
power, knowledge, and will : That our power, knowledge,
and will are limited: That because we have power, know-
ledge, and will, these faculties must have relation to a some-
thing external and foreign to themselves. Campanella did
not advance beyond these first principles, because he was
satisfied that the external world was a Revelation afforded
by the Divine Being (operando), which, in act, when com-
pared writh the oral Revelation of God, afforded the only
satisfactory means of being convinced of the truth.
320. The great Metaphysical problem is, to explain things
and their existence. To solve this Campanella begins with
the axiom, That things exist and are presented to us.
These appearances must be either true or false ; agreeably
to the obvious rule that a thing must either be, or not be;
and to the lawTs (Primalitates) of existence and non-exist-
ence. The Primal laws of existence are, Possibility or
Power (Potentia) ; Knowledge or Science (Sapientia), and
Attraction or Love (Amor). What can be — is: what is—
must be. Every thing must possess sensation or emotion,
and be the object of it or of cognition ; otherwise it would
not exist to us. Every thing has its principle of self-
preservation, and abhors annihilation; without which it
could not endure, nor energise, nor exist. The Primal laws
of non-existence are Impossibility (Impotentid) ; Ignorance
(Insipientia) ; and Aversion (Odium metapliysicum). The
three objects of the Primal laws of existence are, Being,
Truth, and Good, of which the outward token is Beauty.
These principles conduct the argument up to the considera-
tion of God ; the highest Esse, or the highest Unity (Metaph.
VII, 1, sqq.). Campanella then describes the attributes
and operations of the Divine Unity : Necessity is the
result of Power ; Destiny, of Knowledge ; and Harmony,
of Love. He built his system of Cosmology on Theology,
320 — 322.] THE CITT OP THE STJtf. 291
as well as his theory of Pneumatology, Psychology, etc., in
which he attempted to explain the nature and aim of things
according to the views of the Neoplatonists and Cabbalists,
as well as those of Telesius. He recognised in nature an
Unity of Life (Mundwm esse Dei vivam statuam) ; and
deduced his system of Divine Justice and the laws o{
necessity and chance, from certain considerations on the
connection between Necessity and Existence, and Non-
existence and Accident. He maintained the Existence of
an Incorporeal world, and of Spirits, which put in motion
the stars. The Soul is a corporeal spirit, which can recog-
nise its own nature to be subtile, warm, and light. From
its fundamental attributes, its efforts after and instinct for
felicity (unattainable in this life), he demonstrated its
immortality.
In his 'practical system, which he grounded on his Ontology,
he brought forward several new ideas. The Infinite Being
is the Supreme Good, the object and end of all things.
Religion has revealed Him to us ; and points out the way
by which we may pass from the sensible to the invisible
world, and to the highest perfection. It consists in the
obedience to God, the love of Him, and the contemplation
of things earthly and divine. Some clear views are dis-
closed respecting Natural and Revealed religion, Internal
and External, Innate and Acquired.
321. The object of Ethical, Economical, and Political
Science is, according to Campanella, the world of human
volition. The aspiration of ages, as well as the penetration
of Science, point to the termination of all evils ; but they
can only cease in the Kingdom of God, which does not
admit of divisions, but unites all nations and all forms of
government under the sway of the Messiah. He drew a
picture of an ideal human society in the Kingdom of God,
in his work Civitas Solis ; and he represented this ideal as
the aim of the historical development of humanity, and as
shortly to be attained. He was one of the first modern
Socialists.
322. The system of Campanella is to be praised rather
for its negative than its positive qualities. He d; splayed a
genuine love of the true interests of Reason in the contest
XJ 2
292 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
he sustained with the Aristotelian System of the Schools,
with Atheism, and the false politics of Machiavelli ; as well
as in the manner in which he asserted the right of the
Reason to attempt fresh and untried paths of Science ; and
his effort to start from fixed fundamental principles bears
witness to his philosophic spirit. But he has shown himself
unable to solve the grand problem of philosophic knowledge,
by the inadequacy of his principles, the want of coherence,
in his system, and the slender union that subsists between
his own ideas and those he has associated with them of
others. It ought not, however, to be forgotten, that he had
the merit of haviug first distinctly shown the want of a
solution, and attempted to effect the same, in the interests
of Rational Knowledge and Theology.
(See his Treatise, De Gentilismo non retinendo).
III. Modifications of ilie Ionic and Atomistic Schools.
Basso, Berigard, Magnenus, Sennert, Gassendi.
323. "When the Aristotelian system was laid aside as
confessedly deficient, particularly with respect to Natural
History, an attempt was made to revive the Ionic and
Atomistic doctrines. After Sebastian Basso's1 attack on the
Physics of Aristotle (see Bibliography § 143) many others
came forward to revive ancient doctrines or propose new
ones. Claude de Guillemert de Berigard7, advanced a theorv,
on the Eclectic plan, borrowed partly from the Ionian's,
and partly from the Atomic philosophers, and maintained
that it was conformable to the Christian system, while he
opposed the Aristotelian hypothesis of an original Matter.3
Another Frenchman, Jean Chrysostome Magnenus^ recom-
mended the system of Nature of Democritus, as affording
1 About 1621.
2 Or Beauregard; born at Moulins 1578; died at Padua 1667, or
later.
3 Circuli Pisant, seu de Veterum et Peripatetica Philosophia
Dialogi, Udin. 1643—47, 4to. Patav. 1661.
4 Born at Luxevil, and professor of Medicine at Pavia ; the author
of Democritus Reviviscens, sive Vita et Philosophia Democriti, Ticini,
1646, 12mo. Luffd. Bat. 1648; et Hag. Com. 1658, 12mo.
323.] gassendi. 293
an adequate solution of natural phenomena. Dav. Sennert1
also attempted to remodel Physics on the principles of
Democritus.2 He maintained that Form and Matter are
independent of each other, and asserted that souls were
created by the Divine Being out of nothing ; which brought
him into a dispute with J. Freitag (a professor at Gronin-
gen), in which he was defended by his disciple J. Sperling.
Pietro Gassendi3 styled by Gibbon "the most learned of
the philosophers of his age, and the most philosophical of
the learned," undertook to defend and review with impar-
tiality the system of Epicurus,4 which he asserted had not
yet been done. He distinguished himself by his discoveries
in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy, in all of which he
displayed great judgment and learning ; and was a redoubt-
able adversary of Aristotle,5 Fludd,6 and Descartes.7 With
a laudable love of truth, he drew a true picture of the life
and character of Epicurus,8 and illustrated his philosophy,
without concealing the faults he had committed in respect
1 Born at Breslau 1572 ; died 1637.
2 Dan. Sonnerti Hypomnemata Physica de Rerum Natural ium
Principiis, Franco/. 1635-36, 12mo. Physica, Viteb. 1618, 8vo. Opera
Omnia, Venet. 1641; Lugd. Bat. 1676, 6 vols. fol.
3 Petrus Gassendus; born at Chartansier in Provence, 1592; died at
Paris 1655.
4 Sam. Sorberii Diss, de Vita et Moribus Petri Gassendi, prefixed
to his Syntagma Philos. Epicun.
+ Bernier, Abrege de la Philosophie de Gassendi, Paris, 1678, 8vo.
Lugd. Bat. 1684, 12mo.
Bugerel, Vie de P. Gassendi, Paris, 1737, 12mo. See also Lettre
Critique et Historique a l'auteur de la Vie de P. Gassendi, ibid. 1737,
12mo.
Petri Gassendi Opera Omnia, Lugd. 1658, 6 vols, fol., et Flor.
1727.
5 Exercitationes Paradoxicae adv. Aristoteleos, libb. I, Gratianopl.
1624, 8vo.; libb. II, Hag. Com. 1659, 4to. ; (and the Answer of
Engelcke) ; Censor Censura dignus ; Philosophus Defensus, Boatoch.
1697. With Disput. adv. Gassendi, lib. I, Exercitationum V, ibid.
1699. 6 Examen Philosophise Rob. Fluddi.
7 Dubitationes et Instantiae adv. Cartesium.
8 Syntagma Philosophise Epicuri cum refutationibus Dogmatum quae
contra Fidem Christianam ab eo asserta sunt; praefigitur Sorberii
Dissert, de Vita et Moribus P. Gassendi, Hag. Com. 1655-59, 4to.;
Lond. 1668, 12mo. Amst. 1684, 4to.
294« THIED PERIOD. i [SECT.
of Theology and the doctrine of Final Causes. He endea-
voured to erect upon Epicurism a philosophical system of
his own/ Em. Maignan (or Maignanus) ,2 who attempted to
revive the dreams of Empedocles, excited less attention.
IV. Law of Nations of Grotius.
321. But philosophy now began to extend her researches
from External Nature to the questions of Civil Right.
Hugo Grotius (properly Hugo de Groot,)3 a distinguished
Philologist, Theologist, Jurist, and Statesman, of great
learning, and a clear and sound judgment, opened the way
to a new study, that of International Law, by his celebrated
work on the Rights of Peace and of War,4 the first example
of a philosophical statement of National Law. Some learned
men had indeed prepared the way by similar labours, among
others, J. Oudendorp,6 Nicolas Hemming,6 Bened. Winkler,
and Alb. Gentilis? The humane and exalted mind oi
Grotius was led to this undertaking by the Christian wish to
diminish, if possible, the frequency and horrors of war. He
took as the foundation of his argument the elements of
Natural Right, and applied him immense erudition to show
the universal assent paid by all nations to the notions of
Right and Justice. His mode of proof was obviously a
1 Syntagma Philosophicum, Oper. vol. I.
2 Born 1C01 ; died 1671.
Maignani Carsus Philosophicus, Tolosce, 1652, 4 vols., and Lugd.
1673, fol. 3 Born at Delft 1583 ; died at Rostock 1645.
3 Vita Hugonis Grotii, Lugd. Bat. 1704, 4to. (P. Ambr. Lehmann),
Grotii Manes ab iniquis Obtrectionibus vindicati, Delft. 1721 ; Lips.
1732, 8vo. Life of Grotius, by Gasp. Brand and ad. V. Cattenburg.
Dordr. 1727--32, 2 vols. fol. (Dutch).
f Vie de M. Hugo Grotius, par. M. de Burigny, Paris, 1752,
2 vols. 12mo.
+ Hugo Grotius, his Life, etc. by H. Luden, Berl. 1807, 8vo.
4 De Jure Belli et Pacis, Paris. 1625, 4to., cum Commentario W.
van der Muelen et aliorum, Amstelod. 1696 — 1703, 3 vols. fol. Best
edition. Lausanne, 1751, 4 vols. 4to. Grotius illustratus Op. H. et
S. de Cocceji, Wratislv. 1745--52, 4 vols. fol.
6 Born 1506; died 1567. 6 Born at Laland 1513; died 1600.
7 Born 1551, at Castello di San Gencsio, in the March of Ancona,
died 1611.
De Jure Belli libri tres, Hanau. 1589, 8vo. ; ibid. 1612.
324.] HUGO GEOTIUS. 295
species of Induction, which he may have borrowed from his
contemporary, Lord Bacon. Grotius is sometimes carried
away, by the abundance of his learning, from the course of
his argument, but nevertheless distinguished himself above
any of his predecessors by his superiority to prejudice and
prescription. He considers our notion of Right to be the
result of a moral faculty, and derives its first principles from
the love of society (socialitas) ; hence the obligation of de-
fending that society (societatis custodia) ; and distinguishes
between natural Right and Law, (Dictamen rectce rationis),
and positive (Jus voluntarium) , whether of Divine or Human
original ; although he described it as identical with a uni-
versal, Divine, and positive law. He draws a distinction
also between perfect and imperfect Right ; between legal
and moral obligation (facultas, aptitudo moralis) . Although
Grotius did but lay open this rich mine of inquiry, we are
indebted to him not only for having suggested the pursuit,
but for having contributed towards it a valuable stock of
materials. His work has formed an era in literature, and
been the subject of numerous, and often contradictory, com-
mentaries. Selden,1 by his Natural Law of the Hebrews,
which was followed up by Zentgrave2 and Alberti3 authors
of the Natural Law of Christianity, — pursued a totally
different system, and derived Right from the conditions of a
state of Innocence.
V. Materialism of Hobles.
Thomse Hobbes, Angli Malmesburiensis Vita (Auct. J. Aubery),
Carolopoli, 1681, 12mo.
Yr. Casp. Hagemii Memorise Philosophorum, Oratorum, Baruthii.
1710, 8vo.
Rettwig, Epistola de Veritate Philosophise Hobbesianae, Brcm.
1695, 8vo.
1 Bom at Salvington in Sussex, 1584; died 1654.
Jo. Seldeni De Jure Naturali et Gentium juxta Disciplinam Ebrae-
orum libb. VII, Lond. 1640, fol. Arg. 1665, 4to.
2 Born at Strasbourg 1643 ; died 1707.
Joach. Zentgkavii De Jure Naturali juxta Disciplinam Christi-
anorum libb. VIII, Strasb. 1678, 4to.
3 Valent. Alberti, Compendium Juris Nat. Orthodoxy Theologise
conformatum, Lips. 1676, 8 vo. ;
296 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
325. The influence of Bacon's philosophy was, as might
have been expected, especially felt in England. Thomas
JHobbes, a friend of his, entered into some of his views, from
which he deduced a system of Materialism. He was born in
1588, at Malmsbury. Like Bacon he had contracted from
the study of the Classics a contempt for the philosophy of the
Schools ; and his travels and intimacy with his illustrious
countryman, as well as with Grassendi and G-alileo, had led
him to think for himself. But the practical direction which he
laboured to give to his speculations, had the effect of limiting
them. When the civil wars broke out, he proclaimed
himself by his writings a zealous advocate of unlimited
monarchy, as the only security for public peace. He died
1679 ; having published several mathematical and philo-
sophical Essays, which have drawn upon him the reproach of
fondness for paradox, and the stigma of Atheism.
His works: Opera, Amstelod. 1668, 2 vols, 4to. Moral and Political
Works, Lond. 1750, fol. Complete works, English and Latin, edited
by Sir Wm. Molesworth, 16 vols. 8vo. 1839-45. Elementa Philoso-
pbica de Give, Par. 1642, 4to. ; Amstel. 1647, 12mo. Leviathan, sive
de materia, forma et potestate Civitatis Ecclesiasticae et Civilis (English,
Lond. 165], fol.), Lat. Amstel. 1668, 4to. ; Appendix, Amstel. 1668,
4to. Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy, Lond.
1650, 12mo. Elementorum Philosophise sectio prima de Corpore
(English, Lond. 1656, 4to.), Lat. Amstel. 1668, 4to. De Corpore
Politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Political, Lond. 1659,
12mo. Queestiones de Libertate, Necessitate et Casu, contra Doctorem
Bramhallum (English, Lond. 1656, 4to.) Hobbes's Tripos, in Three
Discourses, Lond. 1684, 8vo. Behemoth, Philosophical Problems, etc.
1682.
326. Hobbes appears to have aimed, above all things, at
freedom and a firm foundation in his speculations, and,
rejecting everything hypothetical, (of all qualitaium occul-
tarum) affected to confine himself to the comprehensible, or
in other words, to the phenomena of Motion and Sensation.
He defines philosophy to be the knowledge, through correct
reasoning, of phenomena or appearances from the causes
presented by them ; or, vice versa, the ascertaining of pos-
sible causes by means of known effects.1 Philosophy em-
braces as an object every body that admits the represen-
tation of production and presenting the phenomena of
1 De Corp. p. 2.
325—327.] hobbes. 297
composition and decomposition. Taking the term Body in
its widest extent, he divides its meaning into Natural and
Political, and devotes to the consideration of the first his
Philosophic* Naturalis, comprehending the departments of
Logic, Ontology, Metaphysics, Physics, etc. ; and to that
of the second his Philosophic/, Chilis, or Polity, compre-
hending Morals. All knowledge is derived from the senses :
but our sensational representations are nothing more than
appearances within us, the effect of external objects ope-
rating on the brain, or setting in motion the vital spirits.
Thought is calculation (computatio),ax\dL implies addition and
subtraction. Truth and Falsehood consist in the relations of
the terms employed. We can become cognizant only of the
Finite : the Infinite cannot even be imagined, much less
known ; the term does not convey any accurate knowledge,
but belongs to a Being whom we can know only by means
of Faith. Consequently, religious doctrines do not come
within the compass of philosophical discussion, but are de-
terminable by the laws of Religion itself. All, therefore, that
Hobbes has left free to the contemplation of philosophy is
the knowledge of our natural bodies (somatology), of the
mind (psychology), and polity. His whole theory has refer-
ence to the External and Objective, inasmuch as he derives
all our emotions from the movements of the body, and
describes the soul itself as something corporeal, though
of extreme tenuity. Instead of a system of pure meta-
physics, he has thus presented us with a psychology, defi-
cient, it is true, in general depth ; but which with some
narrow and limited doctrines, contains occasionally others
more enlightened and correct.
327. His practical philosophy, however, attracted more
attention than his speculative. In this, also, Hobbes pur-
sued an independent course, and altogether departed from
the line of the Schoolmen. His grand object was to ascer-
tain the most durable posture the Body Politic could
assume, and to define Public Eight. An ideal form of
government and state of morals had been imagined by
Plato in his Republic, by Sir Thomas More l in his Utopia,2
1 Born at London, 1420; beheaded 1535.
2 Basil, 1558 ; besides many other editions.
298 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
by CawpaneUa in his Civitas Solis,1 and by Harrington2 in
his Oceana.3 * Hobbes, on the contrary, assumes the exist-
ence of a notion of Natural Right, which he deduces from
the assumption of a state of nature empirically represented.4
Agreeably to the lowest law of nature, manaims at the
injury of his neighbour. Yet every one grasps, by a natural
instinct, at everything which can contribute to his own
well-being, and shuns everything that can cause the con-
trary. Self-preservation is the highest object of his pursuit,
just as death is of his avoidance. All that tends to this
end, and to the removal of pain, is conformable to reason,
and therefore lawful. Right is the liberty of employing
our natural powers agreeably to reason. J Man has there-
fore the right of self-preservation and self-defence; and
consequently of using the means to this end: and he is
himself the judge and arbiter of these means ; hence also he
has a Eight to all things. But the consequence of these
rights, in a state of nature, must be an universal war of all
with all ; wrho must be perpetually brought into opposition
with one another, to the destruction of all repose and
security, and even of the power of self-preservation. Self-
love, therefore, (or Reason), or Natural Law, ordain peace,
and produce a new state of things, under the form of a
civil compact (status civilis), in which a portion of the
individual liberty of each is resigned by him, and intrusted
to one or more. With this epoch commences that of ex-
ternal, obligatory Right. Absolute power on the part of
the government, and implicit submission on the part of the
governed, are necessary to the well-being of a state ; and
the best of all forms of government is therefore the monar-
chical. The laws of a Christian state are not contrary to
the laws of God.
1 See above, bibliography of § 317. 2 Born at Upton, 1677.
3 Lond. 1656. With his works, 1700 and 1737.
* All these writers belong to the brotherhood of Socialists. — Ed.
4 In his treatise De Cive.
X A somewhat analogous view of Ethics and Deontology has been
advanced in modern times by Charles Fourier. His axiom was : " Les
attractions sunt proportionees aux dediuees." Fourier differed widely
however from Hobbes in the conclusion he draws from his axiom.
With the former the full swing of liberty gives birth to harmony;
with Hobbes, to discord. — Ed.
328.] LORD HERBERT OP CHERBURY. 299
Self-love is the fundamental law of Nature, and Utility-
its End : the law of Nature prescribing Peace, is also the
law of Morals (lex moralis) . Hobbes referred to the Bible
for confirmation of his consequently deduced Theory of the
State.
His success was not great, and the little which he had
was principally among foreigners. Of the number of his im-
partial judges, was the Dutchman Lambert Velthuysen :l and
of his adversaries, Richard Cumberland2 and Robert ticharrock.3
VI. Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
328. Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury,4 who had espe-
cially in view the philosophy of religion, followed a course
exactly the reverse of that pursued by Hobbes. He de-
fended the notion of innate cognitions, and derived our
knowledge, not from the understanding nor the senses, but
from a certain instinctive reason* to which he made the
former subordinate. Instead of tracing our acquaintance
with religion (according to his ideas of it) to historical
tradition, as Hobbes had done, he derived it from an
original immediate knowledge afforded to all mankind.
Agreeably to these views, he pursued his researches more
in an idealistic Rational than in an Empirical direction, and
he dived deeper, particularly with respect to the nature of
Truth ; on which subject he published a separate work.6
He described the soul not as a tabula rasa, but as a closed
look, which opens only when Nature bids it. It contains
in itself general truths (communes notitice); which are com-
mon to all men; and ought to remove doubts and diffe-
rences in philosophy and theology. He maintained the
existence of a Religion of Reason, and claimed the right to
1 Lambekti Velthuysen de Principiis Justi et Decori, Dissertatio
Epistolica, continens Apologiam pro tractatu clarissinii Hobbesii de
Cive, Amstelod. 1651, 12mo.
2 To be mentioned afterwards.
3 De Officiis secundum Jus Naturale, Oxon. 1660, 8vo.
4 Born 1581; died 1648. 5 Naturalis instinctus.
6 Tractatus de Veritate prout distinguitur a Revelatione, a Veri-
simili, a Possibili, et a Falso, Lut. Paris. 1624 et 1633; Lond. 1645,
4to. ; 1656, 12mo. (With the Essay De Causis Errorum). De Keli-
gione Gentilium, Errorumque apud eos Causis, Lond. 1645, 8vo.
Part I, completed 1663, 4to., and 1670, 8vo.
300 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
examine and all verify pretensions to revelation.1 The
obscurity of his own thoughts and expressions, and the
dominion at that time enjoyed by the Empirical system of
philosophy, caused him to be but little noticed in his day.
He was, however, attacked by Divines, as a Naturalist and
as an enemy to Christianity.
VII. Mystical Naturalists and TJieosopMsts of this
period.
Feuerbach, Geschichte der neuern Philosophic von Bacon bis
Spinoza (1833) 1844, § 150-214.
Carriere, Die philosopnische Weltanschauung der Beformations-
zeit, 1847, § 609—725.
Hamberger, Die Lehre des deutschen Philosophen Jacob Bbhme,
1844.
Baur, Die christliche Gnosis, 1835, § 557-611.
329. J. Baptist van Ilelmont2 about this time united a
study of the phenomena of Nature to a degree of mysticism.
He had been taught at Louvain the meagreness of the
Scholastic system, by the Jesuit Martin del Rio ; and had
imbibed from the study of Kempis, Tauler (§ 277), and
Paracelsus, a degree of enthusiasm which he carried into his
art, that of medicine. With many fanciful notions of his
own, he nevertheless detected errors in others, and started
several good ideas. In order to effect by means of Alchemy
and Philosophy a reformation in his own art, he sought a
Philosophy over the TIniversum. "With such a design, he
attached himself principally to the doctrines of Paracelsus,
and derived all knowledge from direct and immediate illu-
mination of the Beason, by God. He maintained that all
Nature is animated; but, at the same time, asserted that
neither things nor their operating causes partake of the
Divine Nature, which is incommunicable. All corporeal
beings are replete with spirits (Archei), which by means of
air and water, the only true elements, and their mutual
fermentation, produce every thing else. Such were the
principles of his spiritual Physiology.3 His son Fr. Mer-
1 De Veritate, p. 265, sqq. ; 282, sqq.
2 Born at Brussels, 1577 ; died at Vilvoorde, near Brussels, 1644.
3 t J. J. Loos, J. Baptista van Helmont, Heidelberg. 1807, 8vo.
329—330.] VAN HELMONT. 301
curius van Helmont,1 endeavoured to enlarge the "Holy
Art," (Theosophy) ; and by a new division of its nature and
its relation to Unity, sought to compose a system which
combined, in an original manner, the doctrines of the
Platonists and Cabbalists with those of Christianity. He
taught especially the theory of an' universal Sympathy of
all things,* a transition of the soul and of the body, and
of the body to the soul, asserting that they differed not
in essence but in form, and stood in the relation of Male
and Female, and therefore are present in all visible forms.
To this he added a sort of Metempsychosis, combined with
a belief in the necessity of a future judgment after death.3
Marcus March von Kronland* set forth a system of Cos-
mology of his own, in which he blended the Ideas of Plato
with the Forms of Aristotle, and endeavoured to destroy
the qualitates occulta of the Schoolmen to make way for his
idea? seminales, which he affected to consider more intel-
ligible. Ideas are the powers of Nature which, with the
aid of light, create and form all things. Nay, the very
constellations operate on the sublunary world by means of
light, and by the agency of the Ideas.4
330. In England, the enthusiastic system of Paracelsus
found a patron in the learned physician Robert Fludd,5 who
See also B. ab Helmont. Opera, Amstel. 1648, 4to.; and Francf. 1659,
3 vols. fol.
1 Born 1618 : spent his life in travelling in Germany and England ;
and died 1699.
* It is now well established that J. B. Van Helmont, as well as the
Ancients, anticipated Mesmer in the discovery of the power of Animal
Magnetism. See Van Helmont's admirable Dissertation, and his
Mentis Imago ; and also Colquhoun's Hist, of Magic. — Ed.
2 Paradoxical Discourses, Lond. 1690. Seder Olam, sive Ordo
Sseculorum, hoc est historica enarratio Doctrime Philosophicse per
unum in quo sunt omnia, 1693, 12mo.
3 Died 1676.
4 Joh. Mac. Marci a Keonland, Idearum Operatricium Idea sive
Delectio et Hypothesis illius Occultae Virtutis, quae Semina icecunda
et ex iisdem Corpora Organica producit, Prag. 1635, 4to. Philo-
sophia Vetus restituta, in qua de mutationibus quae in Universo sunt,
de Partium Universi Constitutione, de Statu Hominis secundum
Naturam et praeter Naturam, et de Curatione Morborum, etc. libb. V.
Prag. 1662, 4to.
5 Robert Fludd, or De Fluctibus, born at Milgate in Kent, 1574 ■
302 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
sought to ally it to the Mosaic history of the creation.1 He
was answered by Gassendi. In Germany a like theosophic
enthusiasm excited the pious and truth-loving temper of the
shoemaker of Grorlitz, Jacob Bohm* who, with a mind highly-
moved by the study of the Scriptures, to which he added
the natural philosophy of Paracelsus and his contemporaries,
with a peculiar depth of spirituality, although in a ruda
unscientific manner and a barbarous style (partly composed
of the terms of Chemistry then in use), gave vent to deep
philosophical truths, intermingled with singular and extra-
vagant dreams respecting the Deity and the origin of all
things. He delivered these as Divine Eevelations, and wrote
in his native language, whence his appellation of Philosophus
Teutonicus. A considerable analogy may be traced between
Swedenborg and Bohm, but the former never borrowed from
the latter. They approximate naturally in the depth and
volume of their spirituality and their giant sweep of thought.
Bohm's mysticism gained disciples in Germany, and even
abroad, being adopted in France by Poiret, and in England
by H. More and John Pordage, a clergyman and physician,
who even wrote a commentary on him. Of all these here-
after. In more recent times, St. Martin has given, as it
were, a new and able version of this species of Theosophy.
331. Bohm and Fludd had endeavoured to find authority
in the Bible for the extravagancies of their fanciful specula-
tions. A Mosaic philosophy is so naturally connected with
the character of the Cabbala and of Theosophy, that we
ought not to be surprised at its diffusion. The like attempt
was made by others, particularly by Jo. Amos Comenius?
wTho in his Synopsis Physices ad lumen Divinum reformat ce^
died 1637. His works are numerous, and fcrm 6 vols. fol. The most
complete list of them is given by Ebekt, Bibliogr. Diet. 4 to. Lips.
1821-30.
1 Historia Macro- et Microcosmi, Metaphysica, Physica, et Technica,
Oppenh. 1717. Philosophia Mosa'ica, Gudce, 1638.
* Born at Alt-Seidenberg, near Gorlitz, 1575 ; died 1624.
+ Jacob Bohm : a Biographical Essay, Dresden. 1802, 8vo.
t Works of J. Bohm. Amsterd. 1620, 4 vols. 8vo. etc.; 1730,10
vols. 8vo. Selections from hisAVorks, Amst. 1718; Francf. 1801, 8vo.
Translated fiom the Dutch and English.
a Of the village of Comna, near Prerau in Moravia ; born 1592, died
at Amsterdam 1671. 4 Lips. 1632, 8vo. ; 1663, 8vo.
331—332.] BOHM AND FLI7DD. 303
detailed more clearly the opinions of Flndd and others. He
supposes three elementary principles of all things ; Matter,
Spirit, and Light. The first is the corporeal essence, the
second is subtile, self-existing, invisible, imperceptible, dis-
pensed by the Divine Being to all living creatures, to animate
and possess them. Light is the plastic spirit ; an interme-
diate essence, which penetrates matter and prepares it for
the admission and reception of spirit, investing it at the
same time with a form. He has also originated some
remarkable ideas on philanthropy, in which he followed A^al.
Andreae.1 J. Baier? the successor of Comenius, and some
others, have bequeathed works to the same effect.*
VIII. Sceptics.
332. Scepticism was revived in a complete form by Fr.
Sanchez (Franc. Sanctius), a Portuguese,3 who taught medi-
cine and philosophy at Toulouse with considerable reputation,
up to the time of his death, which happened in 1G32. He
was obliged by his office to teach the Aristotelian system,
and not venturing openly to controvert it, assailed it under
cover of his Scepticism ; and having proved by means of
arguments already brought forward, but to which his lively
manner imparted an air of novelty, the uncertainty of all
human knowledge, he undertook to give in another work a
method of his own for attaining to certainty. This promised
work, however, never made its appearance. Francois de la
Motlie le Vayer* an author of great learning, talent, and
1 See several articles in the Tageblatt des Menschhe'tlebens, pub-
lished by Ch. Chkist. Fr. Crause, 1811, No. XVIII, sqq., on a work
of Comenius, entitled, General Observations on the Improvement of
Human Nature, etc., Halle, 1702. 2 About 1606.
* There appears no doubt that the facts and phenomena of Animal
Magnetism were familiar to a large school of writers of this age, includ-
ing Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Fludd, Ficinus. Mirandola, and A; ax well,
the author of Medicina Magnet ca. See Colquhoun's Hist, of Magic,
Witchcraft, and Animal Magnetism, Vol. II. — Ed.
3 Born 1562, at Bracara in ortugal.
Fraucisci Sanchez Tractatus de multum Nobili et Prima TJniversali
Scientia quod nihil scitur, Loud. 1581, 4to et 12mo. ; Fraiuj. 1618,
8vo, with the remarks of Dan. Hartnach, entitled, Sanchez aliquid
sciens, Stettin. 1665, 12mo. Tractatus Philosophici, Eutierd. 1649,
21mo. 4 Bom at Paris 1586; died 1672.
304 THIRD PEETOD. [SECT.
judgment, enlarged upon the grounds of Scepticism, with a
special reference to Religion. He denied the existence of
all rational principles of religion, in consequence of the
diversities of belief that have always prevailed, and main-
tained that Reason in theology must give place to Faith, a
superior faculty, and conferred immediately by Divine
Grace. He represented life as a miserable farce, and virtue
as almost a dream.
RATIONALISM OF DESCARTES, AND THE
SYSTEMS TO WHICH IT GAVE RISE.
I. Descartes.
Baillet, LaViede K.Descartes, Par. 1690, 4to; abrege'e, Paris,
1693, 12mo.
God. Guil. Leibnitii ISTotata circa Vitam et Doctrinara Cartesii, in
Thomasii Historia Sapientise et Stultiti^, torn. II, p. 133, and in the
3rd vol. Epistolarum Leibnitii ad Diversos, p. 388.
Reflexions d'un Academician sur la Vie do Descartes, envoyees a un
Ami en Hollande, La Haye, 1692, 12mo.
Eloge de Rene Descartes, par Gaillard, Paris, 1765, 8vo; par
Thomas, Paris, 1761, 8vo; par Mercier, Geneve et Paris, 1765, 8vo.
Joh. Tepelii Historia Phi I osophicae Cartesians, Norimb. 1672, 12mo.
De Vita et Philos. Cartesii, ibid. 1674.
Recucil de quelques Pieces curieuses concernant la Philosophic de
M. Descartes (par Bayle), Amsterd. 1684, 12mo.
Petri Dan. Huetii Censura Philosophise Cartesianee. Paris. 1689,
12mo. Philosophise Cartesians adversus censuram Pet. Dan. Huetii
Vindicatio, aut D. A. P. (Augusto Petermann), Lips. 1690, 4to. Re-
ponse au Livre qui a pour titre : P. Dan. Huetii Censura, etc. ; par P.
Silvain Regis, Par. 1692, 12mo. Huet answered by his (anonymous)
Nouveaux Memoires pour servir & l'Histoire de Cartesianisme ; par
M. G. Paris, 1692, 12mo.
Admiranda Methodus Novas Philosophise Renati Descartes, Ultraj.
1643, 12mo.
Balth. Bekkeri De Philosophia Cartesii Admonitio Candida et sin-
cera, Wescl. 1668, 12mo.
Ant. le Ghand, Apologia pro Cartesio, contra Sam. Parkerum, Lond.
1672. 4to; Norimb. 1681, 8vo.
P. de Villemandy. See § 139.
Cinq Dialogues faits a limitation des Anciens, par Horatius Tubero
(par Francois de la Mothe le Vayer), Mons, 1671, 12mo; 1673,
8vo and an Answer by M. Nahle, Bert. 1744, 8vo. (Euvres, Paris,
1654 et 1667—1684, 4 vols. fol.
333—334.] descaetes. 305
Hock, Cartesius und seine Gegner, 1835.
Jacobi, XJeber Descartes Leben und seine Methode, 1846.
Schaarschmidt, Descartes und Spinoza, IS 50.
333. Bene Descartes {Cartesius), was born 1596, at La
Haye, in Touraine, and attempted a reformation in the
philosophy of his country by a method opposed to the
Empirical, on the principles of pure Rationalism. His
system was favourable to independent research, and met
with equally violent opponents and partisans, attracting, as
it did, universal attention. In the school of the Jesuits at
La Fleche he early distinguished himself by his lively fancy
and his love of knowledge. Fired with this passion, and
eager to satisfy it by study, he devoured without a plan a
multitude of books, which working upon his own ardent
temper, left him more uncertain than he was at first ; his
subsequent travels, instead of curing, contributing to in-
crease the malady. Presently his adventurous spirit con-
ceived the plan of erecting a philosophy of his own, no
part of which should be borrowed from others. With this
view he repaired to Holland, where he trusted to find leisure
and freedom,, and where he composed the greater part of
his works.1 He presently attracted great attention, became
involved in controversies, especially with theologians, and
after maintaining an extensive and learned correspondence,
was invited into Sweden by Queen Christina, and died there
shortly after, in 1650.
His works: Opera.. Amstelod. 1692-1701, 9 vols. 4to. Opera Philo-
sophica, Francf. ad M. 1692, 4to. Principia Philosophise, Amstel.
1644-1656, 4to. Meditationes de Prima Philosophia. etc., ibid. 1641,
4to. Discours de la Methode pour bien conduire la Raison et chercher
le Verite dans les Sciences. Plus, ia Dioptrique, les M< teores, et la
Geometrie, etc. Par. 1637, 4to. ; a Latin translation (by Courcelles)
revised by Descartes, 1644. Specimina Philosophise, seu Dissertatio de
Methodo, Dioptrice, etc. Amstel. 1656, 4to. Meditationes. Tractatus
de Passionibus Animae, ibid. 1656, 4to. Tractatus de Homine et de
Formatione Foetus, cum notis Lud. de la Forge, ibid. 1677, 4to.
Epistolse (translated), ibid. 1688, 4to.
334. Descartes was not merely a metaphysical philoso-
pher; he was distinguished as a mathematician, an astro-
nomer, and a natural philosopher. His very reputation and
1 Between 1629 and 1649.
306 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
success as a philosopher, was in a great measure owing to
the services he conferred on those sciences. His object was
to constitute philosophy a demonstrable science: but he
rushed too eagerly from the state of doubt, which he consi-
dered a necessary preparation for all knowledge, to know-
ledge itself. He begins with the empirical Self-Conscious-
ness or Thought, as that which is immediately certain:
and from this concludes the existence of the thinking sub-
stance— (Cogito : ergo Sum) — of the soul; which thus dis-
tinguishes itself from material substances, and consequently
is independent of them. Its essence consists in thought,
and is on that account more easy to be recognised than that
of the body. Clearness and distinctness he regarded as the
criteria of truth. The soul does not think all subjects
with equal distinctness, which proves its nature to be im-
perfect and finite. It possesses, nevertheless, in itself, the
idea of an Absolute, Perfect Being, or Spirit; the first and
necessary attribute of whom is existence;1 and as such an
idea cannot be derived from the Imperfect Soul, it must
flow from the Perfect Being to whom it relates, and conse-
quently must be innate. On this cognition of the existence
of an All-perfect Being, the evidence and certainty of all
knowledge is grounded; on the principle that the Divine
Being will not suffer us to fall into error while lawfully
employing the faculties for knowledge bestowed by Him.
The essence of the body consists in extension. The body
and the thinking essence (the body, that is, and the soul)
are essentially opposed to each other.
335. God, as the Infinite Being, is the author of the
1 Sam. Werenfels, Judicium de Argumento Cariesii pro Existentia
Dei petito, et ejus Idea; in his Dissertatt. var. Argument. Pars. II;
and, on the other side, Jacquelot Examen d'un Ecrit qui a pour titre,
Judicium de Argumento, etc. Many articles on the subject appeared
in the Journal des Savans, 1701 ; the Histoire des Ouvrages des Savans,
1700, 1701, and the Nouvelles dc la Republique des Lettres, 1701,
1702, et 1703.
Andr. Richter, Diss. (resp. Jo. Foubin) de Eeligione Cartcsii, Gry~
phis. 1705, 4to.
Chr. Breithaupt, Dissert. De Cartesii Theologia Naturali et Erro-
rilms ea commissis, Htlmdad. 1735, 4to.
Lud. Fr. Ancillon, Judicium de Judiciis circa Argumcntum pro
Existentia Dei ad nostra usque tempora latis, Berol. 1792, Svo.
335 — 336.] DESCAETES' PSYCHOLOGY. 307
universe, "which is infinite ; but the material and thinking
substances of which it is composed are imperfect and finite.
The assistance or co-operation of the Divinity (assistentia
sive concursus) is necessary to the very preservation and
maintenance of these.1 Descartes did not distinguish
between Matter and Space, and consequently found no
difficulties to oppose the application of his theory of vortices
(which he described as deriving their immediate impulse from
God), to account for the physical frame-work of the world.
The Soul, whose nature consists in Thought, he asserted
to be simple in its nature, or in other words, purely immate-
rial (spiritualism of Descartes), but intimately connected
with the body. The pineal gland may be supposed to be its
seat, because it there appears to energise in immediate con-
nection with the vital spirits. From the immateriality of
the soul he deduced its immortality ; and, lest he should be
obliged by his argument to extend the same properties to
other animals, he pronounced these to be living machines.
The soul is free, because it thinks itself so ; and in its free-
dom consists its liability to error. He drew a distinction
amongst representations {coijitationes) between the passive
impressions and the active decisions (passiones et actiones)
of the soul. The operations of the Will, the Imagination,
and Thought, belong in their basis to the latter class. He
constituted three classes of Ideas, those which we acquire,
those which we create, and those which are born with us.
The first are derived from external objects, by means of
impressions communicated to our organs. Vital warmth
and motion do not proceed from the Soul, but from the
Animal Spirits. He accounts for the communion existing
between the Soul and Body by his doctrine of assistentia.
The Soul determines the direction of the Vital Spirits.
336. Notwithstanding the confusion Descartes made be-
tween thinking and cognition, — the want of solidity in his
principles, and of conclusiveness in his inferences, as well as
the many contradictions they imply, which would have
become more apparent to himself if he had treated of prac-
tical philosophy also, — we cannot shut our eyes to the great
1 This doctrine was converted by Geulinx and others into one of
Occasionalism. See § 328.
x 2
308 THTED PEKIOD. [SECT.
effect produced by his philosophy. His discussions awakened
men to independent thought, both by their matter and their
manner, — the form as well as the substance ot his doctrines,
no less than by their bold and striking character. Men
were impelled to nvestigate the theory of Thought and
.Knowledge, and the differences which exist between them ;
efforts were made to decide the controversy between Empi-
ricism and Speculative philosophy, between Rationalism and
Supernaturalism ; at the same time that he gave the last
blow to the Scholastic system, and introduced into the
philosophical world a new life and energy, animating to the
pursuit of Truth and the detection of Error. His doctrines
presently attracted the notice of a great number of distin-
guished thinkers. In Hobbes, Gassendi,1 JP. Dan. Suet*
Gabr. Daniel? etc., he encountered able adversaries, who
subjected his leading principles to a severe, but at the same
time calm and philosophical examination ; but he was
attacked in a more intemperate manner by several school-
men and theologians, such as Gisbert Voetius,4' Martin
Schoock6 the Eclectic, Gyriac Lenlullus the Jesuit, Valois,
and others, who taxed him with Scepticism and Atheism.
A number of talented persons were formed in his school, or
attached themselves to his system ; and in spite of the
interdictions levelled against it in Holland by the Synod of
Dort (1G56), and also in Italy (1663), it gained ground in
the Netherlands and Prance. In England, Italy, and Ger-
many, it made less progress, though it produced an effect on
all departments of Moral Philosophy, Logic, Metaphysics,
and Morals,6 nay, even on Theology.7
1 Ger. de Vries, Dissertatiuncula Historico-Philosophica de Renati
Cartesii Meditationibus a Gassendo impu^natis, Ultraj. 1691, 8vo.
2 Censura, etc. (see bibliography § 333). This works called forth
several answers.
3 See his Romance: Voyage du Monde de Descartes, Paris, 1691,
12mo. Iter per Mundum Cartesii, Amstelod. 1694, 12mo. Nouvelles
Difficultes proposces par un Peripateticien, Amst. 1694, 12mo. Idem
(en Lab.) Novae Difficultates, etc. ibid.
4 Bom at Heusden 1581 ; died 1676.
5 Born at Utrecht, 1614 ; died ] 665. See bibl. 324.
6 L'Art de Vivre Heureux, Paris, 1692, 8vo. In Lat. : Ethica Car-
tesiana, sive ars Bene Beateque Vivendi, Hal. 1776, 8vo.
7 Philosophia S. Scripturae Interpret (by L. Meyer, a physician and
387.] DESCARTES' PARTISANS. 309
337. Among the partisans of the philosophy of Descartes
we may specify his friend De la Forge* a physician at
Saumur; Claude de Glerselier (died 1686), the editor of his
posthumous works ; Jacques Rohault (died 1675) ; Pierre
Sylvain Regis,2 a pupil of the latter, and an able commen-
tator on Descartes; with many Jansenists of the Port
Royal,3 who opposed a more rigid morality to the doctrines
of the Jesuits. Among these were Ant. Arnauld* Blaise
Pascal,5 Nicole? and also Father llalebranche (see § 341),
Antoine le Grand,1 a physician at Douai, J. Clauberg*
friend of Spinoza), Eleutheropoli, 1666, 4to. third edition by Semler,
Hal. 1776, 8vo.
Valentini Alberti Tractatus de Cartesianismo et Coccejanismo,
Lips. 1678, 4to. Viteb. 1701, 4 to.
1 L. de la Forge, Traite de l'Esprit de l'Homme, Paris, 1664, 4to.
In Lat. : Tractatus de Mente Humana, ejus Facultatibus et Functioni-
bus, Amstelod. 1669; Brem. 1673, 4to, ;' Amst. 1708, 8vo.
2 Born 1632; died 1707.
P. Svlvain Regis, Systeme de la Philosophic, contenant la Logique,
la Metaphysique, la Physique, et la Morale, Paris, 1690, 3 vols. 4to.
Rgponse aux Reflexions Critiques de M. Duhamel sur le Systeme
Cartesien de la Philosophic de M. Regis, Paris, 1692, 12mo. see Bibl.
of § 333. L'Accord de la Foi et de la Raison, Paris, 1734, 4to.
3 Among other distinguished works, this society has produced l'Art
de Penser, Paris, 1664, 12mo. Translated into Lat. by J. C. Braun,
with a preface of Fr. Buddeus. Hal. 1704, 8vo. (This treatise has
been sometimes improperly ascribed to Arnauld).
See Sir J. Stephen's Article on the Port-Royal party, in vol. I of
his Ecclesiastical Biography (previously published in the Edinburgh
Review).
4 Born 1623; died 1694. His works, Lausanne, 1777, 30 vols. 4to.
5 Born at Clermont 1623 ; died 1662 (§ 341).
Pascal, Pensees sur la Religion, Amst. 1697, 12mo. Paris, 1720,
12mo. Lettres ecrites par Louis de Montalte [Pascal] a un Provincial
de ses Amis, avec Notes de Guill. Wendrock [Nicole], Cologne, 1657,
12mo, et 1648, 8vo. ; Leyde, 1771, 4 vols. 12mo. Translated into Lat.
by Nicole.
6 Died 1695. Essais de Morale, Paris, 1671, 6 vols. 12mo. Instruc-
tions Thgologiques et Morales, Paris, 1709, 12mo. (Euvres, Paris,
1718, 24 vols. 12mo.
7 Ant. le Grand, Philosophia Veterum e mente Renati Descartes,
Lond. 1671, 12mo. Institutio Philosophise secundum Principia Renati
Descartes Novo Methodo adornata, Lond. 1672, 8vo. ; 1678, 4to.
Dissertatio de Ca^entia Sensus et Cognitionis in Brutis, Norimb.
1679, 8vo.
8 Professor at Duisburg j born at Chartres 1625; died 1665.
310 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
Adrian Heerebord, and more particularly Arnold Genlinx of
Antwerp.1 From the principles of Descartes, the last de-
rived the doctrine of Occasional Causes (Systema causarum
occasionalium — Occasionalismus) , which supposed the Deity
to be the actual cause of the motions of the body and affec-
tions of the mind, the soul and the limbs merely affording
the means of their development. This notion was extended
and explained by Balthazar Becker, Voider, Malebranche,
and Spinoza. Greulinx added to this strange doctrine a
purer system of morality, and maintained that the main
defect of ancient and modern systems of Ethics was the
encouragement afforded by them to Self-love ; and made
Virtue to consist in a pure love of and devotion to the
injunctions of practical Reason (amor ejfectionis non qffec-
tionis) ; or, in other words, in obedience to God and to
Reason, for the sake of Reason itself. The characteristics
of Reason thus contemplated he pronounced to be attention
(diligentia), docility (obedientia) , conformity to moral obli-
gations (justitia), and a disregard of all other goods (hum**
litas). Though his ideas on Morals were often admirable
for their truth and refinement, they did not meet with much,
success ; partly because they were entangled with his doc-
trine of Occasionalism ; and partly because the foundations
on which they should rest were not perfectly established;
added to which they prescribe nothing but a blind sub-
mission to the Divine will, to such a degree as almost to
take away the free exercise of Reason. Balthazar Becker?
Joh. Claubekgii Opera Philosophica, Amstelod. 1691, 4to. Logica
Vetus et Nova. Ontosophia, de Cognilione Dei et Nostrt, Dithb.
1656, 8vo. Initiatio irhilosophi, seu Dubitatio Cartesiana, 1655;
Mulh. 1667, 12mo.
1 Born at Antwerp about 1625 ; died 1669.
Arnoldi Geulinx, Logica Fundamentals suis, a quibus hactenus
collapsa fuerat, restituta, Lugd. Bat. 1662, ]2mo. ; Amstelod. 1698,
12mo. Metaphysica Vera et ad mentem Peripateticorum, Amstelod.
1691, 12mo. TvSrfk mavrov, sive Ethica, Am.stel. 1665, Lugd. Bat.
1675, 12mo. ed. Philarethus, Amstel. 1696, 12mo.; 1709, 8vo. Anno-
tata prajcurrentia ad R. Cartesii Principia, Dordraci, 1690, 4to.
Annotata Majora ad Principia Philosophise R. Descartes ; acccdunt
Opuscula Fhilosopbica ejusdem auctoris, Dordraci, 1691, 4to.
2 Born in West Frieshmd, 1634 ; died 1698.
Besides the work of his already mentioned (bibliography § 331); he
wrote the Betoverte Wereld, or Enchanted World (Dutcn), Leuwarden,
337.] PIERRE POIRET. 311
taking for "his ground the doctrines of Occasionalism and
the Spiritualism of Descartes, denied that men were capable
of being influenced by the agency of Spirits ; and in par-
ticular attacked the opinions then prevalent in favour of
sorcery and witchcraft; which cost him his employment.
On the other hand Pierre Poiret,1 at first a Cartesian, then a
Mystic, tried to deduce from the principles of Descartes
a proof of the immediate agency of God and of spiritual
beings on the mind of man.* Several theologians and phi-
losophers endeavoured to reconcile the Cartesian system to
Revealed Eeligion, and defended or explained it in writings
partly didactic and partly polemical. Among others may be
enumerated J. Coccejus,2 Christopher Wittich,3 Gerard de
Vries f Hermann Alex. Mo'ell? and Buard Andala.6
1690; Amsterd. 1691-93, 4 vols. 4to. Wilh. Heinr. Becker, Sche-
diasma critico-literarium de Controversiis B. Bekkero ob lihrum Die
bezauberte Welt motis, Konigsb. et Leipz. 3 721, 4to. See the Life,
Opinions, and Fortunes of B. Becker, by J. M. Sohwager, Leipz.
1780, 8vo.
i Bora at Mentz, 1646; died 1719 (See §§ 330, 340).
P. Poiret, Economie Divine, 3 647, 7 vols. 8vo. Cogitationes de
Deo, Anima, et Malo, Amstelod. 1677-1685-1715, 4to.
* Poiret has been of service to the cause of truth in drawing up a
list of those remarkable characters in the history of the Church who
have laid claim to, or adduced evidence of special spiritual illumi-
nation.— Ed.
2 Died 1669. 3 Born at Brieg 1625; died 16~7.
Christopher Wittich, Consensus Sanctae Scripturse cum Veritate
Philosophic Cartesianse, Neomag. 1659, 8vo. Theologia Pacificata,
Lugd. Bat. 1675, 4to. Annotationes, in quibus Methodi celeb. Philo-
sophi succincta notitia redditur, Dordr. 1688, 4to. Anti-Spinoza, sen
Examen Ethices Bened. de Spinoza, Amstel. 1690, 4to.
4 Ger. de Vries 'see § 336, note l). Exercitationes Pationales de
Deo Divinisque perfectionibus; necnon Philosophemata Miscellanea,
Traj. 1685, 4to. Edit, nova, ad quam praeter alias accedit Diatribe
singularis gemina, altera de Cogitatione ipsa mente, altera de Ideis
rerum Innatis, Ultraj. 1695, 4to.
5 lie was professor of Theology at Franeker and Utrecht, and died
1718.
Herm. Alex. Eoell,- Dissert, de Keligione Naturali, Franeq. 1686,
folio. Disputationes Philosophies de Theologia Naturali duse, de
Ideis Inoatis una; Ger. de Vries Diatribse oppositse; fourth edition,
Franeq. 1700, 8 vo. ; Ultraj. 1713.
6 Born in Friesland 1665; professor of Theology at Franeker; died
1727.
312 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
II. Spinoza.
His works : Benedicti de Spinoza Renati Descartes Principiorum
Philosophise pars prima et secunda More Geometrico demonstrate
Accesserunt ejusdem Cogitata Metaphysica, in quibus diffieiliores, quae
tam in parte Metaphysicae generali quam speciali occurrunt Quass-
tiones brevitur explicantur, Arnstel. 1663, 2 vols. 4to. Tractatus
Theologico-Politicus continens Dissertationes aliquot, quibus ostenditur
Libertatem Philosophandi non tantum salva Pietate et Reipublicae
Pace posse concedi, sed eandem nisi cum Pace Reipublicae ipsaque
Pietate tolli non posse, Hamb. (Amsterd.) 1670, 4to. Under various
fictitious titles : Dan. Heinsii Operum Historicum collectio prima.
Ed. II, priori multo emendatior et auetior, Lugd. Bat. 1675, 8vo.
Henriquez de Villacorta, M.D. a cubiculo Philippi IV, Caroli II,
Archiatri, Opera Chirurgica Omnia, sub auspiciis potentissimi Hispani-
arum Regis, Arnstel. 1673, 8vo. ; 1697, 8vo. In French; La Clef du
Sanctuaire, par un savant homme de notre siecle, Leyde, 1678, 12mo.
Traite des Ceremonies superstitieuses des Juifs, taut Anciennes que
Modernes, Amsterd. 1678, 12mo. Reflexions Curieuses d'un Esprit
d§sinteresse sur les Mati&res les plus importantes au Salut, tant public
que particulier, Cologne. 1678, 12mo.
Annotationes Ben. de Spinoza ad Tractatum Theologico-Politicum,
ed Chr. Theoph. de Murr, Hag. Com. 1802, 4 to.
Bened. de Spinoza Opera Posthuma, Arnstel. 1677, 4to. (containing:
Ethica, Tractatus Politicus, de Intellectus emendatione Epistolae).
Bened. de Spinoza Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. H. Eberii.
Gottlob Paulus, Jen. 1802, 1803, 2 vols. 8vo. with a Biography.
Renati Descartes et Benedicti de Spinoza praecipua Opera, philos.
recognovit, notitias historico-philosophicas adjecit, K. Riedel. Vol. I,
Cartesiae Meditationes ; Spinozae Dissertationes philosophicae. Vol. II,
Spinozae Ethica, Lips. 1843.
Ejus Opera philosophica omnia, edid. praefat. adjecit, A. Gfrorer,
Stuttg. 1830--31.
WbrJcs on Spinoza and his Doctrines.
C. Matthias, Ben. Spinozae Doctrina, ex Ethica ejus recensita, Dis
sert. inaug. Marb. 1829.
John Colerus, Life of Spinoza, etc. etc. Originally published in
Dutch, Utrecht, 1697; in French, The Hague, 1706, 8vo.; in German,
Franco/, and Leips. 1733, 8vo.
Ru. Andala, Syntagma Theologico-Physico-Metaphysicum, Franeq.
1710, 4to. Cartesius verus Spinozismi eversor et Physicae Experi-
mentalis architectus, Ibid. 1719. In answer to J. Regius, Cartesius
versus Spinozismi architectus: Leovard. 1718. Exercitationes Aca-
demicae in Philosophiam Frimam et Naturalem, in quibus Philosophia
Cartesii explicatur, confirmatur, et vindicatur, Franeq. 1709, 4to.
Examen Ethicae Geulinxii, Ibid. 1716, 4to. Questiunes Physicse,
1720. Apologia pro Vera et Saniore Philosophia, etc.
338.]
SPINOZA. 313
Emulations des Erreurs de Benoit de Spinoza, par M. Fenelon,
par le P. Lamy, et par le Comte de Boulainvilliers, avec la Vie de
Spinoza, ecrite par M. Jean Colerus, augmentee de beaucoup de par-
ticularity tir6es d'une Vie Manuscrite (trom the next book), de ee
Philosophe; faite par un de ses amis, Bruxelles, 1731, 12mo.
La Vie et l'Esprit de M. Benoit de Spinoza, Amsterd. 1719, 8vo.
The author was a physician named Lucas or Vraese, councillor of the
Court of Brabant at the Hague. Only seventy copies of a very limited
edition were offered for sale, at a very high price; which caused a
number of MS. copies to be taken. The second part was burnt, but
the biographical part (also very scarce) was published under this title :
La Vie de Spinoza par un de ses Disciples : nouvelle edition non
tronquee, etc Hamb. 1735, 8vo.
H. Fr. von Dietz, Ben. von Spinosa nach Leben und Lehren, Dess.
1783, 8vo.
M. Philipson, Leben Ben. von Spinosa, Braunschw. 1790, 8vo.
(nach Colerus).
Jariges, Ueber das System des Spinosa und iiber Bayle's Erinne-
rungen dagegen in der Histoire de l'Acad. des Sciences de Berlin a.
1740, und in Hissmann's Magazin, 5. Bd. S. 5 ff.
Fr. H. Jacobi, Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza, in Briefen an Hrn.
Moses Mendelssohn, Brest. 1785; 2te Auflage, 1789, 8vo., und in
Jacobi's Schriften, 4 Bde. I. Abth. Moses Mendelssohn, Morgen-
stunden (see § 381, etc.) : An die Freunde Lessing's, ein Anbang zu
Jacobi's Briefwechsel, Berl. 1786, 8vo. F. H. Jacobi, wider M. Men-
delssohns Beschuldigungen, Leipz. 1786. (Math. Claudius) Zwei
Eecensionen in Sachen Lessing, M. Mendelssohn und Jacobi, Hamb.
1786. Ueber Mendelssohn's Darstellung der Spinozistischen Philo-
sophic; in Caesars Denkwiirdigkeiten, 4 B. K. H. Heydenreich,
Animadversiones in Mosis Mendelii filii Refutationem placitorum
Spinosas scripsit, Lips. 1786, 4to. Derselbe: Natur und Gott nach
Spinosa, 1 B. (mit Auszugen aus der oben angegebenen Vie von
Lucas), Leipz. 1789, 8vo.
Gott: einige Gesprache; von J. G. Herder, Gotha, 1787, 8vo.
D. G. S. Francke, Preisschr. iiber die neuern Schicksale des Spino-
zismus und seinen Einfluss auf die Philosophic uberhaupt, und die
Vernunfttheologie insbesondere, Sckleswig, 1812, 8vo.
Ern. Stiedenroth, Nova Spinozismi delineatio. Gott. 1817, 8vo.
Lud. Boumann, Explicatio Spinozismi. Diss, inaugural. Berol.
1828, 8vo.
C. Rosenkranz, De Spinozae Philos. Diss., Hal. et Lips. 1828, 8vo.
Fr. Keller, Spinoza und Leibnitz, iiber die Freiheit des mensch-
lichen Willens, Erlang. 1847.
338. The Jew Barucli {Benedict) Spinoza, or Spinosa,
entered into the speculative views of the Cartesian School
with all the originality of a profound and penetrating genius.
He was born at Amsterdam, 1632, and even in his childhood
distinguished himself for his ardent love of the knowledge
314 THIRD PERIOD. [.SECT.
of truth. His doubts with respect to the authority of the
Talmud, and his frame of mind, devout, but free from
superstition, rendered him indifferent to the ceremonial
service of his fellow-believers, and were the means of bring-
ing upon him many persecutions. Concealed in the houses
of some charitable Christians, he applied himself to the
study of Latin and Greek, Mathematics and Metaphysics,
especially those of Descartes, the clearness and simplicity of
whose system attracted his attention, without being able to
satisfy the depth of his genius. After having devoted his
life to tranquil thought, pursued in retirement, he died at
the Hague, A. D. 1677, with the reputation of an estimable
man and a distinguished philosopher. Spinoza made it his
principle to admit nothing to be true, which he could not
recognize on sufficient grounds ; and endeavoured to found
a system which should deduce the fundamental principles of
moral life by strictly Mathematical demonstrations, founded
on the knowledge of God. To this end he called his system
one of Ethics. These strictly scientific aims carried him
into the highest region of speculation, and gradually led him
to the remarkable theory proposed also by Descartes,1 which
asserts the existence of only one Absolute Essence, — (the
Deity), — Infinite Being, with Infinite Attributes of Exten-
sion and Thought, reducing all finite beings to the state of
apparent substances, and limitations or modi of those Attri-
butes. Substance is not an individual being, but the founda-
tion and substratum of all individual beings : it never has
begun to be, but exists per se and of necessity, and can
only be thought by itself (see Eth. P. I, prop. 5). Nothing
can be said to have a beginning but finite objects, or the
mutable limitations of the Attributes of Infinity : in this
manner from the attribute of Infinite Extension arises the
modification of Motion and Repose ; from that of Infinite
Thought, those of the Understanding and Will. Infinite
Extension is, on the same principle, the ultimate element of
all finite corporeal objects, and Absolute or Infinite Thought,
of all finite thinking beings. The primordial Elements —
Infinite Extension and Infinite Thought — are mutually re-
1 H. C. W. Sigwakt, Ueber den Zusnmmcnhang des Spinozismus
mit der Cartesianischen Philosophic, Tubing. 1816, 8vo.
H. Eitter, Uebcr den Einfiuss Descartes, auf die Ausbildung des
Spinozismus, Leipz. 1816, 8vo.
338.] SPINOZA S ETHICS. 315
lated, without having been produced the one by the other.
All finite things (e. g. Body and Soul) exist in the Deity; the
Deity is their immanent Cause, Natura naturans. He himself
is not finite, though from him all finite things have neces-
sarily proceeded : there is no such thing as Accident, but an
universal Necessity, which in the case of the Deity is united
to Liberty; because the Deity is the only Substance, and
alone is not circumscribed by the existence or operations of
any other being. He operates according to the internal
necessity of His own nature ; and His will and knowledge
are inseparable. There is no free Causality of Ends and
final Causes ; but only the Causality of Necessity and
natural Causes. The immediate and direct conception of
any real and present thing is called the Spirit or Soul
{Mens) of such a thing ; and the thing itself, or the direct
and immediate object of such a conception, is called the Body
of such Spirit. United, they compose one and the same
individual object ; which may be apprehended in a twofold
relation, under that of the attribute Thought or the attribute
Extension. All ideas, as far as they have a relation to the
Deity, are true ; because all ideas which exist in the Divine
mind are perfectly correspondent to their respective Objects ;
and consequently every idea of our own which is absolute,
perfect, and corresponds with its object, is true also, and
discloses itself;1 and the Eeason contemplates things accord-
ing to their true nature, inasmuch as it contemplates them
with a view to their eternal and necessary properties.2
Ealsehood has its origin in the negation of Thought ; which
entails the admission of irregular and imperfect thoughts.3
Every idea of a real object embraces at the same time the
eternal and infinite essence of God, (Prop. 45) : the know-
ledge of the Infinite and Eternal Essence of God which
every idea embraces in itself is adequate and complete.
The human understanding can therefore adequately appre-
hend the nature of God.4 On the other hand, the know-
ledge we are able to acquire of individual objects is neces-
1 Prop. 43. "Sicut lux seipsam et tenebras manifestat, sic Veritas
norma sui et falsi est."
2 " E natura rationis non est, res ut contingent's, sed ut necessarias
contemplari (et) sub quadam eternitatis specie peruipere." — Propos. 44.
3 Eth. P. II, Propos. 32—34 sqq. 4 Prop. 46, 47.
316 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
sarily imperfect. In the lively knowledge of the Deity
consists our greatest happiness: since the more that we
know of God, the more inclined we are to live according to
his will j1 in which consists at the same time our happiness
and our free-will : — Deo parere gumma libertas est. Never-
theless our Will is not absolutely free, inasmuch as the
mind is directed to this or that end by some external cause,
which cause is dependent on another, and so on in perpetual
concatenation. In like manner no other faculty of the
mind is altogether absolute and uncontrolled. (P. II7
prop. 4S).
339. The leading ideas of his system Spinoza had amassed
in the course of his early study of the Rabbinical writings,
and the theory of Descartes had only supplied him with a
scientific form. He draws all his conclusions, after the
mathematical method, by a regular deduction from a small
number of axioms and a few leading conceptions, which he
assumes to be self-evident, such as those of Substance and
Causality. His conclusions have all a mathematical strict-
ness, and constitute a perfect edifice if you grant him his
premises ; but they appear to labour in this respect, that it
may be questioned how the infinitude of finite objects is a
necessary result of the infinite attributes of the Deity.
The grand defect of his theory is, that ail Individuality and
Free-will is lost in subordination to the Divine Substance,
and that his system of Ethics is made one of mere Physics,
because all finite things, in so far as they are determina-
tions of the Infinite, belong to the necessary Essence of
God, but as finite determinations form parts of a chain of
absolute and necessary Causality.2 The profoundness of his
ideas ; the syllogistic method of his reasoning ; the har-
dihood of his attempt to explain things finite by infinite ;
give an air of obscurity to the whole system, and make it
difficult to be apprehended in its peculiar character : it
does not, however, deserve the appellation of an atheistic
theory, which has been liberally bestowed upon it ever
since its first appearance, rather in consequence of the pas-
sions of the disputants, than from anything contained in
1 "Amor Dei non nisi ex cognitione ejus oritur." — Tract. Theol. cap.
IV, p. 42. 2 Ep. 62. See Tract. Theol.-Polit. cap. XVI.
339 — 340.] spinoza's opponents. 317
the work itself. It is rather a system of Pantheism (not
material like that of the Eleatce, but formal), which embraces
and illustrates the most exalted idea of the Divinity, as the
Original Esse (ITrseyn), so far as it was attained by specu-
lations purely ontological. Nevertheless, such a conception
does not satisfy the reason, and contradicts the principles
of Theism, such as reason is obliged to presuppose, espe-
cially in their practical relations and applications.
340. Spinoza's character was no less misrepresented than
his doctrines. Few at first dared to profess themselves his
friends and adherents*1 His first opponents, either from
not having understood his system, or from some secret
attachment to it which they were at pains to conceal, allowed
him to have the advantage, and contributed to his repu-
tation. Of this number were : Fr. Cuper,2 Boulainvilliers?
Chr, Witticli? (who answered him the most fully of them
all), P. Poiret,5 Sam. Parker (§ 342), and Isaac Jacqitelot.6
Those who undertook the conflict with more sincerity (such
as J. Brendonburg) ? found themselves involved in contra-
1 Of these we may mention, J. Oldenberg, who nevertheless, on many
points, differed from Spinoza. The following writers have, perhaps
improperly, been designated as Spinozists : the physicians L. Meyer
and Lucas, the first the author of a work entitled Fhilosophia Sacrse
Scripturoe interpres : see § 336, note; X. Jelles, Abe. Cufaeler, who
defended and exposed Spinozism in two treatises : Specimen Artis
Katiocinandi Naturalis et Artificialis ad Pantasophiae Principia manu-
ducens, Hamb. (Amst ) 1684; et Principiornm Pantosophiae, P. II,
et P. Ill, Hamb. 1684; J. G. Wachter, Concordia Rationis et Fidei,
etc., Amstel. (Berol.), 1692, 8vo. ; and Theod. Lud. Law: Medita-
tiones de Deo, Mundo, et Homine, Franco/, 1717, 8vo, : et: Medita-
tiones, Theses, dubia Philosophico-Theologica, Freystadt, 1719, 8vo.
2 Arcana Atheismi Revelata ; a work severely censured by H. More,
Opp. Philos. torn. I, p. 596, and by Jaeger : Fr. Cuperus mala fide
aut ad minimum frigide Atheismum Spinozae oppugnans, Tub. 1710.
3 The Comte de Boulainvilliers; born 1658, died 1722. See biblio-
graphy of § 337. 4 See § 337.
5 See § 337. Potret, Fundamenta Atheismi eversa; in his Cogitata
de Deo, etc.
6 Born in Champagne, 1674; died 1708.
Isaac Jacquelot, Dissertations sur 1' Existence de Dieu, etc., par la
Refutation du Systeme d'Epicure et de Spinoza, La Haye, 1697. See
§ 334, note.
7 Enervatio Tractatus Theologico-Politici, una cum Demonstatione
geometrico ordine disposita, Naturam non esse Deum, Eoterod. 1 675, 4to
318 THIED PEKIOD. [SECT.
dictions, being unable to refute the demonstration of Spi-
noza, and not enduring to admit its validity.
It is only of late that the talents and opinions of Spinoza
have been better appreciated ; at the same time that the
Critical method of the Rationalists has enabled them to
detect the weak side of his system.1
The most recent philosophical system approaches in many
respects that of Spinoza.
III. MalebrancTie. Fardella.
Fontenelle, Eloge de Malebranche, dans le torn. I, de ses Eloges des
Academicians, La Haye, 1731, p. 317.
Nic. Malebranche, De la Recherche de la Vorite, Paris, 1673,
12mo. ; seventh edit. 1712, 2 vols. 4to., or 4 vols. 12mo. In Lat. by
Lenfant, De Inquirenda Veritate, Genev. 1691, 4to. ; 1753, 2 vols. 4to.
Nic. Malebranche, Conversations Chretiennes, 1677. De la Na-
ture et de la Grace, Amst. 1680, 12mo. Meditations Chretiennes et
Metaphysiques, Cologne (Rouen), 1683, 12mo.
Malebranche, Entretiens sur la Mrtaphysique et sur la Religion,
Potterd. 1688, 8vo. Entretiens d'un Philosophique Chre'tien et dun
Philosophe Chinois, sur la Nature de Dieu, Paris, 1708. Reflexions
sur la Promotion Physique, etc. Paris, 1715, 8vo. ; (Euvres, Paris,
1712, 11 vols. 12mo.
341. Nicole Malebranche? one of the Fathers of the
Oratoire, whose disadvantageous person concealed a pro
found genius, and indisputably the greatest metaphysician
that France has produced,* developed the ideas of Descartes,
and imparted to them a fresh originality, and greater
clearness and vivacity: but his views of religion led him to
superadd some tenets of his own inclining to mysticism.
1 Christian Wolfe, for instance, and Bayle ; the first of whom has
refuted the system of Spinoza in his T Translation ot his Ethics. Franc/,
and Hamb. 1744, 8vo. See also Jaiuges, quoted at the head of § 338.
The dispute between Jacobi and Mendelssohn on the Spinozism of Les-
sing, was the occasion of a great number of writings respecting the
tenets of Spinoza. See the same section. The t Translation of the
Ethics of Spinoza, by Ewald (Gera, 1791—33, 8vo.), also contains a
refutation of Spinozism, on the principles of the Critical system.
2 Born at Paris 16.38 ; died 1715.
* This observation requires limitation. In the nineteenth century
V. Cousin, P. Leroux, Joujfroy, &c., may probably dispute the paiin
with Malebranche.— Ed.
341.] MALEBEANCHE. 319
He has been peculiarly successful in discussing the theory
of knowledge, the sources of error, (especially those
which have their origin in illusions of the Imagination),
as well as in his examination of the proper Method
for the investigation of Truth. He described the under-
standing as passive ; maintained extension to be the cha-
racteristic of Body ; the soul to be an essence simple in
its nature, and therefore distinct from its body ; and repre-
sented the Deity as the only Eeal Basis of all thought and
all being. These opinions led him to controvert, by acute
arguments, the doctrine of Innate Ideas, and gave rise to
the extraordinary assertion peculiar to him, that it is in
and through the Divinity that we have an intuitive perception
of all things, which are comprehended intellectually in His
essence ; that the Divinity is the Intellectual World ; Infi-
nite and Universal Reason, and the abode of Spirits: in
these respects making near approaches to Spinozism. The
doctrine of Occasionalism (which he enlarged and extended)
is closely connected with such speculations ; by which he
was farther led to assign to the Soul and Body a sort of
passive activity, and to represent the Deity as the only
original cause of all their changes : a species of religious-
mystical Idealism. We may trace in it the consequences
of a blind devotion to Demonstration, as the only method of
attaining philosophical knowledge. The Abbe JFoucher1
opposed to his system one of scepticism.
1 Simon Foucher, Critique de la "Recherche de la Verit?.
Among the authors who discussed and opposed the theory of Male-
branche, we may mention Father Du Tertre (who did not understand
it) : Refutation du nouveau Systeme de Metaphysique compos; par le
Pere Malebranche, Paris, 1718, 3 vols. 12mo. ; and Ant. Arnauld :
Des Vrais et des Fausses Idees contre ce qu'enseigne I'Auteur de la
Eecherche de la Ve'rite, Cologne, 1683, 8vo. To the latter work Male-
branche replied by his Eeponse de I'Auteur de la Eecherche de la
"Verite au livre de M. Arnauld, des Vrais et des Fausses Idees, Rotter-
dam, 16S4. Defense de M. Arnauld contre la Reponse au livre des
Fausses IdScs, Cologne, 16^4, 12mo. ; Trois Lettres de I'Auteur de la
Eecherche de la Verite, touchant la Defense de M. Arnauld contre la
Reponse, Rotterd. 1685, 12mo. The dispute was prolonged in some
other writings; by Locke, in the second vol. of his Miscell. Works,
Anutcrd. 1732, 8vo. and by Leibnitz, in the second vol. of a Collec-
tion of Philosophical Pieces, by Leibnitz, Clarice, Newton, etc., 2nd
edit. Amst. 1740, 8vo.
320 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
Michael- Angelo Fardella,1 in his Logic,3 employed in the
defence of Idealism the same arguments which had been
used by Malebranche, namely, that the existence of the
material world is incapable of demonstration, and can only
be maintained on the grounds of revealed religion.
IV. Supematuralists and Mystics of this period.
342. The dissensions of the Empirical and Speculative
Schools brought once more upon the stage the opposite
factions of the Supernaturalists, the Mystics, and the Scep-
tics. Among these by far the most distinguished was
Blaise Pascal; who, in consequence perhaps of his early
devotion to Mathematics, imbibed a distrust of philosophical
speculation, and in the latter part of his life, when his
bodily sufferings increased, devoted himself to a sort of
ascetism. Theophilus Gale (Galeus) was a thinker of a
different stamp. He was a presbyterian minister,3 and
maintained that all true philosophy is contained in the
revealed word of God, made known immediately to the
Jews, and from them at various epochs and in various ways,
handed over to other nations. Consequently, philosophy is
subordinate to theology. He recommended for these pursuits
the study of the JNeo-platonic writers.4 Ralph Cudworth5
pursued the same system, but (with greater originality)
turned it against the Materialists and Atheists, in defence
of Kevealed Religion. He collected proofs of the existence
of God (Syst. c. V. § 101 — 102), and of the Creation out of
nothing ; and maintained the doctrine of a Rational system
of knowledge, founded on Innate Ideas, according to the
views of Plato. The Plastic Nature? which he supposes
may account for the conformity of created things to their
uses, is nothing more than the Soul of the World of Plato ;
to make room for which he denies the existence either of
blind chance, of mechanical necessity, or of an immediate
and continual creation on the part of God. He reproached
Descartes for having excluded from Physics the doctrine of
1 Died at Padua, 1718. 2 Venice, 1696. 3 Born 1628 ; died 1677.
4 Theoph. Gale, Philosophia Universalis, Lond. 1676, 8vo. Aula
Dcorum Gentilium, Ibid. 1676, 8vo.
5 Born in the county of Somerset, 1617; died a Professor at Cam-
bridge, 1688. 6 Cap. Ill, § 25, sqq,
342.] HENRY MORE. 321
Pinal Causes. He derives the principles of Moral G-ood
and Rectitude from certain Moral Ideas, which are copies of
the Divine "Wisdom, and not from notions acquired by-
experience } on many other points also, adopting the prin-
ciples of Plato, Henry More2 a member of the same univer-
sity, followed the same line of argument. He was a learned
man, and of an acute understanding, who finding the Peri-
patetic system insufficient to satisfy his doubts, which had
carried him so far as to question his own Individuality,
embraced the Neo-platonic theory, borrowed principally
from the works of Ficinus ; studying also the Cabbalistic
writings, which he defended in several of his compositions,
but without moulding these different materials into an
uniform system (see § 320). He derived all philosophical
knowledge from intellectual Intuition, and maintained that
all genuine philosophy is deducible from Revelation, and
has reference to Man and his destiny. In his metaphysics
— the subject of which is Immaterial Nature — he placed all
Reality in an immoveable space, distinct and separate from
moveable matter ; and affected to deduce from this principle
the laws of all motion, and of all matter liable to motion.
He attributes to this space a real existence, and Divine
attributes ; describing it as the universal circumscription of
the Divine presence. He maintains that the nature of the
souls of men and other animals is simple, but supposes
them to possess a certain extent. He pointed out the faults
of the systems of Descartes and Spinoza, at the same time
1 Kalph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe,
Lond. 1678, folio : 1743, 2 vols. 4to. : 4 vols. 8vo. with Life by Birch,
Oxford, 1830. Systema Intellectuale hujus Universi, etc., Lat. vert.
J. L. Moshemius; with a Life of Cudworth, Jen. 1733, folio, cum Cor-
rectionib. posth. Lugd. Bat. 1773, 2 vols. 4to. Treatise concerning
Eternal and Immutable Morality, Lond. 1731.
2 Born 1614; died 1687.
Henpjci Mori Opera Philosophica Omnia, Lond. 1679, 2 vols, folio.
Ejusdem, Conjectura Cabbalistica in tria prima capita Geneseos. De-
fensio Cabbalse Triplicis. Apologia contra Sam. Andrew Examen
Generale Cabbalae Philosophies. Trium Tabularam Cabbalisticarum
decern Sephiroth. Questiones et Considerationes in Tractatum primum
libri Druschim. Catechismus Cabbalisticus, sive Mercavaeus, funda-
menta Philosophise, sive Cabbalee iEtopfledomelisseee Enchiridium Me-
taphysicum, Lond. 1674, 4to. Enchiridium Ethicum, Lond. 1660 —
1668—1672, 8vo.
T
322 THIBD PEBIOD.
[sect.
expressing great respect for their talents. In Ethics he
blended the principles of Aristotle and Plato. The con-
temporary of the two former, Samuel Parker,1 bishop of
Oxford, criticised the atomistic theory of Descartes, and his
proof of the existence of the Deity ; and defended theology
(whence he derived his proofs of the existence of God)
against Atheism.2 One of the most remarkable writers of
this age was the physician and preacher John Pordage? who
declared himself the decided advocate of a mystical Super-
naturalism. He endeavoured to systematize the theosoph>3
enthusiasm of Jacob Bbhmk (see § 330), and asserted, on.
the evidence of well-attested facts, that he had been assured
of the truth of his theosophic doctrines by special reve-
lation.5 His pupil Thomas Bromley, disseminated the same
notions. The writings of this remarkable man contain some
original and ingenious views on the spiritual interpretation
of Scripture, as also on the phenomena of apparitions.6 In
France, Pierre JPoiret, originally a Cartesian (§ 337), de-
voted himself altogether to a mystical Supernaturalism,
which denied to the mind all independent agency; and
declared war against speculative philosophy.7 A remark-
able knot of Mystics appeared in England about this time,
including, besides Pordage and Bromley, Jane Lead, a
woman of elevated piety and enthusiastic spirituality, who
has scattered several luminous thoughts and memorable
relations in the midst of the obscurity that generally cha-
racterises her style.
. * Died 1638.
. 2 A Free and Impartial Account of the Platonic Philosophy, Oxford,
1666, 4to. Tentamina Physico-Theologica de Deo, Land. 1669, 8vo.
1673. Disputationes de Deo et Providentia, Lond. 1678, 4to.
3 Born about 1625; died in London 1698.
4 Die Lehre de.s Deutschen Philosophen Jacob Bolim, 1844.
5 Metaphysica Vera et Divina, Franco/, et Leips. 1725, 3 vols. 8vo.
Sophia, seu Detectio Coelestis Sapientiae de Mundo interno et externo,
Amst. 1699. Theologia Mystica, sive Arcana Mysticaque Doctrina de
Invisibilibus, iEternis, etc. non Eationali Arte sed Cognitione Intui«
tiva descripta, Amst. 1691.
e See his Sabbath of Rest.
• 7 De Eruditione Triplici, Solida, Superficiaria et Falsa, Amst. 1629
—1706, 1707, 2 vols. 4to. Fides et Ratio collatae ac suo utraque loco
redditse advcrsua Principia Jo. I.ockii, Amst. 1707, 8vo. Opera Post-
hunia, Amst. 1721, 4to., and elsewhere. See § 340, note.
343.] JOSEPH GLANVILLE. 323
V. Sceptics,
343. Scepticism was propagated in France by two dis-
ciples of Le Vayer, Simon Sorbiere1 and Simon FoucJier
(§ 332). The first translated the Sketch by Sextus Em-
piricus of the Pyrrhonean philosophy (§ 151, bibliogr.).
The latter employed himself upon the history of the Aca-
demic system (see at the head of § 166), and opposed Scep-
ticism to the speculations of Descartes and Malebranche.
On the other hand appeared, as opponents of Scepticism,
Peter Mersenne? Martin Schoock (§ 336),3 and Jean de
Silhon} In England the preacher Joseph Glanville5 en-
deavoured to moderate by a degree of Scepticism the un-
bounded extravagancies of Dogmatism, (particularly of the
Aristotelians and Descartes), with the hope of promoting
the cause of philosophy.6 He enlarged with ability on the
causes of doubt, and applied them to the different depart-
ments of science ; more particularly, the discoveries in
physics effected in his own time. His remarks on Causality,
in which he coincides with those of Algazel (§ 258), and
appears to have forestalled Hume, deserve especial atten-
tion. "We do not, says he, detect the existence of any
cause immediately by sensational or intuitional perception,
but only by mediate representations, and therefore by infe-
rence, which may be erroneous.7 Jerome Uirnhaym* also
1 Born 1615; died at Paris 1670. 2 Died 1648.
P. Mersenne, La Vgrite des Sciences contre les Sceptiques, Paris,
1625, 8vo.
3 Mart. Schoockii De Scepticismo pars prior, libb. IV, Groning.
1652, 8vo. 4 Died 1666.
Jean Silhon, De la Certitude des Connaissances Humaines, etc.
Paris, 1661, 8vo. 5 Died 1680.
6 Jos. Glanville, Scepsis Scientifica, or Confessed Ignorance the
Way to Science ; in an Essay of the vanity of dogmatizing and con-
fident opinion. With a reply to the exceptions of the learned Thomas
Albius, Lond. 1665, 4to. De Incrementis Scientiarum inde ab Aris-
totele ductarum, Lond. 1670. Henr. Stabius has published a Disser-
tation in answer to the latter work. " Scepsis Scient., p. 142.
8 A monk of the order of Prcemonstratenses, and Doctor of Theology
at Prague ; died 1679.
Hieronymus Hirnhatm, De Typho Generis Humani, sive Scien-
tiarum Humaniorum inani ac ventoso tumore, difficultate, labilitate,
Y 2
324 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
allied Scepticism to Superriaturalism. Declaiming with con-
siderable ability against literary presumption, and the arro-
gance of the lear ed, and maintaining that all knowledge is
delusive, and that every axiom (so esteemed) of Reason
had been annulled by Revelation, he insisted that Revela-
tion from Grod, Supernatural Grace, and an internal Divine
illumination, are the only true sources of certain knowledge.
His Scepticism led him to recommend an enthusiastic
Asceticism.
It may be remarked in general, that about this period
Scepticism was called in to support the Catholic religion,
whose advocates endeavoured by the use of it to recall
Protestants to the pale of the church.*
PROGRESS OF SCEPTICISM IN ENGLAND AND
PRANCE.
I. Sensationalism of Locke.
An Essay concerning' the Human Understanding-, in four books,
Lond. 1690, fol. tenth edition; Lond. 1731, 2 vols. 8vo.
Thoughts on Education, Lond. 1693; Lond. 1732, etc.
Posthumous Works, Lond. 1706. The Works of John Locke, 1714,
3 vols. fol. third edition, 1727. Collection of Several Pieces of John
Locke, Lond. 1720, 8vo.
On his Philosophical System consult':
Jean Le Clerc, Eloge Historique de feu M. Locke, en avant du
torn. I des CEuvres Diverses.
Tennemann's Abh. liber den Empirismus in der Philosophic, vor-
ziiglich den Lockischen ; in d. III. Th. d. Uebersetzung.
Darstellung und Priifung des Lockischen Sensualsystems, in G. E.
Schulze's Kritik der Theoretischen Philosophic, I. B, s. 113; II. B,
s. 1.
ClIRTSTLTEB GOTTWALD WABST, Diss. (resp. JO. GODOFR. SCHULER)
Jo. Lockii de Ratione Sententias excutit, Viteb. 1714, 4to.
Life ot Locke, by Lord King, 2 vols.
falsitate, jactantia, proesumtione, incommodis et periculis, tractatus
brevis in quo etiam vera sapientia a falsa discernitur, et simplicitas
mundo contempta extollitus, idiotis in solatium, doctis in cautelam
conscriptus, Prag. 1676, 4to.
* The same remark is applicable at the present day with additional
force. — Ed.
344 — 345.] john locke. 325
344. John Locke, (born at Wrington near Bristol, 1632,
died 1704), renounced the intricacies of Scholastic philo-
sophy for the more congenial study of the classics. The
writings of Descartes inspired him with fresh ardour, par-
ticularly for the cultivation of Medicine and Metaphysics.
He rejected indeed many of his master's notions, more par-
ticularly that of Innate Ideas ; but was not the less capti-
vated by his love of perspicuity and distinctness. The end-
less disputations of the learned led him to suspect that they
had their origin in an improper use of words and a defective
use of conceptions ; which he proposed to rectify by ascer-
taining the grounds and extent of human knowledge,
through investigation of the properties oi the human under-
standing. This was the origin of his renowned work on
the Human Understanding, by which he justly acquired the
greatest distinction for the modesty und tolerance of his
way of thinking, the clearness and rectitude of his under-
standing, evinced in the course of a correspondence with the
most accomplished men of his day, and his penetrating
acuteness and manly honesty. He so far adopted Bacon's
principles that he pursued the method of experiment and
observation, in preference to that of speculation ; applying
it principally to our inner nature. His method of philo-
sophizing has many advantages, but at the same time some
great defects ; especially that of avoiding the great obstacles
and difficulties in the course of philosophical knowledge
instead of directly sounding them by a more radical and a
deeper research. Notwithstanding, the opposition which he
encountered was not so much the consequence of this radical
fault, as of certain deductions from his system. (See § 346,
note, and 348, note). By his treatises on Toleration and
Education, Locke has rendered indisputable and undisputed
services to mankind.
345. Locke's great object and merit, was the investigation
of the origin, reality, limits, and uses of knowledge. He
contested the hypothesis of Innate Ideas, throwing great
light on one side of the question; and endeavoured to prove
by an induction which was necessarily incomplete, that all
our representations are acquired by experience. The two
ultimate sources of all our representations are impressions
through the external Senses, and Reflection, or the perception
326 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
of the operations of our minds ; which has caused his system
to be called one of Sensationalism ; since he gives even to
[Reflection the appellation of an Internal Sense. Our repre-
sentations are partly simple, partly compound: among the
first are those of Solidity, Space, Extension, Figure, Motion,
Rest: those of Thought and Will: those of Existence,
Time, Duration, Power, Enjoyment, and Pain. Our
simple notions have an objective, or absolute and in-
dependent reality. The soul, like a piece of white paper
(tabula rasa), merely receives their impressions through
perception, without adding anything thereto of her own.
They represent partly primary, partly secondary qualities
or properties : among the first are Extension, Solidity,
Eigure, Number, Movement : among the latter, (which are
deduced and derived as the first are direct and original),
Colour, Sound, Scent. Compound notions are deduced
from simple ones by an activity of the understanding, for
instance by Connection, Opposition, Comparison, or Abstrac-
tion. The representations so acquired are those of Accident,
Substance, and Relation. The understanding either applies
Experience and Observation to the formation of compound
notions, or by a totally different course, develops simple and
absolute ones, such as those belonging to Mathematics and
Ethics.
Locke has also suggested some admirable ideas on Lan-
guage, and the abuses to which it is liable. He defines
knowledge to be the perception of the Connection and
Agreement or the want of Connection and Disagreement
of certain representations, which may be reduced to four
sources; Identity or Discrepancy — Relation — Co-existence
or necessary connection, and Real Existence.1 As relates
to the mode of this perception, knowledge becomes either
Immediate or Mediate : Immediate, if the result of intuition,
and Mediate, if produced by demonstration : to these must
be added a third class relating to particulars ascertained by
sensational cognition, and confined to matters presented to
our Senses. It must be remarked, however, that his obser-
vations on the limits and use, etc. of knowledge do not pene-
trate far enough, nor, by any means, exhaust the question :
he may even be said to have pronounced judgment upon the
« Essay, B. IV, eh. 1, § 1—3.
346. J john Locke. 327
reality of knowledge, before he had set up his theory on the
subject. His reasoning is far from being satisfactory on the
principles of thought and knowledge, all of which, (even that
of contradiction) he describes as derived and secondary. His
analysis only embraces the material, without extending to
the formal part of knowledge ; and unravels only a few of
the least intricate of our compound notions. He deduces all
knowledge from experience, yet nevertheless proposes to
support and confirm the latter by various inadequate proofs ;
and in this manner he maintains the possibility of a demon-
strative knowledge of the Existence of God,1 and the Immor-
tality of the Soul; and endeavours to erect a system of Meta-
physics on the uncertain foundation of empirical knowledge.
346. It was the object of Locke to liberate philosophy
from vain disputations and unprofitable niceties ; but his
work had the effect of discouraging, by the facility and
accomodating character of its method, more profound inves-
tigation ; at the same time that he gave a popular air to
such inquiries, diminishing the interest they excited, and
affording advantages to Eclecticism and Materialism. In
Morals he adopted the principles of Experiment and a
theory of Euxhmnonism.2 On the other hand his system
promoted the knowledge of Metaphysics on the grounds of
Experience, and contained a variety of admirable rules rela-
tive to Method, as well as many valuable hints on points up
to that time neglected, His theory gained a great number
of adherents in England, France, and the Netherlands,
where J. Le Clerc3 and Gravesand embraced his principles.
1 In Books IV. X. he developes his Cosmoloqical proof.
2 On the faults of Locke's Empiricism consult Lord Shaftesbury :
Letters written by a Nobleman to a young man at the University,
Lond. 1716.
Two inconsiderable works in answer to Locke were published by
Henky Lee (Anti-Scepticism) and by John Norms, Lond. 1704, 8vo.
That by Bp. Brown : The Procedure, Extent, and Limits of Human
Understanding, Lond. 1729, 8vo. second edit., made more noise, and
was continued under the title of Tlrngs Divine and Supernatural con-
ceived by Analogy with Things Natural and Human, etc. Lond. 1733.
(Against the First Part Be'ik^ley composed his Alciphron, or the
Minute Philosopher). To these must be added : Two Dissertations
concerning Sense and Imagination, with an Essay on Consciousness,
Lond. 1728, 8vo. 3 Clericus; born at Geneva 1657; died 1736.
328 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
Thence it gradually extenced its influence into Germany.
A great number of eminent men became his partisans, and
deduced from his Empiricism its direct or remote con-
sequences, such as the hypothesis of a peculiar sense for the
apprehension of Truth in matters of speculation and prac-
tice (Eeid, Beattie, liiidiger) ; the attempt to establish the
objective Reality of knowledge, (Condillac, Bonnet, D'Alem-
bert, Condorcet) ; the analysis of the faculties of the Soul.
(Hartley, Condillac, Bonnet) ; the farther development 01
excellent rules for the investigation of Truth, (Gravesande,
Tschirnhausen) ; an inadequate view of Metaphysics con-
sidered as nothing more than Logical reasonings on given
facts (Condillac) ; the increase of Materialism and Atheism
(La Mettrie, System e de la Nature: and Priestley); and
lastly the conversion of Morality into interested calculation
(La Eochefoucauld, Helvetius).
II. Isaac Newton.
Works: Naturalis Philosophic Principia Mathematica, Lond. 1687,
4to. Augmented, 1713, and 1726 ; edid. Lesueur et F. Jaquier,
Geneva, 1739 and 1760, 3 vols. 4to.; 4 vols. roy. 8vo. Glasg. 1822.
Translated by Thorp, 4to. 1802 ; by Davis, 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1819.
Treatise of Optics, etc. Lond. 1704, 4to. Optica; Lat. reddita a
Samuel Clarke, Lausann. 1711, 4to.
Opera, comment, illustr. Sam. Horsley, Lond. 1779, 5 vols. 4to.
A View of Newton's Philosophy, by Henry Pemberton, Lond.
1726, 4to.
Guill. Jac. S. Gravesande, Physices Elementa Mathematica Expe-
rimentis confirmata; sive Introductio ad Philosophiain Newtonianam,
Lugd. Bat. 1720. 2 vols. 4to.
Voltaire, Elemens de la Philosophic de Newton, mis a la portee
de tout le monde, Amst. 1738; and La Metaphysique de Newton, ou
Parallele des Sentimens de Newton et de Leibnitz, ibid. 1740, 8vo.
Wright's Commentary on Newton's Principia, 2 vols. 8vo. 1823.
Eegaud on Newton's Principia, 8vo. Oxon. 1838.
+ Comparison between the Metaphysics of Newton and Leibnitz, in
Answer to M. de Voltaire, by L. M. Kayle, Gbtt. 1740, 8vo.
+ Maclaurin, Statement of the Discoveries of Newton, 1748 ; trans-
lated into Lat. by Gr. Falck, Vienna, 1761, 4to.
347. The tendency in favour of Empirical philosophy,
which had already become prevalent in England, was con-
Joh. Clerici Opera Philosophica, Amst. 1692 et 1693. (Euvres
completes, 1710, 4 vols. 4to. et 1722. See § 343.
347 — 348.J isaac newtok. 329
firmed by the authority of Newton.1 This illustrious philo-
sopher, whose great discoveries in Physics, (e.g. the theory
of Colours and the laws of Gravitation) achieved by the
calm prosecution of experimental observations, naturally in-
clined him to recommend to otiiers the same career, was so
far from giving any encouragement to hypothetical specula-
tion, that he made it his maxim, that " Physics should be on
their guard against Metaphysics." Nevertheless he himself
occasionally indulged in such inquiries ; for instance, when
he suggested that Infinite Space, in which the celestial
bodies revolve, might possibly be the sensorium of the
Deity. He supposed the existence of certain properties in-
herent in bodies — e.g. that of weight in atoms — and even
presumed that when Natural Philosophy should have com-
pleted her course of Experiment, she might contribute to
the perfection of Moral Philosophy: inasmuch as a more
adequate knowledge of the First Great Cause, and of our
relations to Him, may assist us in acquiring a fuller sense
of our duties towards Him.2
III. English School of Moral Philosophy, and Reaction
excited against the Empiricism of Locke.
348. A school was formed in England, whose object was
to establish the principles of Moral Philosophy on the basis
of natural reason, and who to this end adopted the experi-
mental method of Bacon. They sought for our first ideas
of moral obligation not in the Understanding itself but in a
peculiar and separate sense, (Moral Sense) ; inasmuch as it
is by the senses that we acquire all knowledge of real
objects. With the desire of opposing the selfish system of
Hobbes (see § 326), and with the hope of exposing* some of
liis inconsistencies, Richard Cumberland? endeavoured to
established the existence of a principle totally different — of
Benevolence towards man and devotion to God; and pro-
ceeded to prove by reasoning that such a principle was the
1 Born at Wolstrop in Lincolnshire, 1642; Professor of Mathematics
at Cambridge 1669; died 1727.
2 Optic, lib. Ill, Qu. xxxi, p. 330.
3 Born 1632; died 1719.
330 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
legitimate foundation of all our duties and of our highest
happiness.1
These new views were carried still farther by a memorable
character — Antony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury? the
friend of Locke, but whose penetration detected the con-
sequences which might be deduced from a system of exclu-
sive Empiricism (see § 346). He made virtue to consist in
the harmony of our social and selfish propensities, and in
the internal satisfaction which is the result of disinterested
actions, accompanied necessarily by the happiness of the
individual.3 Like Plato, he was inclined to identify the
Beautiful and the Good.
The ingenious W. Wollastoni maintained that Truth is
the Supreme Good, and the source of all pure Morality;
laying it down as the foundation of his argument that every
action is a good one that expresses in act a true proposition.
349. The consequences of the Empiricism of Locke had
become so decidedly favourable to the cause of Atheism,
Scepticism, Materialism, and Irreligion,5 that they induced
1 Bichaed Cumberland, De Legibus Naturae Disquisitio Philoso-
phica, in qua, etc., Elementa Philosophise Hobbesianae cum Moralis
turn Civil is considerantur et refutantur, Lond. 1672, 4to. Translated
into English by Dr. Jno. Towers, 4 to. Dublin, 1750. Trad. Frany.
avec des Remarques de Barbeyrac, Amsterd. 1744, 4to.
3 Born at London 1671 ; died at Naples 1713.
3 Shaftesbury, Characteristics of Man, Lond. 1733, 3 vols. 12mo.
An Inquiry concerning Virtue and Merit, 1699. And, The Moralists.
The same, published by Baskerville, Birmingham,, 1773, 3 vols. 8vo.
See Memoirs towards a Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, drawn from
the Papers of Mr. Locke, and collected by Le Clerc, in the second
volume of the Miscell. Works of Locke.
4 Born 1659; died 1724.
W. Woll aston, The Religion of Nature Delineated, Lond. 1724 —
1726-1738.
Examination of the notion of Moral Good and Evil advanced in
a late book entitled The Religion ot Nature Delineated, by John
Clarke, Lond. 1725, 8vo.
J. M. Drechsler, On Wollaston's Moral Philosophy, Erlang. 1801,
and 1803, 8vo. second edition.
s We may here refer to many writings which arose out of a dispute
on the Immateriality of the Soul, between William Coward, a physician,
who denied it in several works (from 1702 to 1707). and his opponents
J. Turner, J. Broughton, etc. To these may be added the controversy
excited by H. Dodwell, who had maintained that it was mortal.
349.] SAMUEL CLABKE. 331
the celebrated Dr. Sam. Clarke* after Locke and Newton,
the most distinguished of the English philosophers, to enter
the lists as a redoubtable adversary of the new opinions.2
Admitting the existence of a necessary connection between
natural and revealed religion based on Reason, Clarke
endeavoured to renew the proof of the existence of God,
by maintaining the necessity that an independent and un-
changeable Being should have existed from all eternity.
He described the Deity as the subject or substratum of infi-
nite space and time, and asserted that space and time were
His accidents : alleging some insufficient reasons for moral
free-will; and sinking virtue into a compliance with pro-
priety? On the other hand, the Scepticism of Bayle in-
1 Born at Norwich 1675 ; — the pupil of Newton— died 1729.
2 In opposition to the opinion of Dodwell, already referred to, he
endeavoured to deduce the doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul
from our ideas of Immaterial existence : A Letter to Mr. Dodwell,
wherein all the arguments in his Epistolary Discourse against the
Immortality of the Soul are particularly answered, etc. Lond. 1706,
8vo. The noted Freethinker, Ant. Collins (a disciple of Locke, born
at Heston 1676; died 1729), pointed out the defects of this answer in
his Letter of the learned Mr. H. Dodwell, containing some Remarks
on a pretended demonstration of the Immateriality and natural Im-
mortality of the Soul, in Mr. Clarke's Answer to his late Epistolary
Discourse, Lond. 1708, 8vo., which gave occasion to several writings
exchanged between Collins and Clarke. See the collection mentioned
in bibliogr. § 356, and, Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human
Liberty, Lond. 1715; with Supplements, 1717, 8vo. etc.
Clarke's Natural Theology is contained in his various Sermons,
under this general title : A Demonstration of the Being and Attri-
butes of God, Lond. 1705 et 1706, 2 vols. 8vo. And, Verity and
Certitude of Natural and Revealed Religion, Lond. 1705. The col-
lection to which we have referred contains also the compositions of
Clarke relative to his dispute with Leibnitz on the subject of Space
and Time, etc. (See also the Collection of Polz, mentioned in § 38,
II. c.)
The Works of Sam. Clarke, Lond. 1733—42, 4 vols, folio. Hoadlet
has written his life.
3 Sam. Clarke, Discourse concerning the Unchangeable Obligations
of Natural Religion, Lond. 1708. In answer to this appeared: The
foundation of Morality in Theory and Practice, considered in an Exa-
mination of Dr. Sam. Clarke's opinion concerning the original of
Moral Obligation; as also of the notion oi Virtue advanced in a late
book entitled : An Inquiry into the original of our ideas of Beauty and
Virtue, by John Clarke, York (without date). . ..
332 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
duced the archbishop of Dublin, William King,1 to publish a
system of Divine Justice, prior to that of Leibnitz ; which
was republished under another and more extended form by
John Clarice (the brother of Samuel), who did not hesitate
to make Self-love the principle of Virtue.2 The naturalists
John Bay3 and William Derham* took part in these disputes
by publications half physical and half theological. Collier*
and Berkeley* followed a course completely different. The
last, in particular, a profound and enlightened thinker, ani-
mated by an honest love for humanity, and venerable for his
personal character, was moved by the evil consequences
which the prevailing theory of Empiricism had produced.
He was led to imagine that the fruitful source of all such
aberrations was the unfounded belief in the reality and exis-
tence of the external world ; and adopted a system of abso-
1 De Origine Mali, auctore Gulielmo King, etc. Lond. 1702, 8vo.
Subsequently translated into English. Leibnitz, in his System of
Divine Justice, frequently has an eye to this work, which Bayle has
combatted in his Keponse aux Questions d'un Provincial.
2 An Inquiry into the Cause and Origin of Evil, etc.. Lond. 1720 —
21, 2 vols. Svo. 3 John Ray, or Wrayj born 1G23; died 1705.
4 Died 1735.
Will. Derham's Physico-Theology, etc. Lond. 1713, Svo. Astro-
Theology, etc. ibid. 1714. In German, by T A. Fabrictus, Hamb.
1765-8. Three Ph}rsico-Theological Discourses, Lond. 1721, 8vo. :
and, The Wisdom of God in the Works of Creation, sixth edition,
Lond.. 1714.
5 Clavis Universalis, or a New Inquiry after Truth, being a Demon-
stration of the Non-existence or Impossibility, by Collier, Lond.
1713, 8vo. Reprinted, Edinb. 1836; and by Dr. Parr, in a volume
of Metaphysical Tracts, pub. 1828.
6 Bom at Kilkrin, in Ireland, 1684; bishop of Cloyne 1734 ; died 1753.
Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge, Lond. 1710, Svo. ;
2nd ed. 1725. Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, ibid.
1713, Mro. Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher, ibid. 1732, Svo. ;
1734, 2 vols. Svo. Theory of Vision, ibid. 1709, Svo. The Works,
ibid. 1784, 2 vols. 4to.
Attached to his works is a life of the author, by Aebuthnot :
probably the same which appeared separately under the title of
An Account of the Life of G. Berkeley, Lond. 1776, Svo.
A work has been published by t J. C. Eschenbach, Host. 1756, Svo.,
which contains a statement of the opinions of ali the philosophers
(particularly of Collier and Berkeley) who have denied the existence
of their own bodies and of the external world ; with notes in refutation
of the text.
350.] BISHOP BERKELEY. 333
lute Idealism as the only corrective and as the only true
system. Berkeley has evinced no little sagacity in the
arguments he adduces to show the difficulties attendant on
outward experience, and the obscurity of our notions of
Substance, Accident, and Extension; maintaining that our
senses convey to us none but sensational properties, and do
not afford us any proof of the existence or substantiality of
objects of sense ; and that consequently the existence of
an external world independent of our representations is a
chimaera. Consequently none but Spirits exist: man can
perceive nothing but his feelings and representations ; but
as he certainly is not the cause to himself of these, it is no
less certain from their multiplicity and variety, as well as
their harmony and consistency, that they are communicated
by a Spirit, (as none but spirits exist), and by a Spirit of in-
finite perfections — G-od. Though dependent on Grod for
knowledge, man is nevertheless endowed with absolute free-
will, and the cause to himself of his own errors and crimes.
Collier's work never attained the celebrity enjoyed by the
elegant dialogues of the Bishop of Cloyne, but both, with a
laudable wish to preserve from decay the elements of natural
Ethics, alike attempted to demonstrate the necessity of
Idealism, on principles first advanced by Malebranche ; and
trusted that they had destroyed to the root Scepticism and
Atheism. Their doctrines, however, had little influence over
the fortunes of the English school of philosophy.
Berkeley's remarks on the theory of Vision are also of
interest.
350. The system of Benevolence we have referred to
(§ 348), was more fully developed by a new philosopher.
Francis HutcJieson^ who has been looked upon as the foun-
der of the Scottish School, placed in a still stronger light
than his predecessors the contradiction existing between
1 Born in Ireland 1694; became a professor at Glasgow 1729; died
1747.
Francis Hutcheson, Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of
Beauty and Virtue, Lond. 1720. Essay on the Nature and Guiding of
Passions and Affections, with illustrations on the Moral Sense, ibid.
1728. System of Moral Philosophy, in three books, etc., to which is
prefixed some account of the life, writings, and character of the author,
by Will. Leechmann, ibid. 1755, 2 vols. 4to.
334 TRIED PERIOD. [SECT.
Self-love and Virtue. He allows the appellation of Good to
those actions alone which are disinterested and flow from
the principle of Benevolence. The last has no reference to
expediency nor personal advantages, nor even to the more
refined enjoyments of moral sympathy, the obligations of
Reason and Truth, or of the Divine Will. It is a distinct
and peculiar principle; a moral sentiment or instinct of
great dignity and authority ; and the end of which is to
regulate the passions, and decide, in favour of Virtue, the
conflict between the interested and disinterested affections.
On this foundation ITutcheson erected all the superstruc-
ture of the Moral Duties.
His inquiries are valuable also as tending to illustrate the
principles of the Fine Arts.
IV. French Moral Philosophers.
351. In Prance Moral Philosophy took nearly the same
experimental direction. The Jesuits having endeavoured to
render popular the species of morality which favoured their
ends by founding it on looser principles of obligation,1 the
fathers of the Oratoire or Port Royal, Arnauld, Pascal,
Nicole, Malebranche (§§ 337, 341, 342), opposed to theirs a
rigid system of Ethics, but which, being occasionally mys-
tical and enthusiastic, was not likely to be permanently
established. Francois Due de la Rochefoucauld2 on the
other hand painted human nature as he had found it ;
representing it as directed solely by Self-love ; and supply-
ing a convenient sort of Morality for the use of the most
corrupted portion of the upper classes. Bernard de Mande-
villez went so far as to assert that Virtue is nothing more
than the artificial effect of Policy and Ostentation, and that
private vices are public benefits : a detestable doctrine,
1 See La Morale des JY suites, etc. Mons, 1669, 8vo.
2 Born 1612; died 1680.
Reflexions, ou Sentences et Maximes Morales de M. de La Roche-
foucauld, Paris, 1690, 12mo.; Arnsterd. 1705, 12mo. Avec des
Remarques par Amelot de la Houssaye, Paris, 1714. Maximes et
(Euvres completes, Paris, 1797, 2 vols. 8vo.
3 He was born at I)ort, 1670, of a French family, and lived in
London, where he practised as a physician. Died 1733.
851—352.] P. DAN. HFET. 335
which removed all fundamental distinction between right
and wrong, justice and injustice.1
V. Sceptics of this Period.
352. Scepticism had been employed by Mcole and by
Bossuet,2 and by several other writers, as the means of
bringing back the Protestants to the pale of the Catholic
Church ; and of exalting its authority by setting forth the
incertitude and fallibility of human reason.3 Two indi-
viduals, however, of a more comprehensive and liberal spirit
of criticism, undertook still farther to defend the cause of
Scepticism for its own own sake. The first was the prelate
P. Dan. Huet? one of the most learned men of his day, and
versed in almost every department of science. He had
in his youth embraced the Cartesian system, but became
dissatisfied with it on studying the works of Empiricus (see
§ 336) ; and renounced Gassendi's theory, because adverse
1 See his celebrated Fable of the Bees, which he published in 1706:
The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves turned Honest. Eight years after-
wards he published, with illustrations : The Fable of the Bees, or
Private Vices made Public Benefits, Lond. 1714. To defend his
doctrine, he composed six dialogues, which form the second volume
of the entire work in the edit, of 1728, and in those which followed.
To these he added : An Inquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue, sixth
edit. 1732, 2 vols. 8vo. It has been aiready remarked that the Alci-
phron of Berkeley is principally directed against this author. He
was answered also by other Avriters, particularly by W. Law : Remarks
upon a oook : The Fable, etc., in a letter to the author, Lond. 1724 ;
second edit. 1725. And [Bluet] Inquiry whether a general practice
of Virtue tends to the Wealth or Poverty, Benefit or Disadvantage of
a People, etc. Lond. 1725, 8vo.
Mandeville, Free Thoughts on Religion, the Church, Government,
etc. Lond. 1720.
2 Bishop of Meaux; born 1617; died 1704.
3 Franc. Turretini, Pyrrhonismus Pontificius, Lugd. Bat. 1692.
4 Born at Caen 1630 ; died 1721.
Petri Dan. Huetii Commentarius de Rebus ad eum pertinentibus,
Hag. Com. 1718, 12mo. Demonstrate Evangelica, Amstel. 1679,
8vo. 1680, 8vo. Censura Philosophise Cartesianse ; and other works.
Questiones Alnetanae de Concordia Rationis et Fidei, Cadom. 1690;
4to.; Lips. 1693—1719, 4to.
Traite de la Faiblesse de l'Esprit Humain, Aw.st. 1723, 12mo. In
answer to this: Ant. Muratori, Trattato della Forza deli' Intendi-
mcnto Umano, ossia il Pirronismo confutato, Venet. 1745; third edit.
1756, 8vo.
336 THIBD PEEIOD. [SECT.
to a pious faith. In this manner he fell into philosophical
Scepticism, which in his later writings he made public.
He admits that truth must doubtless exist in Objects, but
asserts that it can be known only to God. The Human
Understanding has so many obstacles to encounter in its
progress towards knowledge, that it cannot hope to attain
it, nor can it be assured of the complete correspondence of
its cognitions with their objects. Faith alone can impart
certainty ; but this is not attainable on Sceptical principles,
because it does not spring from Reason, but from a super-
natural working of God, and has reference to a Truth abso-
lute in itself, and the offspring of a distinct revelation.
Pierre Bayle1 appears not to have been so intimately
convinced as Glanville (§ 343) of the possibility of a true
Philosophy, although he contributed more than the other
had done to open a way to the discovery of it, by his inge-
nious attacks on the Dogmatic Systems, and by showing
that Scepticism cannot be the ultimate end of Reason.
This great scholar and honourable man possessed not so
much a profound spirit of philosophical research, as a quick
sagacity and critical judgment. These talents, improved
by extensive reading (particularly of Plutarch and Mon-
taigne) and the study of the various philosophical systems
and religious tenets of his time, had the effect of forming
in him a sceptical way of thinking, and encouraging a
spirit of historical criticism, of which up to that time there
had been no example. He was born at Carlat in the
county of Poix, 1647, his father being a reformed minister ;
and after many vicissitudes which befel his party in the
Church, held a professor's place at Sedan, and afterwards
1 Pierre Bayle, Pensees sur les Cometes, 1681, Amsterd. 1722 —
1726, 4 vols. 8vo.
Dictionnaire Historique et Critique.
Eeponses aux Questions d'un Provincial, Rotterd. 1704, 5 vols. 8vo.
Lettres, Rotterd. 1712 ; Amst. 1729, 8vo. (Euvres Diverses, La Haye,
1725—1731, 4 vols. fol.
Des Maizeaux, La Vie de P. Bayle, Amst. 1730, 12mo. ; La Haye,
1732, 2 vols. 12mo. : et en avant du Dictionn. edit. d'Amsterd. 1730
etl740; at Bale, 1741.
C. M. Pfaffii Dissertationes Anti-Baelianre tres, Tubing. 1719, 4to.
Feuerbach, Pierre Bayle nach seinem fur die Geschichte der Philo-
sophic und Menschheit interessantesten Momenten, dargestellt und
gewiirdigt, 1838.
353.] PIEEEE BAYLE. 337
at Eotterdam (1681) ; became embroiled in many contro-
versies, and died in a fortunate state of independence, A.D.
1706. He was a firm and sincere friend of Truth, and
succeeded in combating the prejudices, the errors, the follies,
and especially the superstitions of intolerance with the arms
of reasoning, of erudition, and of a lively wit. At first he
embraced the Cartesian system, but having compared it
with others, and accustomed himself to Sceptical discus-
sions, he ceased to confide even in the possibility of a
positive rational knowledge, and brought himself to believe
That Season was clear-sighted enough to detect error, but
not sufficiently so, without external aid, to attain to Truth.
In short, that without a Revelation from above she only
leads astray. "With such views he applied himself con-
stantly to detect the weak sides, contradictions, and imper-
fections of every sect and system, which nevertheless had
had their supporters : particularly insisting on the difficul-
ties which belong to the questions of the attributes of the
Deity, — Creation — Providence — Evil, Moral and Physical —
Immateriality— Free-will, and the reality of our knowledge
of an external world. At the same time that he opposed
Reason to Revelation, and regarded the latter as a beacon
in the discussion of such subjects, he did not fail to point
out, on the other hand, whatever, in the Christian doctrine
and theological morals, is at variance with Reason, and force
men thereby to inquiries still more profound. In his dis-
cussions on Providence carried on with Jean Le Clerc1
C§ 346), with Isaac Jacquelot (§ 340), and with Leibnitz, on
1 Le Cleec wrote in answer to Bayle : Defense de la Providence
contre les Manicheens; dont les Raisons ont ete proposees par M.
Bayle dans son Dictionnaire Critique (dans le t. I, des Parrhasiana.
p. 303). This work is composed on the principles of Origen. Le
Clerc also undertook the defence of Cudworth's System, especially of
his hypothesis of Plastic Natures: the discussion produced a mul-
titude of writings on both sides, and finally led Le Clerc to accuse
Bajle of Atheism.
Jacquelot attacked the theological opinions of Bayle in his work.
Conform ite de la Foi avec la Raison, ou Defense de la Religion contre
les principales Difficult6s repandues dans la Dictionnaire Historique
et Critique de M. Bayle, Amst. 1705, 8vo. Bayle replied to him in
his Reponses aux Questions d'un Provincial. Jacquelot then pub-
lished an Examen de la Theologie de M. Bayle ; and the latter rejoined
by, Entretiens de Maxime et de Themistc, ou Reponse a l'Examen de
z
338 TniED PERIOD, [sect.
the origin of Evil (§ 359), and others, he always preserved
the calmness and dignity of a philosopher. His works
have greatly contributed to the dissemination of knowledge,
and on the other hand also, to the propagation of an unte-
nable spirit of free-thinking. Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Mar-
quis d Argens1 also appeared as a Sceptic of a narrow spirit.
The Sceptical School was attacked, but not overcome, by
P. de Villemandy? J. JP. de Crouzaz* and Formey}
PBOGBESS OP PHILOSOPHY IN GERMANY.
JPuffendorf.
354. About the middle of the seventeenth century Phi-
losophy acquired in Germany renewed energies, though
these were at first confined to a limited sphere. Samuel
Fr. Baron von JPuffendorf reduced Natural Law to the
forms of a science. He was born 1632, at Floke, near
Chemnitz ; and having studied the Cartesian philosophy at
Jena, became in 1661 professor of the Law of Nature and
Nations at Heidelberg, afterwards at Lund, and died his-
toriographer of the House of Brandenburg, at Berlin, 1694.
He attempted to reconcile the opinions of Hobbes and
Grotius, and discussed Natural Law as a separate question,
independent of the obligations of Revealed Religion or
Positive Civil Law. The philosophers of the Theological
school became in consequence, his enemies; particularly
Valent Alberti and Joachim Zentgrave.
Puffendorf first gave a currency to the principle of So-
ciability, which Grotius had started; and maintained that
la Theologie de M. Bayle, par M. Jacquelot. This work appeared in
Eotterdam in 1707, after the death of the author. Jacquelot replied to
it by another.
1 Chamberlain of Frederick the Great ; died at Aix, his native town,
1770. His principal works are : Histoire de l'Esprit huraain, 14 vols.
12mo. (best edition), Berlin, 1765; Lettres Cabal istiques, 7 vols. 12mo.
La Haye, 1769 ; Lettres Juives, 6 vols. 8vo. La Haye, 1738. He
translated Julian, Ocellus Lucanus, Timreus Locrus, &c.
2 Petri de Villemandy, Scepticismus Dcbcllatus, sen Humanae
Cognationis Ratio ab imis radicibus explicata, etc. Lugd. Bat, 1697,
4to. See § 139.
3 See the works mentioned § 124f * Ibid.
354.] PUFFENDOEF. 339
in virtue of this motive, which is allied to Self-love, man
desires the society and co-operation of his fellow-men;
but that, at the same time, through the corruption of his
nature, (the state of Nature described by Hobbes), and
in consequence of the multiplicity of his desires, and the
impossibility of easily satisfying them, as well as the in-
stability of his natural disposition, he is no less inclined
to do injury to others, and is furnished with the means
of doing so in his address and cunning. From these con-
siderations he infers, on the principle of Self-love, the
first law of society, that we should each individually labour
to maintain the social compact, which derives its autho-
rity direct from God, as the Creator of mankind. From this
origin Puffendorf deduces the laws of Morality and Juris-
diction. He does not, indeed, discriminate between Natu-
ral and Moral Right, and frequently recurs to Christianity
for positive precepts ; yet he may be said to have laid the
foundations of an Universal philosophy of practice. The
multifarious disputes in which he was engaged, particularly
with Alberti (§ 336), were of little service to the cause of
philosophy. He has, perhaps, been as much encumbered by
his commentators as his adversaries.
Sam. Puffendorf, Elementa Jurisprudent Universalis, Hag. Com.
1660 ; Jen. 8vo.
De Jure Naturee et Gentium libb. VIII, Lund. 1672 , Francof.
1684, 4to. ; cum Notis Hertti, Barbeyraoi, et Mascovii, Francof. et
Lips. 1744, 1749, 2 vols. 4to., and other editions. Translated into
English by Kennet, folio, 1729, and 1749. De Officio Hominis et Civis
libb. II, Lund. 1673, 8vo. and other editions. Cum Notis Variorum,
Ludg. Bat. 1769, 2 vols. 8vo. Eris Scandica, Francoj. 1686. On the
Natural Law of Puffendorf, see Leibnitz. (Cf. § 360, note.)
I. Leibnitz.
Fontenelle, Eloge de M. de Leibnitz, dans l'Histoire de 1'Acad.
Boy. des Sciences de Paris, 1716. + The biography it contains was
founded on a Memoir communicated by J. G. von Eccard, which has
been published by Von Murr, in the Journal of the History of the
Arts, etc., part VII, Numb. 1779.
Bailly, Eloge de M. de Leibnitz, qui a remporte le Prix de l'Aca-
demie de Berlin, 1769, 4to.
Leben und Verzeichniss der Schriften des Herrn v. Leibnitz, in
Ludovioi's Ausfuhrlichem Entwurf einer vollstiind/gen Historie der
Leibnitz'schen Philosophic, im ensten Dande, Leipz. 1737, 8vo.
z 2
340 TIIIBD PERIOD. [sect.
Lamprecht, Leben des Ilerrn v. Leibnitz, Berlin, 1749, 8vo.
Geschichte des Herrn von Leibnitz, aus den Franz, des Ritter
v. Jancourt, Leipz. 1757, 8vo.
A. G. Kastner's Lobschrift auf Leibnitz, Altona, 1769, 4to.
Mich. Hissmann, Versuch iiber das Leben des Freiherrn von Leib-
nitz, Munster, 1783, 8vo.
A Life of Leibnitz, by Rehberg, is to be found in the + Hanoverian
Magazine, 1787, year xxv ; and another among the + Lives and Cha-
racters of distinguished Germans, by Klein, 1 vol. ; as well as a third
in the t German Pantheon, by Eberhard.
Guhrauer, Gottfried Wilhelm Frciherr von Leibnitz : eine Biogra-
phie, (1842—1846).
355. The comprehensive genius of Gottfried William
Leibnitz embraced the whole circle of philosophy, and im-
parted to it, in Germany at least, a new and powerful
impulse. All that can interest or exercise the understand-
ing was attempted by his great and original mind, more
especially in Mathematics and Philosophy. He was igno-
rant of no one branch of learning, and in all he has shown
the fertility of his mind by the discoveries he suggested or
attempted. He was the founder of a school in Germany,
which distinguished itself for the fundamental nature of the
principles it embraced, and the systematic manner in which
these were developed — a school which effected the final
overthrow of the Scholastic system, and extended its bene-
ficial influence over the whole range of the sciences. Leib-
nitz, b}r his example and his exertions, laid the foundations
of this great revolution, by combining the philosophical
systems which had prevailed up to his time — by his well-
trained and original spirit — by his extraordinary learning —
the liberality of his mind, and that spirit ot toleration which
led him always to discover some favourable point of view in
what he criticised — something, even in the most despised
and neglected systems, which might suggest matter for
research. To this must be added his sense of harmony, and
the infinitude of bright ideas, hints, and conjectures, which
were perpetually, as it were, scintillating from his brilliant
mind, though he left to others the task of collecting and
combining them.
He was born June 21, 1616, at Leipsic, where his father
was professor of moral philosophy, and studied the same
355—356.] leibnitz. 341
science under J. Thomasius (born 1622, died 1684), apply-
ing himself at the same time to the Mathematics1 and the
study of Natural Law ; read the Classics in the original
tongues, particularly Plato and Aristotle, whose doctrines
he endeavoured at an early age to combine. The cultivation
of his mind was advanced, and the versatility and address of
his natural parts promoted, by immense reading and a mul-
tifarious correspondence — by his early independence of
mind — by his travels, particularly to Paris and London —
and by his acquaintance with the most distinguished states-
men and princes, and most illustrious sages of his time.
He died, November 14, 1716, at Hanover, of which state he
was a privy-councillor and keeper of the library; scarcely
less honoured after his death than during his life, as is
testified, among other things, by a monument recently
erected to him.
§ 356.
Works: His Dissert, de Principio Individuationis. Lips, 1664.
Specimen Qusestionum Philosophicarum ex Jure collectarum, ibid,
eod. Tract de Arte Combinatoria, cui subnexa est Demonstratio
Existentiee Dei ad Mathematicam certitudinem exacta, Lips. 1666;
Frcf, 1694. The first Philosophical Treatises of Leibnitz are to be
found in the Acta Eruditorum, from 16S4; and in the Journal des
Savans, from 1691.
Gottfe. W. Leibnitii Opera, studio Lud. Dutens, Gene®. 1768,
6 vols. 4to. Opera Philosophica, ed. Erdmann, roy. 8vo. Berol. 1840.
German works, ed. by Guhrauer, 8vo. Berl. 1838, ct seq. GEuvres
Philosophiques, par M. Kud. Erich Easpe et M. Kastner, Amsterd.
1765, 4to. The German edition contains Remarks and Additions, by
J. H. F. Ulrich, Halle, 1778—1780, 2 vols. 8vo.
A Collection of Papers which passed between the late learned
M. Leibnitz and Dr. Clarke, in the years 1715 and 1716, relating*
to the Principles of Natural Philosophy and Religion; London, 1717,
8vo.
Leibnitii Otium Hanoveranum, sive Miscellanea G. W. Leibnitii, ed.
Joach. Fs. Feller, Lips. 1718, 8vo. ; et, Monumcnta varia inedita,
Lips. 1724, 4to. Epistolre ad Diversos, ed. Chr. Korthold, Lips.
1734, 1742, 4 vols. 8vo.
Commercium Epistolicum Leibnitianum, ed. Jo. Dan. Gruber,
Hanov. et Gotting. 1745, 2 vols. 4to.
Under Erh. Weigel, at Jena, (who died 1690).
342 THIED PEBIOD. [SECT.
Commercii Epistolici Leibnitiani typis nondum evulgati sclecta
specimina, ed Joh. Ge. H. Feder, Hanov. 1805, 8vo.
+ Comparison between the Metaphysics of Leibnitz and Newton
(§ 347, bibliogr.), by L. Mart. Kahle, Ootting. 1741 ; translated into
Erench, Hague, 1747, 8vo. A similar work (French), by Beguelin,
in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin, 1756.
Eecueil de Diverses Pieces sur la Philosophic, la Religion, etc., par
MM. Leibnitz, Clarke, Newton (publ. par Des Maizeaux, Amaterd.
1719, second edit. 1740, 2 vols 8vo.)
Leibnitz, Essai de Th6odicee sur la Bonte" de Dieu, la Liberte de
l'Homme, et l'Origine du Mai, Amsterd. 1710, 8vo. ; 1712-1 4-2Q-48,
(Lat.) : Colon. 1716, 8vo. ; Franc/ . 1719, 2 vols. 8vo. Leibnitii Ten-
tamina Theodice de Bonitate Dei, Libertate Hominis, et Origine Mali.
Versionis novae editio altera cum Praef. A ug. Fr. Boeckhii, Tubing.
1771, 2 vols. 8vo. Theodicee, oder Yersuch von die Giite Gottes, &c,
Ham. 1763.
T, Doctrine of Leibnitz, etc., translated from the French by J. H.
Kohler, Francf. 1720, 8vo.; new edition by Huth, Fra.ncf. 1740, 8vo.
Ejusd. : Principia more geometrico demonstrata, cum excerptis et
Epistolis Philosophi et Scholiis quibusdam ex Historia Philosophica,
auctore Mich. Gottl. Hanschio, Francf. et Lips. 1728, 4to.
Leibnitz was led to the composition of his philosophical
system by various causes : by the acute comparison he was
induced to make of the most celebrated of former systems
with a reference to the exigencies of his own time ; by a
capacity fruitful in ingenious hypotheses and in improve-
ments or the accommodation of opposite systems ; as well
as by his great mathematical acquirements. His object was
so completely to reform Philosophy that it might possess a
strictness of demonstration analagous to that of the Mathe-
matics, and to put an end to all disputes between its
factions, as well as the differences existing between it and
Theology ;* with the hope of diminishing the principal diffi-
culties belonging to some great questions, and, at the same
time, the causes of dispute, by improving the method of
philosophy, and ascertaining, if possible, some positive and
invariable principles. It was his opinion that the same
course should be pursued as in the Mathematics, which led
him to prefer the method of Demonstration and the system
of Rationalism ; such as it had been embraced by Plato and
Descartes ; without entirely concurring with either. The
method thus adopted induced him to appreciate even the
1 Discours dc la Conformite de la Foi avec la liaison (in the
Theodicee).
357.] LEIBNITZ. 343
labours of the Schoolmen. There are certain necessary
Truths (such was his opinion) belonging to Metaphysics as
tvell as Mathematics, the certainty oj which cannot be ascer-
tained by Experience, but must be sought within the Soul
itself. This is the corner-stone of the Kationalism of Leib-
nitz, who endeavoured to liberate the Cartesian system
from its attendant improbabilities ; without, however, effect-
ing any accurate determination of the principal conditions
of philosophical knowledge, by a profoundly penetrating
[Reflection, or any complete definition of its method or
limits. The Kationalism of Leibnitz is especially apparent
in his Theory of Knowledge, essentially opposed to that of
Locke, in his Monadology and his Theodicee. Leibnitz in-
terested himself in the investigation of the possibility of a
Characteristic or Universal Language — which might contain
in itself the art of discovering and of judging, and which
might be of the same service to universal knowledge as
arithmetical and algebraic signs, which express the propor-
tion of numbers and Quantity. ((Euvres Philosophiques,
p. 535, sqq. ; Princip. Philos. § 30, 33, 35, 37.)
357. According to Leibnitz, Necessar}r Truths are innate:
not that we are from our birth actually conscious of them,
but are born with a capacity for them. Our representations,
however, differ by being clear or obscure, distinct or con-
fused. Sensational representations are indistinct — all pre-
cise knowledge being the property of the understanding. The
criterium of Truth which Descartes laid down (§ 334), is
inadequate ; the rules of Logic, which are the same in
substance with the laws of Mathematics, are more appro-
priate to the purposes of Philosophy. All our conclusions
must be founded on two grand principles ; 1st. That of
Identity and Contradiction. 2ndly. That of a Sufficient
Basis. These two principles are as applicable to necessary
as to contingent truths. Necessary truths are discoverable
on the principle of Contradiction, by the analysis of com-
pound objects into their simple elements; accidental truths,
on the other hand, are ascertained by virtue of the Sufficient
Basis, which conducts us to an ulterior and absolute Basis,
beyond the range of what is contingent.1 The represen-
1 Princ. Philos. § 31—46. TheodicSe, p. 1, § 44.
344« THIRD PEEIOD. [SECT.
tations which relate to objects without the soul, must have a
correspondency with such objects ; otherwise they would be
mere illusions. The ultimate foundation of innate and
necessary principles resides with the Deity, as the source of
all necessary and eternal Truths, which are dependent on
the Divine Understanding (not the Divine Will) as their
inner object.
Leibnitii Meditationes de Cognitione, Veritate, et Ideis; in the
Acta Eruditorum, 1684.
Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entendement Humain, par l'Auteur de
1'Harmonie pre-6tablie ; in the (Euvres Philosophiques, published by
Kaspb.
358. His Monadologia is the central point of the system
of Leibnitz, by which he believed himself to have ascertained
the ultimate grounds of all real knowledge. Plato's theory,
and possibly the ideas of the physician Francis Glisson,1 led
him to these speculations, by which he also believed himself
to have found a way of reconciling the Aristotelian and
Platonic systems. Experience proves to us the existence of
compound objects ; consequently, we are led to believe in
the existence of simple ones {Monades) of which the other
are compounded.2 Our senses cannot apprehend these,
inasmuch as they present to us knowledges or objects of
which we are cognizant in their confused and compound
state, the understanding alone contemplating them with
precision. That which is Simple is the elementary principle
of the Compounded, and as the former cannot be distinctly
apprehended by the senses, it appears to us multiplied and
confused. The Monades cannot be influenced by any change
from without, their principle of modification being internal
to themselves ; and inasmuch as all real substances must
have their internal properties, by which they are mutually
discriminated,3 and as there is no other internal property
but that of representation, it follows that the Monades are
J Died 1677.
Tractatus de Natura Substantias Energitica, sive de Vita Natures
ejusque tribus facultatibus perccptiva, adpetiti^a. cl motiva, auct.
Franc. Glissonio, Lond. 1672, 4to. 2 Prmcip. Philos. p. 1.
3 " Because there cannot be two things which completely agree in
their internal properties,"
358.] MONADOLOGY OF LEIBNITZ. 345
Spiritual powers and faculties, which are continually labour-
ing to change their condition (or perceptions). God is the
Monas Monadum— the necessarily existing Essence. Every
real essence is a fulguration from His, modified by the
limited nature of the being which attaches to all receptivity.
The Essence of God is absolute Perfection ; it embraces all
possible Eealities without limitation; none of them con-
flicting with the rest. He is the absolute and sole cause of
the actuality of the world and the existence of all things :
the all-sufficient cause, unlimited by action or condition.
On this depends the proof of God's Being and Unity. God
is the original source of all knowledge, Reality, and the
Nature of Things. There exists, therefore, an infinite and
original or primordial Monad, and also secondary, finite,
and limited Monades, which latter are distinguished from
one another by the degree and quality of representing.
Some Monades are without Apperception (inert bodies) ;
some possess it (souls) ; some are endowed with an obscure
consciousness (the inferior animals) ; some possess a clear
and perfect one (rational souls or spirits). Distinct repre-
sentations are the sources of Action ; obscure and confused
ones, of Passion and Imperfection. Every simple substance,
or Monad, forming, as it were, the Central-point of a com-
pound substance (for instance that of an animal), is the
nucleus of an infinitude of other Monades, which constitute
the external body of the first ; and, agreeably to the affec-
tions of these aggregated Monades, the Central Monad
apprehends and, as it were, concentrates in it a common
focus, the impressions of external objects. Furthermore,
as every thing in this world is connected with something-
else, and as all bodies affect others, and are themselves
affected in the ratio of their respective distances, it follows
that each individual Monad is a sort of living mirror,
endowed with an internal activity of its own, enabling it to
image forth the whole Creation, being itself constituted on
the same principles as the Universe at large. There exists
no immediate influence {influxus ph/sicus) of one simple
substance on another (e. g. Soul and Body), but merely an
ideal connection : that is, the internal affections of each
Monad harmonise with those of the Monades which are in
immediate connection with the first. This gives them the
346 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
appearance of being mutually influenced by each other.
The cause of this correspondence is the infinite wisdom and
power of God, who, at the first, so constituted all things,
that there exists an universal preordained harmony, or
Harmonia prcestahilita} Space is the arrangement of all
things simultaneously existing ; the phenomenon of Exten-
sion is the consequence of the confused manner in which
such arrangement is represented by the senses ; and Time is
the order of successive changes which take place in the
external world. Time and Space have merely an ideal and
relative existence.
The following works may be consulted :
Principes de la Nature et de la Grace iondee en Kaison, par feu
M. le Baron de Leibnitz; dans l'Europe Savante, 1718, Novembre,
Art. VI; et Recueil, etc., torn. II. See the works mentioned § 355.
Godfr. Ploucquet, Primaria Monadologiae capita, Berol. 1748, 8vo.
Institutions Leibnitiennes, ou Precis de la Monadologie, Lijon,
1767, 8vo.
De Justi, Dissertation qui a remporte le Prix propose par l'Acad.
Roy. des Sciences de Prusse, sur le Systeme des Monades, Berl. 1748,
4 to. By the same author : + Defence of the Dissertation on Monades,
etc., Franc/, and Leips. 1748, 8vo.
Beguelin. Essai d'une Conciliation de la Metaphysique de Leibnitz
avec la Physique de Newton (Mem. de l'Acad. de Berl. 1756). Dans le
Magasin de Hissmann, torn. 5.
t Plan of a Brief Account of Works relative to Monades or Ele-
mentary Bodies, from the time of Leibnitz to our own ; in the 1st,
2nd, and 3rd vols, of the Philosophical Bibliotheca oi Gottingen, by
Windheim, 1749.
G. Bern. Bilfinger, Commentatio de Harmonia Animi et Corporis
Humani maxime prsestabilita ex mente Leibnitii, Francf. et Lips.
1723, 8vo. ; second ediion, 1735, 8vo.
Ancillon (Senior), Essai sur l'Esprit du Leibnitzianisme, en Franc,
dans les Dissertations de la Classe Philosophique de l'Acad. des
Sciences de Berlin, 1816, 4 to.
H. C. W. Sigwart, The Doctrine of Leibnitz on Pre-established
Harmony, compared with his former Doctrines, Tubingen, 1822, 8vo.
Doctrine de L[eibnitz] sur la Monadologie, sur Dieu et son Exist-
ence, et sur l'auie huvnain ; trad, du Francais par J. H. Kohler,
Francf. 1720, 8vo. Nouv. Ed. par T. H. Huth, Francf. 1740, Hvo.
Comparaison de la Metaphysique de Newton et de Leibnitz, par
L. Mart. Kahle, Gott. 1721 (German). Traduction Fran. La Haye,
1747, 8vo.
1 See Leibn. dans le Journal des Savans, 1695, p. 444 et 445.
359.] Leibnitz's yiew of evil. 347
359. The Divine Intelligence contemplates an infinitude
of possible worlds, from among which His wisdom and good-
ness have selected, and His power created the best, i. e. the
world in which the greatest number oi Realities exist and
harmonise with each other. (A system of Optimism).
Hence it follows that every thing is for the best, considered
as a part of the universe with which it is connected, even
although in itself it should be imperfect ; nor can any thing-
be other than what it is.1 Every thing is so constituted as
to attain in the highest possible degree its own felicity, and
to contribute in the greatest degree possible to the good of
the Whole. The existence of Evil is no objection. Leibnitz
distinguished Evil into Metaphysical, Physical, and Moral.
Metaphysical evil is nothing but the necessary limitation of
the nature of finite beings, the consequences of which are
physical evil (e. g. pain), and moral (sin). Moral evil has
its origin in the power of choice intrusted to Finite beings.
Freedom of will is not an Equilibrium or Indifference of
inclination, nor yet a determination without a motive ; but
a free choice of one line of conduct in preference to others
no less physically possible ; influenced, but without con-
straint or necessity, by that, among many motives of action,
which preponderates. It by no means interferes with this
perfect freedom of election that Grod foresees all human
actions, inasmuch as contingent and free-will actions only
exclude the hypothesis of absolute, not that of conditional
necessity. Every thing in the world is conditionally neces-
sary; yet man, not foreseeing the future, is bound to act
according to his judgment and reason. By these reasonings
Leibnitz wished to oppose the system of Descartes, whose
hypothesis of absolute Fate deprived even the Deity of all
real influence. God does not absolutely will or ordain
either physical or moral evil; but he allows the first to
exist as a necessary consequence, and as means to ulterior
ends ; and permits also the existence of the latter, inasmuch
as it is necessarily connected with the best choice that he
can make, or, in other words, with the highest degree of
perfection possible in the present world : His wisdom and
goodness having established a harmony between the systems
1 Principia, § lv— Ix; Tlieodiccc, i. p. 8, 9.
348 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
of Nature and Grace ; in which consists the Divine Govern-
ment of the world.
Leibnitz was led (as he tells us in his Preface to the
Theodicee) to these speculations on the harmony between
Revelation and Reason, in which he moreover takes notice
of several theological dogmas, by the deubts and objections
nf Bayle.
Works to be consulted :
Fr. Ch. Baumeister, Historia de Doctrina de Optimo Mundo,
Gortiiii, 1741.
Wolfart, Controversise de Mundo Optimo, Jen. 1745.
[Reinhard] Dissertation qui a remporte le Prix propose par l'Acad.
Roy. des Sciences de Prusse, sur l'Optimisme, avec lcs Pieces qui ont
concouru, Berlin, 1755, 4to.
f Collection (in German) of Writings on the Doctrine of Optimism,
Rostock, 1759, 8vo. See also the work of Werdermann, mentioned
§ 38, II, c.
+ Various Writings on Occasion of the Dispute between Platner
and Wezel respecting the Theodicee of Leibnitz, Lips. 1782, 8vo.
Leibnitii Doctrina de Mundo Optimo sub examen revocatur denuo
a Chr. A. Leonh. Creuzer, Lips. 1795, 8vo.
Kobinet, in his Book on Nature, has published a System analogous
to that of Leibnitz, Amsterd. 1761—68, 5 vols. 8vo.
Im. Kant, Ueber das Misslingen aller Philos. Versuche einer Theo-
dicee (in seinen kleinen Schriften, 3 Bde.) Betrachtungen liber den
Optimismus, Kbnigs. 1759, 4to.
360. Leibnitz gives us but partial views of his doctrine ;
not presenting it to us as a whole, but piecemeal. Practical
philosophy he has touched upon but slightly.1 For the
most part his system is the imperfect result of a great
talent for analysis and combination; an acute comparison
of the difficulties and differences presented by Philosophy
and Theology ; embracing a partial and incomplete investi-
gation of the faculty of knowledge. As Locke had sought
the foundation of Eeality lying at the basis of all know-
ledge exclusively in the Absolutely Simple falling under the
senses, so did he in the Absolutely Simple falling under the
1 Consult: De Principiis Juris Observationes, 1700. Anonymi
Sententia de Tractatu clar. viri Sam. Pufendoefii qui inscribitur Dc
Offieiis Hominis et Civis; in a Programma of J. C. Bohmer, 1709, 4to.
t On Natural Law according to Leibnitz, see his Preface to Corpus
Juris Gentium ; and several of his Letters.
360 — 361.] VEEDICT ON HIS SYSTEM. 349
understanding; and asserted that it, is by Thought that the
nature of external things is ascertained (a system of Ea-
tionalism). He confounds Logical possibility and actuality
with Real; intellectualizes appearances, and overlooks the
important part which intuitional and sensational perception
must always support in the acquisition of knowledge.1 If
his Idealism had been well founded, it would have esta-
blished an absolute Determinism incompatible with the
free agency of rational beings. Nevertheless, his philosophy,
abounding in bold hypotheses and splendid observations,
has promoted the cause of metaphysical science, by bring-
ing into circulation a multitude of new ideas ; to which the
circumstance of his composing for the most part in French
has contributed.
+ Detailed Plan of a Complete History of Leibnitz, by C. G.
Ludovici, Leipz. 1732, 2 parts, 8vo.
361. Leibnitz had a great number both of adherents and
adversaries :2 the former for a length of time laboriously
2 See f Em. Kant : Critique of Pure Reason, fifth edit., p. 316, sqq.
3 Bayle (for instance), in his Dictionary. Leibnitz replied by his
Eclaircissemens des Difficult^ que M. Bayle a trouvees dans le
Systeme nouveau de 1'Union de lame et du corps (Journal des Savans,
1698), and his Histoire des Ouvrages des Savans (1698), p. 329; with
Reponse aux Reflexions dans la seconde edition de M. Bayle, article
Rorarius, sur le Systeme de l'Harmonie pre-etablie, dans l'Histoire
Critique de la Republique des Lettres, torn, ii, et Recueil des Diverses
Pieces, torn, ii, p. 389. Sam. Clarke and Newton also opposed
Leibnitz. We have mentioned above (§ 356) the works which relate
to their disputes, etc. The Abbe Foucher also wrote an article
against his system of pre-established Harmony, in the Journal des
Savans, annee 1695, p. 638, sqq., to which Leibnitz replied in the
same Journal, 1696, p. 255 — 259 : Lamy attacked him in his Con-
naissance du Systeme, etc., torn, ii, p. 225, sqq., which was met, on
the part of Leibnitz, by Reponse aux Objections que le P. Lamy,
Benedietin, a faites contre le Systeme de l'Harmonie pre-etablie, dans
le Journal des Savans, 1709, p. 593. We may add to the number of
his opponents all who subsequently declared against the Doctrines of
Wolff, particularly Pierre de Crouzaz (§ 367) in his Critique on
Pope's Essay on Man, and in his Reflexions sur l'ouvrage intitule La
Belle Wolfienne, Lausanne, 1743, 8vo. Yattel defended against the
last the system of Leibnitz, in his Defense du Systeme Leibniticn
contre les Objections et les Imputations de M. Crouzaz, contenues dans
rExumen de l'Essai sur l'Homme, de Pope, Leyde, 1741, 8vo.
350 THIllD PERIOD. [SECT.
employed themselves in fortifying the outworks of their
master's system ; while the latter directed their attacks
rather against the consequences of his philosophy than its
principles. The result was an animated conflict, which kept
alive the interest of philosophical,researeh, and insensibly
introduced the habit of more profound inquiries respecting
the fundamental properties of human knowledge.
The system of Leibnitz, though favourably received by
many distinguished professors, failed at first to obtain
great influence in Germany, from its want of a systematic
form. Other obstacles impeded its progress in Prance and
England.
Among his successors we must distinguish 3£. G. Hansch,1
and Christian Wolf, the most renowned advocate of this
school, and the first who gave an extensive popularity to
the system. He was succeeded by his pupils, Bilfinger and
jBaumyarten (§ 370).
Oilier Contemporary Philosophers.
362. About the same time two learned men of great
merit attempted, with different views, a reformation in
School-philosophy, still prevalent in Germany. Th~ cele-
brated physicist and mathematician JE. W. von Tschirn-
hausen? who had studied at Ley den, and who had early
attached himself to the opinions of Descartes and Spinoza,
endeavoured to systematise a theory of philosophical dis-
covery and observation, on the principle of mathematics.
1 Born near Dantzlc, 1683 ; died at Vienna, 1752.
M. Gottl. Hansch, Principia Philosophise. See § 356, bibliogr.
Ars Inveniendi, sive Synopsis Kegularum Pr<jecipuarnm Arlis Inve-
niendi, etc., 1737 (no place mentioned). Selecta Moralia, Halce,
1720, 4to.
2 Born at Kieslingswalde in Oberlausitz, 1651 ; died 1708.
Chr. Walth. Tschirnhausen, Medicina Mentis, sive Artis Inveni-
endi Prsecepta Generalia, Amstelod. 1687; Lips 1695 — 1705 — 1753,
4to.
A biography of the author was published separately at Gorlitz, 1709,
8vo. Sec Fontenelle, Elogcs, p. 166. For an opinion ot his philoso-
phical labours, see the Collection of Memoirs of G. G Fullebokn, Fasc.
V, p. 32, where are to be found extracts from his Medicina Mentis.
362.] CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHERS. 351
Christian Thomasius * laboured to render philosophy more
popular in its character, and to disseminate a knowledge of
it in his native language.3 In Ethics he at first attached
himself to the principles of Puffeudorf, whom he defended
against his assailants ; though subsequently he withdrew
from him,3 not so much in respect of his principles as by
the distinctions he made between the Pracepta Justi,
Honesti, et Decori ; and by limiting Natural Eight to
merely negative principles of external conduct. His views
in these particulars procured him, in after-time, as much
abuse from one set of philosophers as they obtained applause
from another.4 They were maintained in a more exact and
1 Born at Leipsic, 1655; died at Halle, 1728.
2 Consult the article on Christian Thomasius, in the Universal
Biography of Schrockh.
t Chr.Thomasius, his Life and Works, byH. Luden, Berlin, 1805, 8vo.
+ G. G Fulleborn, On the Philosophy of Chr. Thomasius, in Fasc.
IV of his Collection of Memoirs, etc.
Chr. Thomasii Introductio in Philosophiam Aulicam, seu primre
linese Libri de Prudentia Cogitandi atque Raticcinandi, hips. 1688,
8vo. ; Hal. 1702. Introductio in Fhilosophiam Rationalem in qua
omnibus Homnibus Via plana et facilis panditur, sive Syllogistica,
Verum, Verisimile et Falsum discernendi, novasque veritates inve-
niendi, Lips. 1601, 8vo.
"t Introduction to the Art of Reasoning, Halle, 1691, 8vo., (and
other editions). + Exercise of the Art of Reasoning, Halle, 1710,.8vo.
+ Essay on the Existence and Nature of the Spirit, etc., Halle, 1699 —
1709, 8vo.
Chr. Thomasii Dissert, de crimine Magiae, Hal. 1701, 4to.
3 Chr. Thomasii Institutionum Jurisprudences Divinaa libri III, in
quibus Fundamenta Juris Nat. secundum hypotheses ill. Pufendorfii
perspicue domonstrantur, etc. Franco/, et Lips. 1688, 4!o. ; Hal. 1717,
4to. Halle, 1712, 4to. Fundamenta Juris Naturae et Gentium, ex
sensu communi deducta, Hal. 1705 — 1718, 4to ; Halle, 1709. Intro-
ductio in Philosophiam Moral cm cum Praxi, Hal. 1706.
+ The Art of Living conformably to Reason and Virtue, or, an
Introduction to Morality, Halle, 1692-1710, 8vo. t On the Cure of
Unreasonable Desire, etc., Halle, 1696 — 1704, 8vo.
Fr. Schneider, Philosophia Moralis secundum Frincipia Thomasiana,
Hal. 1723.
4 They were especially attacked by G. E. Schulze, (t On the Prin-
ciples of Civil and Penal Right, Gotting. 1813, preface, p. 1 and 17) : as
well as by the celebrated Jurist, Hugo, who calls this attempt to dis-
tinguish between Natural Right and Morality- a Moral System in-
tended for the use of Cut-throats (eine Todtschlagsmoral).
o
52 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
methodical manner by Ephraim Gerard, and still more so
by Jer. Gundling.1 The principle of morality which Thoma-
sius assumed was Reasonable Love, differing from unreason-
able Self-love ; of which, after all, it was a modification.
The fruit of this Reasonable Love or Desire, is Happiness
or repose of mind, constituting the ultimate object and
supreme good of man. His successors (Grerard and Gund-
ling), defined still more broadly the limits between Natural
Right and Morality, and treated the former as a system of
perfect right and corresponding obligation, having in view
a state of nature ; at the same time frequently referring to
the enactments of positive law, especially the Roman, to
which a certain degree of authority was still allowed.
Heineccius, The Cocceii, and Putter, have treated Natural
Law with these views ; their ideas being more fully deve-
loped by Achenwall ;2 who also turned his attention to
National Law. Among the philosophers who adhered to
Wolf, must be mentioned the Eclectic Buddams?
TV. Wolf and his School ; his adversaries, and other
Contemporary Philosophers.
Vita, Fata, et Scripta Che. Wolfii, Lips, et Breslav. 1739, 8vo.
f Chr. Gottsched, Historical Eulogium of Christian Baron von
Wolf, Halle, 1755, 4to.
Life of Wolf, in the Memoirs towards a Biography of Celebrated
Men, by Busching, vol. I, p. 3 — 138.
1 Ephr. Gerhard died 1718; he published his Delincatio Juris
Naturalis sive de Principiis Justi libri III, quibus Fundamenta Gene-
ralia Doctrinae de Decoro accesserunt, Jen. 1742, 8vo.
Nic. Jek. Gundling, born at Nuremberg 1671 ; died at Halle 1729 ;
he published Via ad Veritatem Moralem, Hal. 1714, 8vo. ; Jus Naturae
et Gentium, etc. Hal. 1714, 8vo.
On the Rights of Nature and Nations, etc. Francf. and Leips.,
1734, 4to. See his Article in the second vol. of Schrockh, f Bio-
graphy of Celebrated Literary Characters, etc.
2 Born at Elbingen, 1686; died 1756. '
Gottfr. Achenwall, Jus Naturas, Gvtt. 1750, seventh edition, cum
PrceFat. de Selchow7, 1781, 2 vols. 8vo. Obscrvationcs Juris Nat.
et Gent. Spec. I — IV, Gutting. 1754, 4to. Prolegomena Juris Nat.
G8tt. 1758, fifth edition, 1781.
3 J. F. Budde, born 1697; died 1729.
363.] CHEISTIAN WOLF. 353
Chr. Wolfti Dissertat. inauguralis : Philosophia Practica Universalis
Methodo Mathematica conscripta, Lips. 1701, 4to.
Kluge, Christian von Wolf, der Philosoph : Ein biographisches
Denkmal, 1831.
Chr. Wolf's Vernunftige Gedanken von den Kraften des mensch-
lichen Verstandes, Halle, 1710, 8vo. u. ofter. Auch lateinisch. Ver-
niinftige Gedanken von Gott, der AVelt und der Seele des Menschen,
auch alien Dingen uberhaupt, Frank/, u. Leipz. 1719, 8vo. ; 6te Ausg.
1736. Anmerkungen dazu, Frank/. 1724, 1727, 1733, 8vo. Versuche
zur Erkcnntniss der Natur und Kunst. 3 vols. Halle, 1721 — 23, 8vo.
Verniinftigc Gedanken von den Wirkungen der Natur, Halle, 1723,
8vo. Von den Absichten der natiirlichen Dinge, Frank/. 1724, 8vo.
Von des Menschen Thun und Lassen, Halle, 1720. Von dem gesell-
suliaftlichen Leben der Menschen und dem gemeinen Wesen, Halle,
1721, 8vo. Institutiones Juris Naturas et Gentium, Hal. 1750, 8vo. ;
Deutsch. 1754, 8vo. Nachricht von scinen eignen Schriften, die er in
Deutscher Sprache in verschiedencn Theilen der Weltweishcit he-
rausgegeben, Frank/. 1726, 8vo. Gesammelte kleine philosophische
Schriften. Halle, 1740, 4 Th. 8vo.
Latin Works : Luculenta Commentatio de Differentia nexus Eerum.
Sapientis et Fatalis Necessitatis, necnon Systematis H. P. et Hypo-
thesium Spinoza*, 1723. Oratio de Sinarum Philosophia, Hal. 1726,
4to. Philosophia Rationalis, sive Logica Methodo Scientifica per-
tractata, Franc/, et Lips. 1728, 4to. ; second edition, 1732. Philo-
sophia prima, sive Ontologia, ibid. 1730. Cosmologia Generalis, ibid.
1731. Psychologia Empirica, ibid. 1732. Psychologia Rationalis,
Franc/ et Lips. 1734. Theologia Naturalis, 1736, 1737, 2 vols. 4to.
Philosophia Practica Universalis, ibid. 1738, 1739, 2 vols. 4to. Jus
Naturae, 1740, 8 vols. 4to. Philosophia Moralis, sive Ethica, Hal.
1750, 4 vols. 4to. Philosophia Civilis, sive Politica, fortgesetzt von
Mich. Chr. Hanovius, Hal. 1746, 4 vols. 4to. Jus Gentium, Hal.
1750, 4to.
t C. Gunther Ludovici, Plan of a History of the Wolfian Philo-
sophy, second edition, Lips. 1737, 3 parts, 8vo. + Fresh Develop-
ments of the Leibnitzo- Wolfian Philosophy, Leips. 1730, 8vo. + Col*
lection, etc. of all the Controversial Works published on the subject of
the Wolfian Philosophy, Leips. 1737, two parts, 8vo.
+ G. Volkmar Hartmann, Introduction to the History of the
Leibnitzo-Wolfian Philosophy, and the Controversy excited on the
subject, by Professor Lange, Franc/, and Lips. 1737, Svo.
+ A. Meissner, Philosophical Lexicon adapted to the System of
Chr. Wolf, and collected from his German Writings, Bayreuth and
Ho/, 1737, 8vo.
363. Christian Wolf was bom at Breslau, in 1679, and
was formed to become one of the most profound philo-
sophers of the Dogmatic School by the study of the Mathe-
matics, of the Cartesian philosophy, and of the Medicines
2a
354? THIED PEKIOD. [SECT.
Mentis of Tschirnhausen. He was by nature possessed of
less invention than powers of analysis, and talents for sys-
temization; with considerable powers of popular expression.
These advantages he employed in the illustration and de-
fence of the Leibnitzian system, with singular success. By
his elementary works, in German, he completed the down-
fall of the Scholastic philosophy in the universities of Ger-
many; to which Thomasius also contributed. He materi-
ally improved the habits of thought of his countrymen, by
promoting their progress in science, and the cultivation of
order, method, and systematic arrangement. In 1707 he
became professor of Mathematics at Halle, and after a long
controversy with his colleagues (among others with J. J.
Lange (§ 366), who accused him of Atheism), he was driven
from his chair (1723), and retired to Marburg, where he
taught as professor of Moral Philosophy. He was honour-
ably recalled to Halle (1740), by Frederick II.: and died
there April 9th, 1754 ; having outlived his reputation.
364. Wolf was the first philosopher who sketched out a
complete Encyclopedia of the philosophical sciences, and, in
a great measure, filled up his outline. He divides specula-
tive philosophy into Logic and Metaphysics ; of which
Metaphysics comprehends Ontology, Rational Psychology
(to be distinguished from Empirical), Cosmology and The-
ology. Practical philosophy he subdivides into Universal
practical Philosophy, Ethics, Natural Rights and Law, and
Politics. These subdivisions of Moral Philosophy, with the
addition of ^Esthetics, or, the Theory of Taste, are at the
present day generally adopted. As for the matter of his
Philosophy, he found it for the most part supplied by others.
He adopted the views of Leibnitz, with the exception of the
perspective faculties of the Monades, which he absolutely
rejected, and of the Pre-established Harmony, which he con-
fined to the relation of the body and the soul. He may be
said to have given a new edition of the Leibnitzian system,
under the form of a dogmatical Dualism j1 and filled up
some of the lacunae it contained, either by the addition of
new matter of his own, or a skilful development of his
master's views. His chief merit consists in the unity of plan
1 A Dualism, it will be remembered, implies the recognition of two
elementary principles. — Ed.
364 — 365. J christian wolf. 355
he has preserved, and the consecutiveness of his argumen-
tation, which is the effect of a rigorous application of what
is called the mathematical method, and which he declares
to be nothing more than an exact adaptation of the laws of
Logic. The improvements which Wolf thus brought about,
consisted in a more exact arrangement, a clearer definition
of conceptions, and greater precision in the language of
philosophy. The main defects of his system were, an affec-
tation of demonstrating everything, an exclusive attention
to the principle of Thought, a neglect of the difference
between the material and formal conditions of knowledge, a
tendency to regard Philosophy as the science of the Possible,
as far as it is possible, and a disposition to exalt contradiction
into an universal principle of all science. He also com-
mitted the error of placing Conceptions and Definitions of
names at the head of the sciences. It must be added that
he maintained it to be impossible to discriminate between
knowledge derived from the reason and that acquired by ex-
perience ; limited the operations of the mind to the mere
perception of representations ; and in short, overlooked the
characteristics which distinguish Philosophy from the Mathe-
mathics, in respect of Form and Matter. His system led
him to the construction of a number of useless and tedious
formulae, which, by the emptiness of their conceptions, and
the sweeping nature of their demonstrations, could have no
other effect but that of inspiring disgust and contempt for
speculative researches in general, and particularly for those
of Metaphysics. His theory, like that of Leibnitz, favours
the doctrine of Determinism, or moral Patalism.
365. "Wolf chiefly constituted an epoch, especially in
practical philosophy, by his solid genius. He laboured to
ascertain some fundamental principle from which he might
deduce the whole system of Practice, and connect its
details with its general theory, which he was the first
among modern philosophers to attempt. Such a funda-
mental principle he believed himself to have discovered in
the idea of Perfection, and thought that experiment con-
firmed his observation. He defined those actions to be
good which perfect our condition, i.e. produce or tend to
produce an unison between our condition as it was, as ,it is,
and as it will be ; and evil those which produce the
2 a 2
356 THIKD PERIOD. [SECT.
contrary effect, or are the causes of a discrepancy and dis-
cordancy in our state at different periods. Free actions
are hence necessary also, and derive their qualities of evil
and good from their consequences and results, and not
from an original distinction made by the Divine "Will.
Yirtue is, consequently the aptitude to make perfect our
condition. The grand rule of virtue is Perfice teipsum :
do that which may perfect your own condition, or that of
another, and avoid all that can render it imperfect. This is
a law of our spiritual Nature, to which even the Atheist is
subject, but which is also in harmony with the Divine Will.
In the province of Jurisprudence this law takes the form of
compulsion (diirfen) ; in Morality it takes that of duty (sollcn) .
Reason suggests what will perfect or render imperfect our
state, and consequently all moral good is dependent on know-
ledge, all moral evil the consequence of defective knowledge.
The consciousness of our perfection or approximation to
perfection, bestows contentment ; a state of contentment
coalers happiness; and the consciousness of a continued
and uninterrupted progress towards perfection is the highest
good of man.1 From these principles Wolf deduces the
subordinate laws of Morals, of Natural Eight (compre-
hending a general theory of Eights and Duties),2 and of
Polity, with great apparent facility, and much display of
detailed information. The unity and consecutiveness of his
system gave it a prodigious advantage, to which must be
added, the circumstance that he made the Eeason the source
of knowledge in morality. Its faults were the vagueness
of its leading conception, the difficulty of deducing from
such a principle the obligations of morality, and the absence
of an adequate motive for virtuous action; defects which
1 For Wolf's Works on Ethics, see § 363 ; and J. Aug. Eberhard's
Sittenlchre. See § 367, notes.
2 In this respect he has been followed by most of the writers who
have treated of Natural Law. Baumgarten (§ 370) and H. Kohler
alone reduced this subject to the narrow limits to which it had been
confined by Gundling (§ 362).
The principal authors who have treated the subject with the views
of Woltf, arc: Nettelbladt (§ 370), Darjes (§ 368), and the Jurist
J. C. F. Meister. + Rudiments of Natural Law, Francf. on Oder,
1809, 8vo. The Eclectics Hgjpfner (died 1797), and Ulrich (died
1813), differed from this school only on minor questions.
366.] ADVERSARIES OF WOLF. 357
the great abilities of many disciples of his school have
not been able to palliate. In reality it is a system of Ra-
tionalism only in appearance, and from the want of a com-
plete elucidation of the moral consciousness, ends in one of
Eudaemonism (§ 368). Nevertheless, some particular sub-
jects have been treated by members of this school, not
unsuccessfully ; particularly by Thorn. Abbt.1
ADVERSARIES OF WOLF, AND ECLECTICS.
366. Jealousy of Wolf, in addition to other more justi-
fiable motives, raised up a formidable antagonist to his
system in the person of Jolin Joachim Lange2 who sounded
the alarm against it, as a mass of Fatalism and Atheism,
destructive alike of religion and government. His stric-
tures presently excited the same apprehensions in other
learned men, such as Dan. Strdhler,3 J. Fr. Midler* etc.
and brought about a decree against the publication of
Wolf's doctrines in the Universities. The greater part of
the adversaries of that philosopher were men of narrow
minds and prejudiced opinions ; some few were actuated by
more laudable motives, the desire of maintaining perfect
1 Bora at Ulin, 1738 ; died 1766.
Tiiom. Abbt, V'om Tode fiir das Vaterland, Brest. 1761, 8vo. Vom
Yerdienste, Berl. 1765, Svo.
2 Bora at Gardelegen, 1670 : professor of Theology at Halle, from
1709 to 1744.
J. Joach. Lange, Causa Dei et Religionis Naturalis adversus Atheis-
mum, etc. Hal. 1723, Svo. Modesta Disquisitio novi Philosophise
Systematis de Deo, Mundo, et Homine, et prsesertim harmonia com-
mercii inter Animam et Corpus prasstabilita, Hal. 1723, 4to. (The
author endeavours to demonstrate the agreement, in this particular, of
the doctrines of Spinoza with those of Leibnitz). Placidas Vindiciae
Modestce Disquisitionis, ibid. Eod. : Bescheidene ausfuhrliche Entdec-
kung der Falschen und Schadlichen Philosophic, Halle, 1724, 4to.
Nova Anatome, seu Idea Analytica Systematis Metaphysici Wolfiani,
Francif. et Lips. 1726, 4to.
A Complete Collection of the Works published during the Contro-
versy between Wolf and Lange was printed at Marburg, 1737, 8vo.
3 Objections to the Rational Thoughts of M. Wolf on God, etc. pt. I,
Halle, 1723, 8vo., part II, 1724. Wolf replied by his Sure Method
in answer to False and Calumnious Imputations, 1723.
4 f Objections to the Rational Thoughts of Wolf on the Faculties of
the Human Intellect, etc., Gicssen, 1731, 8vo.
358 THIBD PERIOD. [SECT.
freedom of discussion, and hatred of party-spirit ; but almost
all directed their views only to the consequences of his
system without ascending to its principles. A small number
examined it with more enlarged views, and acquired a
durable reputation, such as Andreas Budiger (following §),
J. P. de Crouzaz (the same), and more particularly Chr.
Aug. Crusius (§ 368), and J. G. Darjes (the same). Most
of the controversies affected less the general theory of Wolf
and Leibnitz than particular doctrines, for instance, the
Monadologia ; the Pre-established Harmony ; Free-will and
Determinism. Some fine observations relative to Method
were occasionally elicited.
367. Andreas Budiger1 distinguished himself as an
Eclectic of an original character, of great acuteness and
learning ; detected many imperfections inherent in the
system of philosophy then prevalent, and endeavoured to
reform it. He repeatedly changed, however, his own views ;
nor was his mind sufficiently profound to enable him to
arrive at a well founded system. He rendered considerable
service to Dialectics (though he erred in confounding the
province of Logic with that of Metaphysics), and particu-
larly in his elucidation of the doctrine and theory of Pro-
bability, which in a great measure had been neglected. His
thoughts on the two methods of sensible and intellectual
demonstration (Mathematical and Metaphysical), contain
some valuable hints, and the germs of a clear distinction
between Mathematics and moral philosophy. He made
Feeling and Reality the ultimate foundation of philosophical
truth. He maintained the spirituality of the soul, yet sup-
posed it to possess extension, like all other created essences.
Elasticity he held to be the characteristic property of Body.
He attacked "Wolf on the subject of Pre-established Har-
mony, asserting that it was incompatible with the free-
agency of man. As a teacher he had considerable influence.3
1 Born at Rochlitz, 1673 : was the pupil of Thoniasius (§ 362) ; and
died at Leipzic, 1731.
2 Ande. Rudigeri Disp. de eo, quod omnes Idese oriantur a Sensione,
Lipsice, 1704. De Sensu Yeri et Falsi, libri IV, Hal. 1709, 8vo.
second edition, Lips. 1722, 4to. Philosophia Synthetica, Hal. 1707;
second edition, with this title: Institutiones Eruditionis, 1711, 8vo. ;
third edition, corrected, 1717. Fhysica Divina, Recta Via, eademque
media inter Superstitionem et Atheismum, etc. Franco/, ad M. 1716,
367—368.] eclectics. 359
Jean Pierre de Orouzaz (§ 366) instituted a most complete
examination of the system of Wolf.1 He was an Eclectic,
as was J. F. Buddeus2 (§ 362), J. G. Walch* 8. C. Holl-
vnannf with several other learned men of that day. His
works contain a rich fund of excellent remarks and judicious
opinions.
368. Chr. Aug. Crushes, by his acuteness as a reasoner,
has deserved the first place among the opponents of "Wolf.
He was born at Leune near Merseburg, in 1712, and having
studied under Budiger, became professor of theology and
philosophy at Leipsic; where he died in 1775. The dis-
4 to. Philosophia Pragmatica, Lips. 1723, 8vo. f Opinions of "Wolf
respecting the Nature of the Soul, etc., with the Objections of Rudiger,
1727, 8vo.
1 J. P. de Crouzaz, Observations Critiques sur l'Abreg6 de la
Logique de M. Wolf, Geneve, 1744, 8vo. (cf § 380, note3). La Logique,
ou Systeme des Reflexions qui peuvent conduire a la nettete et a
l'etendue de nos Connaissances, Amst. 1712, 8vo. ; third edition, A mst.
1725, 4 vols. 12mo. Logicse Systema, Genev. 1724, 11 vols. 8vo. Trans-
lated into English under the title of Art of Thinking, 2 vols. 8vo. 1724.
De Mente Humana Substantia a corpore distincta et immortali, Dissert.
Philosophica Theologica, Groning. 1726, 4to. De l'Esprit Humain, B&le,
1741, 4to. Traite du Beau, Amsterd. 1712 ; second edition, 1724, 2 vols.
12mo. Traite" de l'Education des Enfans, La Haye, 1722, 2 vols. 12mo.
2 Born 1667 ; Died 1729.
Jo. Franc. Buddei Elementa Philosophise Instrumentalis, sive Insti-
tutionum Philosophise Eclectics, torn. I — III, Hal. 1703, 8vo. sixth
edition, 1717. Elementa Philos. Theoreticae, ibid. 1703, 8vo. and other
editions. Theses de Atheismo et Superstitione, Jen. 1717. t Thoughts
on the Philosophical System of M. Wolf, Fribourg, 1724. t A Modest
Reply to the Observations of Wolf, Jena, 1724, 8vo. ; and, + A Modest
Proof that the Difficulties proposed by Buddeus are well founded.
Elementa Philosophise Practicae, 1695, 8vo. and other editions. Selecta
Jur. Nat. et Gent. Hal. 1704—1717, 8vo.
3 Born at Meiningen, 1695; died 1775.
G. Walch. *h Introduction to Moral Philosophy, Leips. 1729, 8vo.
The same in Latin, 1730, 8vo. + Philosophical Dictionary, Leips. 1726,
and other editions.
4 Born at Alstettin, 1696; died 1787.
He was one of the earliest antagonists of Wolf, whom he attacked in
his Commentatio Philosophica de Harmonia inter Animam et Corpus
prgestabilita, Viteb. 1724, 4to. Institutiones Philosophies, 2 vols. Viteb.
1727. Paulo uberior in omnem Philosophiam Introductio, torn. I, Viteb.
1734, torn. II, III, Gott. 1737—1740, 8vo. Philosophia Prima quae
Metaphysica vulyo dicitur, Goiting. 1747, 8vo. Diss, de Vera Philo-
sophise Notionc, Viteb. 1728, 4to.
360 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
inclination for Wolfs system, which he had imbibed from
his preceptor, was confirmed by a sincere attachment to the
theological system, and by his practical sense. He endea-
voured to discover the true system in unison with sound
Beason and Theology, whieh might correct the errors of
"Wolf's theory, especially objecting to the abuse of the
principle of " a Sufficient Principle or Basis." His mind,
however, was not sufficiently profound nor liberal, nor his
reflection on the human mind sufficiently comprehensive to
enable him to detect and expose the leading errors of the
Dogmatism of his day. Consequently he was unable to
effect any real reformation, though his views were, in many
respects, more correct than those of his contemporaries.
He became the author of an ingenious, well-digested, con-
sistent, and harmonious system ; but frequently lost himself
in capricious hypotheses, and mystical views.1 According
to him, Philosophy is the sum of rational truths, of which the
objects are durable in their nature. It is distinguished from
Mathematics by its Object and Method. It comprehends
Logic, Metaphysics, and Practical Philosophy (Disciplinar-
philosophie) . Instead of the principle of Contrariety or
Contradiction, which Wolf had adopted as the foundation
of his system, he lays down that of ThinJcableness* (Gedenk-
harkeit) which comprehends, as he asserts, the fundamental
principles of Contradiction, Inseparability, and Incompati-
bility ; and assigns as the proximate reason of the certainty
of human knowledge, the impulse of which we are conscious,
and (as it were) a sort of internal constraint and inclination
1 Christ. Aug. Crusius, Weg zur Gewissheit und Zuverlassigkeit der
inenscklichen Erkenntniss, Leipz. 1747, 8vo. Entwurf der notkwen-
digen Vernunftwahrheiten, insofern sie den zufalligen entgegengesetzt
werdcn, Leipz. 1745, Svo. Dissertatio de TJsu et Limitibus Eationis
sufficients, Lips. 1752. De summis Eationis Principiis, Lips. 1752,
8vo. Abhandl. von dem rechten Gebrauche und der Einschrankung des
sogenannten Satzes vom zureickenden oder besser delerminirenden
Griinde, n. A. Leipz. 1766, 8vo. Anleitung iib. natlirl. Begebenheiten
ordentlick. u. vorsichtig nachzudenken, 2 B. Leipz. 1774, Svo.
Justin Elias Wustemann, Einleit. in das Lchrgebaude dcs Hrn. Dr.
Crusius, Wittenb. 1751, 8vo.
* The reader will pardon our drawing slightly on the Anglo-Saxon
bank, in order to meet the exigencies entailed on us by plunging
deeper into the fathomless ocean of German Metaphysics. — Ed.
369.] CKUSius. 361
of the Understanding to accept certain things as truths :
referring to the Divine Veracity as the ultimate foundation
of all ascertained Truth.
In Logic he sets out from psychological inquiries, attri-
buting to the soul a plurality of faculties. In Metaphysics
he limits and restricts the ' Sufficient Principle or Basis' of
his adversaries, by distinguishing between the Essential
Cause and the Causal (Existential- und Cansalursache) ;
and by assuming as the principle of Eree-agency that of
Original Activity ; which theory implied that of Indiffer-
entism. He examined with accuracy the idea of Existence,
and maintained that Space and Time were Abstracts of
Existence ; which compelled him to consider them as attri-
butes of God and elementary substances. He rejected the
customary proofs of a Divinity, derived from the conception
of a Perfect Being, because it was confounding, as he
asserted, real with ideal existence ; and also that deduced
from the contingent objects of the material world; and,
instead, attempted to draw one from the Contingency of
Substances. He attributed to the Deity a supreme free-
agency, infinite and unrestricted ; acknowledged Him to be
the sole Creator and Governor of the world; asserted His
will to be the only law of reasonable beings ; and His glory
the final cause of the creation. On account of this view of
the indifferent Freedom of God and of created beings, he
was led to reject the Optimism of Leibnitz. Another
Eclectic, very popular in his day, Joach. J. Darjes,1 resem-
bled Crusius in many of his opinions. In practical philo-
sophy he more approximated "Wolf.
369. In Morals,2 Crusius drew his conclusions not from
1 Born at GUstron, 1714; died professor of Moral Philosophy at
Frankfort on the Oder, 1791.
Jo. Ge. Daejes, Via ad Veritatem, Jen. 1755 ; 1776, 8vo. (German).
Elementa Metaphysices, Jen. 1743-44, 2 vols. 4to. Anmerkung-en liber
einige S'atze der Wolfischen Metaphysik, Frank/, u. Leipz. 1748. 4to.
Philosophische Nebenstundcn, Jen. 1749—1752. IV Samrnlungen. 8vo.
Erste Grunde der Philosophischen Sittcnlehre, Jen. 1755, Svo. lnstitu-
tiones Jurisprudentiaa Universalis, Jen. 1745, 8vo.
See Schlichtegeoll's Nekrolog*. for the year 1792, 2 vols.
2 Ceusius, Anweisimg; vcrniinftig" zu lebcn, darinnen nach Erklarung
des menschl. Willens die naturl. Pflichtcn und die allgcm. Klugheits-
362 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
the conceptions of the intellect, but the suggestions of the
will and conscience. He derived the notion of duty from
moral necessity or obligation. He asserted the free-agency
of the human mind (which he contemplated principally in a
negative point of view, i. e. as uninfluenced by physical or
material laws), and developed the formal conditions of our
free-will actions, and the motives of them. The principle of
a moral law led him to that of a moral Governor and Legis-
lator, and consequently to the hypothesis which ascribes all
moral obligations and laws to the Divine Authority, deducing,
as the Schoolmen had done, the principles of Morals from
the Will of God. That ivhich is consistent with the nature of
the divine perfections, and accords tvith the designs of God, is
good; and becomes obligatory on all rational beings. God
demands of His rational creation, in the first place, that they
should be good; and also wills their happiness as a conse-
quence of virtue.
This system contains many excellent and true remarks,
and some well-founded though incomplete distinctions be-
tween Necessity and Duty, or Obligation — Happiness and
Virtue ; but founded as it is upon an external principle of
obligation, and without a determinate notion of virtue, it
is far from the perfection necessary to the ends of science.
DISSEMINATION OE THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYS-
TEM OE WOLE AND HIS ADHEEENTS.
370. In spite of all his opponents and persecutions (espe-
cially in the first quarter of the eighteenth century), Wolf
had many followers, and became the founder of a School
which was long the prevailing one (especially during the
second quarter of the eighteenth century), and possessed
great influence through the talents of those who espoused it.
The Leibnitzo-Wolfian theory was at first defended, enlarged,
and applied, in a form decidedly Scholastic. Subsequently,
a greater degree of good taste and a more liberal style was
lehren im richtigen Zusammcnliangc vorgclragcn wcrden, Lcipz. 1744,
3te Aufl. 1767, 8yo.
370.] DISCIPLES OF WOLF. 363
adopted by its adherents, after the manner of the French
and English writers.1
The most celebrated disciples of Wolf were : G. Bern.
Bilfinger, or more properly Bullfinger? L. Ph. Thummig ;3
and among the Theologians, the provost J. G. Beinbeckf
I. Gottl. Canz,5 J. P. Beusch,6 and G. H. Biebov or Bibbov?
1 K. Gunthee Ludovici, Ausfiihrlicher Entwurf einer vollstandigen
Historie der Wolfischen Philosophic 2te Ausg. Leipz. 1737, III Th.
8vo. Neueste Merkwiirdigkeiten der Leibnitz- Wolfischen Philosophic,
Leipz. 1738, 8vo. Sammlung und Ausziige der s'animtlichen Streit-
schriften wegen der Wolfischen Philosophic, Leipz. 1737, II Th. 8vo.
2 Professor at Tubingen; born 1693, died 1750.
Ge. Been. Bilfingee, Dilucidationes Philosophicse de Deo, Anima
Humana, Mundo, et Generalibus Rerum Affectionibus, Tubing. 1725,
4to; 1740 — 1768. Praecepta Logica, curante Chph. Feid. Vellnagell,
Jen. 1729, 8vo. Cf. Bibliog. § 359. Et : Epistolae Amcebeae Bulfingeri
et Hollmanni de Harmonia Praestabilita, 1728. De Triplici Rerum
Cognitione, Historica, Philosophica, et Mafhematica, Tubing. 1722, 4to.
Commentatio'nes Philosophies de Origine et Permissione Mali, prae-
cipue Moralis, Franc/, et Leips. 1724, 8vo.
3 Born at Culmbach, 1697 ; died professor at Cassel, 1728.
Lud. Phil. Thummig, Institutiones Philosophise Wolfianas, Franco/,
et Lips. 1725-26, 8vo., 2 vols. (A brief accouut of Wolf's system). De
Immortalitate Animse ex intima ejus Natura demonstrata, Hal. 1721.
De Principio Jur. Nat. Wolfiano, Cassellis, 1724. Meletemata varii et
rarioris Argumenti in unum volumen collecta.
For an account of his other works, consult Haetmann, t Introduction
to the History of the Systems of Leibnitz and Wolf, (mentioned above),
p. 1106.
4 Born at Zelle, 1682 ; died 1741.
See his + Preface on the Advantages of Philosophy in the study of
Theology, prefixed to Considerations on the Sacred Truths contained in
the Confession of Augsburg, etc., Berl. et Leips. 1731, 4to.
5 Born at Tubingen, 1690; died 1753.
Ise. Gottl. Canz, Philosophise Leibnitzianse et Wolfianse Usus in
Theologia, Franco/ et Lips. 1728—1734, 8vo. Disciplines Morales
omnes, etc., Lips. 1739, 8vo. Anthologia, Tubing. 1741, 8vo.
6 Born at Almersbach, 1691 ; died professor of Theology at Jena,
1757.
Joh. Tetee Peusch, Via ad Perfectiones Intellectus Compendiaria,
Isenaci, 1728, 8vo. Systema Logicum, Jen. 1734, 8vo. Systema
Metaphysicum antiquiorum atque recentiorum, Jen. 1735, 8vo.
7 Born near Gotting., 1724 ; died 1774.
f Riebovius, Expansion of the Ideas of M. Wolf, respecting the
Deity, etc., Franc/, et Leips. 1726; and Dissertatio de Anima Bru-
torum, (added to his edition of Rorarius), Helmst. 1729, 8vo.
SQ4i THIBD PEBIOD. [SECT.
To these must be added the Jurists J. A. F. von IcJcstadi,1
John G. Ileineccius (born at Eisenberg, 1680 ; died a pro-
fessor at Halle, 1741), J. Tflr. von Cramer,7, and Ban. Nei-
telbladt,3 J. J. Schiersmidt ;4 but especially J. H. Winckler,5
J. Chph. Gottsched* J. A. Ernesli? Fr. Ch. Baumeister*
Martin Knutzen* (the three last distinguished themselves by
useful elementary -works) ; and, above all, Alexander Gottlieb
Baumgarten™ The last greatly distinguished himself by a
skilful analysis of our conceptions, by several new hints, and
by the first attempt yet made at a system of ^Esthetics (or
1 Born 1702; died 1776.
De Ickstadt, Elcmenta Juris Gentium, Wirceb. 1740, 4to. Opuscula
Juridica, Ingolst. et Aug. Vindel., 1747, 2 vols. 4to.
2 Born at Ulm, 1706 ; died 1776.
Jo. Ulrici Cramer, Usus Philosophise Wolfiance in Jure, Marb.
Spccimina XIII, 1740, 4to. Opuscula, Marb. 1742, 4 vols. 4to.
3 Born at Eostock, 1719 ; died 1791.
Dan. Nettelbladt, Systema Elementare Universes Jurisprudential
Naturalis usui Jurisprudentise positive accommodatum, Hal. 1749;
fifth edition, 1785, 8vo.
4 Died professor of Law at Erlangen, 1778.
5 Born at Leipsic, 1703 ; died 1772.
J. H. Winckler, Institutiones Philos. WolSanse, etc., usibus Acadc-
micis accommodate, Lips. 1735, 8vo.
6 Born near Konigsberg, 1700 ; died 1776.
J, Chph. Gottsched, f First Principles of all Philosophy, etc., Leips.
1734, 2 vols. 8vo. ; second edition, 1735—36.
7 Born at Tennstlidt, 1701 ; died 1781.
8 Born 1708 ; died at Gorlitz, 1785.
Fr. Chr. Baumeister, Philos. Defmitiva, hoc est, Definitiones Philoso-
phise ex Systemate libri Baronis a Wolf, in unum collector, Viteb.
1735, 8vo,; 1762. 9 Died 1751.
Mart. Knutzen, Elementa Philosophise Eationalis, sive Logica,
Regiomont. 1771, 8vo.
On the Immateriality of the Soul, Francf. 1744, 8vo.
Systema Causarum Efficientium, Lips. 1745, 8vo.
10 Born at Berlin, 1714 ; died at Frankfort on the Oder, 1762.
Alex. Gottl. Baumgarten, Philosophia Generalis, eclidit cum Dis-
sert, proemiali de Dubitatione et Certitudine, J. Chr. Forster, Hal.
1770, 8vo. Metaphysica, Hal. 1732, 8vo. Ethica Philosophica. Hal.
1740, 8vo. Jus Naturae, Hal. 1765, 8vo. De Nonnullis ad Poema
pertinentibus, Hal. 1735, 4to. iEsthetica, Franco/, ad Viadrim.
1750—58, 2 vols. 8vo. ; second edition, Francf. 1759.
Consult G. Fr. Meier, t Life of Baumgartcn, Halle, 1763, Svo.
371.] ECLECTICISM. 365
the principles of Taste). He described philosophy as the
science of properties, which can be known by other means
than that of Faith. G. Fr. Meier,1 a disciple of the former,
commented on the treatises of his master, and enlarged on
certain questions.
371. Gradually (about the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury) this school lost much of its credit, and the peculiar
and pedantic formalities of the Wolfiana were turned into
ridicule.2 Metaphysics, too, sank in the public esteem ; and
the minds of men became directed more to the variety and
multiplicity of objects to which a principle may be applied,
and less to the investigation of a simple principle itself:
to the extension of the limits of philosophy, rather than to
the consolidation of that which was already acquired. The
empiricism of Locke daily gained ground, and in conse-
quence of this and of the prevailing spirit of the age, and a
renewed taste for the history of philosophy, a syncretical,
eclectic, and popular spirit began to prevail, more adapted
to pursuits of elegance and popular utility, than to the
abstract research of remote principles.
1 Died at Halle, 1777.
Sam. Gotth. Lange, Leben C. F. Meier's, Halle, 1778, 8vo.
Ge. Fr. Meter, Versuch einer allgemeinen Auslegungskunst, Halle,
1756, 8vo. Metaphysik, Halle, 1756, 4 Bde, 8vo. Beweis, dass die
menschliche Seele ewig lebt. 2te Aufl., Halle, 1754, 8vo. Vertheidi-
gung desselben, Halle, 1753. Beweis, dass keine Materie denken
konne. Beweis der vorherbestimmten Uebercinstimmung, Halle, 1743,
8xo. Theoretische Lehre von den Gemuthsbewegungen, Halle, 1744.
Versuch eines neuen Lehrgeb'audes von d. Seelen der Thierc, Halle,
1756, 8vo. Gedanken von dem Zustande der Seele nach demTode;
Beurtheilung des abermaligen Versuchs einer Theodicee ; Gedanken
von der Religion. Anfangsgriinde der schonen Wissenschaften, Halle,
1748 ; 2te Aufl. 1754, III Th. 8vo. Philosophisclie Sittenlehre, Halle,
1753 — 1761; 5 Th. 8vo. Betrachtung iiber die naturliche Anlage
zur Tugend und zum Laster, Halle, 1776, 8vo. Recht der Natur,
Halle, 1767, 8vo. Versuch von der Nothwendigkeit einer nahern
Offenbarung, Halle, 1747, 8vo. Untersuchung verschiedncr Materien
aus der Weltweisheit, Halle, 1768—1771, 4 Th. 8vo.
2 The French spirit of persiflage contributed much to this effect.
Witness the Gandide of Voltaire, first published 1757.
See, A Complete Collection of the Controversial Writings published
in the course of the Dispute between Maupcrluis and Samuel Konig,
Ldps. 1758, 8vo.
366 THIUD PERIOD. [SECT.
EMPIRICAL MYSTICISM.
Swedenborg.
Emanuel Swedenborg, a Biography ; by J. J. G. Wilkinson, Lond.
1849.
Emerson's Representative Men (containing Swedenborg the Mystic).
H. G. Bohn, Lond. 1849.
Tafel, Sammlung von Urkunden betreffend das Leben und der
Character Eman. Swedenborg's, Tubingen.
Clowes, Letters to an M.P. on Swedenborg.
Hindmarsh, Vindication of the Character of Swedenborg, 12mo.
Andeskadaren Swedenborg, Stockholm, 1851.
Svenskt, Biographiskt Lexicon, ofver namnkunnige Svenske, man
Article ' Emanuel Swedenborg.'
See also part II of Dr. Kahl's work: Nya Kyrkan, Lund. 1852,
containing much new information on Swedenborg.
372. About this time there appeared a man, whose merits
were overlooked by the contemporary and succeeding gene-
rations, but who has assumed a loftier stature and mightier
proportions as years have rolled on, and distance has enabled
us more justly to estimate his altitude. Emanuel Swedenborg
occupies a prominent position among the master-minds of
humanity. Sprung from an eminent Swedish family, he was
born at Stockholm in 16S8, and passed a considerable part
of his life tranquilly in London, where he closed a long and
happy career in 1772. In his earlier years he devoted him-
self with ardour to the physical sciences, and explored them
with a keen spirit of research, anticipating many subsequent
inquiries. A tendency to spirituality may be traced even in
his earlier scientific works, though it was reserved for his later
years to develop his gift of Seership. On attaining his fifty-
seventh year (A. D. 1745), he threw aside material researches,
and dived into the mysteries of the spiritual world, which
he has reported with a clearness, dignity, and consistency
that have seldom if ever been emulated. It is not our
province or purpose to decide the question of his Seership,
but we may be permitted to remark that to all impartial and
reflecting minds his historical appearance presents a problem
that still awaits solution. The smile of incredulity begins
to die upon the lips of the conscientious sceptic, and the
opprobrious terms ' dreamer' and ' madman' are yielding to
372 — 373.] EMANUEL SWEDENBOEG. 367
the more courteous epithet of Mystic. In vain will you ran-
sack the archives of his family or personal history for a trace
of insanity. Equally fruitless will be your endeavour to trace
any symptoms of incoherence or raving in his methodical
pages. If he must needs be mad, there is a rare method in
his madness ; and if the world insists on his being a visi-
onary, it must admit that his visions are something anoma-
lous in their systematic and mathematical form. But we have
yet to learn that visionaries and dreamers can write a cool
business-like style, and pen dry and well-digested folios;
nor is it a common thing to find a madman deficient in
sallies of imagination, and remarkable for strong common
sense. Such is the problem and anomaly presented by this
remarkable man, whose gift of seership is attested by such
characters as Kant and the sister of the great Frederic.1
The solution we leave to the skill of the gentle reader, as it
does not fall within our province.
His Philosophy.
Swedenborg's principal philosophical and theological works are :
Swedenborgii Opera philosophica et mineralia, Dresd. 1734, 3 vols,
folio.
(Economia Eegni Animalis, 2 vols. 4to. Lond. 1740--41; Amst. 1742.
Regnum animale, anatomice, physice, et philosophice perlustratum,
Hag. Com. 1744-5, 3 vols. 4to. The same, translated, with remarks,
&c, by J. J. G. Wilkinson, 2 vols. 8vo.
Arcana Ccelestia quee in Genesi et Exodo sunt detecta, Lond. 1749—
56, 8 vols. 4to.
De nova Hierosolyma et ejus doctrina coelesti, 4to. Lond. 1758.
Doctrina novas Hierosolymae de Domino, Lond. 1758; Amst. 1763-4.
Apocalypsis Revelata, Amst. 1766.
Yera Keligio Christiana, seu universalis theologia, Amst. 1771, 4to.;
Lond. 1780.
Most of his works have been translated into English, and published
by or under the patronage of the Swedenborgian Society.
373. Swedenborg's Philosophy, as developed in his scientific
as well as theological works, may be characterized as a very
decided system of Empirical Eealism, distinguished for an
almost diaphanic introviwon into the human heart, for con-
summate simplicity, and consistency. He regards the
1 See the account of Swedenborg's vision of the Fire of Stockholm,
as recorded by Em. Kant; and that of his disclosures to the Queen of
Sweden respecting her deceased brother. Emanuel Swedenborg : a
Biography; by J. J. G. Wilkinson, 8vo. p. 121, 126, and 158.
368 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
science of Correspondence as the Key of Knowledge, a
Divine Philosophy unlocking the treasures of the Spiritual
as well as ^Natural worlds, and sending Thought at a bound
from the Zoophyte to the Seraphim. The material world is
the ultimate and pedestal of the universe, filled with various
creations, corresponding to others in the higher-ascending
Spheres of the Universe. Thus Nature is in truth a Reve-
lation and a Divine Book, whose letters, the Groves, Hills,
and Rivers, the Firmament and the Lamps of Heaven,
are hieroglyphic representatives of corresponding spiritual
Realities.
The doctrine of Degrees forms a pendant to the science
of Correspondence in Swedenborg's Philosophy. Degrees,
which he classes in two series, i. e., Continuous and Dis-
crete, carry the mind by the Patriarch's Ladder, from Earth
to Heaven ; and, scaling the Empyrean, conduct us from 0
to the Throne of God. The Continuous Degrees are evident
and familiar to all, whereof an obvious example is presented
in the ascending series of organic vitality, from the plant to
Man. Discrete Degrees constitute a series of a different
description. They are the same things mirrored or re-
echoed on different platforms through the medium of Cor-
respondencies. Thus God is the Sun of the Spiritual
"World, whose Heat and Light are Love and Wisdom.
The Psychological Analysis of Swedenborg is remarkable
for its agreement with the conscience and experience of all
who reflect on what transpires in the chambers of their own
heart. His remarks, indeed, are alarmingly searching, and
seem to proceed from one who united to a profound know-
ledge of mankind, a natural kind of clairvoyance that pene-
trated into the inmost recesses of men's thoughts and
motives. His philosophy savours much more of Life than
of the Lamp. He divides the Mind into Will and Under-
standing ; the seats of the Affections and of Thought. It
is the former that constitutes the character; man being
what his loves are, according to the elevation or depression
of his affections, a little lower than the Angels, or crawling
worm-like in the dust. Man, regarded as a psycho-physio-
logical being, consists of three parts : 1st, The Spirit, which
is essentially tlie man ; 2nd, Its inner garment, or spiritual
body, identical with the tioul of St. Paul's Epistles, and
874.] EMANUEL SWEDENBOBG. 369
which constitutes the medium of union between the
Spirit ; and 3rdly, its outer garment or material body. The
latter is woven around it by the Spirit through the law of
Correspoudences. Hence a perfect analogy exists between
the mental faculties and the bodily organs.
Death, according to Swedenborg, is nothing more than
the casting off an outer skin, or the shelling of the mature
and ripened spirit within.
The mind may be again subdivided into three parts :
1st, The inmost or Celestial- Spiritual principle, by which
man communicates directly with God, angels, and heaven.
2nd, The Eational and Internal, which constitutes the intel-
lectual and scientific principle ; and the External, natural,
or sensuous, which brings man into connection with the
material world. The metaphysical reader will easily trace
an analogy between Swedenborg' s Celestial-Spiritual, Ra-
tional, and Sensuous principles, and the Intuitive Eeason,
the Logical Understanding, and the Sensational Perception
(Anschauung) of Transcendental Philosophy. There is,
however, one broad distinction, between them: Sweden-
borg's Celestial-Spiritual Principle grasps an objectively-
real and substantial world of Spirits; and his Sensuous
Principle grapples with the solid reality of an objective
world of matter, whilst the Transcendentalist, both in his
Intuition and his Sensation, hobbles in a world of sub-
jective ideas and representations, that hold his mind in a
strait- waistcoat.
On an impartial review of his system, it will be found to
be characterized by that best of wisdom, which consists in
its adaptation to the normal understanding, and its agree-
ment with the most cherished instincts of the human heart.
Swedenlorg's Position as a Psychological Phenomenon.
374. It is refreshing, in the eleventh hour of the eighteenth
century, the age of Atheism, Libertinism, Freemasonry,
and Eosicrucianism, to meet a man who united a healthy,
plain, and practical view of Life, Man, and Nature, with the
sublimest, and at the same time time, the most scientific
handling and treatment of things spiritual and eternal.
In the eyes of an impartial and a discriminating posterity,
Emanuel Swedenborg will obtain an elevated rank in the
2 B
370 THIBD PEBIOD. [SECT.
illustrious brotherhood of the luminaries of the Church.
A certain family likeness may be traced between all the
members of this memorable group.
Benedict, St. Francis, and Loyola, were a union of con-
tradictions ; themselves living paradoxes. The first a burn-
ing Calabrian rhapsodist,1 could descend from the sublimest
extacies and the most rapturous trances, to draw up a
legislative code, whose propriety, expediency, and sound
practical sense, have astonished the wrorld for above one
thousand years.
St. Francis of Assist was another instance of the blending
of superior diplomatic acuteness with a grasp of Faith that
revealed to his glowing vision those things that eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man
to conceive. The Franciscan Order still remains as a monu-
ment of the man, who was as wise as a serpent, and as
harmless as a dove ; and its history attests the giant arm
that raised it.
Loyola? whose merits none can dispute, notwithstanding
the sins of his Order, coupled the extreme of ascetic humi-
liations and apostolic devotion with a dry business-like
style,* and a deliberate shrewdness in his knowledge of
mankind, and in the reading of the human heart.4 Similarly,
Swedenborg, when treating of the sublimest realities, pro-
ceeds with the coolness and imperturbable deliberation of a
man entering items in his ledger.
As previously observed, however, the revelation and com-
mentaries of Swedenborg do not fall exactly within our
province. Nevertheless, since his philosophical writings
are considerably influenced and modified by his theology,
•we must consider the latter in order to estimate the former.
On a general survey of his works it appears that he must
1 See Sir J. Stephen's Article on the French Benedictines; and
History of the Benedictine Order.
2 See the Article on St. Francis, in Sir J. Stephen's Ecclesiastical
Biography.
3 See the Article of Sir J. Stephen's on the Founders of Jesuitism ;
and Ifaac Taylor's Ignatius Loyola, or Jesuitism in its Rudiments.
* Lord Chesterfield and Voltaire call him a madman. Thus one
man's meat is another man's poison. Irving was said to look on one
side of his face like an angel, and on the other like a devil. — Ed.
4 See Loyola's Spiritual Exercises.
375.] DAVID HUME. 371
be classed with Empirists, Supernaturalists, and perhaps
with Mystics. Let not, however, the latter term be taken
as a condemnation. Since the diffusion of Kantian and
other Bationalisms, there has been an evident tendency to
pronounce Supernaturalism identical with Mysticism ; and
Mysticism, hallucination. The impartiality and dignity of
history require us to abstain from attaching a stigma to
any honest and enlightened phase of thought and feeling,
whether positive or negative.
EMPIRICAL SCEPTICISM,
I. Scepticism of Hume.
375. The spirit of Empiricism continued to retain its
predominant influence in England. David Hartley} the
physician, whose religious and moral character bore a con-
siderable resemblance to that of Bonnet (§ 378), pursued
the inquiries of Locke relative to the soul, on principles
exclusively materialist. The Association of Ideas he made
the foundation of all intellectual energy ; and derived it
from certain vibrations of the nerves. He allowed to man
only a subordinate degree of free-will, asserting that the
Deity is the original cause of all the operations of Nature,
and that mankind are nothing more than his instruments,
employed with reference to the final end of the Universe.
The morality or immorality of actions is determined by their
tendency to produce happiness or misery. Presently a much
more acute genius pursued the path marked out by Locke, till
he arrived at a more complete and decided Scepticism. The
idealism of Berkeley (§ 349J, which had never been popular,
instead of checking, as its author had hoped, the spirit of
Scepticism, contributed to encourage it. This was what David
Hume did not fail to remark. He was born at Edinburgh
in 1711, and early forsook the study of law for that of
history and philosophy, to which he devoted the remainder
1 Born at Illingworth, 1704 ; died at Bath, 1757.
David Hartley, Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his
Expectations ; in two parts, Lond. 1749, 2 vols. 8vo. Theory of Hu-
man Mind, with Essays, by Jos. Priestley, Lond. 1775, 8vo.
2 b 2
372 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
of his life.1 "With a deeply penetrating genius, he inves-
tigated the nature of Man as a cognizant and acting being,
from the point of view of Locke's Empiricism. This led
him, by consequent thinking, to the sceptical result that
there is no such thing as ascertained objective philosophical
knowledge: that our views are limited to the phenomena
of Consciousness, — the representations we are conscious of,
— and the subjective relations of the latter. And in these
investigations of Hume, philosophical scepticism stands
forth with a power, depth, and logical consistency, such as
had never before appeared ; recommended, moreover, by
great correctness, clearness, and elegance of diction. Our
Representations, according to Hume, are to be divided into
Impressions (Emotions) or Conceptions and Ideas ; the
last are copies of the former, and differ from them only
inasmuch as they are less forcible and vivid. All the objects
of reason are either relations of Conceptions (for instance,
the elements of Mathematics), or facts and matters of
1 The Life of David Hume, written by himself, Lond. 1777, 12mo.
Supplement to the same, by Adam Smith, 1789.
A Letter to Ad. Smith, on the Life, Death, and Philosophy of his
friend D. Hume ; by one of the people called Christians, Oxford, 1777.
Apology for the Life and Writings of D. Hume, ete., Lond. 1777.
Curious Particulars and Genuine Anecdotes respecting the late Lord
Chesterfield and D. Hume, etc., Lond. 1788.
H. D. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, etc., Lond. 1738, 2 vols.
8vo.; 1739, 2 vols. 4to.
Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, 5 vols. 8vo. Edinb. 1742 —
1748. Vol. I contains Moral, &c. ; vol. II, Inquiry concerning the
Human Understanding ; vol. Ill, Inquiry concerning the Principles of
Morals; vol. IV, Political Discourses; vol. V, Natural History of Reli-
gion, of the Passions, of Tragedy, of Taste. These five volumes have
frequently been reprinted in 2 vols. 8vo. ; latest edition, Edinb. 1817.
Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul, 12uio. Lond.
1783 ; 8vo. 1789.
Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, 2nd edition, Lond. 1779,
8vo. (On this subject consult Jacobi, + David Hume, or, An Essay
on Faith, Idealism, and Realism, Breslau, 1787, 8vo.)
Account of the Life and Writings of D. Hume, by T. E. Ritciiie,
8vo. Lond. 1807.
Hume : in Lord Brougham's Lives of Men of Letters, vol. I, Lond.
1845.
Life and Correspondence of D. Hume, by J. H. Burton, 2 vols. 8vo.
Edinb. 1846.
Hume's Philosophical Works, 4 vols. 8vo. Edinb. 1827.
375.] DAVID HUME. 373
experience. Our conviction of the reality of any fact is
founded on Sensation, Reflection, and an estimate of the
relations of cause and effect. Our acquaintance with the
laws of Causality does not come to us by any a priori
principles, but simply by experience. We expect from
similar causes similar consequences ; and the principle of
this anticipation is to be sought in the habitude of the
connection of certain phenomena, and the Association of
our Representations. There exists, therefore, no certain
knowledge independent of experience, nor any Metaphysical
science, properly so called. After all, Experience does not
possess any such demonstrative evidence as do the Ma-
thematics : but is based upon a certain instinct, which may
prove deceptive. "We find that instinct contradicts the
conclusions of philosophy with respect to the ideas of Space,
Time, and Causality; and consequently we are compelled
to doubt the evidence of Experience in these particulars :
unless we give the preference to Natural Instinct over
philosophical Scepticism. Geometry and Arithmetic are
objects of abstract Science : Criticism (^Esthetics) and Mo-
rality are objects of Sensation, and in no respect form fart
of the province of the understanding. In Morals, Hume
asserted that merit consists in the utility or agreeableness
(utile et dulce) of man's character and qualities, as relating
to himself or others : he allowed that Reason, as the faculty
of reflection, had considerable weight in the formation
of a moral judgment, but denied that it was sufficient of
itself to pronounce a sentence of moral approbation or
disapprobation. Consequently he was led to make the
Moral Sense, which he compared with Taste, the primum
mobile of moral action. This Sense consists in a sentiment
of human happiness and misery. His theory was calculated
to support that of an original Moral Sense.
As for the question whether Self-love or Benevolence pre-
ponderate in the human mind, he leaves it unanswered.
The deeply penetrating Scepticism of Hume was originally
directed against the conclusions only of Speculative Philo-
sophy, but in fact would destroy the essential of all know-
ledge. He directed, however, his objections principally
against the Existence of the Deity, His Providence; against
the Keality of Miracles, and the Immortality of the Soul :
374 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
and proved that all these doctrines were unsupported by
any evident principles begetting perfect conviction.*
His life and character were estimable. He died, August
25th, 1776, with perfect serenity and even gaiety.
OPPONENTS OP HUME, AND OTHER PHILO-
SOPHERS OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH
SCHOOLS.
376. The Scepticism of Hume acquired of course the
greatest notoriety, attacking as it did the foundations of
religion as well as the objects of experience. Many anta-
gonists of his doctrines undertook to refute them ; but, in-
stead of striking at the root of his sceptical objections, and
demonstrating their fallacy, they contented themselves with
weakly appealing to Common Sense, or a natural instinct,
which was just what Hume desired. Among his opponents
we must reckon in the first place three Scotchmen ; Thomas
Heid,1 a sincere inquirer after Truth, who maintained in-
deed the existence of certain principles of knowledge inde-
pendent of experience, but considered philosophy as the
science of the human mind, which must be founded on the
principles of Common Sense,, regarding the latter as a
species of Intellectual Instinct.
The eloquent James Beattie? espoused the same cause
with greater ardour, but with less of a philosophic spirit,
and laboured to vindicate the truths attacked by the Scep-
* Modern Science, Transcendentalism, and the Philosophy of Intui-
tion, demolish at once the unnatural fabric of Hume's scepticism. — Ed.
1 Born 1704 ; became a professor at Glasgow; and died 1726.
Thomas Reid, Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principle of
Common Sense, third edition, Lond. 1796, 8vo. Essays on the Intel-
lectual Powers of Man, Edinb. 1785, 4to. Essays on the Powers of the
Human Mind, Lond. 1819, 3 vols. 8vo. Complete Works, with Preface
and Notes, by Sir William Hamilton, 8vo. Edinb. 1846.
2 Born 1735 ; professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, and
afterwards at Aberdeen. Died 1803.
Account of the Life of James Beattie, by Alex. Bower, Lond. 1804.
James Beattie, Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, in
Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism, Edinb. 1770 ; fifth edition.
Lond. 1774. Theory of Language, Lond. 1788, 8vo. Dissertations
Moral and Critical, Lond. 1783, 4to. Elements of the Science of
Morals, torn. I, Edinb. 1790 ; torn. II, 1793.
376—377.] DR. PRIESTLEY. 375
tics ; admitting the principle of a Moral Sense. He was
the author also of some elegant treatises on ^Esthetics.
Lastly, James Oswald (nourished about 1769), a Scotch
ecclesiastic, exalted the principal of Common Sense1 into the
supreme canon of all truth, and the ultimate rule in all
inquiries.
These authors have demonstrated the mischievousness of
speculation when it would reduce all our convictions to de-
monstration ; but have not avoided a contrary fault, that of
making the Reason inert and passive.
377. The celebrated natural philosopher, Joseph Triest-
ley? criticised at the same time both Hume and his antago-
nists. He may be said to have been more successful with
the latter, whose instinctive principles he justly styled quali-
iates occultce. In opposition to Hume he alleged a proof of
the existence of the Divinity, which was untenable.3 He
was a rank Determinist ; and, consistently with his princi-
ples, controverted, as Hartley had done, the doctrine of free-
agency, and endeavoured to establish a system of materiality
of the soul.4 Next came Edward Search (his real name was
1 James Oswald, Appeal to Common Sense in Behalf of Religion,
Edinb. 1766—1772, 2 vols. 8vo.
2 Born at Fieldhead, 1733 ; died 1804.
3 Jos. Priestley, An Examination of Dr. Reid's Inquiry into the
Human Mind ; Dr. Beattie's Essay on the Nature and Immutability of
Truth ; and Dr. Oswald's Appeal to the Common Sense, Lond. 1774, 8vo.
Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, containing an Examination of
the Principal Objections to the Doctrines of Natural Religion, and
especially those contained in the writings of Mr. Hume, Bath, 1780,
Part I, II. Additional Letters, 1781—87; and: A Continuation of the
Letters, Northumberland-town (U. S.) 1794, 8vo.
The Life of Jos. Priestly, with Critical Observations on his Works,
and Extracts from his Writings illustrative of his Character, Principles,
etc., by J. Carry, Lond. 1804, 8vo.
4 Jos. Priestley, Disquitions Relating to Matter and Spirit, etc.
Lond. 1777, 8vo.
Three Dissertations on the Doctrine of Materialism and Philosophical
Necessity, Lond. 1778, 8vo.
The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity illustrated, etc., Lond.
1777, 8vo.
Letters on Materialism and Hartley's Theory of the Human Mind,
by Priestley, Lond. 1776, 8vo. The last called forth answers from
Palmer and Bryant ; and more particularly the work of Richard
Price, entitled : Letters on Materialism, and Philosophical Necessity,
Lond. 1778, 8vo.
376 THIRD PEEIOD. [SECT.
Abraham Tutfcer1), who, in questions of Morals, referred
everything to personal expediency. On the other hand,
Micliard Price? in opposition to Empiricism, which would
derive all our cognitions from Sensation, maintained that
the Understanding or the faculty of thought is essentially
distinct from the sensual system, and the source of peculiar
representations not to be confounded with those which
originate in the senses. He investigated with acuteness and
ability many important questions relative to Morals, and
controverted the doctrine of a Moral Sense, as irreconcile-
able with the unalterable character of fundamental moral
conceptions, which, as well as those of Substance and Cause,
he maintained to be eternal and original principles of the in-
tellect itself, independent of the Divine Will. He has ad-
mirably illustrated the differences existing between Morality
and Sensation, Virtue and Happiness ; at the same time
that he points out the intimate connection existing between
the two last.3 On the other hand the theory of a moral
sense found a defender in Henry Home* distinguished for
his critical works on ./Esthetics; and in Adam Ferguson?
Ausziige aus Dr. Priestley's Schriftcn liber die Nothwendigkeit des
Willens, und liber die Vibrationcm der Gehirnnerven, als die inateri-
ellen Ursachen des Empfindens und Denkens, nebst Betrachtungen liber
diese Gegenstande und eincr Verglcichung der Vibration&hypothese,
mit Hrn. Dr. Gall's Schadellehre. Altona, 1806, Svo.
1 Ed. Search, Light of Nature pursued, 7 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1768—78.
New edition, with Life, by Sir John Mildmay, 7 vols. Svo. 1805. Re-
printed in 2 vols. 8vo. Bohn, 1848. Abridged by Wm. Hazlitt, Svo.
1807. Free-will, Fore-knowledge, and Fate, Lond. 1763, Svo.
2 Born at Tynton, 1723; died 1791.
3 Price. Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals,
particularly those respecting the Origin of our Ideas of Virtue, its
Nature, Relation to the Deity, Obligation, Subject-Matter, and Sanc-
tions, Lond. 1758, Svo. ; third edition, Lond. 1787, Svo.
4 Born at Edinburgh : became Lord Kaimes in 1752; died 1782.
Henry Home, Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural
Religion, Edinb. 1751, Svo. Historical Law, 1759, Svo. The Principles
of Equity, 1760, fol. Elements of Criticism, Lond. 1762, 3 vols. 8vo. ;
third edition, Edinb. 1765, 3 vols. Svo. Sketches on the History of
Man, Lond. 1771, 2 vols. 4to. The two latter works have been fre-
quently reprinted.
5 Born in the Highlands of Scotland, 1724; died 1816.
Ad. Ferguson, Institutes or Moral Philosophy, Lond. 1769, Svo.
Principles of Moral and Political Science, Edinb. 1793, 2 vols. 4to.
Essay on Civil Society, Edinb. 1766, 4to.
378.] ADASl SMITH. 377
who made virtue consist in the progressive developement of
the powers of the soul in its advance towards spiritual per-
fection. Adam Smith,1 a friend of Hume's, and principally
celebrated for his classical work on the Wealth of Nations,
the text book of Political Science, maintained that Morality
can only consist in actions which are of a sort to merit uni-
versal approbation ; and consequently made Sympathy the
principle of Morality. By means of this faculty we put our-
selves in the situation of the agent whose conduct we are
considering, and then pass an impartial sentence, uninflu-
enced by subjective considerations, on the propriety or im-
propriety of his conduct. Prom such judgments, repeatedly
formed, are deduced, according to Smith, general rules for
our own conduct. The sum of his morality is this : " So act
that other men may sympathise with you."
Thomas Payne? one of the founders of the independence
of the United States, astonished even the English by his
ultra- democratic principles and views.
In connection with the metaphysical labours of the British
writers, we ought to mention Essays en the principles of
Taste by Alison, Gerard, and Burlce ; as well as their inqui-
ries on Language, and the History of Mankind. Sir William
Jones distinguished himself greatly in this province.3
II. French Empirical School.
f History of the French E evolution ; or the Commencement, Pro-
gress, and Effects of the (so-called) New Philosophy of that country,
111 Parts, Leips. 1827-28, 8vo.
1 Born at Kirkaldy 1723 ; died 1790.
Ad. Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, sixth edition, Lond. 1790,
2 vols. 8vo., frequently reprinted in 1 vol. Inquiry into the Nature
and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Lond. 1776; second edition, 1777,
2 vols. 4to.; edited by W. Playfair, 3 vols. 8vo. 1S05; edited by D.
Buchanan, 4 vols. 8vo. Edinb. 1814 ; edited by McCulloch, 4 vols.
8vo. Edin. 1828; reprinted in 1 vol. 1838. Essays on Philosophical
Subjects, etc., to which is prefixed an account of the life and writings
of the author, by Dugald Stewart, Lond. 1795, 8vo.
2 Born in Norfolk, 1737 ; died in America, 1809.
Common Sense, Philadelphia, 1776, 8vo. Eights of Man: being an
Answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French Eevolution, parts I, II,
seventh edition, 1791-92. The Age of Eeason, being an Investigation
of True and Fabulous Theology, parts I, II, Lond. 1794.
3 Sir William Jones's works, with his Life, by Lord Teignmouth,
9 vols. 4to. Lond. 1799—1804; or 13 vols. 8vo. 1807.
378 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
378. Philosophizing in England constantly pursued the
path of experience, and endeavoured to advance the interests
of science, sometimes with acute and profound, at other
times with narrow and superficial views ; religion being
throughout the principal object to which its inquiries were
directed. The same tendency prevailed in France also,
modified however by the character of the French nation, as
well as by the influence still possessed by the clergy in
checking freedom of thought. The metaphysics of Descartes
and Malebranche had fallen into oblivion, Gassendi and
Newton having taken their place; though a still more
numerous party devoted themselves to the principles of
Locke. Montesquieu,1 who investigated the Laws of Na-
tions with the genius of a true philosopher, and the mathe-
matician and naturalist P. L. Moreau de Maupertuis,2 pur-
sued the empirical method without calling in question the
fundamental principles of Eeligion. The influence of the
philosopher of Ferney, Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire*
was more extensive and pernicious. He assigned the cast-
ing-vote in philosophy to the common popular Understand-
ing and to Wit. To him may be added Jean Jacques Rous-
seau, who combined with him in greatly diminishing the
reverence for everything positive in religion and the state,
by their attacks on ecclesiastical and political despotism.
Ck. Batteuoc? may be considered the first Frenchman who
1 Charles Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu ; born in the Chateau
de la Brede, near Bordeaux, 1689 ; died 1755.
De l'Esprit des Lois, 1748; (numerous editions). (Euvres, Lond.
1759, 3 vols. 4to; 5 vols. 8vo. (several other editions). (Euvres Pos-
thumes, 1798, 8vo.
2 Born at St. Malo, 1691 ; died at Bale, 1759.
Essai de Philosopliie Morale, Lond. 1750, 8vo. Essaide Cosmologie.
Berl. 1750, 8vo. GEuvres, Lyons, 1756, 4 vols. 8vo.
3 Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, born 1694, died 1778.
See his Life by Condorcet, and since by Ancillon, Melanges de Lit-
terature et de Philosophic
Lettres Philosophiques, par Voltaire [burnt by the executioner].
Candide, ou l'Optimisme.
(Euvres de Voltaire, 45 vols. 4to. Geneve, 1768, et suiv. Nouvelle
edition, par Beaumarchais, 70 vols. 8vo. Kehl, 1784-89. Edit, de
Beuchot, 72 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1829—1834, &c.
4 Born at Allendhuy, 1713 ; died 1780.
Les Beaux Arts reduits a un meme Principe, Paris, 1746, (several
editions). Cours de Bclles-Lettrcs, ou Principes de la Literature,
Paris, 1747 — 50, (many editions).
378.] CHAELES BONNET. 379
proposed a theory of the fine arts, likewise based on empi-
rical principles. Etienne Bonnot de Condillac,1 the model of
[French Philosophy till very recently, laboured to bring to
perfection the system of Empiricism, and to trace all the
representations of the mind of Man, since the Fall, to
Sensation, or the faculty of feeling, by means of the prin-
ciple of the transformation and modification of sensations.
The cultivation of Language, which he derived from the
involuntary tones of feeling, i. e. of pleasure and pain, he
asserted to be the medium of improvement to Science. He
affected to establish all knowledge according to mathema-
tical strictness, by reducing each particular science to its
most simple expression, or in other words, to an identical
proposition. It may be remarked that he confounds in his
theory the principles of Empirical and Speculative philo-
sophy, and approximates the Atomic Theory of Gassendi,
by enumerating among original facts that of the existence
of bodies; (see the theory of G-assendi, § o-3). Charles
Bonnet"2, also rendered considerable service to psychology.
He was an admirable observer of Nature, with a mind
habitually religious. He also derived all our representa-
tions from Sensation, by means of certain fibres and their
vibrations; distinguishing the mind from the body, but
allowing it to possess nothing cf its own but a twofold
1 Born at Grenoble, 1716; died 1780.
Cours d'Etude du Prince de Panne, par M. l'Abbe de Condillac,
Paris, 1776, 16 vols. 8vo.
Essai sur l'Origine des Connaissances Humaines, Amsterd. 1746,
2 vols. 12mo.
Traite des Sensations, Lond. 1754, 2 vols. 12mo.
Traite" des Animaux, Amsterd. 1755, 2 vols. 12mo.
(Euvres Philosophiques, Paris, 1795, 6 vols. 12mo. (several other
editions).
2 Born at Geneva, 1720; died 1793.
(Ch. de Bonnet), Essai de Psychologie, ou considerations sur les
operations de l'ame, sur l'habitude et sur l'education, Lond. 1755, 8vo.
Essai Analytique sur les Facultes de Tame, Copenh. 1759—60, third
edit. 1775.
La Palingengsie Philosophique, ou Idees sur l'gtat passe et sur
l'e*tat futur des Stres vivans, Geneve, 1769, 2 vols. 8vo.
(Euvres d'Histoire Naturelle et de Philosophic, Neufchdtel, 1779;
second edition, 1783, 8 vols 4to.
Memoires pour scrvir a l'Histoire de la Vie et des (Euvres de
M. Ch. Bonnet, par J. Trembley, Berne, 1794, 8vo.
o
80 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
capacity of Feeling and Impulsion. He denied the doctrine
of Innate Ideas ; deduced all representations from Sensation,
and was consequently led to maintain that the soul can
effect nothing but through the agency of the body ; which
is the source of all the modifications of which the other is
susceptible. In this manner he approached Materialism,
and admitted the existence of an affinity between the soul
of men and of other animals. Other writers followed up
the consequences deducible from the Empirical system with
greater consistency and boldness ; founding a decided
system of Atheism, Materialism, and Absolute Determinism
in all questions affecting the materiality and mortality
of the Soul, and Morals. Of this number was La Mettrie,1 a
man of reprobate character, who endeavoured to account
for all the operations of the mind on principles merely
mechanical. Helvetius2 in like manner derived all its
phenomena from sensational perception, and pronounced
the notion of infinitude to be simply negative. To these
must be added the authors of the famous Systeme de la
1 Jul. Offkoy de la Mettrie, born at St. Malo, 1709 ; died at
Berlin, 1751.
CEuvres Philosophiques de M. de la Mettrie, Lond. (Berl.), 1751, 2
vols. 8vo.; Amst. 1753 — 64, 2 vols. 8vo. Histoire Naturelle de lame,
La Haye, (Paris), 8vo. ; [this work, by order of the Parliament, was
burnt by the hands of the executioner]. Trait6 de la vie heureuse de
Sen£que, Potsdam, 1748. L'Ecole de la Volupte" (id. sous le titre de
PArt de Jouir), 1750. L'Homme Machine, Leyden, 1748, 12mo.
L'Homme Plante, Potsdam, 1748, 8vo.
In answer to these works were published : L'Homme plus que
Machine, par Elie Luzac, Lond. (Leid), 1748, second edition, Gotting.
1755, 12mo. De Machina et Anima Humana prorsus a se invicem
distinctis Commentatio, auct. Balth. Lud. Tralles, Bred. 1749, 8vo.
Godofrid. Ploucquet, Dissert, de Materialismo, Tubing. 1750, cum
Supplemento et Confutatione libelli : L'Homme Machine, ibid. 1751, 4to.
3 Claude Adrian Helvetius, born at Paris, 1715 ; died 1771.
De l'Esprit, Paris, 1758, 4to. ; 2 vols. 8vo. De l'Homme, de ses
Facultc's et de son Education, Lond. (Amsterd.), 1772, 2 vols. 8vo. Leg
Prog-res de la fiaison dans la Recherche du Vrai, Lond. 1775, Svo.
CEuvres completes, Amsterd. 1776, 5 vols. 12mo. ; Deux-Ponts, 1784,
7 vols. 8to.; Paris, 1794, 5 vols. 8vo. ; 1796, 10 vols. 12mo.
Eloge de M. Helvetius, (Geneve), 1774, Svo. Essai sur la Vie et les
Ouvragcs de M. Helvetius (par Duclos?), en avant de son Poeme didac-
tique, intitule : Lc Bonhcur, Lond. (Amsicrd.), 1773, 8vo. ; and in his
CEavrcs comploi.C3.
379.] THE ENCYCLOPEDISTS. 381
Nature, La Grange, or the Baron jy HoTbaoli} and 'Robinet?
"We must attribute principally to the influence of the
French Encyclopedists the popularity which was enjoyed by
a species of philosophizing which consisted in explaining
away all that is incomprehensible by unfounded materialistic
hypotheses,3 as well as by arguments from analogy pushed
to an extravagant length. To this must be added, the
pretension of making science of every kind popular and
accessible to all ; and the habit of ridiculing as pedantic
all serious and profound philosophical inquiries.
379. The men who at this period were dignified in France
with the title of philosophers, through their shallowness and
frivolity laid the foundation of that untenable enlightenment
which confounds rational man with Nature, and deifies the
material world; pronouncing the belief in a Grod to be
superfluous or problematical, and rejecting all 'positive or
revealed religion as the device of priestcraft. The universal
corruption of the aristocracy, and the puerility of a ceremo-
nial form of worship, procured for such opinions a ready
acceptance. With views like these, the Encyclopedists
1 Paul H. D. Baron von Holbach, died 1789.
Systeme de la Nature, ou des Lois du Monde Physique et du Monde
Moral, par feu M. Mirabaud, [La Grange? le Baron d'Holbach?]
Lond. 1770, 2 vols. 8vo.
In reply see : Bergier, Examen du Materialisme, ou Refutation du
Systeme de la Nature, Paris, 1771, 2 vols. 8vo. De Castillon, Obser-
vations sur le Livre intitule ; Systeme de la Nature, Berl. 1771, 8vo.
Reflexions Philosophiques sur le Syst. de la Nat., par M. Holland
(Georg. Jonath.) Paris, 1722, 2 vols. 8vo.; Nevfclwtel, 1773. [Vol-
taire], Reponse au Systeme de la Nature, Geneve, 1772; et Encyclo-
pedic, artic. "Dieu." Le Vrai Sens du Systeme de la Nature (par
Helvetius), ouvragc posthumc ; (this work is made up of extracts).
+ F. X. V. Mangold, A Calm Refutation of Materialism, in answer to
the author of the System of Nature, Augsb. 1803, 8vo.
a Jean Baptistc Robinet; born at Rennes, 1723.
Robinet, Considerations Philos. de la Gradation Naturelle des formes
de l'etre, ou les Essais de la Nature, qui apprend a faire l'Homme,
Amstd. 1767, 2 vols. 8vo. Parallele de la Condition et des Facult6s
de l'Homme avec ccllcs des autres Animaux, trad, de l'Angl. Bouillon,
1769, 12mo. See Bibliog. § 360.
3 On French Empiricism, consult W. R. Bodmer, Le Vulgaire et les
M6taphysiciens, ou Doutes et Vucs critiques sur l'Ecolc Empirique,
Paris, 1802, 8vo.
See the work of MM. Barante and Jay, On the French Literature
ofthcXVIIi Century.
382 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
emulated Voltaire and Helvetius in this work, particularly
Diderot1 and D'Alembert.'2 Others (like Rousseau), whose
views were not altogether so objectionable, did more harm
than good by a mass of well-meant but paradoxical declama-
tions. In -practical philosophy, the prevailing Empiricism
favoured the opinion, that the little Morality they chose to
require ought to be founded on empirical Psychology.
Prom Self-love they deduced a system of Self-expedieDcy, at
variance with the essential characteristics of morality. In
this manner Helvetius attempted to deduce all meritorious
actions from interested motives, and allowed them to be
meritorious only so far as they contributed to the well-being
of some particular society of men.3 Others inconsistently
attempted to ally the maxims of a better system of morality
to exclusive Self-love ; for instance, Mally* and JRousseau,
who had the talent for declaiming Avell about virtues,5 and
1 Dents Diderot, born at Langres, 1713 ; died 1784.
Encyclopedic, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts, et
des Metiers, par une Societe de Gens de Lettres; mis en ordre et
publie par M. Diderot. Paris, 1751 — 1763, 27 torn, folio pourle texte,
6 vols, de planches. Sgconde edition, 1783 — 3. 800, 63 livraisons. 4to.
Yues Philosophiques, ou Protestations et Declarations sur les Princi-
paux Objets des Connaissance de 1'Homnie; nouv. ed. Berlin, 1755,
12mo. (par Premontval.)
Diderot, Pens6es Philosophiques. La Haye, 1746, 12mo. (a work
directed against Christianity, and burned by the hands of the execu-
tioner). Lettre sur les Aveugles, a l'usage de ceux qui voient, Paris,
1749. Pensees sur Interpretation de la Nature, Paris, 1 754, et 1759,
12mo. (Euvres Philosophiques, 6 vols. Amsterd. 1772. (Euvres
completes, Lond. 1773, 5 vols.
See the Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de la Vie et des Ouvrages
de feu M. Diderot, by his daughter, Mad. de Yaudeuil, in the peri-
odical of Schelling, entitled : Zeitschrift fur Deutsche, Fasc. I, 1813.
2 Jean Le Kond d'Alembert, born at Paris, 1717 ; died 1783.
Melanges de Litterature, d'Histoire, et de Philosophic, de Mons.
d'Alembert, Paris, 1752, 5 vols. 12mo. ; 1770, 5 vols. 8vo.
Condorcet, Eloge de M. d'Alembert, 1783.
3 In his work De l'Esprit, mentioned above. Among other replies
to this work see : Chr. Wilh. Franch. Walch, De Consensu Yirtutis
Moralis et Politicae contra Helvetium, Gotting. 1759.
4 Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, born at Grenoble, 1709; died 1785.
5 Born at Geneva, 1712; died 1778.
J. J. Rousseau, Discours sur l'Origine et les Fondemens de l'lne-
galite* parmi les Hommes, Amsterd. 1775, 8vo. Lettres Ecrites de la
Montagne, Amsterd. 1764, part II, 8vo. Du Contrat Social, ou
Principes du Droit Politique, Amsterd. 1762, 12mo. Emile, ou de
380.] GEEMAN ECLECTICS. 383
who, with Rolinet,1 admitted the existence of a moral sense.
The daring and short-sighted speculations of Rousseau
respecting Nature, Education, and Polity are sufficiently-
known, as well as the pernicious results to which they con-
ducted. To this second description of French moralists
Diderot also belongs.2
It may be remarked that after the publication of Montes-
quieu's splendid work on Law, a great degree of attention
was excited in France by the subject of Legislation, which
was treated by their writers with unrivalled versatility, but
also with extravagant tendencies. Abundance of theories
on this subject, as well as on the Laws of Government and
Nations, appeared, professing to discuss those points with a
view to the principles of Philosophy.3
III. German Electics.
380. The following authors belonging to the school of
Wolf, opposed themselves in part to the French philosophy.
Herm. Sam. Beimarus,41 a Naturalist and Theologian, who
l'Education, Amsterd. 1762, 8vo. (Euvres completes, Geneve, 1782,
17 vols.
1 In the work mentioned above, § 360. See also : Yue Philo-
sophique de la Gradation Naturelle des formes d'etre, ou les Essais de
la Nature qui apprend a faire un Homme, Amsterd. 1767, 2 vols. 8vo.
2 Principes de la Philosophie Morale, ou Essai sur le Merite et la
Vertu, 1745. See § 379 (note}.
3 We may particularise Gasp, de Eeal, born at Sisteron, 1682 ; died
1752. Traite complet de la Science du Gouvernement, Paris, 1762 —
64, 8 vols. 4to. Mably, De la Legislation, ou Principes des Lois,
Amsterd. 1776, 2 vols. 8vo. Doutes proposes aux Economistes sur
l'Ordre Naturel et Essentiel des Societes, Paris, 1766, 12mo. (Euvres,
Paris, 1793, 12 vols. 8vo.; and also: l'Ecole des Physiocrates, ou
Economistes. Quesnay, born 1697; died 1774. Ordre Naturel et
Essentiel des Societes Politiques; Mirabeau the father, Condorcet,
Mirabeau the elder, and Emm. Sieyes.
Burlamaqut (Jean-Jacq., born 1694 ; died 1748), Principes du Droit
Naturel. Emmeric de Vattel, born 1714 ; died 1767- Droit des Gens
(after Wolf). Lond. 1757, 2 vols. 4to.
4 Born at Hamburgh, 1694; died a professor at the Gymnasium,
1765.
Herm. Sam. Reimarus, + Theory of Reason, or the Method of
employing "Reason aright in the investigation of Truth, Hamburgh
and Kiel, 1756, fifth edition, 1790, 8vo. t The Principal Truths of
Natural Religion, Hamburgh, 1754. The fifth edition contains also
384 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
united perspicuity to depth in his works on Logic, Natural
Theology (in which he developed and extended the physico-
theological proof), and the instinct of brutes; Gottfried
Ploucquet? an acute thinker, who simplified Logic, dis-
covered a logical calculus, and laboured to illustrate the
principal points of the doctrine of Monadologia. J. H.
Lambert? a distinguished Mathematician, Natural and
Mental philosopher, and a friend of Kant, who had attained
the conviction that Wolf's method in Mathematics required
essential alterations. He applied the principles of his
favourite science to the more exact demonstration of meta-
physical problems.
the + Dissertation of J. A. Keimarus, on the Existence of God and
the Human Soul, 1781, 8vo. ; sixth edition, 1791. + Considerations on
the Instinct of Brutes, 1762, 8vo. fifth edition, with the notes of
J. A. Reimarus, 1798.
1 Born 1716; became professor at Tubingen ; died 1790.
G. Ploucquet (see preceding sect, and § 358). Methodus tractandi
Infmita in metaphysicis, Tubing. 1748, 4to. Methodus tarn demon-
strandi directe omnes Syllogismorum Species quam vitia formae dete-
gendi ope nnius rcgulas, Tubing. 1763, 8vo. Principia de Substantiis
et Phamomcnis; accedit Methodus calculandi in Logicis ab ipso
inventa, cui prsemittitur Comment, de Arte Characteristica Universali,
Franco/, et Lips. 1753, 8vo.; second edition, 1764, 8vo. Fundamenta
Philosophise Speculative, Tubing. 1759, 8vo. ; ibid. 1782, 8vo. Insti-
tutiones Philosophise Theoreticas, ibid. 1772. Derniere edit., intit. :
Expositiones Philos. Theor., Stuttg. 1782, 8vo. Elementa Philos.
Contemplative, sive de Scientia Ratiocinandi, Notionibus disciplinarum
Fundamentalibus, etc. Stuitg. 1778, 8vo. Solutio Problematis Lug-
dunensis qua ex una hac Propositione concessa : Existit aliquid cxist-
entia entis realissimi cum suis attributis eruitur, Tubing. 1758, 4to.
Commentationes, Philos. Selectiones, etc. recogmtse,Ultraj. ad JRhenum,
1781, 4to. Varias Questiones Metaphysicae cum subjunctis responsi-
onibus, Tubing. 1782, 4to.
+ Collection of writings referring to the Logical Calculus of Pro-
fessor Ploucquet, with fresh additions, published by A. F. Bock,
Francf. and Leips. 1766. Republished since.
2 Born at Miihlhausen, in Sundgau ; died at Berlin, 1777. J. H.
Lambert, + New Organon, or Thoughts on the Right Method of
determining the Characters of Truth, etc. Leips. 1764, 2 vols. 8vo.
+ Treatises on Logic and Moral Philosophy (edited by J. Bernouilli),
vol. I, Dessau, 1782, 8vo. f Introduction to the Architectonic Science,
etc. Riga, 1771, 2 vols. 8vo. + Cosmological Letters on the Forma-
tion of the World, etc. Av.gsb. 1771, Svo. Correspondence of Kant
and Lambert, in Kant's Miscell. Works.
381.] MOSES MENDELSSOHN-. 385
381. The scepticism of Hume only began to excite a sen-
sation in Germany, when men had become in a manner
weary of long and profound investigations, of which they
had seen so many unsuccessful instances ; and had tacitly
adopted the conviction that Truth is not to be attained by
any single system, but, like a ray of light, is refracted and
dispersed through many. In the place, therefore, of pro-
found and fundamental research succeeded a species of
Eclecticism,1 which contented itself with adopting whatever
had an appearance of probability to recommend it, more
especially if it seemed likely to prove of popular utility.
J. G. Sulzer,2 a clear-sighted and talented inquirer, who
united powers of observation to those of speculation, hesi-
tated between the views of Wolf's school and those of the
British metaphysicians, and in his investigations respecting
the fine arts, which have done him honour, made it his object
to discover a moral principle to account for their influence.
Yet he conferred some service on ^Esthetics. He also di-
rected the attention of his countrymen to the speculations
of Hume. Hitherto Eclecticism had proved a species of
rampart against the overwhelming influence of particular
systems ; but at the epoch of which we are speaking it was
nothing but a consequence of the doubt and uncertainty
which embarrassed the reason of men. Empiricism had
overpowered and stifled metaphysical inquiry, aided by the
influence of Erench manners and literature, which found a
powerful patron in Erederic the Great.3 Such a state of
1 See Beausobke, Le Pyrrlionisme Raisonable, Bert. 1755, Svo.
2 Born at Winterthur, 1720; died a professor at Berlin, 1779.
J. G. Sulzer, Moral. Betrachtungen iiber die Werke der Natur,
herausg. von Sack, Berl. 1741, Svo. Voriibungen zur Enveckung der
Aufmersamkeit und des Nachdenkens, Berl. 1777, 3 Th. 8vo. Allge-
meine Theorie der schonen Kiinste, Leipz. 1771 — 74, 2 B. ; letzte
Ausg. ebend. 1792 — 94, 4 B. Yerm. Philos. Schriften, Leipz. 1773 —
85; 3te Aufl. 1800. Mit einer Biogr. Vorrede von v. Blankenburg,
2 B. 8vo. Particularly : Ueber den Ursprung der angenehmen und
unangenehmen Empfindungen, Leipz. 1773, 8vo.
Formey, Eloge de M. Sulzer, Berl. 1779, 8vo. H. C. Hikzel, An
Gleim iiber Sulzer, den Weltweisen, 2 Th., Zurich, 1780, 8vo.
Lebensbeschreibung, von ihm selbst aufgesetzt, Berl. 1809, 8vo.
3 On the philosophy of Frederic the Great consult Fulleboen's
Collect. Fasc. VII.
2 c
386 THIED PERIOD. SECT.
things gave birth to the system of J. JB. Basedow,1 who
nevertheless endeavoured to combine solidity of argument
with popular utility — and proposed felicity, the sentiment of
approbation, and analogy, as principles of Truth — at the
same time that he admitted in certain cases the obligation of
belief, as a species of probable supernatural knowledge.
Then came the system of the Jewish philosopher Moses
Mendelssohn,2 who endeavoured to unite elegance to perspi-
cuity in his speculations on the principles of Taste and
Psychology. Next, the Naturalism of G. S. Steinbart,3 and
the Essays of J. A. UberJiard,1 a dexterous inquirer, who
1 Born at Hamburgh, 1723 • died 1790.
Joh. Bernh. Basedow's Philalethie, oder neue Anssichten in die
Wahrheit und Religion der Vernunft bis in die Granzen der Offen-
barung, Altona, 1764, 2 Th. 8vo. Theoretisches System der gesunden
Vernunft, Altona, 1765, 8vo. Prakt. Philos. fur alle Stande, Dessau,
1777, 2 vols. 8vo. See Schlichtegroll's Nekrol. 1790, 2 vols.
2 Born at Dessau, 1729; died 1786.
Steinheim, Moses Mendelssohn und seine Schule, 1840.
Moses Mendelssohn, Abh. iiber die Evidenz in den Metaph. WW.
Berl. 1764, 4to.; 2te Aufl. 1786. Phsedon, oder iiber die Unster-
blichk. der Seele, Berl. 1767, 8vo. ; 6te Aufl. herausg. von Dr. Fried-
lander, Berlin, 1821, 8vo. Morgenstunden, oder Vorlesungen iiber
das Daseyn Gottes, Berl. 1785. 2te Aufl. 1786, 2 B 8vo. Briefe iiber
die Empfmdungen, Berl. 1755, 8vo. Philosophische Schriften, Berl.
1761; 3te Ausg. 1777; 2 B. 8vo. Kleine Philos. Schriften mit einer
Skizze seines Lebens von Jenisch (herausgegeben von Miichler), Berl.
1789, 8vo.
Leben und Meinungen Mendelssohns nebst dem Geiste seiner
Schriften, Hamb. 1787, 8vo.
3 Born at Zullichau, 1729; died 1809.
Gotthelf Sam. Steinbart's System der reinen Philosophic, oder
Gliickseligkeitslehre des Christenthums, Zullichau, 1778; 4te Aufl.
1794. Philos. Unterhaltung zur weitern Aufklarung der Gluckselig-
keitslehre, Heft I — III, Zullichau, 1782 — 86, 8vo. Gemeinnutzige
Anleitung zum regelmassigen Selbstdenken, 3te Aufl. 1793, 8vo.
4 Born at Halberstadt, 1738 ; died a professor at Halle, 1809.
Jo. Aug. Eberhard, Allgem. Theorie des Denkens und Empfindens,
Berl. 1776—86, 8vo. Neue Apologie des Sokrates, Berl. 1772—88.
Von dem Begriffe der Philos. und ihren Theilem, Berl. 1778, 8vo.
Kurzer Abriss der Metaphysik, Halle, 1794, 8vo. Vorbereitung zur
Natiirlichen Theologie, Halle, 1781, 8vo. Sittenlehre der Vernunft,
Berl. 1781 — 86, 8vo. Theorie der schonen KUnste und Wissen-
schaften, Halle, 1783 ; 3te Aufl. 1790, 8vo. Handbuch der ^Esthetik
fur gebildete Leser, 4 Th. Halle, 1803, sqq.; 2te Aufl. 1807, ff. 8vo.
Geist des Urchristenthums, Berl. 1807, 8vo. Versuch einer Allge-
38.1.] GEEMAN ECLECTICS. 387
had the merit of making an able attempt to revive the
principles of Leibnitz, and distinguished himself in the
application of philosophy. E. Platner1 also inclined to the
ideas of Leibnitz, but with a more sceptical turn of mind
and greater acuteness ; and added some valuable inquiries
into Anthropology and Physiology. The tendency to a
system of mere Eudaemonism which had been remarked in
Wolf's theory, betrayed itself in the modified form it as-
sumed under the hands of Platner: according to whom
happiness, or well-being, is the end of each and all living
beings, and good is that which agrees with the happiness
of individuals, and of all ; Virtue being free-will directed
towards the attainment of what is truly good.
Christian Garve2 made morality consist in the fulfilment
of those laws which are obligatory on mankind at large, in
all their various relations : such are the several principles of
Virtue, Propriety, Benevolence, and Order. The revision
of Philosophy, by Chpli. Meiners? belongs to this period;
and the controversy between J. G. Lossiusf and the more
meinen Deutschen Synonymik, 6 Th. Halle, 1795; 2te Aufl. 1820.
Fortgesetzt von Maass (XI— XII B). Vermischte Schriften, Halle,
1784, 8vo. Neueste vermischte Schriften, Halle, 1788, 8vo. Philo-
sophisches Magazin, Halle, 1788 — 92 ; 4 Bde. 8vo. Philosophisches
Archiv, 2 Bde. 1792 — 95, 8vo. See Nicolai, Gedachtnisschrift auf
J. A. Eberhard, Berl. 1810, 8vo.
1 Born at Leipsic, 1744; died there, professor of Medicine and
Philosophy, 1818.
E. Platner, Philosoph. Aphorismen, Leipzig, 1776—82, 2 Th. 8vo.;
neue umgearbeitete Aufl. 1793 — 1800. Anthropologic fur Aerzle und
Weltweise, Leipz. 1772, 8vo. Neue Anthropologic, 1 B. Leipz. 1790,
8vo. Gesprache iiber den Atheismus, Leipz. 1781, 8vo. Lehrbuch
der Logik und Metaphysik, Leipz. 1795, 8vo. For his life and cha-
rater see the Memoir published by his son in the Literary Journal of
Jena, No. 38, 1819. 2 Born at Breslau, 1742; died, 1798.
Chr. Garve, Abh. iiber die Verbindung der Moral und der Politik,
Brest. 1768. Betrachtungen iiber de allgem. Grundsatze der Sitten-
lehre, Brest. 1798, 8vo. Versuche iiber verschiedne Gegenstande der
Moral, etc., 2te Aufl. 1821, 8vo. Ueber das Daseyn Gottes, Brest. 1802.
3 Born 1747; died 1810.
Chph. Meiners, Revision der Philosophic, 1 Th. Gott. u. Gotha, 1772,
8vo. Abriss der Psychologic, 1773. Grundriss der Seelenlehre, Leipz.
1786. Untersuchungen iiber die Denk- und Willenskrafte, Gotting.
1806, 2 Th. 8vo. Verm. Philos. Schriften, Leipz. 1775—76, 3 Th. 8vo.,
with several other works on Psychology and Ethics.
4 Joh. Christ. Lossius, Physische Ursachen des Wahren, Gotha,
2c?
388 THIKD PERIOD. [SECT.
profoundly thinking J. N. Tetens} on the question whether
Truth be or be not objective. The former derived the
highest law of Thought from certain vibrations of the ner-
vous system. To these we must add the popular Manuals
of J". H. Feder,2 and J. A. H. Ulrich (§ 356, note),
Nevertheless, we may observe that the German nation
always displayed its characteristic depth of research, and a
regard for the sacred interests of mankind. Of this the
pious C. F. Gellert* is a sufficient proof; whose writings
and lectures equally contributed to preserve a sense of
religion and moral duty among his contemporaries.
382. In the place of Metaphysics, in Germany as in
Great Britain, a species of empirical Psychology had ac-
quired astonishing credit and influence. Tetens (mentioned
in preceding section), particularly distinguished himself, by
prosecuting the inquiries of Locke respecting the origin of
knowledge, with great acuteness of intellect, and without
any taint of materialism. He prosecuted investigations into
the fundamental faculties ol the soul; made it his object to
1775, 8vo. Unterricht der gesunden Vernunft, GotJia, 1777, 2 Th.
8vo. Neues philos. allgem. Reallexicon, Erf. 1803 — 7, 4 B. 8vo.
i Born at Tettenbiill, 1736 ; died 1805.
Joh. ISTic. Tetens, Philosophische Versuche iiber die menschliche
Natur und ihre Entwickelung, Leips. 1776 — 77, 2 B. 8vo. Gedanken
iiber einige Ursachen, warum in der Metaphysik nur wenige ausge-
machte Wahrheiten sind, Butzow u. Wismar, 1760, 8vo. IJeber die
allgem. speculative Philosophic, Butzow, 1775, 8vo. (anonym.)
2 Born, 1740 ; died a Privy-Councillor of Justice at Hanover, 1821.
Joh. Ge. Heine. Fedee's Institutiones Log. et Metaph. Fcf. 1777.
Grundriss der philos. WW. Coburg, 1767, und G. A. Tittel's Erlau-
terungen dazu, 1785, 8vo. Grundsatze der Logik und Metaphysik,
Gotting. 1794, 8vo. Untersuchungen uber den menschlichen Willen,
dessen ISTaturtriebe, Veranderungen, etc., Gotting. und Lemgo, 1799 —
93, 4 Th. 8vo. ; 2te Aufl. 1783, sqq. with several other works. Ueber
das moral. Gefuhl, Copenh. 1792, 8vo. J. G. H. Fedee's Leben, Natiu*
und Grundsatze (Autobiographic, von seinem Sohn herausgegeben).
Leipzig, 1825, 8vo.
3 Born at Haynichen, 1715; died professor of moral philosophy at
Leipsic, 1769.
Che. Fechgott Gelleet, Discours sur la Nature, et l'etendue et
Tutilit6 de la Morale, Berl. 1764, 8vo. Moral. Vorlesungen, herausg,
von A. Schlegel und Heyee, 2 B., Leipz. 1770, 8vo. Che. Gaeve,
Ammerkungen iiber Gellcrts Moral, seine Schriften iiberh. und seincn
Charaktcr, Leipz. 1770, 8vo. Gellerts siimmtl. Schriften, Leipz. 1769
—70, 7 Th. 8vo.
382.] GEEMAK ECLECTICS. 389
substantiate the proofs of an objective Truth, and to refute
the scepticism of Hume ; and thus eventually fell into the
same path which was pursued by Kant. He attracted, how-
ever, little attention in his day. "We may here place the
anthropological researches of C. F. Irwing,1 J. H. Campe?
Dietr. Tiedemann,3 Plainer, Garve (see preceding section),
C. Ph. Moritz? J. J. jEngel? Fr. Joach. EscJienlwg* of the
able critic J. G. F. Lessmg? and the theologian J. G. Von
Herder,8 a man of comprehensive mind, besides many other
writers on ^Esthetics, some of whom followed the principles
promulgated in Great Britain (by Hutcheson, Gerard,
Hume, Home, Burke, etc.) ; while others adopted the French
» Born at Berlin, 1728; died 1801.
Cakl Franz v. Irwing, Erfahrungen und Untersuchungen liber den
Mensohen, Bert. 1778, 4 Th. Svo.
2 Born atTeersen in Brunswick, 1746; died, 1818.
Empfindungs- und Erkenntnisskraffc der menschl. Seele, 1770, 8vo.
Ueber Empfindung und Empfmdelei, Hamb. 1779. Sammlung einiger
Erziehungsschriften, Hamb. 1777, 2 Th. Svo. Tkeophron,i/awi&. 1783,
Braunsehiv, 1790, u. ofter.
3 Born 1749; died a professor at Marburg, 1806.
Untersuchungen uber die Menschen, Leips. 1777— 78, 3 Th. Svo.
Handbuch der Psychologie, herausgegeben von Wachler, Leips. 1804,
Svo.
4 Born at Hameln, 1757 ; died, 1793. Aussichten zu einer Experi-
mentalseelenlehre, 1782, 8vo. Magaz. zur Erfahrungsseelenlehre, 10 Th.
1793—95; und Selbstcharakteristik in Anton Keiser, 1785 — 90. Abh.
liber die bildende Nachahmung des Schb'nen, Braunschw. 1788, 8vo.
Onmdlinien zu einer vollstand. Theorie der schonen Kunste (besides
several other works).
5 Born at Parchim, 1741 ; died, 1802. Besides several treatises on
iEsthetics; Der Philosoph fur die Welt, Leipz. 1775—77, 2 Th. 8vo.;
neue Ausg. 1801, sqq. ; and in his Avorks, Berl. 1801, sqq. 6 B.
6 Born at Hamburg, 1743 ; died, 1820. Entwurf einer Theorie und
Litteratur des schonen Wissenschaften, Berl. 1713, Svo. 4te Aufl.
1817, 8vo.
7 Born at Kamenz, 1729 ; died, 1781. Various Essays on ^Esthetics
and Criticism, and : Die Erziehung d. Menschengeschlechts. Sammtl.
Schriften, Berl. 1771—91. 30 B. 8vo.
8 Born at Morungen, 1744 ; died at Weimar, 1803. The author of
various works on Phil., Hist., and the Fine Arts, particularly : Ideen
zur Philos. der Gesch. der Menschheit (translated into English, under
the title of Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man, by T.
Churchill, 4to. Lond. 1800, reprinted 2 vols. Svo. 1803) ; Preisschrift
liber den Ursprung der Sprache scit, 1772— S9. Adrastea ; Kalligone ;
Terpsichore, etc.
390 THiED PEEIOD. [SECT.
theories, particularly that of Batteux, (see section 378);
and others again attempted paths of their own. The in-
fluence of Philosophy became more perceptible ; not only as
affecting the sciences immediately connected with it, such
as the Mathematics, Physics, Natural History, and Medi-
cine ; but as operating on certain subordinate branches of
science, to that time neglected ; such as Education (treated
after E-ousseau by Basedow, Campe, Meswitz) ; the theory of
Language (by Herder after Harris1 and Monboddo); and
the History of Mankind (zealously investigated by Meiners,
Isaac Iselin? and Herder. The last attacked the jejune
system of the pretended discovery prevalent in his time,
seconded by his ingenious contemporary J. G. Hamann,3 as
well as by Jacobi (of whom presently), and by Matthias
Claudius (the messenger of Wandsbeck). Among these,
C. Th. Ant. Maria Von Dalberg also deserves a place.4
jBsycho-I'hysiology of Mesmer.
383. We must now notice a man and a movement that
have already exercised an important influence on the united
sciences of psycho-physiology.
Frederic Anthony Mesmer was born at "Weiler, near Stein
on the Rhine, in the year 1734. He was educated for the
medical profession, which he prosecuted at Vienna ; where,
in making some experiments connected with natural mag-
netism, he discovered, or rather re-discovered, the existence
1 Born at Salisbury, 1702 ; died, 1750.
2 Born at Bale, 1728; died, 1782. Versuch uber die Geschichte
der Menschheit, 1764, 8vo.
3 Born at Kbnigsberg ; died at Munster, 1788.
Hamann's Schriften, herausg. von Fk. Roth, 1 — 8 B., Berl. 1821,
8vo. (reviewed by Hegel in the Jahrbiicher der wiss. Kritik, 1829).
For his correspondence with Jacobi, see the works of the latter. See
also the Sibylline Leaves of the Magician of the North, published by
I). Fr. Cramer, Leipz. 1819, 8vo.
4 Elector, Arch-Chancellor, and then Grand-Duke of Frankfort, and
subsequently Archbishop of Ratisbon; born 1744 •, died 1817.
Betrachtungen uber des Universum, Erf. 1776, 7te Aufl. 1821.
Vom Verhaltniss zwischen Moral and Staatkunst, Erf. 1786, 4to.
Gedanken von der Bestimmung des moral. Werths, Erf. 1787, 4to.
Grunds'atze der iEsthetik, ebend. 1721, 4to. Vom Bewussteyn als
allgem. Grunde der Weltweisheit, ebend. 1793, 8vo. u. a.
383.] ANTHONY MESMEB. 391
of a new force, which is at present a problem among the
learned. Some, like Mesmer, have regarded it as a univer-
sally diffused power, similar to Attraction and Electricity,
permeating and acting on all organized and unorganized
bodies. Others have viewed it simply as a nervous fluid,
which is the agent in producing the phenomena of natural
and artificial somnambulism. Lastly, there exists a party
who attribute all the phenomena in question to the power of
the mind acting directly on the organization. This view
seems somewhat countenanced by the recent discovery of
new branches of the science, which have been styled JNeuro-
Hypnology and Electro-Biology.
On the subjects of Neuro-Hypnology, see Braid's Book, recently
published, and Dr. Darling's Electro-Biology, 8vo. Lond. 1852.
English Works on Mesmerism.
The Rev. C. H. Townshend's Facts in Mesmerism, 8vo. London, 1844.
Dr. Gregory's Letters to a Candid Enquirer on Animal Magnetism,
12mo. 1851.
The Rev. George Sandbi's Mesmerism and its Opponents, 2nd edit.
12mo., Lond. 1848.
The Zoist, a Journal of Cerebral Physiology and Mesmerism, pub-
lished quarterly.
Haddock's Somnolism and Psycheism, 1849.
I. C. Colquhoun's History of Magic, Witchcraft, and Animal Mag-
netism, 2 vols. London, 1852.
Dr. Ashburner, Facts in Clairvoyance, 8vo. London, 1848.
Early Magnetism in its Higher Relations to Humanity ; as veiled in
the Poets and Prophets. By Qvog MaOog, 8vo. Lond. 1846.
Reichenbach (Baron) on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crys-
tallization, and the Chemical Affinities in their Relations to Vital
Powers ; with Notes, &c. by Jo. A.shburner, M.D., 8vo.
Dr. Esdaile, Mesmerism in India, and its application to Surgery,
12mo. 1849.
Isis Revelata, by I. C. Colquhoun; 2 vols., Lond. 1836.
Dr. Mayo's Letters on the Truths contained in popular Superstitions.
French Works on Mesmerism.
Salverte, Des Sciences Occultes ; ou Essai sur la Magie, les Pro-
diges, et les Miracles, 8vo., second edition, Paris, 1843.
Brierre de Boismont, Des Hallucinations, ou Histoire Raisonnee
des Apparitions, des Visions, des Songes, de l'Extase, du Magnetisme,
et du Somnambulisme, 8vo. Paris, 1845.
Chardel, Essai de Psychologie-Physiologique, ou explication des Rela-
tions de l'Ame avec le Corps; seconde edition, 8vo. Paris, 1838.
Chardel, Esquisse de la Nature Humainc cx2Jliqu6e par le Mag-
netisme Animal, Svo. Paris, 1826.
392 THIKD PEEIOD. [SECT.
D'Henin de Cuvilliers, Exposition critique du systeme et de la
doctrine mystique des Magnetistes, 8vo. Paris, 1822.
German Works on Mesmerism.
Archiv fiir den thierischen Magnetismus von Professor Keiser,
8 vols. Jena.
Dr. Passavant, Untersuchuiigen iiber den Lebenmagnetismus und
das Hellsehen, Frank/. 1821.
Dr. Jos. Ennemoser, Der Magnetismus im Verhaltnisse mil der
Natur und der Religion, 1 vol. 8vo. 184 . History of Magic (will
shortly appear in Bohn's Scientific Library).
" The Hermes."
Dr. Ennemoser's Geschichte der Magie, 1844, 8vo. (a translation of
which will appear in Bohn's Scientific Library).
Le Sphinx : Nouvelles Archives du Magnetisme Animal, et princi-
palement de la vie nocturne, par Kieser, 2 parts, 1825-26.
Memoire sur la DScouverte du Magnetisme Animal, par M. Mesmee,
Paris, 1779.
Mesmer, System der Wechselwirkungen, Theorie, und Anwenclung
des thierischen Magnetismus, als die allgemeine Heilkunde zur
Erhaltung des Menschen; herausgegeben von Woleahrt, 2 vols. 8vo.
Berlin, 1814.
The following is a list of some of the most important recent works
that have appeared in Germany in connection Avith the Philosophy of
Animal Magnetism, and the revolution that it is effecting in Psy-
ch olog}^.
Jos. Ennemoser, Die Geist des Menschen in der Natur.
Jos. Ennemoser, Histor.-psycholog. Untersuchung iiber das Wesen
der menschlichen Seele, iiberhaupt und iiber die Beseelung des Kindes
inbesond, Bonn.
E. Simon's Alt und neuere Geschichte des Glaubens an dem Herein-
ragen einer Geisterwelt in der unsrigen ; in Beziehung auf ein Fort-
dauer der Seele nach dem Tode, an Engel, Mittelgeister, Gespenster,
Yorboten, und Teufel; besonders aus den Meinungen nicht Christ-
lichen Volker gezogen, Heilbronn.
Er. von Baader, On the Incompetence of our present Philosophy
for the elucidation of Apparitions in the Night Side of Nature :
extracts from a letter to Just. Kerner, Stuttg.
Cp. Ad. Eschenmayer's Mysteries of the Inner Life elucidated by
the History of the Seeress. of Prevorst, especially in connection with
recent criticisms, Tubingen.
Jung Stilling's Pneumatologie.
Magikon, Archiv. flir Beobachtungen aus dem Gebiete der Geister-
kunde und des magnetischen und magischen Lebens, 3 Hefte, Stuttg.
In France, Baron Massias published some interesting observations
-on Somnambulism in his Traite de Philosophic psycho-physiologique.
(These observations have been translated by the editor of this work).
383.] ADHEKENTS OE MESMER. 393
Various Foreign Works on Animal Magnetism.
Bibliotheque du Magnetisme Animal.
Histoire du Somnambulisme dans tous les siecles et chez tous les
peuples, par A. Gauthier, 2 vols. 8vo. Par. 1842.
Dr. Bertrand, Traite du Somnambulisme.
Count Deleuze, Histoire Critique du Magnetisme Animal, 8vo.
Paris, 1819 (besides his other works).
Rioard, Traite" theorique et pratique du Magnetisme Animal, 8vo.
Paris, 1841.
Archives du Magnetisme Animal, publies par M. le Baron d'Henin
de Cuvilliers, 8 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1820-23.
The Processes and Principles of Magnetism, 2 vols. 8vo. 1819. By
M. de Lausanne.
Ettmuller, Weichart, TTnzer, Van Swieten, De Haen, Sauvages
de la Croix, T. Frank, Darwin, Petetin, Puysegur, Georget,
Gmelin, Heinecken, Renard, Redem, Nasse, Nees, Von Esenbeck,
and Dr. Backer (of Oroningen), have published valuable works on
Mesmerism.
Charpignon, Physiologie, Mgdecine, et Mgtaphysique du Mag-
netisme, 8vo. 1848.
Dupotet, Cours du Magnetisme Animal, seconde edition, 8vo.
Paris, 1840.
Kluge, Versuch einer Darstellung des animalisch. Magnetismus.
Lillbopp, Die Wunder des Christenthums und deren Verhaltniss
zum thierischen Magnetismus, mit Berucksichtigung der neuesten
Wunderheilungen nach Rbmisch-Katholischen Principien, Mainz, 1822.
Yerati, Sulla Storia Teoria e Practica del Magnetismo Animale,
e sopra varj altri Temi, relativi al medesimo ; Trattato critico, 4 vols.
8vo. Firenze, 1846.
Dr. Hufeland, On Sympathy.
Dr. Brandis, Ueber psychische Heilmittal und Magnetismus. Copeii'
liagen, 1818.
Wienholt published, in 1787, a small work: Beytrag zu den
Enfahrungen iiber den thierischen Magnetismus.
Wienholt, Heilkraft des thierischen Magnetismus, nach eigenen
Beobachtungen, 3 vols. 8vo. 1802-5.
M. Georget, Physiologie du Systeme Nerveux.
Dr. Teste, A Practical Manual of Animal Magnetism. Translated
from the second edition by D. Spillan, 1 vol. 12mo. 1843, Lond.
Dr. Teste, Le Magnetisme Animal explique, on Lecons Analytiques
Bur la Nature Essentielle du Magnetisme, sur son Effct, son Histoire,
ses Applications, les divers M6thodes de Pratique, &c, 8vo. Paris,
1845.
For Mesmerism in India and China, see Athanasius Kircher:
Magnes Universalis and Mundus Magneticus. For Mesmerism in
Egypt, see Prosper Alpinus, De Medicina Egyptorum, lib. 4, c. 15.
For the effects of Animal Magnetism on Animals, see the tract of
Dr. Wilson, of Middlesex Hospital, 1845.
394 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
384. Mesmer's theory may be briefly described as follows :
He believed in the universal diffusion of a fluid forming a
medium of mutual influence between the heavenly bodies,
the earth, and animated bodies, and represented it as ex-
tremely subtile and elastic, and susceptible of flux and reflux.
He maintained that the human body has properties and
poles analogous to the magnet. The virtues of animal mag-
netism may be propagated and transported to a distance
without any visible medium; it can heal nervous diseases
immediately and others mediately. The fluid is universal,
but all animated bodies are not equally susceptible of it ; and
in this fluid nature presents us with a universal means of
healing mankind. Professor Bschenmayer admits the exist-
ence of an organic ether, spread everywhere, and much
more subtile than light. With this view he connects his
mystical and spiritual Metaphysics. Dr. Bassavant shews
the intimate and important relation between the science
and the sublimest sentiments of religion. Kieser has started
some ingenious and original views in connection with the
elementary principles and forces of nature, in elucidating
the phenomena of Animal Magnetism. Dr. Bertrand at-
tributes the latter to psychical causes, and Baron Massias
to an electro-nervous fluid.
Dr. J. Ennemoser has endeavoured to trace the connection
and distinction of the highest degrees of Mesmerism and
Miracles, and the difference between Ecstacy and Inspira-
tion (§§ 265 — 6 of his " Magnetismus " ) ; and Baron BeicTi-
enbach has also opened a new field of inquiry by the dis-
covery of the Odylic Force.
Mesmer, meeting with opposition at Vienna, removed to
Paris, where his system was readily received and extensively
adopted. After his retirement to Switzerland (at Merse-
burg), where he died in 1815, at the mature age of eighty-
one, the science was promoted and vigorously prosecuted
by many enlightened champions in Prance and Germany,
till the crash of the Revolution and the iron arm of Napoleon
arrested all extensive propagation of scientific truths, save
those connected with strategy.
"Whatever may be our opinion of Mesmer's Theory, the
importance of his discovery in a practical point of view is
now placed beyond cavil. The facts and phenomena of
384] ADHERENTS OE MESMEE. 395
Mesmerism, like all other valuable new discoveries, after
meeting with determined hostility from conservative minds
in general and the orthodox part of the faculty in particular,
have now been established on a foundation that cannot be
shaken, and throw a new and important light on psychology
and physiology.
The mantle of Mesmer descended on the shoulders of the
Marquis of Buyseyur, a French nobleman of the old regime,
who was a principal means in propagating aud advancing
the interests of the science. He was supported and suc-
ceeded by Count Beleuze, a man of philosophical mind and
benevolent heart, and by Barons Dupotet and Massias, a
psychologist of some merit ; as also by Brs. Bertrand,
Georaet, and Bostan. In Germany it has found numerous
and eminent adherents, especially Br. Bnnewioser and Bro-
fessors Bschenmayer and Kieser ; and in England it has
found able champions in Br. Elliotson, Mr, Toivnsend, Br.
Gregory, and Mr. Colquhoun.
The science is at present too much in embryo for us to
compass its scope, breadth, or depth ; but many of its dis-
coveries appear destined to throw much light on Psychology,
Physiology, and ultimately on Ontology, and Theology.
The phenomena of ecstacy, clairvoyance, prevision, thought-
reading, mental travelling, &c, which it has elicited, will
probably give us a much greater insight into the subjects of
Life, Death, Sleep, Spirit, and Matter.
Mesmeric science, like most others, has encountered
violent opposition from sceptics and bigots, bat is now
satisfactorily identified with ancient Magic. Modern dis-
covery has traced it in all climates and ages ; and to it must
probably be referred the Temple-sleep of the Egyptians, the
Oracles and Divination of the Greeks, the Eoman Sybils,
the Brahminical Jogis, the Shamanism of the Mongolian
races, and the Sorcery of the Laplanders, &c. It should
also in justice be observed, that Mesmer was undoubtedly
anticipated in his discovery of Animal Magnetism, as a
science, by numerous eminent men, some of whom have
been already enumerated. Among the ancient writers who
have treated of the subject we must particularly notice
Hippocrates,1 Plutarch,2 Plotinus, Porphyry, and lamblichus.
1 Hippocrates, De Insomniis. a Plutarch, De Iside et Osiridc.
396 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
Since the revival of letters it has been investigated and
explained by Pomponatius,1 Ficinus, Paracelsus,2 Baptist
van Helmont,3 Maxwell,4 and others.
Besides these authors, Gassner? a German Roman Ca-
tholic priest, created a great sensation towards the begin-
ning of the last century, by his very numerous and almost
miraculous cures.6
It seems, however, to be established that Mesmer did not
borrow his discovery from his predecessors; and that he
was the first who gave it an extensive publicity.
Our space will not suffer us to enter more fully into this
interesting field of inquiry ; but it may be advisable, before
taking leave of the subject, to add, that it comes to us
recommended by the adhesion of some of the first scientific
men of the day. Among these we may enumerate, M.
Jigassiz, JBaron Humboldt, Baron Peiclienbach, Sir David
JBrewster, Professor Olbers the astronomer, Cloqiiet the
French anatomist, Dr. Mayo, Dr. JEUiotson, Dr. Gregory,
Dugald Stewart1 of Edinburgh, &c.
Retrospective.
385. A review of the progress of philosophy during the
period we have been considering will convince us that it had
gained more in the apparent extent than the real value of its
dominion. It is true that the different branches of philo-
sophical science had acquired a rich mine of fresh materials,
and two new studies, those of the theory of Taste and
1 Pomponatius, De Incantationibus.
2 Paracelsus says, " I maintain, from what I have experienced, that
such a deep secret lies hid in Magnetism as renders it impossible to
make any great progress in the knowledge and cure of diseases without
an acquaintance with its principles." Opera omnia, Gen. 1658, vol. I,
p. 634.
3 For Van Helmont's views on the subject, see Colquhoun's Isis
Eevelata ; two Dissertations by Deleuze in the Bibliotheque du Mag-
netisme Animal, torn. I, p. 45, and torn. II, p. 198, Paris, 1817.
Besides, Van Helmont's own works (see § 329).
4 Dk. William Maxwell, De Medicina Magnetica, Franc. 1679.
5 Born at Pludentz, in Swabia, in 1727.
6 See an interesting account of Gassner by Professor Eschenmayek,
in the German Archives of Animal Magnetism, vol. 8.
7 Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. Ill,
pp. 221-222.
385—386.] BETBOSPECTIYE. 397
the Science of Animal Magnetism, had been laid open;
the application of Philosophy to particular subjects, (for
instance those of education and the political sciences), had
been enlarged, and the influence of Philosophy had come to
be recognized throughout the whole circle of human know-
ledge. On the other hand, little progress had been made in
the improvement of a scientific Method. The questions
respecting the true character of Philosophy, its Eorm, and
its End, were scarcely stirred at all : the conflicting opinions
with regard to the origin of knowledge had not been ex-
hausted ; and notwithstanding the recourse which had been
had to the different methods of Observation, Reflection, and
Demonstration, the fundamental conditions of their applica-
tion and their limits had scarcely been discussed. Every-
where prevailed Incertitude, Doubt, and Dissension, re-
specting the most important questions ; with a barren and
superficial Dogmatism. The combatants on every side had
laid aside their arms rather from indifference and disgust for
intellectual speculation, than because any one predominant
and satisfactory solution of the points at issue had estab-
lished peace. All the philosophical sciences stood in need
of more accurate limitations and more completely scientific
forms, in consequence of the want of Principles ; which the
reformation Psychology had pretended to effect was inade-
quate to supply.1
386. In Practical philosophy also might be observed a
conflict between the opposite tendencies of Empiricism and
[Rationalism; in which the former had obviously obtained
the advantage. The claims of the Intuitive Reason had not
indeed been altogether rejected, but had seldom been fairly
and freely discussed; the Intuition being perpetually con-
founded with Reflection, and treated as the handmaid of sen-
sation ; and not as an independent and practical faculty or
power. Some inquirers (e. g. Geulinx and Rich. Price) had
detected the two grand defects of most systems of Morality
then received : 1st. That they either set out with self-love
as their principle, or terminated in it as their end ; pro-
ducing nothing but a series of maxims more or less subser-
vient to the mere attainment of Happiness by the exercise
' MeinerS; Revision de Philosophic. See p. 387, note 3.
398 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
of Prudence. 2ndly, That they did not recognise the Reason
as the first legislating principle of free-agency.
No lasting reform was however brought about by these
observations.
The Ethics of the day accordingly amounted to little more
than a selection of what appeared to be the best and most
rational views, an an Eclectic plan, and with views alto-
gether subjective and personal; consisting in deductions
from the principles of Self-love and Sympathy. Eree-will —
the first requisite of a sound system of Ethics — occasioned
considerable perplexities to the supporters of such theories;
since either they contemplated a free-will purely psycho-
logical, or laboured to solve the problem on metaphysical
grounds, and thereby inclined to Determinism; or main-
tained a blind and unprincipled free-agency, against which
theoretical reason revolted. In proportion as the disputants
became more and more sensible of the difficulties belonging
to this question, they were tempted to desert the prosecu-
tion of such inquiries altogether, and to adopt in their stead
the easier task of rendering Philosophy popular — and super-
ficial.
To this subject belong :
De Premontval, PensSes sur la Liberie, Berl. 1754, 8vo. Le Dio-
gene de D'Alembert, ou Diog&ne decent. Pensees libres sur l'Homme
et sur les Principaux Objets des Connaissances de l'Homme. ISTouv.
6d. Berl. 1755, 12mo. Vues Philosophiques. Berl. 1757; 2 torn 8vo.
Du Hazard sous l'Empire de la Providence, Berl. 1755, 8vo.
Versuche einer Anleitung zu einer Sittenlehre fiir alle Menschen
(von Schulz), Berl. 1783—87, 4 Th. 8vo.
Jo. Aug. Heinr. Ulrich, Eleutheriologie, oder liber Freiheit und
Nothwendigkeit, Jen. 1788, 8vo.
387.] GEKMAN TRANSCENDENTAL SCHOOL. 399
SECOND PERIOD.
EEOM KANT TO OUR OWN TIMES.
IMPROVEMENT EEEECTEL IN PHILOSOPHY BY MEANS
OF THE CRITICAL METHOD.
I. GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.
387. The history of German Philosophy from Kant to the
present time has been admirably and copiously illustrated
in various German and English works. The student may
now obtain a clear and concise picture of this remarkable
phase in the development of the human mind, from the pen
of some of the most eminent thinkers and writers of the
day. The historical and eclectic tendency of modern philo-
sophy has naturally contributed to give greater importance
to works treating of the history of philosophy, and the
depth and acuteness of German metaphysics since the time
of Kant, have naturally led men to explore and illustrate its
variations with precision and minuteness.
The student is here presented with the most important
works that have appeared on this portion of the history of
philosophy.
Ebdmann, Die Entwickelung der deutschen Speculation seit Kant,
1 Th. 1848.
Michelet, Geschichte der letzten Systeme der Philosophic in Deutsch-
land, von Kant bis Hegel. 1 und 2 Bd. 1837, f. g.
Biedermann, Die deutsche Philosophic von Kant bis auf unsere
Zeit, 2 Bde, 1842. f. g.
Ulrict, Geschichte und Kritik der Principien derneuern Philosophic,
1845.
H. M. ChaliBjEus, Historische Entwickelung der spekulativen Philo-
400 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT,
sophie von Kant bis Hegel, 4th ed. enlarged, Dresden und Leipzig,
1848.
An Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of
Europe in the nineteenth century, by J. D. Moeell, A.M., 2nd edit.
1848.
A History of the Philosophy of Mind, by Eobeet Blakey, c. 2, 184S.
K. G. Hansius, Materialien zur Geschichte der kritischen Philoso-
phie ; nebst eine historische Einleitung zur Geschichte der Kantischen
Philosophic, Leipz. 1793.
E. Sigm. Mirbt, Kant und seine Nachfolger; oder Geschichte der
neuern Deutschen Philos. Jena, 1841.
K. Rosenkranz, Geschichte der Kant'schen Philosophic, Leipzig,
1840.
Amand Saintes, Histoire de la vie et de la philosophic de Kant,
Paris et Hamburg, 1844.
J. G. Mussmann, Im. Kant : eine Gedachtnissrede, Halle, 1822.
F. Ed. Bencke, Kant und die philosophische Aufgabe unsercr Zeit ;
eine Jubeldenkschrift an die Kritik der reinen Venunft, Berl. 1832.
A. Critical Idealism of Kant.
Memoirs, etc. of Kant :
Ludw. Eenst. Boeowskt, Darstellung des Lebens und Charakters
Kant's, Konigsb. 1805, 8vo. Reinhold Bebnaed Jachmann, Im. Kant,
geschildert in Briefen an einen Freund, Konigsb. 1805, 8vo. C. A.
Oh. Wasianski, Im. Kant, in seinen letzten Lebensjahren, Konigsb.
1804, 8vo. Biographie Im. Kant's, Leipz. 1804, 4 Th. 8vo. J. Oh.
A. Geohmann, Dem Andenken Kant's, Berl. 1804, 8vo. Fe. Boutee-
wek, Imm. Kant : ein Denkmal, Hamb. 1804, 8vo. F. Th. Rink,
Ansichten aus Kant's Leben, Konigsb. 1805, 8vo, Kant's Gedacht-
nissfeier, Konigsb. 1811, 8vo. Biographie Kant's, von Schubeet, 1842.
388. A reformation in Philosophy had now become
necessary. It was effected by a philosopher of the first
order, who had qualified himself to correct the principal
defects of the former systems by a long and ardent, but
secret study of all the branches of the subject. His appear-
ance at that time was the more opportune, because already
several men of talent (Lessing, Winkelmann, Hamann,
Herder, GotJie, and others) had excited by their various
compositions a great degree of intellectual activity, and
created a capacity for the reception of new ideas on Science
and the Arts. Emmanuel Kant was born at Konigsberg,
the 22nd of April, 1724 ; became a professor in the same
city, and died February 12th, 1804. He may be styled a
second Socrates, having created a new philosophy, which, by
389.] EMANUEL KANT. 401
investigating the origin and limits of human knowledge,*
revived the spirit of research, extended it, taught it its
present position, and directed it to the true path of Science,
through the cultivation of Self-knowledge. Eor the accom-
plishment of this task he was qualified by uncommon talents,
studiously cultivated, and enriched by extensive reading.
His piety and virtue set bounds to an exclusive spirit of
speculation, and imparted to his works the character of their
author. A profound love of truth and a pure moral senti-
ment became the principles of his philosophy, to which he
added the qualities of originality, solidity, and sagacity, in
an eminent degree. The revolution which he was thus
enabled to effect was astonishing. It is true that it was
not brought about without many impediments, but its con-
sequences have been immense, and the whole course of
philosophy has been modified by its influence.
For the works of Kant see below, § 393.
389. Being awakened by the Scepticism of Hume (§ 375),
lie was led to remark the very striking difference in the
result of thinking in Philosophy and in Mathematics ; and
to speculate upon the causes of this difference. Meta-
physics justly claimed his regard ; but he was led to believe
that as yet the very threshold of the science had only been
touched. The consideration, and examination of the diffe-
rent philosophical systems, and particularly of the superficial
Dogmatism of Wolf, led him to question whether, ante-
cedently to any attempt at dogmatizing in philosophy, it
might not be necessary to investigate the possibility of
philosophical knowledge ; and he concluded that to this end
an inquiry into the different sources of knowledge and a
critical examination of their origin and employment were
necessary: in which respect he proposed to complete the
task undertaken by Locke. He laid down in the first place
that Philosophy and Mathematics are, in their origin, ra-
tional or intuitive sciences. Rational Cognitions are dis-
tinguished from Empirical by the qualities of necessity and
universality. On the possibility of such cognitions depends
* Hence called the Critical method, or that of investigation and
examination. — Ed.
2 D
402 THIKD PEEIOD. [SECT*
that of the philosophical sciences. These are either syn-
thetic or analytic : the latter of which methods is dependent
on the first. "What then is the principle of synthetical
a priori knowledge in contradistinction to empirical ; which
is founded on perception ? The existence of a priori
knowledge is deducible from Mathematics, as well as from
the testimony of common knowledge or cognition ; and it
is to such knowledge that the aim of Reason and Meta-
physics is chiefly directed. A science, therefore, which may
investigate with strictness the possibility of such knowledge,
and the principles of its employment and application, is
necessary for the direction of the human mind, and of the
highest practical utility. Kant pursued this course of
inquiry, tracing a broad line of distinction between the
provinces of Philosophy and the Mathematics, and investi-
gating more completely than had yet been done the faculty
of knowledge. He remarked that synthetical a priori know-
ledge imparts a formal character to knowledge in general,
and can only be grounded in the laws of the special and
individual faculties working together in the production of
cognitions. He then proceeds to analyse the particulars of
our knowledge, and discriminates between its elementary
parts so often confounded in practice, with a view to ascer-
tain the true nature of each species : the characteristics of
necessity and universality which belong to a priori know-
ledge, being his leading principles.
390. The faculty of theoretical knowledge is composed of
Sensibility and Understanding, Receptivity and Sponta-
neousness. The material part of Sensibility consists in the
feelings which belong to it ; the formal conditions are space
and time. Space and Time have no reality except in our
conception of them, but may be said to exist a priori, as
conditions of our perceptions. The understanding combines,
in the form of notions or conceptions, and judgments, the
materials supplied by the sensitive faculties. The laws
according to which the understanding acts, independently of
experience (or rather, regulating experience), are the (four)
categories. These, with the conditions of sensational per-
ception (viz. Space and Time), make up the forms and
elements of pure Intellect. The forms of sensibility and
intellect are what determine and define ; the material given
390.] east's ceitical idealism. 403
by the senses is the thing to be determined : the former are
independent of the appearing objects. The grand conclu-
sion of the Critical System of Kant is this, that no object
can be known to us except in proportion as it is apprehended
by our perceptions, and definable by our faculties for cogni-
tion ; consequently, we know nothing per se, but only by
appearances. In this consists his Critical Idealism (being
founded on a critical examination of the faculties of cogni-
tion), or, as it is otherwise termed, his transcendental
Idealism. In consequence of these distinctions, it fol-
lows that our knowledge of real objects is limited by ex-
perience ; and that a priori knowledge contemplates only
their formal conditions, or their possibility. It is only under
such limitations that synthetical a priori knowledge is pos-
sible; and within these boundaries Metaphysics must be
confined. Connected with the above is the acute distinction
established by him between Thought and Cognition,* (the
neglect of which has been a fertile source of error) — between
the objects apprehended and our representations of them ;
as well as the line drawn between Reason and Understand-
ing, in a Logical and a Transcendental point of view.
Theoretical reason, considered as the art of ratiocination,
labours to attain a perception of absolute unity, and to pro-
duce a connected system, by means of Ideas, which are the
forms of the reason's activity. A cognition is not attainable
by the means of Ideas, since they have no suitable object
within the province of Experience ; although Season is per-
petually labouring after a complete knowledge of Grod, the
world, the immortality and free-agency of the soul; and
although the whole artillery of Metaphysics has been con-
stantly directed towards these points. True philosophical
reason will not presume to make any constitutive use of
such ideas, for it is betrayed thereby into the labyrinth of
apparent knowledge and a maze of contradictions. This he
proceeds to evince by a critical examination of the proofs
adduced of the substantiality and immortality of the soul —
the termination and commencement of the world (with
the contrary suppositions) — the divisibility or indivisibility
* Hence we are enabled completely to separate Logic from Meta-
physics.— Ed.
2 d 2
404 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
of substances — the necessity or contingency of Causation
and Being in the present world — and the existence of God.
Reason cannot demonstrate the existence of the objects of
these ideas, which are imperceptible to the senses ; nor, on
the other hand, can it prove the contrary. All that is per-
mitted to theoretical reason is a moderating power in the
employment of our ideas, for the ultimate extension of
real knowledge.
391. Reason, however, is not merely theoretical, but also
practical, having the effect of limiting our absolute Free-will
by the ideas of Duty and Right. An examination of our
notions of Duty and of well-regulated Will (in which, by the
common reason of mankind, consists the essence of moral
worth), leads him to recognise the existence of practical
a priori cognitions ; which define not ivhat is, but what ought
to be. Practical reason is autonomic or self-legislating —
simply defining the formal character of the Will, and pre-
supposing free-agency as a necessary condition. The Moral
Law stands forth in opposition to an empirically determined
free-will, as a categorical Imperative (absolute Ought),
occupying the very summit of practical Philosophy. This
categorical Imperative, as the universal director of all
rational volition, prescribes universal conformity to the law
with strict necessity, and determines thereby the absolute
and ultimate end and spring of action, which is not a patho-
logical feeling, but respect for the Law. Virtue, therefore,
consists in obedience to the dictation of Duty, or the moral
constraint imposed by the legislative power of Reason ; or,
in other words, in the submission of our impulses and incli-
nations to Reason. Morality is not Happiness, though it
implies a rational title to it, and makes us worthy of being
happy. It is universal and necessary consistently with free-
will. The ideas of Free-will, Immortality, and a Divinity,
derive their certainty from the practical laws of Ethics.
This conviction, however, is no theoretical science, but a
practical rational belief (Moral-Theology). By such a defi-
nition of the Summum Bonum and ultimate end of rational
existence, we are enabled to perceive with clearness the
harmony which exists between the intellectual and sensual
nature of man ; between Theoretical and Practical Reason.
Civil or juridical law is distinguished from moral, inas-
391 — 392.] kant's teleology. 405
much as the former legislates only with respect to external
actions, and provides for the freedom of all by limiting and
defining that of individuals. The description of Eight which
results is of a coercive character, and demands the pro-
tection of the State ; which itself is fundamentally a legal
institution, and based upon contracts.
392. Theoretical knowledge (founded on the conception
of Nature), and Practical (founded on that of Free-agency),
form two distinct spheres, as it were, of the same whole,
and differ altogether in their principles. The faculty of
Judgment interposes between these two powers and their
objects — Nature and Free-will, (which are united by an
inexplicable link in the mind of man) ; and speculates on
their mutual accordance. It does not add anything to ob-
jective knowledge, but enables us to reflect on Nature as a
whole, by means of a peculiar principle, that of Proportion-
ateness of the means to the end ; which is not objective but
purely subjective. The Judgment therefore makes the par-
ticular subordinate to the universal ; and operates partly by
means of classification, partly by reflection. The latter pro-
cess (that of reflection) affixes to Nature the conception of
an Understanding, conformably with a subjective law, pre-
scribing the unlimited diffusion of the employment of the
Understanding ; and the confirmation of its principle in its
application is united with an intellectual satisfaction. In
this manner arises the sesthetical consideration of Nature
with a view to the principles of formal proportionateness ;
the pleasure derived from the Beautiful and Sublime, and
the teleological1 observation of Nature according to the prin-
ciple of material and internal proportion. The consideration
of organic objects in nature, of which we cannot think
except according to the principle of an internal adaptation,
although we can explain nothing by such a principle, leads
us to the anticipation of a certain end and aim proposed in
the world by a supersensuous spirit, which elevates practical
cognition to certainty. (Physieo-fflhico- Theology, or Tele-
ology.)
393. Works of Kant. His grand enterprise was his Cri-
tical examination of our faculties of knowledge on the prill*
1 Teleology denotes the consideration of final causes.
406 THIKD PEEIOD. [SECT.
ciples of a Transcendental Philosophy, i.e. of a theory which
deduces, from an examination of the faculties of the human
mind, certain established principles as the conditions of its
operations ; giving to all these speculations a systematic
form. Of this great design Kant has completed some parts,
with his characteristic originality, acuteness, and depth of
thought : for instance, the Metaphysical system of Nature,
in which he has shown himself the precursor of the Dynamic
Philosophy, inasmuch as he maintains that Matter fills
Space in virtue of impulsive forces (those of Expansion and
Attraction). To this he added his Moral Metaphysics, or
Theory of Eight and Virtue: as well as separate disser-
tations on Religious Anthropology, Education, and other
important subjects, which contain many admirable and
profound observations.
Kant's earlier works are :
Gedanken von der wahren Schatzung der lebendigen Krlifte, Konigsb.
1746, 8vo. Principiorum Metaphysicor. nova dilucidatio, ibid. 1755,
4to. Betrachtungen tiber den Optimismus, Konigsb. 1759, 4to. Mo-
nadologia Physica, Spec. I, ibid. 1756. 4to. Yersuch den Begriff der
negativen Grossen in die Weltweish. einzufuhren, Konigsb. 1703, 8vo.
Einzig moglicher Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseyns
Gottes, ebend. 1763 ; zuletzt 1794, 8vo. Die falsche Spitzfindigkeit
der vier Syllog. Figuren, ebend. 1763; Franhf. und Leipz. 1797.
Beobachtungen liber das GefUhl des Schonen und Erhabenen, Konigsb.
1764, 8vo. ; Riga, 1771. Tr'aume eines Geistersehers, Riga, 1766,
8vo. ; 1769. Allgem. ISTaturgesch. und Theorie des Himmels, etc. 4te
Aufl. Zeitz. 1808, 8vo. De Mundi Sensibilis atque Intelligibilis Forma
et Principiis, Regiomont. 1770, 4to. ; (a work in which he gives the
first hint of the plan of his great Critical undertaking). The above,
with several other treatises, are collected in Kant's Kleinen Schriften,
Konigsb. und Leipz. 1727, III Bde. 8vo. Yerm. Schriften, achte und
vollst. Ausg. (herausg. von Tiefteunk), Halle, 1799 — 1807, IY Bde.
8vo. Sammlung einiger bisher unbekannt gebliebenen Schriften von
Im. Kant (herausg. von Pink), Konigsb. 1800, 8vo.
Kant's principal works are :
Kritik der reinen Yernuft, Riga, 1781, 6te Aufl. ; Leipz. 1818, 8vo.
(of this an English translation has been made by Haywaed, 8vo.
Lond. 1838 and 1848 ; and a careful translation is now preparing for
Bonn's Standard Library, and will be published in October 1852).
Kritik der praktischen Yernuft, Riga, 1788; 5te Aufl. Leipz. 1818,
8vo. Kritik der Urtheilskraft, Berl. 1790; 3te Aufl. 1799, 8vo. Pro-
legomena zu einer jeden kiinftigen Metaphysik, etc. Riga, 1783, 8vo.
Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, Riga, 1785, 8vo. ; 4te Aufl.
1797. (Metaphysics of Ethics, translated by Semfle, 8vo. Edinb,
393—394.] YERDICT ON KANT. 407
1836.) Metaphysische Anfangsgriinde der Naturwissenschaft, Riga,
1786, 8vo. ; 3te Aufl. 1800. Ueber eine Entdeckung, nach der alle
neue Kritik der reinen Vernunft durch eine altere entebehrlich ge-
macht werden soil, Konigsb. 1792, 8vo. Die Religion innerhalb der
Granzen der blossen Vernunft, Konigsb. 1793, 8vo. ; 2te verm. Aufl.
1794. (Theory of Religion, translated by Semple, 8vo. Edinb. 1840).
Zum ewigen Frieden : ein philosophischer Entwurf, Konigsb. 1795,
1796, 8vo. Metaphysische Anfangsgriinde der Rechtslehre, Konigsb.
1799, 8vo.; 2te Aufl. 1803, 8vo. Metaphysische Anfangsgriinde der
Tugendlehre, Konigsb. 1797, 8vo.; 2te Aufl. 1803. (Both are contained
under the title of Metaphysik der Sitten.) Anthropologic in prag-
matischer Hinsicht, Konigsb. 1798; 3te Aufl. 1821, 8vo. Der Streit
der Facultaten, Konigsb. 1798, 8vo. His complete works, edited by
Rosenkrantz and Schubert, 12 vols. 8vo. Leijps. 1838-40. Some of his
works were translated into Latin by Born, 4 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1796--98.
Works by other writers illustrative of Kant's principles :
+ The Logic of Kant, a Manual for the Academical Classes, by G.
B. Jahsche, Konigsb. 1809, 8vo. (published from the papers of the
students). Kant's Logic, by Richardson, 8vo. Lond. 1818. + Edu-
cation, published by Rink, ibid. 1803, 8vo. + Lectures on Religious
Philosophy, Leips. 1817, 8vo. (published from the papers of the
students), f Lectures on Metaphysics, (published by the Editor of
the Religious Philosophy, etc., Politz), Erfurdt, 1821, 8vo.
394. With regard to the general character of the Critical
system of Kant, we may observe that it confined itself to
a contemplation of the phenomena of Consciousness; and
attempted to ascertain, by analysis, not of our conceptions, but
of the faculties of the soul, certain invariable and necessary
principles of knowledge ; proceeding to define their usage,
and to form an estimate of them collectively, with reference
to their formal character : in which investigation the distinc-
tions and definitions of those faculties adopted by the school
of Wolf, were presumed to be valid. It exalted the human
mind, by making it the centre of its system; but at the
same time confined and restricted it by means of the con-
sequences deduced. It discouraged also the spirit of Dog-
matical Speculation, and the ambition of demonstrating all
things by means of mere intellectual ideas, making the
faculties for acquiring knowledge the measure of things
capable of being known, and assigning the pre-eminence to
Practical Beason rather than to Speculative, in virtue of its
end, viz. Wisdom; which is the highest that reason can
aspire to ; because to act virtuously is an universal and un-
limited, but to acquire knowledge only a conditional, duty.
408 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
It had the effect of mitigating the dogmatical and specula-
tive tendencies of the mind, and the extravagant attempt to
prove everything by means of conceptions of the Understand-
ing : it proscribed Mysticism, and circumscribed the provinces
of Science and Belief. It taught men to discriminate and
appreciate the grounds, the tendency, the defects, and par-
tial views, as well as the excellencies of other systems ; at
the same time that it embodied a lively principle for awaken-
ing and strengthening the interest attaching to genuine
philosophical research. It afforded to philosophy a firm and
steady centre of action in the unchangeable nature of the
human mind. In general, in may be observed that the
theory of Kant constructed little ; and rather tended to
destroy the the structures of an empty Dogmatism of the
Understanding, and prepare, by means of self-knowledge,
the way for a better state of philosophical science ; seeking
in Reason itself the principles on which to distinguish the
several parts of philosophy.
On the other hand, it has been urged against this sys-
tem : that it overlooks and mistakes the nature of Rational
Ideas ; because its author, without even examining into the
claims of both, attributes to experience a preponderance
over the opposite principle, making demonstration the sole
evidence of knowledge ; that it makes a distinction between
speculative and practical reason, and that it dislocates (as it
were), by its subdivisions, the faculties of the human mind.
To this must be added (it is objected) a certain Formalisiny
which betrays itself even in his practical system; and in con-
sequence of which the student is led to regard things princi-
pally in a subjective point of view ; that is, with a reference
to the laws and forms of human activity: from which, to
extreme Idealism, is an easy step.
The following works contain criticisms on Kant's theory :
D. Jenisch, Ueber den Grund und Werth der Entdeckungen des
Hrn. Prof. Kant, Berl. 1790, 8vo. Joh. Neeb, Ueber Kant's Verdienste
um das Interesse der Philosophirenden Vernunft, 2te Aufl. Franhft.
a. M. 1795, 8vo. Glo. Bj. Gerlach, Philosophic, Gesetzgebung, und
Aesthetik, inihrem jetzigen Verhaltniss zur sittlichen und asthetischen.
Bildung der Deutschen : eine Priesschrift, Posen, 1804, 8vo. Flugge's
Versuch einer historisch-kritischen Darstellung des Einflusses der
Kantischen Philosophie auf Ecligion und Thcologic. 2 Thlc. Hanuov.
395.] ADYEESARIES OF KANT. 409
1796, 1798, 8vo. Tr. Ben. Agar Leo, Krito, oder Uber den wohl-
thatigen Einfluss der kritischen Philosophie, Leipz. 1806, 8vo. St^ud-
lin, Abh. nber den Werth der Krit. Phil, in s. Beitr. zur Phil, und
Gesch. der Eel. 2, 4, und 5te Th. Gott. 1797-98-99. See also, Bou-
terweck, Imm. Kant : ein Denkmal. Arthur Schopenhauer's Ap-
pendix to his work, mentioned § 428, containing a Critique of Kant's
theory. Busse, Metaphysische AnfangsgrUnde der Naturwissenschaft
von Im. Kant in ihren Grunden widerlegt, Dresd. 1828.
Earliest Adversaries of Kant's System.
See [K. G. Hausius] Materialien zur Gesch. der Krit. Philosophie,
nebst einer Histor. Einleitung zur Gesch. der Kantischen Philosophie,
III Sammlungen, Leipz. 1793, 2 Bde. 8vo.
C. L. Reinhold, Ueber die bisherigen Schicksale der Kantischen
Philosophie, Jena, 1789, 8vo.
395. The first of Kant's great works produced, at its
appearance, little sensation. When at last it began to
attract attention, it excited a great sensation, and many
questions with regard to its end and character. The very
language in which it was couched, containing a set of
phrases and terms entirely new, was an obstacle to its pro-
gress, and, no less than its contents, revolted the minds of
most of the learned countrymen of its author. A great
variety of mistakes were necessarily committed with respect
to it. Some pronounced it superficial, and gave it credit for
nothing more than an appearance of originality. Others,
admitting it to be original, declared it to be dangerous and
pernicious ; inasmuch as it set forth a, system of Idealism,
which would annihilate the objective reality of knowledge,
destroy all rational belief in God and the immortality of the
soul, and consequently was adverse to all that man holds
most sacred. Several eminent men became in various ways
adversaries to the new system, of whom we nay parti-
cularise : Mendelssohn ;l ILamann2 and Jacobi ('§ 415) ;
1 M. Mendelssohn's Morgenstunden. 2 Bd. Eerl. 1785, 8vo; (see
§ 381). Pruning der Mendelssohn'schen Morgenstunden, oder aller
speculativen Bcweise fur das Daseyn Gottes, in Vorlesungen von L. H.
Jakob. Nebst einer Abhandl. von Kant, Leipz. 17 86, Svo.
2 Hamann : In his Letters to Jacobi — Jacobi's Works, I und IV B_
Jacobi, Ueber das Unternchemen dcs Kriticismus, die Vernunft zu
Verst'ande zu bringen, etc. in Ecinhold's Bcitrligen zur leichten Ueber-
sicht, etc., Ill, 1.
410 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
Eberhard;1 Eeder2 (§ 381); Ad. Weislaupt ;3 J. F. Flatt ;4
G.A. Tittel-5 S. Beimarus (§ 380) ; D. Tiedemann* (§ 382) ;
Plainer (§ 381); Chr. Garve ? Meiners ;* G. E. Schulze
(§ 418); J. C. Schwab ;9 Herder ;10 _H~. G. ww. Gerstenberg ;11
.F. Eaader,12 and others.13
1 J. A. Ebeehaed : In the Philosophical Journals published by
him (see 368, note2).
2 J. G. H. Feder, TJeber Eaum und Zeit zur PrUfung der Kant.
Philosophie, Gotting. 1787, 8vo. Philos. Biblioth. von Feder und
Meiners, 1 Bd. Gott. 1788, 8vo.
3 Ad. Weishaupt, Ueber die GrUnde und Gewissheit der mensch-
lichen Erkenntniss. Zur Priifung der Kant'schen Kritik der reinen
Vernunft, Numb. 1788, 8vo. Ueber Materialismus und Idealismus:
ein Philosophisches Fragment, Numb. 1787; 2te Aufl. 1788, 8vo.
TJeber die Kantischen Anschauungen und Erscheinungen, ebend. 1788,
8vo. Zweifel uber die Kantischen Begriffe von Raum und Zeit, ebend.
1788, 8vo. He also wrote : Ueber Wahrheit und sittliche Vollkom-
menheit, Regensb. 3 B'ande, 1793-97, 8vo. Schaumann and Born
replied to him and to Feder.
4 J. F. Flatt's Fragmentarische Beitrage zur Bestimmung und
Deduction des Begriffs und Grundsatzes der Causalitat, und zur
Grundlegung der natiirl. Theologie, Leipzig, 1788, 8vo. See § 396.
note. Also : Briefe iiber den moral. Erkenntnissgrund der Eeligion
in Beziehung auf die Kantische Philosophie, Tubing. 1789, 8vo.
5 Glo. A. Tittel, Kantische Denkformen od. Kategorieen, Frank/.
a. M. 1788, 8vo. Ueber Hrn. Kant's Moralreform, Frank/. undLeipz.
1788, 8vo.
6 Dietr. Tiedemann, Theatet, oder Uber das menschliche Wissen, ein
Beitrag zur Vernunftkritik, Frank/ a. M. 1794, 8vo.
In answer to this, J. Ch. F. Dietz, Antitheatet, Rost. und Leipz.
1798, 8vo. D. Tiedemann's Idealistische Briefe, Marb. 1798, 8vo.
Beantwortung derselben von Diez, Gotha, 1801, 8vo. ; und eine Abh.
Tiedemann's in den Hessischen Beitragen, III St.
7 Garve, in Der Uebersetzung der Ethik des Aristoleles, 1 B. nebst
einer Abh. Uber die verschiedenen Principe der Sittenlehre von Aris-
toteles bis auf Kant, Bresl. 1798, 8vo. On the other side: J. Chr.
Fr. Dietz, Ueber Philosophie, philosophische Streitigkeiten, Kriti-
cismus und Wissenschaftslehre, nebst einer PrUfung der Garve'schen
Beurtheilung des kritischen Systems, Gotha, 1800, 8vo.
8 See Meiners, Allgemeine Geschichte der Ethik, Gotting. 1800,
2 Th. 8vo.
9 J. C. Schwab, Vergleichung des Kantischen Moralprinzips mit
dem Leibnitz-Wolfischen, Berl. 1800, 8vo. Ueber die Wahrheit der
Kantischen Philosophie und die Wahrheitslehre der A. L. Z. in Jena in
Ansehung der Philosophie, Berlin, 1803, 8vo. He composed also :
Von den dunkeln Vorstellungen, etc. Stuttg. 1813, 8vo..
396.] PARTISANS OF KANT. 411
The system was also attacked by many violent and pas-
sionate Reclaimers, such as Stattler1 ; and in several of the
universities the authorities forbade that it should be taught.
Partisans of Kantfs Critical System.
396. In spite of these inherent difficulties and external
assaults, the Critical Philosophy continued to gain ground
in Germany; and began to exercise considerable influence
over the character of the other sciences. Several men of
talent declared in its favour ; supporting it by writings
intended either to defend or illustrate it, and rendering
service not only to Kant, but to the cause of philosophy at
large.
Among these we may enumerate J. ScTiulz;2 C. C. JE.
Schmid3 ; Car. Leon. Beinholdf (see below, § 398) ; Solomon
10 Joh. Gottfr. Herder's Verstand und Erfahrung, eine Metakritik
zur Kritik der reinen Yernunft, Leipz. 1799, 2 Bd. 8vo. Kalligone,
Leipz. 1800, 3 Th. 8vo.
In answer to this : Kiesewetter's Priifung der Herder'schen Meta-
kritik. Berl. 1709, 2 Bd. 8vo.
11 [H. W. von Gerstenberg], Die Theorie der Kategorieen ent-
wickelt und erlautert, Altona, 1795, 8vo. Sendschreiben an Carl von
Villers das gemeinschaftl. Prinzip der theor. und prakt. Philos.
betreffend, A Itona, 1821, 8vo. Vgl. mit einera kleinen Aufsatz iiber
Ursache in dem Intellbl. der Allgem. Litt. Zeitung. St. 54, 1823.
12 Fr. Baader, Absolute Blindheit der von Kant deducirten prakt.
Yernunft an Fr. H. Jakobi, 1797. Beitrage zur Elementarphilosophie,
ein GegenstUck zu Kant's met. Anfangsgriinde der Naturw. Hamb.
1797, 8vo.
13 See various treatises by Brasterberger, Maass, Borndtrager,
Pezoldi, Breyer, etc.
1 Antikant, Munich, 1788, 2 vols. 8vo. : and a work on the same
subject by Reuss, Wurzburg. 1789, 8vo., with this title : Soil man auf
katholischen Universitaten Kant's Philosophie studiren 1
2 Joh. Schulz, Erlauterungen iiber des Hrn. Prof. Kant's Kritik der
reinen Yernunft, Konigbs. 1785, 8vo. u. 1791. Desselben Priifung
der Kantischen Kritik der reinen Yernunft. ibid. 1789 — 92,- 2 Bd. 8vo.
3 Carl Chr. Ebrh. Schmid, Kritik der reinen Yernunft in Grund-
risse, Jena, 1786, 8vo. ; 3te Aufl. Jena, 1794. Worterbuch zum leich-
tern Gebrauch der Kantischen Schriften, Jena, 1788, 8vo. ; 4te Aufl.
1798, 8vo.
4 Reinhold's Briefe iiber die Kantische Philosophie (see the German
Mercury, 1785—87), Leipz. 1790; 2 Bde. 8vo.
Rosenkranz, Gefchichtc der Kant'schen Philosophie, 1840.
412 THIBD PERIOD. [SECT.
Maimon ,•* C H. Heydenreicli ;* J. Sir/ismund Beclc ;3 Bam.
Alb. Mellin? Laz. Ben David? J. C. F. Dietz ;6 Fr. W. B.
and Ch. G. Snell ;7 J. C. G. Schaumann ;8 and many others,
such as Bom, Abicht, Phiseldeck, JSfeeb, Jakob, Tieftrunlc,
Kiesewetter, Bouterweh, Krug, Fries, etc. These formed a
numerous school of Kantians, which necessarily compre-
hended also a large number of disciples of inferior parts,
and blindly devoted to the system of their master.
It cannot be denied that the rapid progress which the
system soon began to make contributed greatly to awaken
a new and vigorous spirit of research. Men of superior
parts began to apply the principles it developed to the more
! Sal. Maimon's Versuch iiber die Transcendentalphilosophie, Bert.
1790, 8vo.
2 Heydenreich's Originalideen iiber die interessantesten Gegen-
stande der Philosophic, Leipz. 1793 — 96, 5 B. 8vo. See several other
works by the same author, e.g. an Introduction to the Study of Philo-
sophy, published at Leips. 1793. 3 See § 399.
4 G. S. A. Mellin's Marginalien und Register zu Kant's Kritik des
Erkenntnissvermogens, Jena, 1794 — 95, 2 Th. 8vo. Kunstsprache der
krit. Philos. alphabet, geordnet, Jena, 1798, 8vo. ; anhang, 1800, 8vo.
(also : Marginalien und Register zu Kant's met. Ansfangsgr. der
Eeehtslehre). Encyklopadisches Worterbuch der krit. Philosophic,
Zullicliau und Leipz. 1797 — 1803, 6 B. 8vo. etc.
5 Laz. Ben David's Vorlesungen liber die Kritik der reinen Vera..
Wien, 1795; 2te Aufl. 1802. Ueber die Kritik der Urtheilskraft,
ebend. 1796. Vorlcs. iiber die Kritik der prakt. Yernunft, nebst einer
Rede iiber den Zwcck der krit. Philos. ebend. 1796, 8vo. Vorlesungen
U. die metaph. Anfangsgriinde der Naturwiss. ebend. 1798. Preisschr.
iiber den Ursprung uns. Erkenntniss, Berl. 1802, 8vo. Versuch einer
Rechtslehre, Berl. 1802.
6 See the preceding §. He also wrote : Der Philosoph und die
Philos. aus dem wahren Gesichtspuncte und mit Hinsicht auf die
heut. Streitigkeiten, Leipz. 1803, 8vo. ; und, Ueber Wissen, Glauben,
Mystik und Skepticismus, Lubeclc, 1809, 8vo.
7 F. W. D. Snell, Darstellung und Erlauterung der Kant. Kritik
der Urtheilskr. Mannh. 1791—92. 2 Th. 8. Menon, oder Versuch in
Gesprachen die vornehmsten Puncte aus der Kritik der prakt. Vern.
zu erlautern, ibid. 1789, 8vo. ; 2te Aufl. 1796, 8vo. Several Manuals,
e. g. Lehrb. fur den ersten Unterr. in d. Philos. 2 Th. 7te verb. Aufl.
1821 ; mit Ch. W. Snell, Handb. der Philos. fiir Liebhaber, Giessen,
1802, 8vo. ; mit C. Ch. E. Schmjd, Das philos. Journal. Giessen, 1793
—95, 5 Bd. 8vo.
8 Schaumann, Ueber die transcendentale Aesthetik : ein krit. Ver-
such nebst ein Schreiben an Feder iiber das transcend. Idealismus,
Leipz. 1789, 8vo. (a work principally directed against Feder).
396.] THE KANTIAN SCHOOL. 413
accurate and systematic cultivation of the different depart-
ments of science, and especially to purposes of a more
comprehensive study of Method. Logic was treated suc-
cessfully by S. Maimon;1 Hoffbauer ; Maas ; Kiesewetter ;
Krug ; Fries ; etc. Metaphysics by Jakob ;2 Schmid ; and
Krug. Ethics by Schmid ;3 Jakob; Tief trunk, Hoffbauer,
1 Sol. Maimon, Versuch einer neuen Logik, oder Theorie des
Denkens, etc. Berl. 1794, 8vo. Hoffbauer's Analytik der Urtheile
imd Schliisse, Halle, 1792, 8vo. Anfangsgriinde der Logik. Halle,
1794 ; 2te Aufl. mit einer psychologischen "Vorbereitung vermehrfc,
ebend. 1810, 8vo. Ueber die Analysis in der Philosophic, nebst
Abhandlungen verwandten Inhalts, Halle, 1810. 8vo. Versuch iiber
die schwerste und leichteste Anwendung der Analysis in den philos.
Wissenschaften, eine gekronte Preisschrift mit Zuziitzen, Leipz. 1810,
8vo. Jakob's Grundriss der allgem. Logik, und krit. Anfangsgriinde
der allgemeinen Metaphysik, Halle, 1788, 8vo. ; 4te Aufl. 1800, 8vo.
Maas, Grundr. der Logik, Halle, 1793, 8vo.; 4te Aufl. 1823. C. Che.
Ehr. Schmid's Grundriss der Logik, Jena, 1797, 8vo. Tieftrunk's
Grundriss der Logik, Halle, 1801, 8vo. Die Denklehre in reindeut-
schen Gewande u. s. w., nebst einigen Aufs'atzen von Kant, Halle und
Leipz. 1825, 8vo. Die angewandte Denklehre u. s. w. ebend. 1827,
8vo. Kiesewetter's Grundriss einer allgemeinen Logik nach Kantis-
chen Grundsatzen, begleitet mit einer weitern Auseinandersetzung,
Berl. 1791, f. 2 Th.; 2te Aufl. 1802 und 1806. Also: Logik zum
Gebrauch fiir Schulen, ebend. 1797; and, Die wichtigsten S'atze der
Yernunftlehre fiir Nichtstudirende, Hamb. 1806, 8vo. Fr. W. D.
Snell, Erste Grundlinien der Logik. 3te Aufl. Giessen, 1828, 8vo.
(On the other side): Carl Chr. Flatt, Fragmentarische Bemerk-
ungen gegen den Kantischen und Kiesewetterischen Grundriss der
reinen allgem. Logik, Tubing. 1802, 8vo.
2 Jakob's Priifung der Mendelsohnischen Morgenstunden, nebst
einer Abh. von Kant, Leipz. 1786, 8vo. Beweis fiir die Unsterblich-
keit der Seele ausdem Begriffe der Pflicht, Zullichau, 1790-94 — 1800,
8vo. Ueber den moralischen Beweis fiir das Daseyn Gottes, Liebau,
1791, 8vo. ; 2te verm. Aufl. 1798.
Carl Chr. Erh. Schmid's Grundriss der Metaphysik, Jena, 1799,
8vo. The works of Krug and Fries are mentioned below, § § 421-22.
3 C Chr. Erh. Schmid's Versuch einer Moralphilosophie, Jena,
1790, 8vo.; 4te Aufl. 1802, 1803; 2 Bd. 8vo. Grundriss der Moral-
philosophie, Jena, 1793; 2te Aufl. 1800, 8vo. Adiaphora: philos.
theol. und hist. Untersucht, Jena, 1809, 8vo. Kiesewetter, Ueber
den ersten Grundsatz der Moralphilosophie, nebst einer Abhandlung
iiber die Freiheit, von Jakob, Halle, 1788; 2te Aufl. Berl. 1790—91,
2 Th. 8vo. Jacob's philosophische Sittenlehre, Halle, 1794, 8vo.
Grundsatze der Weisheit und des menschl. Lebens, Halle, 1800, 8vo.
Ueber das moral. GefUhl, Halle, 1788, 8vo. Tieftrunk's philosoph.
414 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
Seydenreidi, Staudlin, Krug, Fries, KunJiardt, etc. The
philosophical principle of Law and Bight,1 by Hufeland,
Untersuchungen ttber die Tugendlehre, Halle, 1798 — 1805, 2 Bd. 8vo.
Grundriss der Sittenlehre, Halle, 1803, 2 Th. (Tugend- und Rechts-
lehre), 8vo. Hofpbauer's Untersuchungen u. die wichtigsten Gegen-
stande der Moralphilosc-phie, insbes. die Sittenlehre und Moraltheo-
logie, 1 Th. Dortm. 1799, 8vo. Anfangsgriinde der Moralphilosophie
und insbes. der Sittenlehre, nebst einer allgemeinen Gesch. derselben,
Halle, 1798, 8vo. Heydenreich's Propadeutik der Moralphilosophie,
nach Grunds'atzen der reinen Vernunft, Leipz. 1794, 3 Th. 8vo.
Ueber Freiheit und Determinismus, und ihre Vereinigung, Erlang.
1793, 8vo. ; und mehrere Schriften zur popularen Moral. K. F.
Staudlin, Grundriss der Tugend- und Religionslehre, Gottng. 1800,
8vo. Ge. Henrici, Yersuch iiber den ersten Grundsatz der Sittenlehre,
1 Th. Leipz. 1799, 8vo. Leonh. Creuzer's Skeptische Betrachtungen
Uber die Freiheit des Willens, Giessen, 1793, 8vo.
G. Hufeland, Versuch iiber den Grundsatz des Naturrechts,
Leipz. 1785, 8vo. Lehrsatze des Naturrechts, Jena, 1790; 2te Aufl.
1795, 8vo. Heydenreich, System der Natur, nach krit. Prinzipien,
Leipz. 1794 — 95, 2 Th. 8vo. Grundsatze der natiirl. Staatsrechts,
nebst einem Anhang Staatsrechtl. Abhandlungen, Leipz. 1795, 2 Th.
8vo. Versuch iiber die Heiligkeit des Staats und die Moralitat der
Revolutionen, Leipz. 1794, 8vo. Buhle, Lehrbuch des Naturrechts,
Gott. 1781, 8vo. Ideen zur Eechtswisscnschaft, Moral und Politik,
I Samml. Gott. 1799, 8vo. He also wrote : Entwurf einer Transcen-
dental-philosophie, Gott. 1798, 8vo. Ueber Ursprung und Leben des
Menschengeschlechts, und daskiinftige Leben nach dem Tode, Brauns.
1821, 8vo. K. Chr. E. Schmid's Grundriss des Naturrechts, fiir
Tories. Jena und Leipz. 1795, 8vo. Jakob's Philosoph. Rechtslehre,
Halle, 1795; 2te Aufl. 1802, 8vo. Auszug, ebend. 1796, 8vo. Anti-
Machiavel, Halle, 1794 und 1796, 8vo. Maas, Ueber Recht und
Verbindlichkeiten, Halle, 1794, 8vo. Untersuchungen iiber die wicht-
igsten Gegenstande des Naturrechts, Halle, 1790, 8vo. Grundriss des
Naturrechts, Leipz. 1808, 8vo. Hoffbauer's Naturrecht, aus dem
Begriffe des Rechts entwickelt, Halle, 1793; 3te Aufl. 1804, 8vo,
Untersuchungen iiber die wichtigsten Gegenstande des Naturrechts,
ebend. 1793, 8vo. Allgem. Staatsrecht u. s. w. Halle, 1797, 8vo.
Dass allgem. Naturrecht, und die Moral in ihrer gegenseit Abhangig-
keit, etc. Halle, 1816, 8vo. Th. Schmalz, Recht der Natur, 1 Th.
Konigsb. 1792; 2te Aufl. 1795, 8vo. 2 Th. Naturl. Staatsrecht, 1794;
2te Aufl. 1795. Das natiirl. Familien- und Kirchenricht, ebend. 1795,
8vo. Erklarung der Rechte des Menschen und Burgers, etc. ebend.
1798, 8vo. Handbuch der Rechtsphilosophie, ebend. 1807, 8vo. P. J.
Anselm Feuerbach, Kritik des natiirl. Rechts, Altona, 1796, 8vo.
Ueber die einzig moglichen Beweisgriinde gegen das Daseyn und die
Gultigkeit der Naturl. Rechte, Leipz. und Gera, 1795, 8vo. Anti-
Hobbes, I Th. Erf. 1798, 8vo. K. Sal. Zacharia, Anfangsgr. des
396.1 THE KANTIAN SCHOOL. 415
Heydenreich, JBuhle, Jakob, Maas, Uqffbauer, Schwialz, Fries,
Feuerbach, Sol. Zacharie, Politz, Gros, etc. The science
of Religion, considered as a part of Practical philosophy,1
was ably treated by Heydenreich, Schrnid, Jakob, Tieftrunk,
Krug, etc. The theory of the Fine Arts (or ^Esthetics)2
was discussed by Heydenreich, Heusinger, and Delbruck, and
the poet Schiller (in his prose writings), whose free spirit
soon shook off the shackles of the School-philosophy.
philosoph. Privatrechts, Leipz. 1804, 8vo. Anfangsgr. des philosoph.
Criminalrechts, ebend. 1805, 8vo. Vierzig Biicher vom Staate, 2 Bd.
Stuttg. und Tub. 1820, 8vo. K. H. L. Politz, Die Staatswissenschaften
im Lichte unserer Zeit, 4 Bd. Leipz. 1823, u. f. C. H. Gros, Lehrbuch
der Philos. Rechtswissenschaft, Tubing. 1802; 3te Aufl. 1815, 8vo.
J. Chr. Gottl. Schaumann, Wissenschaftl. Naturrecht, Halle, 1792,
8vo. Kritische Abhandlungen zur philos. Kechtslehre, Halle, 1795,
8vo. Versuch eines neuen Systems des Natiirl. Rechts, ebend. 1796,
8vo. G. Henrici, Ideen zu einer wissenschaftlicher Begriindung der
Rechtslehre, oder iiber den Begriff und die letzten Grimde des Rechts,
etc. Hannov. 1809—10, 2 Th. 8vo.; 2te verm. Aufl. 1822, 8vo.
J. A. Bruckner, Essai sur la Nature et l'Origine des Droits, Lips.
1810, 8vo.
1 Heydenreich, Betrachtungen iiber die Philosophic der Natiirl.
Religion, Leipz. 1790—91, 2 Bd. 8vo. Grundsatze der moral. Gottes-
lehre, Leipz. 1793, 8vo. Briefe iiber den Atheismus, ebend. 1797,
8vo. C. Chr. E. Schmid's Philosophische Dogmatik, Jena, 1796, 8vo.
Jakob's Allgemeine Religion, 1797, 8vo. s. oben. Tieftrunk's Ver-
such einer neuen Theorie der Religionsphilosophie, Leipz. 1797, 8vo.
Hoffbauer's Untersuchungen iiber die wichtigsten Gegenstande der
natiirl. Religion, Halle, 1795, 8vo. J. E. Parrow, Grundriss der
Vernunftreligion, Berl. 1790, 8vo. Geo. Chr. Muller, Entwurf einer
philos. Religionslehre, 1 Th. Halle, 1797, 8vo. Many critiques on the
Religious Philosophy of Kant appeared from the pens of Ratze, Storr,
Jachmann, G. E. Schulze, and Schelling.
2 Heydenreich's System der iEsthetik, 1 Th. (unfinished) Leipz.
1790, 8vo. .Esthet. Worterbuch, 4 Th. Leipz. 1793, ff. J. H. Glieb.
Heusinger's Handbuch der ^sthetik, Gotha, 1797, 2 B. 8vo. L. Ben
David, Beitrag zur Kritik des Geschmacks, Wien, 1797. Versuch
einer Geschmackslehre, Berl. 1799, 8vo. F. Delbruck, Das Schone,
Berl. 1800, 8vo. F. W. D. Snell, Versuch einer iEsthetik fur Lieb-
haber, 2te Aufl. Giessen, 1828.
3 J. Ith, Anthropologic, 1794, 8vo. C. Chr. E. Schmid, Empirische
Psychologie, 1 Th. Jena, 1791 ; 2te Aufl. 1796, 8vo. Psychologische
Magaz. seit 1796; Anthropolog. Journal, 1803. Jakob's Grundriss
der Erfahrungsseelenlehre, Hatte, 1791 ; 4te Aufl. 1810, 8vo. Grund-
riss des emp. Psych. Leipz. 1814; und, Erlauterung der Grundrisses,
ebend. Hoffbauer's Naturlehre der Seele, in Briefen, Halle, 1796,
8vo. Untersuchungen iiber die Krankheiten der Seele, Halle, 1802,
416 THIED PERIOD. ^SECT.
Psychology3 by Scfanid, Jakob, Snell, etc. Education1 by
Heusinger, Miemeyer, ScJiivartz, etc.
All these authors (most of them professors in the German
Universities) contributed in a greater or less degree to illus-
trate or extend the system of their master. The most
remote branches of philosophy were influenced by the cen-
tral action and impulse which had been communicated by
Kant ; and even his adversaries ended by doing him justice.
It is true that in France2 and in England3 his system could
3 Th. 8vo. Psj'chologie in ihrer Hauptanwendung auf die Rechts-
pflege, Halle, 1808, 8vo. Der Grundriss vor. s. Logik, und besonders,
Halle, 2te Aufl. 1810. Kiesewetter, Kurzer Abriss der Erfahrungs-
Beelenlehre, Berl. 1806, 8vo.; 2te Aufl. 1814. Fassl. Darstellung der
Erfahrungsseelenlehre, Hamb. 1806, 8vo. F. W. D. Snell, Empir.
Psychol. Oiessen, 1802 ; 2te Aufl. 1810. Maass, s. oben. s. 29. Litt.
Versuch iiber die GefUhle, bes. iiber den Aftecten. 2 Th. Halle und
Leipz. 1811—12, 8vo.
Joh. Heinr. Glieb. Heusingee's Versuch eines Lehrbuchs der
Erziehungskunst, Leipz. 1795, 8vo. A. H. Niemeyer's Grundsatze der
Erziehung, Halle, 1796, 8vo. ; 6te Aufl. 3 B. 1810, 8vo. Leitfaden
der Padagogik und Didaktik, Halle, 1803, 8vo. Feiede. Heine. Car.
Schwaez, Lehrbuch des Padagogik und Didaktik, Heidelb. 1807-8.
Erziehungslehre, Leipz. 1802-4, 3 B. 8vo. J. Lud. Ewald, Vorlesun-
gen iiber die Erziehungslehre, 3 Th. Manrili. 1808, 8vo.
2 Philosophic de Kant, ou Principes Fondamentaux de la Philosophie
Transcendentale, par Chaeles Villiers, Metz, 1801, 2 vols. 8vo. See
the Critical Journal of Schelling and Hegel, vol. 1, No. 3, p. 6, sqq.
See also several essays in the Spectateur du Nord, Hamb. 1798-9.
Essai d'une Exposition succincte de la Critique de la Eaison pure de
M. Kant, par M. Kinker, traduit du Hollandois par J. le Fr.
Amsterd. 1801, 8vo. De la Metaphysique de Kant, ou Observations
sur un ouvrage intitule, Essai d'une Exposition, etc., par le Citoyen
Destutt-Tracy, in the Memoires de l'lnstitut Nat. Seienc. Moral.,
torn. IV.
Philosophie Critique decouverte par Kant fondee sur le dernier
principe du Savoir, par J. Hoehne, Paris, 1802, 8vo.
3 Kitsch, General and Introductory View of Kant's Principles con-
cerning Man, the World, and the Deity, Lond. 1 796, 8vo.
The Principles of Critical Philosophy, selected from the works of
Emm. Kanl, and expounded by James Sig. Beck. Translated from the
German, Lond. and Edinb. 1797, 8vo.
Willich's Elements of the Critical Philosophy, Lond. 1798, 8vo.
Wirgman (Thomas), Principles of the Kantesian Philosophy, Svo.
Science of Philosophy (on Kantian Principles), 4to.; and two Essaya
on Kant in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis
Coleridge, Table Talk; The Friend; &c.
397.] kant's stjccessoes. 417
scarcely obtain a hearing, in spite of the zealous labours of
some of its admirers ; but in Holland1 and the North of
Europe it had greater success.
We may consider as unavoidable consequences of the
popularity it acquired, the number of abuses to which it
gave birth, such as an unmeaning use of formularies, a
blind devotion to one single system, and a contempt for all
experimental knowledge.
B. Thilosopny subsequent to Kant.
397. The triumph of Critical philosophy was of short
duration. It opposed too many factious, and counteracted
too many views and pretensions, to obtain an easy victory.
The various misapprehensions to which it gave birth, raised
suspicions of the correctness of the principles it contained,
as well as of the propriety of the method by which they
were developed. Some asserted that the theory was suffi-
ciently refuted by Common Sense, because it amounted to
nothing more than a system of mere Idealism, and destroyed
the very reality of all external nature. Others went only
half as far in their objections, alleging that Kant had. thrust
out real existence by one door, to let it in by another. His
system was judged to be incomplete in this respect also,
that by subdividing the different' mental principles of Know-
ledge,2 it placed them side by side, as co-ordinate with one
another,. instead of making them subordinate to one supreme
principle (§ 389). Many of its opponents objected to it,
that instead of weakening the cause of Scepticism, it coii-
1 Paul van Hemert, Beginsels der Kantiansche Wysgeerte, Amstd.
1796, 8vo. Magazyn voor de Critische Wysbegeerte en cle Geschiedenis
van dezelve, Amsterd. 1798, 8vo. Epistolee ad Dan. Wyttenbachium,
Amsterd. 1809, 8vo. (Dan. Wyttenbach, in answer to Hemert)
4>iXojua0aae rd O7ropdca — Miscellanere Doctrina?, lib. I, II, Amsterd.
1809, 8vo.
J. Kinker, Essai d'une Introduction, etc. (see p. 416, note 2).
F. H. Heumann, Principcs Moraux de la Philosophic Critique
developpes et appliques & une Legislation externe fondee sur la Justice,
la Libcrte, et l'Egalite naturelle, Amstd. 1799, 8vo.
Van Bosch, Ethica Philosophise Criticse.
3 Such as the principles of Thought and Knowledge ; a principle of
Speculative Science, and a principle of Practical Reason.
2 E
418 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
tributed to fortify it ; while some of its partisans brought
discredit on their cause by misapplying its formularies, or
by their extravagant expectations of its success.1 Besides,
the views developed, particularly the distinction established
between Knowledge and Science, were too new to be at
once generally adopted or apprehended, and too repugnant
to the natural tendency to speculation, for the understanding
at once to submit to their discipline. The cod sequence was,
that the Critical system itself gave occasion to a variety of
attempts, partly to re-establish the old dogmatical theories3
—partly to exalt the new philosophy itself to the highest
grade of Science, to constitute it a complete system of
knowledge (of which Kant had only pointed out the method),
supposing it to have attained to the region of the Absolute
and Perfect, in which Being and Science become identical,
and all the contradictions of the terms of Reflection dis-
appear. A variety of fresh systems made their appearance,
by which man hoped to attain to a knowledge of the Abso-
lute ; some by the way of contemplation — some by thought
— some by science — others, again, by belief. It was natural
that Scepticism also should revive in exact proportion as
attempts at demonstrative science began to characterise the
new philosophy.
The consequence was, that from this School itself pro-
ceeded fresh essays both of Dogmatism and Scepticism.
C. L. Reinliold.
Reinhold, Karl Leonhard Reinhold's Leben und literarisches Werken,
nebst Auswahl von Briefen desselben.3
An Account of his Doctrines, etc. ; by his pupil, E. Ddboc, Hamb.
1828, 8vo.
398. The leader in these controversies was C. L. Reiiihold,
who was born at Vienna, 1758, and subsequently became a
professor at Jena and Kiel ; where he died, 1823.
Having by laborious study made himself thoroughly
1 For instance : t A Preliminary Exposition of the Principles of a
General System of Posts ! ! ! Gotting. 1801.
2 For instance: the Empiricism of Selle {Berlin, 1788, 8vo.), the
Rationalism of Eberhakdt, and the Eclecticism of Feoer.
3 Containing several letters of Kant and his contemporaries.
398. C. L. EEINHOLD. 419
acquainted with the spirit of the Critical system, and culti-
vated his own talent for analysis, he convinced himself that
he had discovered in them a principle of perpetual harmony
among men of inquisitive minds, and a panacea for the evils
of mortality.1 His hope being disappointed by the innu-
merable misapprehensions which prevailed with regard to it,
he laboured to discover for it some internal evidence, in cor-
roboration of the argumentative proof it possessed already.
He believed himself to have detected such a principle ij
the observation, that although Kant had investigated fully
the faculties for acquiring knowledge, he had not examined
the phenomena and representations of Consciousness, which
are the ultimate source of all knowledge, and necessarily
modify and define it. He also complained that the Critical
system was not sufficiently scientific; and, in particular,
wanted a common principle influencing all its parts, and a
theory founded on such a principle, which might supply the
elements of Logic, Metaphysics, and the Criticism of Rea-
son. To this end he proposed the principle of Consciousness.
In Consciousness we may distinguish between two relative
terms, the Object represented (or the material coming from
without) , and the Subject which represents. By investigating
the notion of representation and its modifications of unity and
multiplicity, Beinhold endeavoured to ascertain the fixed and
peculiar properties of the faculties of cognition and repre-
sentation, as well as the results of a critical examination of
the rational faculties. This theory2 of the faculty of repre-
sentation had the appearance of giving to Critical Philosophy
1 See the letters of Kant mentioned § 398, bibliogr.
2 It was styled the Theory of the Faculties of Mental Conception.
Yersuch einer neuen Theorie des menschl. Yorstellungsvermogens,
Prag. u. Jena, 1789, 8vo. ; u. 1795. Ueber die bisherigen Schicksale
der Kant'schen Philosophic, Jena, 1789, 8vo. Ueber das Fundament
des philos. Wissens. Jena, 1791, 8vo. Beitrage zur Berichtigung
bisheriger Missverstandnisse der Philosophic, I u. II B. Jena, 1790,
1794, 8vo. Auswahl vermischter Schriften, 2 Thle. Jena, 1796, 8vo.
Preisschrift iiber die Frage : welche Fortschritte hat die Metaphysik
seit Leibnitz und Wolff gemacht (together with other prize compo-
sitions of Schwab and Abicht), Berlin, 1796, 3vo. Verhandlungen
iiber ein Einverstandniss in den Grundsatzen der sittlichen Ange-
legenhcil ans dem Gcsichtspuncte des gcmcinen und gesunden Ver-
standes, I Bd. Lubeck, 1798, 8vo.
2 E 2
420 THIED PEBIOD. [SECT.
what it wanted in unity and harmony; at the same time that
it seemed to render it more intelligible by reflecting a light
upon its principles as well as its consequences. But these
appearances were illusory: the theory was not without merit
and utility, but it could not answer all the intentions of
the author. It was assailed, however, at the same time by
Dogmatic and Sceptical antagonists {Flat, Ueydenreich,
JBeck, etc.1), but particularly by the author of JEnesidemus.2
In consequence of these attacks, Eeinhold himself became
sceptical as to the validity of his own system, which he
endeavoured to improve, partly by modifying the terms he
had employed, and partly by strengthening its weak points.
He ended, however, by renouncing it altogether, and adopted
first the theory of fflchte,3 and afterwards that of JBardili.4,
This genuine lover of Truth turned, in his latter days, his
1 See the following section.
2 [Gottlob Ernst. Schulze], iEnesidemus : oder liber die Funda-
mente der von dem Urn. Prof. Eeinhold in Jena gelieferten Elemen-
tarphilosophie, nebst einer Vertheidigung des Skepticismus gegen die
Anmassungcn der Vernunftkritik, Helmut. 1792, 8vo.
In reply to jEnesidemus : J. H. Abicht's Hermias, oder Auflosung
der die giiltige Elementarphilos. betreffenden JEnesidemischen Zweifel,
Erlang. 1794, 8vo. J. C. C. Visbeck's Hauptmomente der Reinhold-
ischen Elementarphilos. in Beziehung auf die Einwendungen des
iEnesidemus, Leipz. 1794, 8vo. Darstellung der Amphibolie der
Eeflexionsbegriffe, nebst dem Versuche einer Widerlegung der Haupt-
momente der Einwendungen des iEnesidemus gegen die Reinholdische
Elementarphilos, Frhf. am M. 1795, 8vo. (by Beck.)
In reply to Reinhold's theory : Einzig mbglicher Standpnnct, von
welchem die krit. Philosophic beurtheilt werden soil, Riga, 179C, 8vo.
Eeinhold, Fichte, Schelling; von Jac. Fries, Leipz. 1803, 8vo,
3 Sendschreiben an Lavater und Fichte iiber den Glauben an Gott,
Hamb. 1799, 8vo. Ueber die Paradoxieen der neuesten Philos. Havib.
1799, 8vo.
4 Beitrage zur leichten Ueborsicht des Zustandes der Philos, beim
Anfange des XIX Jahrh. Hamburg, 1801 — 3. 3 Hefte, 8vo. Merc
recently : Anleitung zur Kenntniss und Beurtheilung der Philos. in
ihren sammtl. Lehgrebauden, Wicn, 1805, 8vo. (Anonym :) Yersuch
einer Auflosung der etc. Aufgabe, die Natur der Analysis und der
analyt. Methode in der Philos. genau anzugeben und zu untersuchen,
etc., Munch. 1805, 8vo.
Bardili's und K. Lh. Reinhold's Briefwcchsel liber das Wcscn der
Philos. und das Unwcscn der Speculation, herausg. von Eeinhold,
Munch. 1804, 8vo.
399.] C. L. REINHOLD. 421
attention to the critical examination of Language, as the
source of all the misunderstandings which have arisen in
Philosophy (conducting his researches with an especial
regard to cases of Synonymy), with the hope of effecting
that harmony among philosophical inquirers which was con-
stantly his object. He endeavoured to elucidate the equi-
vocal expressions and inconsistencies of the customary
formal Logic, which he maintained to be the essential cause
of the reproach so long incurred by Philosophy, that it was
incompetent to make good its pretensions to the character of
a Science.1 He endeavoured also, by a new theory of the
faculties of human knowledge on scientific principles,2 to bring
an end to the inquiries he had started in his former attempt.
His son JE. Beinhold (professor of Philosophy at Jena),
follows the steps of his father in his inquiries respecting
the relations and connection between Logic and Language.3
399. J. Sigismund JBecJc (first professor at Halle, after-
wards at Kostock), an acute disciple of Kant, endeavoured
to recommend the Critical system by an abridgment of it,
and by making the Critical point of view the point of view
also of original representation ; but his ideas were con-
fused and his method bad, and he injured the cause
which he sought to support, by drawing his conclusions
without any previous analysis of the faculties of cognition
on which they were founded. He also prepared the way for
1 Anfangsgriinde der Erkenntiss der Walirlieit in einer Fibel, Kiel,
1808, 8vo. Riige einer merkwiirdigen Sprachvenvimmg unter den
Weltweisen, Weimar, 1809, 8vo. Grundlegung einer Synonmik fur
den allgemein. Sprachgebrauch in den philos. Wisscnschaften, Kiel,
1812, 8vo. Dans menschl. Erkcnntnissvermogen aus dern Gesichts-
puncte des durch die Wortsprache vermittelten Zusammcnhangs
zwischen der Sinniichkeit und deni Denkvcrniogen, ebend. 1816, 8vo.
2 Die alte Frage : Was ist die Wahrheit bei der erneuerten Streitig-
keiten iiber die gbttlich. Offenbarung und die menschl. Vernunft in
nahere Erwagung gezogen? Altona, 1820, 8vo. (See particularly the
concluding observation, § 62).
(On the other side :) Was ist Warheit 1 eine Abhandl. veranl. durch
die Frage des etc., Reinhold, von deni Grafen H. W. A. von Kalkreuth,
Breslau, 1821, 8vo.
3 Ern-. Reinhold, Versuch einer Begrundung und neuern Darstellung
der log. Formen, Leipz. 1819, 8vo. He also wrote : Grundziige cines
Systems der Erkenntnisslchre und Denklchre, Schlcswig, 1822, 8vo.
422 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
the most absolute transcendental Idealism, by making every-
thing depend upon the oneness of the understanding or
original representation ; deriving our very notions of Space
and Time directly from that and from the conception of
Dimension, and abolishing the broad distinction which sub-
sists between Intuitional and Sensational Perception and
Thought.
Jac. Sigism. Beck, Erlauternder Auszug aus den kritischen Schriften
des Prof. Kant. Riga, 1793—94, I und II B. Vol. Ill is directed
against Keinhold, with this title : Einzig moglicher Standpunct, aus
welchem die kritische Philosophie beurtheilt werden muss, Riga,
1796, II Bde. 8vo. Grundriss der kritischen Philosophie, Halle, 1796,
8vo. Prop'adeutik zu jedem wissench. Studio, ebend. 1796. Commen-
tar iiber Kant's Metaphisik der Sitten, I Th. 1798, 8vo. Beck subse-
quently put forth : Grundsatze d. Gesctzgebung, 1806. Ein Lchrbuch
der Logik, Rost. u. Schwerin, 1820, 8vo. ; and Lchrb. des Naturrcchts,
Jen. 1820, 8vo.
Ficlite's Doctrine of Science.
For the bibliography see below, § 405.
400. The philosophical labours of J. G. Ficlite greatly
exceeded the various attempts succeeding the diffusion of
Kant's system.
He was born May 19, 1762, at Bammenau, in Upper
Lusatia (Ober-Lausitz), and, after having studied at the
school of Pforta and at the universities of Jena and Leipsic,
passed several years in Switzerland and Prussia; and in 1793
became professor of Philosophy at Jena ; resigned his office in
1799, and retired to Berlin : in 1805 filled a professorial chair
at Erlangen, and afterwards in the university of Berlin; where
he died, 1814. Fichte made it his object to constitute the
Critical philosophy a science, founded on the most exact
principles,1 with the hope of precluding all future errors
and misapprehensions, and of annihilating Scepticism; the
cause of which was defended, among others, by Schulze and
Sol. Maimon. Encouraged by the success which his " Essay
towards a Criticism of Bevel ation in general," obtained,2
and by the example of Reinhold's theory of the perceptive
1 f Idea of the Doctrine of Science : Pref. p. 5. f General Princi-
ples of the Doctrine of Science, p 12.
2 Konigsb. 1792 : second edition, 1793.
400.] J. G. FICHTE. 423
faculties, he gave full scope to his original and independent
genius, which, with a firmness approaching obstinacy, led
him constantly to maintain and boldly to profess the con-
clusions to which he had once arrived. His object was to
find a system which might illustrate by a single principle,
the material and formal properties of all science; might
establish the unity of plan which the Critical system had
failed to maintain, and solve that most difficult of all pro-
blems regarding the connection between our conceptions
and their objects. Such was the origin of his Scientific
Theory,1 which supposes that neither Consciousness nor the
objects to which it refers, — neither the material nor formal
parts of knowledge, — are to be considered as data ; but are
the results of an operation of the Ego, and are collected by
means of Reflection. Fichte does not, like Kant, begin by
an analysis of our facidties for acquiring knowledge, — of
practical reason and judgment ; nor yet, as Heinhold had
done, by assuming a primitive fact, — that of Consciousness;
but supposes an original act of the subject (the Ego),
from which he derives the very construction ■ of Conscious-
ness itself.
The method he pursues is as follows. He begins by in-
vestigating the conception of Science. It is a system of
Knowledge determined by a higher principle, which expresses
the contents and form of science. The Doctrine of Science
is the science that demonstrates the possibility and validity
of Science, the solidity of the principles on which it is
founded as regards the form and contents, and consequently
the connection of all human science. Inasmuch as this
Theory or Doctrine of Science is the highest of all scientific
systems, it must be dependent on a peculiar principle, not
deducible from that or any other science. The Theory of
Science is independent of all others, — of itself valid and pos-
sible, and is, because it is. The Doctrine of Science implies
also a System connected with it ; and contrariwise, the fact
of a System implies that of a Theory, and of a first and
absolute principle ; the circle of argumentation being com-
plete and inevitable. There are, however, in general, three
Principles of Science : 1, one absolute and unconditional as
regards contents and form ; 2, a principle unconditional in
1 Wissenschaftslchre.
424 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
form, but conditional in its contents ; 3, a principle uncon-
ditional in contents, but conditional in form. A Theory of
Science is Philosophy, which has for its object the necessary
process of the human mind in the freedom of activity. When
the energies of our minds have been determined to any
particular pursuit, (such as Logic, Geometry, etc.), they
become the objects of a Special Science ; the determination
to such particular pursuits being a contingent direction
imparted to free action, and consequently incomplete. On
the other hand the Theory of Science is alone complete in
itself, and forms a perfect whole. The objects it contem-
plates are, agreeably to what has been stated, the original
operations of the human mind (the What), which take place
according to a certain determinate method and form (the
Mow). These become the objects of Consciousness by
means of the faculty of Reflection, whose office it is to
abstract and disengage the element of Consciousness in all
things. In this way we attain to Absolute Unity, which
comprehends all cognitions and their principles ; in other
words, to the pure Ego. Reflection and Abstraction are
subject to certain laws of Logic, which are absolute postu-
lates of the Theory or Doctrine of Science.
401. Pirst principle, A=A. X represents the syste-
matic dependency of the whole. A and X being supposed
to exist in the Ego, may be signified by this formulary,
Ego sum Ego. This is the self-evident principle of Philosophy
and Science in general (Principle of the Accord of the
unconditional Postulate) ; expressing the necessary form
and substance of Self- consciousness. In virtue of this
principle we form judgments; to judge being an act and
operation of the Ego. The Ego then establishes, absolutely
and independently, its own existence; being at once the
agent and the result of activity: in which consists the
essence of Consciousness. The first operation of the Ego-
is that of Reflection on itself, which is occasioned by a pos-
tulated impediment opposed to its hitherto unrestrained
activity. The Ego places itself in the position of the sub-
ject, inasmuch as it opposes itself as subject to the obstacle
contemplated. The second principle (involved in the former),
is this — that the Ego is not the Non-Ego (Principle of
Opposition). There remains yet a third principle, condi-
401.] J. g. tichte. 425
tional as far as relates to its form; but not as respects its
value postulated by an axiom of the Reason. To exemplify
this, an action of the Ego is required, which may illustrate
the opposition of the Ego and the Non-Ego in the Ego,
without destroying the Ego. Reality and Negation can be
associated only by means of limitations. Limitation then is
the third principle postulated. Limitation again leads us
on to Divisibility. Everything divisible is a quantity.
Consequently in the Ego there must be granted a divisible
quantity, and therefore the Ego contains something which
may be supposed to exist or not to exist without detracting
from the real existence of the Ego. Hence we arrive at the
distinction of a separable and an absolute Ego. The Ego
places a divisible Non-Ego in opposition to the divisible Ego*
(Fundamental principle of the Basis) . Both of them have
their existence in the absolute Ego, being respectively deter-
minable by a reference to that. Hence are derived the two
following propositions : 1. The Ego implies a limitation of
its extent by means of the Non-Ego, which circumscribes
its absolute and otherwise unlimited influence. 2. In like
manner the Ego determines and defines the Non-Ego. The-
reality of the one circumscribes that of the other. On this
point turn all the disputes between Idealism and Realism;
and it is by a reference to this that they must be adjusted.
The grand problem which speculative philosophy would
endeavour to solve, is the accomplishment of such a recon-
ciliation, and a satisfactory explanation of the connection
between our representations and the objects to which they
refer. The first of the two propositions above stated is
necessary to be admitted, because without the opposition we
have described there would be no such thing as Conscious-
ness— without an object there could be no subject. The Ego
cannot be said to exist except as modified by the Non-Ego.
But vice versa, without a subject there can be no object :
the Ego must also be admitted to exist as determining the
Non-Ego : the one fact implying a passion or suffering, —
the other an action of the Ego. Our representation of
things oat of us, is a mode of acting of the Ego, whereby it
transfers to the Non-Ego a real existence abstracted from
itself. By such an operation of the mind the Non-Ego,
assumes the character of something real as respects the
426 THIED PEKIOD. [SECT.
Ego, inasmuch as the Ego transfers to it a portion of its
own reality. Allowing that external objects impress the
Representing Subject, yet this is nothing more than the
opposition of those objects as the Non-Ego to our own JEgo
(limiting thereby the latter); the agent continuing to be
ourselves and not things. From what has been stated, may
be deduced : 1st. The reciprocity existing between the Ego
and the Non-Ego. The action and passion of the Ego
are one and the same thing, as relates to the Non-Ego.
2ndly. The operations of the Ego tend to show that the
ideal and real principles, on which all comprehensibility of
the circumstance that we know things out of us depends,
form one and the same ground in the activity of the Ego.
The explanation is to be sought in the fact that we contem-
plate the Ego as active, and the Non-Ego as passive ; or vice
versa. By such an hypothesis the discordant claims of
Realism and Idealism are reconciled, and the true theory
of philosophical science developed.
From such principles the transcendental theory of the
faculty of mental representation infers the following con-
clusions. 1. Mental representation (Vorstellung) can only
take place in virtue of a reciprocal relation existing between
the Ego and the Non-Ego. 2. The direction of the Ego to
the Non-Ego is opposed to that of the Non-Ego to the Ego.
In such cases the Ego balances, as it were, between two con-
trary influences. Such hesitation is the effect of the imagi-
nation, which equally represents the passive and active
operations of the Ego ; or, in other words, conveys them to
the Consciousness. 3. Such a state of hesitation implies
the act of perceiving in general (AnscJiauen) , in which
it is difficult to separate the percipient Subject from the
Object perceived. It is not Reflection (the tendency of
which is inwards), but activity directed towards external
objects, — Production. 4. From the act of perceiving results
Perception, properly so called, which is the effect of the
Understanding. 5. Judgment, in the next place, weighs the
objects presented to it by the understanding, and defines
their mutual relations. 6. The perception of the absolute
spontaneousness of the Ego is the cognition of Reason and
the basis of all Science.
402.] j. a. ricHTE. 427
Practical Application of tlie Scientific Theory.
402. Two facts have been up to this point required as
postulates to support the above system : the reciprocal action
of the Ego and the Non-Ego ; and the occurrence of an
obstacle to the Ego, which restricts its hitherto unlimited
energies, and gives birth to the Non-Ego. Now as the
existence of the Ego itself (involving that of the Non-Ego),
is dependent on this very circumstance, the whole system
would fall for want of a foundation, if we could not deduce
from the Ego itself the principle of such an obstacle. This
can be effected only by practical, not by theoretical philo-
sophy. The Doctrine of Science in its practical application
has for its object the absolute practical Ego, which, by defining
the Non-Ego, becomes the principle of the obstacle alluded
to, and of the limitation of the activity of the Ego. Such
an Ego is free, unlimited, and independent — the only true
Eeality ; while on the other hand the Ego, considered as
Intelligence determined by the Non-Ego, is finite and
limited. In virtue of its unlimited activity, the Ego com-
mences by circumscribing itself. This it does as a deter-
mining faculty, which implies the existence of something
else determinable by it. Consequently, the Ego possesses
by implication the power of determining that which is
determinable, — in other words, of determining the Non-Ego,
which is objective activity, and the result of pure Activity.
The absolute Ego possesses an unlimited activity, and a per-
petual tendency to become the cause of something else.
With such an impulse, the Ego commences an unlimited
career, but without attaining its object or becoming a
Cause. In consequence of not accomplishing this end its
energies are repulsed and reflected upon itself (Eeflection).
In virtue of its inherent activity and its inability to attain
the end first proposed, the Ego now opposes a counter-
movement to its first impulse. Hence arises the obstacle
alluded to, or the Non-Ego. The Non-Ego being once esta-
blished, the Ego assumes with reference to it the character-
istics of practical, definitive, and causal. The Non-Ego also
re-acts on the Ego, determining to a certain extent the Ego,
and opposing a counterpoise to its influence. In this
manner the Non-Ego also becomes a cause with reference to
428 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
the Ego. Feeling consists in perceiving the limitation of the
free activity of the free Ego. It is thus we arrive at the
reciprocal opposition existing between the Ego and the ex-
ternal World; the former in one respect assuming the
character of something connected with, and dependent on,
the World (considered as Intelligence), but in another (as
Practical), continuing free and independent of the same,
lu this manner, by establishing the existence of the Ego, we
establish that of the World, and by establishing the exist-
ence of the external World, we establish that of the Ego.
Consequently, the World can possess reality only for an
Ego, in an Ego and by an Ego. The leading proposition of
the theory is this : that the Ego is absolute Activity : that
all which exists out of the Ego is produced by the Ego by
means of position, opposition, and limitation. The Ego is
the subject-object ; and thus Transcendental Idealism is
boldlv introduced.
On certain Brandies of ' EJiilosojpJiy treated bg Ficlite.
403. The author of the Doctrine of Science attempted to
remodel on its principles some of the philosophical sciences,
such as Ethics and Natural Law. His disquisitions respect-
ing both contain many original and glorious thoughts by the
side of an equal number of paradoxical opinions, with an
appearance of logical deduction and systematic connection,
resting on no solid basis, though managed with great ability.
Ethics. Having by his Idealism annihilated the objective
reality of the sensible world, and left nothing in its place
but a system of mere images, he tries to establish, by
means of Conscience, a belief in the reality of a sensible
world, as also in an intelligible world, independent of the
former; and to demonstrate the possibility of referring
our practical tendency to an attainable end through deeds.
He sets out with the conception of free-will, that is, of
unrestrained independent free-agency, which is the tendency
of the Ego, and on which the thought of personality is
founded. Consequently, the principle of practical Morality
is the necessary conviction of Intelligence, that its freedom
must be determined by the notion of complete free-agency ;.
or, in common language, that Conscience must be obeyed
403.] tichte's ethics, 429
without limitation.1 It determines the shall {das Sollen) or
the principle of Duty. Virtue consists in a perfect con-
formity and unison with self. jNatural Law and Eight,
which Pichte was the first to treat as quite independent
of Moral Eight, instructs us as to the relations, in respect
of Eight, and the reciprocal actions of free-agents, and
deduces them from self-consciousness, of which they are
necessary conditions. Man cannot conceive himself to be a
rational being except inasmuch as he attributes to himself a
free activity ; nor can he suppose himself possessed of this,
without extending the same to other beings, to all appear-
ance like himself. Consequently, he conceives himself to be
placed in certain relations of Eight with regard to the latter,
which induce him to regard his personal liberty as circum-
scribed by that of others. Eichte denies the existence of
an Original Eight, regarding it as a fiction created to meet
the exigencies of Science. All Eight has reference to some
community, and derives its very existence from such a state.
Hational beings are consequently intended to become at
-once members of society {E-phorate, in the state ; and
Protection of Commerce, in states). A state is the reali-
sation of Eight as contemplated by Eeason. In his later
account of political Eight, Fichte considers the realisation
of the kingdom of God upon earth as the ideal of a state
based on the principles of Eeason ; in other words, a
Theocracy, founded on the revelation of God in humanity.
It may be observed in general, that his leading maxim is to
make everything subordinate to the conception of Eeason ;
and on this principle he founded his plan for an universal
national system of education, and a permanent school or
college of learned men.
The Religious Philosophy of Fichte has attracted the
greatest attention. He represents the Deity as the imme-
diate moral order of the world, an idea to which the Ego
attains in consequence of feeling itself restricted in the exer-
1 In Fichte's Anweisung zum seligen Leben, § 133, sqq. this view
of morality is made superior to that presented by the principle of
positive and imperative Legislation, at the same time that he makes it
subordinate to those of Religion and Science. According to his theory
the only true life is the life in God, which gives birth to a higher
principle of morality, lays open to us a new world, and creates it.
430 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
cise of its free-agency by the conception of obligation. The
Ego labours to realise this duty, and consequently to recog-
nise a moral creation in the midst of the world without,
which it has itself produced: in this manner it approxi-
mates the Deity, and attains to the life which proceeds
from God. In this moral order of the world felicity
is the result of moral worth. This felicity is not to
be confounded with happiness ; which does not and cannot
exist : a doctrine which prohibits all reference to the
latter as a final end. It is not necessary to think of
the Deity as something distinct from the moral world
just described, notwithstanding our proneness to con-
ceive of Him as a separate being, and the author of that
creation : 1st. Because we cannot attribute to the Divinity
the qualities of Intelligence or Personality, without making
Him a finite being, like to ourselves. 2ndly. It is a species
of profanation to conceive of the Deity as a separate
essence, since such an conception implies the existence of a
sensible being limited by Space and Time. 3rdly. We can-
not impute to Him even existence without confounding
him with sensible natures. 4thly. No satisfactory explana-
tion has yet been given of the manner in which the creation
of the world could be operated by G-od. 5thly. The idea and
expectation of happiness is a delusion ; and when we form
our notions of the Deity in accordance with such imagina-
tions, we do but worship the idol of our own passions — the
Prince of this world.
Views of this nature, developed in a paradoxical form,
though coupled with a depth of moral feeling, procured for
their author the charge of being a sort of atheist, and pro-
cured for Pichte some troubles and persecutions which he
did not entirely deserve. He lived, however, to renounce
his earlier doctrines.
HemarJcs on tlie Doctrine of Science, at large,
404. The system of Pichte is distinguished by a perfect
unity and remarkable logical accuracy. It solves many
difficulties, but at the same time gives occasion to many
new ones, and was exposed to the following objections.
By the Kantists it was urged that, 1st. Fichte had proposed
404.] EEMAEKS ON FICHTE. 431
for solution a grand philosophical problem, without pre-
viously inquiring whether it was capable of being solved.
He pretends to explain everything, but attempts this only
by means of a seeming transcendental deduction, and is
constantly driven back to gratuitous assertions and cyclical
arguments. 2ndly. The principles laid down are the laws
of Logic, which can never enable us to attain to an accurate
knowledge of the nature and properties of any cognizable
subject or object. These laws are forms of thought, devoid
in themselves of all substance. It is only by a forced appli-
cation that they are invested with the semblance of entity,
particularly in the case of principle the first (§ 401), by the
substitution of the Ego to an indeterminate object. The
defect of these false realizations is cleverly concealed by
the logical artifice of all these positions, oppositions, and
compositions, which only present, after all, the appearance
of a real cognition, instead of the real knowledge to which
they aspire. The non-Kantians objected : 1st. That this
system converts the Ego into an absolute and independent
essence, annihilating the existence of external Nature, its
independent reality, and its conformity to the laws of Keason.
2ndly. It is inconsistent with itself. The Ego at first is
represented as nothing but infinite activity, opposing to itself
as a limitation the Non-Ego, and thereby producing all things
— space included. But in the first place ; what is it which
compels the Ego, as yet unlimited and unrestrained, to cir-
cumscribe itself by the position of the Non-Ego ? — " Because
otherwise it could not attain to a knowledge of objects."
But what necessity can be showrn for its aiming at the
knowledge of objects, being itself infinite and unlimited?
The pretended principle of the Activity of the Ego, in virtue
of wmich it establishes an objective world, is a primordial
fact, of which we have no perception in the empirical con-
sciousness, and which can only be ascertained by an intel-
lectual perception {Anschauung) , and is therefore a 'postulate
arbitrarily, and, as it were, surreptitiously assumed for the
purposes of the theory. Fichte confounds the operations
of transcendental imagination in the construction of geo-
metrical figures with the creation of determinate objects,
. without stopping to explain how the multiplicity of external
objects and their various properties can possibly be affected
432 THIKD PERIOD. [SECT.
by tlie construction of Form in Space. The postulate of
an obstacle encountered by the infinite activity of the Ego,
which throws it back upon itself, and creates a consciousness
of the necessity attaching to certain mental representations,
is not to be accounted for either by the nature of the Ego
or the Non-Ego. In short, instead of one mystery, this
theory would establish another still more incomprehensible,
all the time pretending to explain the former by the latter,
and ending with an admission that its own principle of
explanation is incomprehensible. Accordingly, in the most
recent statement of his theory, the author is compelled
to assert (in order to account for the feeling of necessity
attached to certain mental representations, arising from
their relation to an object), that the Ego is restricted in
the exercise of its energies by certain determinate limits,
although he had described it as Infinite Activity or an
Absolute Doing (Thun). These limits or restrictions he
proceeds to call incomprehensible and inexplicable, which
nevertheless were precisely the object at which his Scientific
Theory of Philosophy was levelled. His Idealism, therefore,
is an example of speculation carried to the extremest limit,
and ending in the destruction of itself — after having firsb
annihilated all science and free-agency.
Compare this transcendental Idealism with the supernatural Idealism
of Berkeley, and the Realism of Spinoza.
405. Fiehte himself endeavoured to accommodate his
theory to the opinions of others by subjecting it to various
modifications,1 particularly with reference to the agreement
1 Fichte's Works. On the Theory of Science at large : Ueber den
Begriff der Wissenschaftskhre, Weimar, 1794, 8vo. Zweite verb, und
verm. Aufl. Jena, 1798, 8vo. Grundlage der gesammten Wissen-
schaftslehre, Weimar, 1794, 8vo. ; 2te Aufl. 1802, 8vo. Grundriss des
Eigenthiimlichen der Wissenschaftslehre, Jena und Leipz. 1795, 8vo. ;
2te verb. Aufl. ebend. 1802, Grundlage, etc., und Grundriss, neue
nnveranderte Aufl. Tilb. 1802. Versuch einer neuen Darstellung der
Wissenschaftslehre, und zweite Einleitung in die Wissenschaftslehre (in
<lem Philosophischen Journal, herausgeg. von Niethammek und Fichte,
1797. St. I. S. i f., St. IV. S. 310, S. V. S. i f. und VI). Antwort-
schreiben an K. L. Eeinhold auf dessen Beitrag zur leichtern Ueber-
sicht des Zustandes der Philosophic beim Anfange des XIX Jahr-
hunderts, Tilb. 1801, 8vo. Sonnenklarer Bericht an das grossere
Publicum uber das cigentliche Wescn der neuesten Philosophic, etc.,
Berlin, 1801, bvo. Die Wissenschaftslehre in ihrem. allgcmcinsten
405.] J. G. FICHTE. 483
lie pretended to have established between it and the Critical
method ; as also with regard to the means of detecting in
Consciousness the original activity of the Ego. At first
he attempted this on the laws of Thought, but subse-
quently had recourse to Intellectual Perception; (in his
tionnenklarer Bericht, mentioned p. 432, note) . The most re-
markable difference, however, between the earlier and later
editions of the Theory of Science, is this : that the first was
composed on the principles of Idealism, the latter on those
of liealism. The former sets out with asserting the un-
limited and independent activity of the Ego ; the latter by
maintaining the absolute Esse of the Deity, as the only
true reality — the only pure and self-existing life — of whom
the world and consciousness are but the image and impress ;
treating objective nature as nothing more than a limitation
of Divine Life. The philosophical system of Schelling ap-
pears to have contributed, no less than the religious senti-
ment, to effect this change.
The Doctrine of Science excited a prodigious deal of atten-
tion and gained a great number of partisans : among others,
F. K. Forbcrg, (see the catalogue of Fichte's works, below) ;
F. J. Niethammer, (born 1766); C. L. Eeinlwld (see §398);
Schellwg (see following §) ; J. B. ftcliad (§ 412), after-
Umrisse dargestellt, Berlin, 1810, 8vo. Die Thatsachen des Bewusst-
seyns. Vorlesungen gehalten, etc., zu Berlin, 1810 — 11; Stutig. und
Tub. 1817, 8vo.
On Religious Philosophy in particular : Versuch einer Kritik aller
Offenbarung (anonym.) 2te verm, und verb. Aufl. Konigsb. 1793, Svo.
Ueber den Grund misers Glaubens an eine gottliche Wcltregierung
(Philosoph. Journal, VIII B. (1798), 1 St. Fb. K. Forberg's Ent-
wickelung des Begriffs der Religion ebendaselbst.) Appellation an das
Publicum iiber die ihm beigemessenen atheistischen Aeusserungen,
Jena und Leipz. 1799, 8vo. Der Herausgeber des Philosophischen
Journals gerichtliche Verantwortungsschriften gegen die Anklage des
Atheismus, Jena, 1799, 8vo. (Forbeeg's Apologie seines angeblichen
Atheismus, Gotha, 1799, 8vo.) Anweisung zum seligen Leben, oder
audi die Religionslehre, etc. Berl. 1806, 8vo. The way to the Blessed
Life, or the Doctrine of Religion, translated by William Smith, Lon-
don, 1849.
Ethical and other -writings : Vorlesungen iiber die Bestimmung des
Gelehrten, Jena, 1794, Svo. System der Sittenlehre, Jena und Lcijiz.
1798, 8vo. Bcitrage zur Berichtigung der Urtheilc des Publicums iiber
die Franzosische Revolution, 1793, 8vo. Grundlage des Naturreehts,
Jena, 1796 — 97, II Theile, 8vo. Ueber die Bestimmung des Mcnschen,
2 F
434 THIED PERIOD. . [SECT.
wards a disciple of Schelling ; Abicht (§ 414) ; llehnel, and
others.1
It also encountered many sturdy antagonists and severe
critics, especially among the Kantists.3 The end of it has
Berl. 1800, 8vo. The Vocation of Man, translated by "W. Smith, 8vo.
London, 1849. Der geschlossene Handelsstaat : em philosoph. Entwurf
als Anhang zur Rechtsl. Tub. 1 800, 8vo. Yorlesungen liber das Wesen
des Gelehrten, Berl. 1806, 8vo. The Nature of the Scholar, and its
Manifestations, translated by W. Smith, second edition, 8vo. London,
1849. Die Grundzuge des gegenwartigen Zeitalters, Berl. 1806, 8vo.
The Characteristics of the Present Age, translated by W. Smith, 8vo.
London, 1849. Keden an die Deutsche Nation, Berl. 1808, 8vo. Dio
Vorlesungen iiber den Begrirf des wahrhaften Kriegs, ebend. 1813, 8vo.
Die Staatslehre, oder uber das Yerh'altniss des Urstaats zum Yernunft-
reiche in Vortragen, etc., aus dem Nachlasse herausgeg. Berl. 1820, 8vo.
Fichte's Sammtliche Werke (complete works), 11 vols. 8vo. Berlin,
1845, &c.
1 Works illustrative of those of Fichte : Philoscphisches Journal,
herausgegeben von Niethammer, Neudrel und Jena, 1795-96, 4 B.;
mit Fichte, 1797—1800, V— X B.
Fk. W. Jos. Schelling, Abhandlungen zur Erlauterung des Ideal-
ismus der Wissensschaftslehre in dem Philos. Journal von Fichte und
Niethammer,' 1796 und 1797; and in Schelling's Philos. Schriften,
1 Band.
Joh. Bapt. Schad, Grundriss der Wissenschaftlslehre, Jena, 1800,
8vo. Gemeinfassliche Darstellung des Fichteschen Systemes und der
daraus hervorgehenden Religionstheorie, Erfurt, 1799 — 1801, 111 B.
8vo. Geist der Philosophic unserer Zeit, Jena, 1800, 8vo. Absolute
Harmonie des Fichteschen Systems mit der Eeligion, Erfurt, 1802,
8vo. Transcendentale Logik, Jena, 1801, 8vo.
G. E. A. Mehmel, Lehrbuch der Sittenlehre, Erlang. 1811. Reine
Reehtslehre, ebend. 1815, 8vo. At an earlier date: Versuch einer
vollst. analyt. Denklehre, 1803, and Ueber das Yerhaltniss der Philos.
zur Religion, 1805, 8vo. u. a.
2 Criticisms of Fichte's theory :
Stimme eines Arktikers uber Fichte und sein Yerfahren gegen die
Kantianer (von K. T. Rink), 1799, 8vo.
Yom Yerhaltniss des Idealismus zur Religion : oder, 1st die neueste
Philosophie auf dem Wege zum Atheismus? 1799, 8vo.
Frcimuthige Gedanken liber Fichte's Appellation gegen die Anklage
des Atheismus und deren Yeranlassung, Gotha, 1799, 8vo.
J. H. Gl. Heusinger, Ueber das Idealistisch-Atheistische System des
Hrn. Prof. Fichte, Dresden und Gotha, 1799, 8vo.
K. L. Reinhold, Sendschreiben an Lavater und Fichte Uber den
Glauben an Gott, Hamb. 1799, 8vo.
F. H. Jacobi an Fichte, Hamb. 1799, 8vo.
W. Tr. Krug, Briefe iiber die Wissenschaftslehre, Leipz. 1800, 8vo.
406.] schelllstg's theoet. 435
been the same with that of all other exclusive theories ; and
in spite of its imposing tone of authority, which would
elevate speculation at the expense of experimental know-
ledge (which it affects to contemn), it has failed to acquire
an ascendency in matters of philosophy. At the same time,
it must be confessed that in its day it had great influence
over the minds of Fichte' s contemporaries ; and by the sort
of eloquence which characterized his compositions, has pro-
moted in many men a strong tendency to anti-sensuous
pursuits and investigations.
ScJielling's Theory of Absolute Identity.
406. Fichte had attempted to construct a system of
knowledge on the principles of Idealism, in respect both of
Eorm and Matter ; but Schelling carried speculation a step
farther, and instead of the Ego, the Subject- Object, placed
at the head of his system the absolute Itself, or the
Original JEgo (das Ur-Ich), and proposed to solve, on
philosophical principles, the highest problem which Bea-
son can contemplate — the nature of Absolute Being, and
the manner in which all finite beings are derived from
it. F. W. J. von Schelling1 is unquestionably an original
thinker, superior to Fichte for the vivacity of his imagi-
nation, the poetical character of his genius, and the ex-
tent of his acquirements ; more particularly in the history
Gottlob Chr. Fe. Fischhaber, Ueber das Princip und die Haupt-
probleme des Fichteschen Systems, nebst einem Entwurf zu einer
neuen Auflosung derselben, Carlsrulie, 1801, 8vo.
C. Chr. Ehr. Schmid's Ausfiihrliche Kritik des Buchs : Die Bestim-
mung des Menschen, in Schmid's Aufsatzen Philosophischen und
Theologischen inhalts, Jena, 1802, 8vo.
Ch. F. Bohme, Commentar iiber und gegen den ersten Grundsatz
der wissenschaftlichen Lehre, Altenb. 1802, 8vo.
Jac. Fries; Reinhold, Fichte, und Schelling, Leipz. 1803, 8vo.
Fr. Wilh. Jos. Schelling, Darlegung des wahren Verhaltnisses der
.Naturphilosophie zu der verbesserten Fichteschen Lehre, Tubingen,
1806, 8vo.
H. L. Egidius, Johann Gottlieb Fichte ; In Duller's Mannern des
Volks, 1847, IV Band, lste Lieferung.
Bayer, Zu Fichte's Gedachtniss, 1835.
1 An Aulic councillor, and at the present time a professor at
Munich; born at Leonberg in Wiirtemberg, Jan. 27, 1775.
2 r 2
436 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
of ancient philosophy, in antiquities, and natural history.
Having studied at Tubingen the systems of Kant, Eeinhold,
and jfEnesidemus (Schulze), he accused the former of failing
to deduce his conclusions from the first axioms of science,
and desiderated a common principle which might embrace
alike the Speculative and Practical department of know-
ledge j1 objecting also to the use made of what was called
the Moral Proof.2 Pichte' s theory made a strong impres-
sion on his youthful and ardent temper, more inclined to
adopt with readiness the imagination of the infinite and
creative activity of the human mind, than disposed to a
painful examination of the forms and laws by which that
activity is circumscribed. With such views the young
scholar resorted to Jena, where he formed a close intimacy
with Pichte, and defended his theory against the partisans
or the adversaries of Kant ; without, however, adopting all
its dogmata. Gradually he dissented more and more from
the system of his master, in proportion as he became more
and more sensible of its exclusive character.
407. Pichte had deduced all his system from the opera-
tions of the Ego in what may be termed a progressive
method; but without offering any proof for his leading
assertion that the Subjective produces and creates the
Objective ; the latter never producing the Subjective. This
process may be reversed and the argument conducted from
Objective Nature to the Ego ; and if a due reference be not
made to the Critical system, the one method is no less
admissible than the other. Spinoza had already produced a
system of Dogmatism carried to the highest possible point,
and ending in an objective Eealism ; and by such consider-
ations Schelling was led to form the idea of two opposite
and parallel philosophical Sciences — the Transcendental
Philosophy, and the Pldlosopliy of Nature, to the special
1 With these views he composed his first work : ITebcr die Moglich-
keit einer Form der Philos. iiberhaupt, Tubing. 1795; and, Vom Ich
als princip der Philos. ; oder, Uber das Unbedingte in der menschlichen
Wissenschaft, ibid. 1805, 8vo. (see his Philos. Works, vol. I.)
2 See his t Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism;
first published in the Journal of Niethammer, 1796, and since incorpo-
rated in his works.
Eosenkranz, Schelling : Vorlesungen gehalten an der Universitlit
zu Konigsberg, 1843.
407.] schelling's theoey of identity. 437
treatment of which, especially the latter, he devoted various
works. The former begins with the consideration of the
Ego, and derives from that the Objective, the Multifarious,
the Necessary,— in short — the system of Nature. The
latter sets out with the contemplation of Nature, and
deduces therefrom the Mgo, the Unrestricted, and the
Simple. The tendency ol both is to illustrate, by their mutual
relations, the powers of Nature and the Soul, considered as
identical.
The principle which they have in common is this; The
laws of Nature must exist within us as the laws of Con-
sciousness ; and, vice versa, the laws of Consciousness are
found to exist in objective nature as the laws of Nature.
It is to be observed, however, that the first of these two
Sciences cannot investigate to the end the inexhaustible
variety of external Nature ; nor can the second attain to a
perception of the Simple and Absolute. It ig impossible to
explain to ourselves by the ordinary processes of the under-
standing, how out of Unity arises Multiplicity, and out of
Multiplicity — Unity (the last combining the twofold cha-
racters of Unity and Multiplicity) ; both become lost in
the Infinite, which is common to both. There must conse-
quently be a still higher Philosophy which serves as a
common link to the two others which are equally dependent
on it, and which both unite in it. In this manner Schelling
founded his system on the Original Identity of that which
knows and that which is known, and was led to conclude
the absolute identity of the Subjective and Objective, or the
Indifference of the Differing ; in which consists the essence
of the Absolute : — that is, the Deity. The Absolute is
recognized by an absolute act of cognition, in which the
Subjective and Objective concur, implicitly and indistinctly;
in other words, by Intellectual Perception. Consequently
Schelling opposes Absolute Cognition or Knowledge, ob-
tained through the medium of the Ideas, to inferior or
empirical knowledge, the result of Reflection by means of
the conceptions of the understanding. The last descrip-
tion of knowledge is directed to things conditional, indivi-
dual, and divisible, which are associated by a process of the
understanding. The former contemplates the Absolute,
which is independent and unconditional, and is apprehended
438 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
by means of the Ideas. This is Science properly so called,
and develops itself (agreeably to its nature) as Unity, in
an organic whole, in which the Subjective and Objective are
indivisible and identical: a divine Science, embracing the
highest sphere of Nature ; the only Science worthy of our
serious regard, or of the name of Philosophy.
In this manner the system of Schelling proposes to attain
to a knowledge of the essences and forms of all things, by
means of Ideas of the Reason or Intuition, and asserts that
to be and to know are identical (whence its appellation of the
system of Absolute Identity (Identitatslehre) . It is a tran-
scendental and, according to Schelling, absolute system of
Idealism, which would derive all knowledge, not from the
partial principle of the Ego, but from one still higher — the
Absolute ; comprehending not only the Ego, but Nature
also. It proposes to attain to a knowledge of the latter by
means of Ideas1 (Philosophy of Nature, Construction of
Nature a priori), and labours to establish a perpetual paral-
lelism or analogy between the laws of Nature and those of
Intelligence. In short, it is Idealism and Realism carried
forward to a loftier platform, that of the Absolute.
408. The Absolute is neither infinite nor finite ; neither
Esse (Seyn) nor cognition (Erkennen); neither Subject nor
Object ; but that wherein all opposition of Subject and Ob-
ject, Knowledge and Existence, Spirit and Nature, Ideal and
Real, together with all other differences and distinctions,
are absorbed and disappear, leaving an indissoluble and
equal union of cognition and Esse. This Absolute Identity
of Ideal and Real, and Absolute Indifference of the Differing
(of Unity and Plurality), is the Unity which comprehends
the Universe.2 Absolute Identity exists; and out of its
limits nothing really exists, and, consequently, nothing is
finite which exists per se. All that is, is Absolute Iden-
tity or a development of its essence. This development
takes place in conformity with certain correlative Opposi-
tions of terms, which are derived from Absolute Identity as
the poles or sides of the same object, with a preponderance
to the Ideal or Real ; and become identified by the law of
1 The Philosophy of Nature, or the Construction of Nature a priori,!
2 See Considerations on various Philosophical Principles, and parti-
cularly that of Schelling, in Fischhabcr's Archiv. fUr Philos. I Heft.
408.] schelling's theosy or identity. 439
Totality ; the principle of their development being that of
Identity in Triplicity. Such identity is sometimes styled a
division of the Absolute ; sometimes a spontaneous revela-
tion of the same ; sometimes a falling-off of the Ideas from
the Deity. By such a revelation Absolute Knowledge is
made possible to us ; Reason itself (as far as it is Absolute)
being the identification of the Ideal and .Real. The charac-
teristic form of the Absolute is absolute knowledge, in
which Identity and Unity assume the character of Duality
(A — A). The leading propositions of this theory conse-
quently are : 1. That there exists but one identical nature;
and that merely a quantitive (not a qualitive) difference exists
between objects, quoad essentiam, resulting from the prepon-
derance of the Objective or Subjective — the Ideal or Real.
The Finite has only an apparent existence, inasmuch as it is
the product of merely relative Reflection. 2. The One
Absolute Nature reveals Itself in the eternal generation of
existing things, which on their part constitute the forms of
the first. Consequently each individual Being is a revelation
of Absolute Being, in a determinate form. Nothing can
exist which does not participate in the Divine Being. Con-
sequently the Natural world is not dead, but animated and
divine, no less than the Ideal. 3. This revelation of the
Absolute takes place in conformity with certain correlative
Oppositions which characterise different gradations of de-
velopment, with a preponderance of the Real or the Ideal ;
and which consequently are nothing more than so many
expressions of Absolute Identity. Science investigates these
Oppositions, and presents a picture of the Universe, by
deducing the Ideas of objects from the original contempla-
tion of the Absolute, on the principle of Identity in Tripli-
city (called by Schelling the process of Construction), in
conformity with the creative process observable in Nature
itself. This Ideal construction is what we call Philosophy
(the Science of Ideas) ; the highest effort of which is the
discovery of a relative form amid the multifariousness of
external Nature, and the recognition, in this relative form,
of Absolute Identity.
440 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
The scheme of such Construction is as follows :
I. The Absolute — The Universe in its original form — The Deity:
manifested in
II. Nature (the Absolute in its secondary form),
As Kelative and Keal As Relative and Ideal ;
According to the following gradations :
Weight— Matter
Light — Motion
Organic Structure — Life
Truth — Science
Goodness — Religion
Beauty — Art.
Above these gradations (technically named Potenzen by Schelling),
and independent of them, are arranged :
Man (as a Microcosm) I The State
The System of the World History.
^The external Universe) \
409. Schelling believed himself to have discovered in
Ideas the essence of all things and their necessary forms ;
following the process of Intuitive Perception. He affected
to amend the system of Kant, who had only recognised
the existence of a knowledge of the world of appear-
ance, and allowed nothing more than belief for things
existing per se ; and thought he had refuted Fichte, who
represents the Ego as the only true Being, and all Nature
as a dead and lifeless non-existence, incapable of any other
characteristics than those belonging to a negation or limita-
tion of the Ego. Feeling confident that he had originated
an ideal construction of the universe, not as it appears to us
but as it really exists, he unfolded his views with great
ability, without conforming himself to the subdivisions of
Philosophy usually observed, and made a skilful use of his
acquaintance with the theories of Plato, Giordano Bruno, and
Spinoza. After having published several statements of his
theory at large, he applied himself especially to one branch
of it — the application of its principles to real existence or
the Philosophy of Nature, considered as the living principle
which produces all things by subdivision of itself, according
to the law of Duality. Of the Ideal Department of his
system he treated only some separate questions: in his
later writings, on Free-will and the Origin of Evil, the
Nature of God, etc.1 On the subject of Morals he delivers
1 In his Philosophy and Keligion ; in his Essay en Free-will ; in the
Letter to Eschenmayer with reference to this treatise ; and (enpassant)
in his controversies with Fichte and Jacobi.
409.] schilling's philosophy oe nature. 441
himself as follows : The knowledge of God is the first
principle of all Morality. The existence of God necessarily
implies that of a moral world. Virtue is a state of the soul
in which it conforms itself not to an external law, but an
internal necessity of its own nature. Morality is also Hap-
piness. Happiness is not an accidental consequence of
Virtue, but Virtue itself. The essence of Morality is the
tendency of the soul to unite itself to God as the centre of
all things. Social life, regulated according to the Divine
example with reference to Morality and Beligion — Art and
Science — is what we denominate a community, or The State.
It is a harmony of necessity and free-will, with an external
organization. History, as a whole, is a revelation of the
Deity, progressively developed. In his treatise on Eree-will,
Schelling went on to make a distinction between the Deity
(simply so considered, or the Absolute), and the Deity as
existing, or revealing himself, proceeding from a principle of
existence contained in the Deity (Nature in the Godhead),
and thus attaining the condition of a complete Esse, and
assuming the character of personality (l)eus implicitus
explicit us : see the following section). Every production of
[Nature contains in itself a double principle, viz., an obscure
and a luminous one, which to a certain extent are identical.
In man these constitute Selfhood, which is spirit and will,
which have the power of separating themselves from the
Universal Will that sways all Nature, by virtue of indi-
vidual free-will. The consequence of this opposition of
Individual to Universal "Will, is the origin of evil; which
becomes real only by virtue of such opposition. Schelling
has treated the subject of Beauty merely with a reference to
Art, defining it to be the Infinite represented in a finite
shape, and describing Art as a pourtraying of the Ideas,
and a revelation of God to the human mind. This theory
must be regarded as incomplete (according to Schelling's
own confession, Phil. Schr. IB.); its scientific development,
as a whole, being conveyed to us only in a brief fragment.1
1 In the Zeitschrift fur speculative Physik, 2 B. 2 Heft, s. 114, sqq.
His works (besides those already mentioned § 405). Ideen zu einer
Pkilosophie der Xatur, als Einleitung in das Stud, dieser W. 1 Th.
Leipz. 1797, 8vo. Zweite durchaus verb, und verm. Aufl. Landshut,
1803. Von der Weltscele : eine Hypothese der hohern Physik zur
442 TIIIBD PEBIOD. [SECT.
Tennemanrts Criticism on the above System.
410. The theory of Schelling is remarkable for the origi-
nality of the views it contains, the magnitude of the pro-
blems it would solve, the consistency of its plan, and the
vast circle of its application. It binds together by one
single Idea all the essences of Nature, removing the limits
which had been assigned by Kant to the dominion of
Science, and asserting the possibility not only of a subjective
representation, but of an objective and scientific cognition
— of a certain and determinate Science ( Wissen) of God and
Divine things, by virtue of the identity between the human,
mind and the essence of all Being. It embraces the whole
circle of philosophical speculation, removing, as it does, the
distinction between empirical and rational knowledge ; and
Erklarung des allgeni. Organismus, nebst einer Abhandl. liber das
Yerh'altniss des Idealen und Realen in der Natur, oder Entwickelung
der ersten Grunds'atze der Naturphilosophie aus den Principien der
Schwere und des Lichts, Hamb. 1798, 3vo. ; 3te Auflage, 1809. The
last treatise printed separately, Hamb, 1805, and Landshut, 1807.
Erster Entwurf eines Systems der JSiatur philosophic, Jena, 1799, 8vo.
Einleitung zu seinem Entwurfe eines Systems der JSTaturphilosophie,
oder, Uber den Begriff der speculative Physik, etc., ebend. 1799, 8vo.
System des transcendentalen Idealismus, Tub. 1800, 8vo. Zeitschrift
fur die speculative Physik, 1 und 2 B. Jena, 1800 — 3, 8vo. Neue
Zeitschrift, u. s. w. Tub. 1803. Krit. Journal der Phil, herausg. von
Schelling und Hegel, 2 B. Tub. 1802 — 3, 8vo. Bruno ; oder iiber das
gottl. und naturl. Princip der Dinger ein Gespr'ach, Berl. 1802, 8vo.
neue Aufl. ib. 1842. Vorlesungen iiber die Methode des akad. Studiums,
Stuttg. u. Tub. 1803, 8vo. 2te unver'and. Aufl. 1815. Philosopliie und
Religion. Tub. 1804. Darlegung des warhen Verhiiltnisses der Natur-
philosophie zu der verbesserten Fichteschen Lehre, Tub. 1806, 8vo.
Jahrbiicher der Medicin als Wissenschaft (darin Aphorismen zur Einl.
in die Naturphilos. 1 B. I Heft.) Tub. 1806. Philosophische Schriften,
1 B. Landshut, 1809, 8vo. ; (containing also his Rede iiber das Ver-
haltniss der bildenden Kiinste zu der Natur, 1807, gehalten; und die
Abhandlung : Philosophische Untersuchungen uber das Wesen der
menschl. Freiheit, und die damit zusammenh'angengen Gegenstande.)
Schelling's Denkmal der Schrift von den gottlichen Dingen des Hrn.
E. H. Jacobi, und der ihm in derselben gemachten Beschuldigung
eines absichtlich, t'auschenden, Luge-redenden Atheismus. Tub. 1812,
8vo. Allgemeine Zeitschrift von und fiir Deutsche, III Hefte ; (con-
taining Schelling's answer to a writing of Eschenmayee, iiber die Abh.
von der Freiheit.) Ueber die Gottheiten von Samothrace, Stuttg. u.
Tub. 1815, 8vo.
410.] VERDICT ON SCHELLING. 443
its principles are made applicable to all the sciences. It Las
the appearance, however, of being, 1st. As relates to Prac-
tical Science, very confined and embarrassed ; nor can we
discover how, in such a system of Absolute Identity, there
can be room for 'practical necessity, or, in other words, the
obligation of duty.1 The theory is characterised by a blind
sort of Natural Necessity and Determinism : — Grod reveals
himself of necessity.* All History, and all the mutations
of the world are but the modifications of his Esse.2,
2ndly. Independently of this partial view of Nature, the
system is deficient in the solidity of its principles. It is
not shown in what manner the human mind can elevate
itself to the intellectual perception described ; the prin-
ciples, therefore, laid down, are mere suppositions. Thought
without a Thinking Subject is nothing better than an abstract
idea. Absolute Identity is inconceivable independent of
[Relative Identity. "Without the latter, the former is re-
duced to a mere nonentity. It cannot be shown that Abso-
lute Identity constitutes the essence of all beings : Objective
Keality depends upon a confusion of the nature of Thought
with the nature of things. To pretend that a pure ab-
straction like this is real, and constitutes the essence
of all things, is a mere unfounded hypothesis, the proof
advanced by Schelling being altogether untenable:3 to
support which he has recourse to a mere play of words
("Identity of Identity and Non-Identity") — to contradic-
tion— (" The bond of Unity and Plurality — the Copula —
the Absolute in the Absolute — the Divine in the Divine,
etc."), and to a multitude of vague and indefinite terms.
3rdly. This theory has only the appearance of a scientific
system. The attempt to deduce the finite from the Infinite
and Absolute, and the Particular from the Universal, by
means of a real demonstration (construction), has proved
abortive.4 The author maintains that a Pinite and Infinite,
1 See Schelling, Philos. u. Relig. s. 53 u. f. Philos. Schriften, s. 41 3.
* Tennemann's criticism of Schelling, from the Kantian point of
view, will probably appear too severe. Hegel has more successfully
indicated the weak points of the Philosophy of Identity. — Ed.
2 Darstellung des wahr. Verh. s. 66.
3 Zeitschr. § 7. Darstellung der Verh. s. 50.
4 See Zeitschrift fur speculative Physik, 2 B. II lift. v. 18; Bruno,
S. 81—131 ; Philos. und Eel. s. 35.
44-1 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
a Beal and Ideal, have co-existed from the beginning of
things, in an indissoluble union ; but anon he is obliged to
suppose a separation between them, by virtue of his hypo-
thesis of Absolute Identity. The same is the case with
regard to self-revelation. The only answer he affords to the
question, Why the Deity should reveal himself? — is a
simple assertion that so it must be.1 Occasionally he has
recourse to Plato's mythical hypothesis of a Fall of the
Ideas from the Absolute p concerning which it may be
queried how any thing can fall from the Absolute, which by
hypothesis embraces and contains all things ? Occasionally
he labours to demonstrate that nothing exists besides Unity,
the Copula, and the Absolute :3 whence, then, are derived
finite knowledge, having reference to Space and Time ; and
the Categories ? All that gives to his argument the appear-
ance of successful demonstration is, that he has substituted
for the vague idea of the Absolute certain fictions of
the Imagination, and notions borrowed from experience.
4thly. Can any one presume to believe that the inscrutable
nature of the Godhead is contained in the idea of Absolute
Identity ? His Natural Philosophy conveys to us no know-
ledge of Grod, and the little it reveals appears opposed to
Religion.4 It becomes a system of Pantheism by identifying
the Deity with Nature,5 and makes the Deity himself sub-
ject to superior laws, supposing him obliged to reveal
himself, and making the Divinity, as Intelligence, proceed,
within the compass of Time, from non-intelligent principles
— Nature in the Deity, and Chaos. The Deity is supposed
to render passive a certain portion of his nature writh which
before he energised ; and to enable us to conceive of him as
a personal being, we are obliged to suppose the existence in
him of Nature as a negative essence.0 Grod is represented
not only as a Divine Being, but as Life. Now Life presup-
poses a certain destiny, and implies passive affections and a
gradual development ; and to such limitations we are taught
1 As a fact morally necessary : Abhandlung Uber die Frciheit, s. 492.
" Eelig. u. Philos. s. 35.
3 Darstellung, s. 62.
4 See the close of the following section.
5 Schelling has endeavoured to repel this charge (Philos. u. Eelig.
s. 52. Schr. s. 402 ff.) 6 Pages 96, 87.
411 — 412.] schelli^g's east attempt. 445
to believe that the Deity has voluntarily submitted himself.1
The whole theory is nothing better than an ingenious fiction,
which, by offering the appearance of a solution of all diffi-
culties, and by its pretended Construction of Nature,
proved generally attractive ; as well as by removing all idea
of constraint or Moral Obligation, by suggesting a variety
of new ideas, and by appearing to throw open a wide
perspective to the views of Science. As for the manner of
Schelling, we are called upon to remark, besides the faults
of a vague and indeterminate mode of expression already
noticed, the employment of certain mythical and meta-
phorical terms, after the manner of Plato, which increase
the difficulties belonging to his system.
411. Subsequently to Schelling' s earlier labours, he spent
many years in comparative iuactivity, chiefly at Munich,
where he confined himself to casual publications and lec-
tures, that scarcely sufficed to maintain his previous reputa-
tion. The principal works that he wrote at this time were
his Lectures on the 3Ietlwd of Academic Study (1803),
Philosophy and Religion, and sundry prefaces to works of a
philosophical character. On his appointment as Professor
of Philosophy at Berlin, in 1841, he delivered a course of
lectures on the Philosophy of Bevelation, in which Schelling
describes his present position as a Positive Philosophy, or
Philosophy of Mythology and Revelation. The only im-
pression of these lectures that has appeared, is that which
was published by Paulus at Heidelberg in 1844 ; and as it is
not recognised by the author, it cannot be regarded as an
authentic source of his latest philosophy. It is generally
understood that Schelling was far from exhibiting the acute-
ness of his youth in his last lectures, in which he attempted
to supplant the Hegelian system ; and he soon relinquished
the arduous task, for which he was no longer qualified.
Partisans and Adversaries of the System of Sclielling.
412. The enthusiasm which this system excited may be
explained by a reference to the character of the theory
itself, and of the times in which it appeared. A consider-
able school of disciples was formed among the moral philo-
1 Abhandlung Ubcr die Freiheit, s. 483, Phil. Schr.
44G THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
sophers, theologians, philologists, physicists, and naturalists
of the day ; who professed to investigate anew their several
sciences on the principles of the system of Absolute Iden-
tity, and aspired to complete that system by fresh disco-
veries. The views of Schelling had a more especial influence
on the sciences of Natural History, Mythology, History,
and the theory of Taste. The two Scldegels1 at one time
contributed to extend its reputation by their labours in the
last department. Others of this school were less commend-
able ; and a dizzy spirit of exaggeration seemed to possess
its professors, which led them to accept as the highest
efforts of wisdom the most extravagant and fantastical con-
ceptions; and, by allying itself to superstition and enthu-
siasm, seemed to restore the days of JNeo-platonism.
To this school belonged the Naturalists H. Steffens?
J. Gorres*, the Chevalier JP. von JBaader^, L. Oken5, J. JP.
1 Frederic and William Augustus. The first was many years Pro-
fessor at Bonn, where he distinguished himself by his valuable researches
into the literary treasures of the Hindoos, and his studies in the Romance
language. He became a Catholic at a later date, and engaged in con-
flict with rationalistic philosophy in general, and has published several
valuable and important works, viz. : Philosophy of Life (15 Lectures),
8vo. Vienna, 1828. Translated (with his Philosophy of Language),
Bohn, 1847. Philosophy of History (18 Lectures), 2 v. 8vo. Vienna, 1828.
Translated into English by J. B. Eobertson, in Bonn's Library, 1848.
^Esthetic Works, translated by J. Millington, Bohn's Standard Library,
1849. Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, translated by Dr.
Black and J. Morrison, Bohn, 1846.
Augustus William Schlegel was chiefly noted for his labours in con-
nection with Dramatic Art; and especially for the admirable translation
of Shakespeare that he executed in connection with Tieck.
The complete works of Frederick Schlegel have lately been published
in 19 vols. 8vo. Vienna and Bonn, 1846; and the works of Augustus
William, in 12 vols. Leips. 1846.
2 Born at Stavanger in Norway, 1773 ; a professor at Breslau.
H. Steffens, Grundziige der philos. Natunvissenschaft, Berl. 1806,
8vo., with his other treatises on the Natural Sciences : Ueber die Idee
der Universit'aten, Berl. 1809, 8vo. Caricaturen des Heiligsten, Leipz.
1819—21, 2 Bde. u. a. Anthropologic, Bresl. 1822, 2 Bde. Von der
falschen Theologie und dem wahren Glauben, Bresl. 1824, 8vo.
3 Professor at Munich.
Gorres, Aphorismen Uber die Kunst, etc. Coblentz, 1804, 8vo.
Aphorismen Uber Organomie, ebend. 1804, und Francf. 1803, 1 Th.
Exposition der Physiologie, Coblentz, 1805. Glauben und Wissen,
Milnch. 1805. Mythengeschichte, etc.
412.] schelling's school. 447
V. Troxler} K. J. Windischmann? G. H.Sclnibert? F. J.
Sclielvers? (all of whom, with the exception of Oken, inclined
4 Of the University of Munich.
Fr. Baader, Beitr'age zur Elementarphysiologie, Hamb. 1797, 8vo.
Ueber das Pythagor. Quadrat in den Natur, oder die vier Weltge-
genden, Tub. 1799, u. a. Kl. Schriften in den Beitr'agen zur dynam.
Physik. Berl. 1809. sp'ater : Begriindung der Mthik durch die Physik,
Munch. 1813. Ueber den Blitz als Vater des Lichts an H. Jung,
1815. Abhandlungen Uber die Extase; Analogie des Erkenntniss und
des Zeugungsvermogens ; Ueber die Freiheit der Intelligenz: eine
Eede, Munch. Ueber die Vierzahl des Lebens, Berl. 1819, 8vo. S'atze
aus der Bildungs- und Begriindungslehre des Lebens, Berl. 1820, 8vo.
Fermenta Cognitionis, I— III Heft. Berl. 1822—23. (The first treats
of the origin of good and evil in men). Ueber die Vierzahl des
Lebens, Berl. 1819, 8vo. Proben religioser Philosophie alterer Zeit,
Leipz. 1825. 8vo. Vorlesungen uber rel. Philos. im Gegensatz der
irreligiosen alterer und neuerer Zeit, Munch. 1827, 8vo.
5 Professor at Munich.
L. Oken's Uebersicht des Grundrisses des Systems der Naturphilo-
sophie, und der damit entstehenden Theorie der Sinne, Francf. a. M.
(1802) 8vo. Abriss des Systems der Biologie, Gott. 1805. Ueber die
Zeugung, Hamb. 1805. Lehrbuch der Naturnhilosophie, Jena, 1809,
sqq. 3 B. 8vo. n. Aufl. 1829. Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte, 1 und
3 Th. Leipz. 1813, und Isis.
1 A Swiss physician.
Troxler's Versuche in der organ. Physik, Jena, 1804, 8vo. Ueber
das Leben und sein Problem, Gott. 1807. Elemente der Biosophie,
Leipz. 1808. Blicke in das Wesen des Menschen, Aarau, 1812, 8vo.
Philosophische Rechtslehre der ISTatur und des Gesetzes, etc. Zurich,
1820. 8vo. Naturlehre des menschlichen Erkennens, oder Metaphysik,
Aarau, 1828, 8vo. 2 A professor at Bonn.
K. J. Windischmann's Ideen zur Physik, I B. Wurz. und Bamb.
1805, 8vo. Vergl. Darstellung des Begriffs der Physik ; in Schelling's
neuer Zeitschr. fur spec. Phys. 1 B. I Heft. 1802. Ueber die Selbstvei*-
nichtung der Zeit, Heidelb. 1807, u. a.
3 A professor at Munich.
Schubert's Ansichten von der Nachtseite der Naturwissenchaft,
Dresd. 1808, 8vo ; neue Aufl. 1817. Ahndungen einerallg. Geschichte
des Lebens, Leipz. 3 Th. 1806—20, 8vo. Symbolik des Traums, etc.
Bamb. 1814; 2te Aufl. 1821. Altes and Neues aus dem Gebiet der
innern Seelenkunde, Leipz. 1816, 8vo. Die Urwelt und die Fixsterne,
Dresd. 1822, 8vo.
4 A professor at Heidelberg.
Schelvers, Elemenlarlehre der organ. Natur : 1 Th. Organomie,
Gott. 1800. Philosophie der Medicin, Frcf. 1809, 8vo. Ueber das Ge-
heimniss des Lebens, 1814, 8vo. Von den sieben Formen des Lebens,
Frcf. a. M. 1817, 8vo.
448 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
to the principle of Faith), K. E. ScJiellinf/,1 P. F. von
Walther,2 J. Weber,3 W. Nasse* D. G. Kieser, JBlasche,5 etc.
To these must be added the moral philosophers F. Ast,6
K. W. F. Solqer? (possessing more originality than the rest);
E. A. Esclienmayer, and J. J. Wagner? (the two last even-
tually became opposed to Schelling) ; and Hegel9 (§424),
who, as well as Krause, seceded in the end from the tenets
of his master. The doctrines of Schelling were expressly
taught by J. B. Schad10 (§ 405) ; G. 31. Klein (the most
1 K. E. Schelling, Ueber das Leben und seine Erscheinung, Land-
shut, 1806, 8vo.
2 Walther, Ueber Geburfc, Daseyn, und Tod, Niiriib. 1807. Ueber
den Egoismus in der Natur. ebend. 1807, u. a. Sp. Physiologic des
Menschen, etc. Landshut, 1807 — 8, 8vo.
3 Weber's Metaphysik des Sinnl. und Uebersinnl. Lands. 1801, 8vo.
Lehrbuch der Naturwissenschaft, Landshut, 1803 — 4. Philos., Eel.,
und Christenthurn im Biinde, Munchen, 1808 — 11, VII Hi'te. Wissen-
schaffc der materiellen Natur, oder Dynamik der Materie, Munchen,
1821, u. a.
4 Nasse, Ueber Naturphilosophie, Freyberg, 1809, Svo. Zcitschrift
flir psych. iErzte, Leipz. seit 1818.
5 Blasche, Ueber das Wichtigste, was in der ISTaturphilos. seit 1801
ist gcleistet word en, in der Zeitschr. Isis, herausgeg. Vox Oken,
IX St. Jahrg. 1819. Dessen Vertheidigung des naturphil. Systems in
der Isis, 1826; 5 Heft, (gegen die Einwiirfe im Hermes, XXIV, a oil
Bachmann). In Schellingscher Ansicht ist auch dessen Tkeodicee,
unter d. Titel : Das Bose im Einklange mit der Weltordung, Leipz.
1827, Svo. abgefasst.
6 Ast's Gnmdlinien der Philosophic, Landshut, 1807; n. A. 1809.
System der Kunstlehre, oder Lehr- und Handbuch der iEsthctik, etc.,
Leipz. 1805, 2te Aufl. Grundriss der yEsthetik, Landshut, 1807, und
Auszug : Grundlinien der iEsthetik, ebend. 1813, 8vo. Gcschichte der
Philos. s. S. 23.
7 Solger, Philos. Gesprache: erste Sammlung, Berl. 1817, Svo.
Erwin, Vier Gesprache iiber das Schone und die Kunst, Berl. 1815,
II Thle. 8vo. Nachgelassene Schriften und Brief wechsel ; herausg. von
L. Tieck und Fr. von Eaumee, Leipz. 1826, II B. 8vo.
Solger's Philosophic, dargestellt von Eeinholdt Schmidt, 1841.
8 Philosophic der Erziehungskunst, Leipz. 1803, 8vo. Von der
Natur der Dinge, Leipz. 1803, 8vo. System der Idealphilosophie,
Leipz. 1804, 8vo. His other works will be mentioned below, § 423.
9 See his Differenz des Fichteschen und Schelling'schen Systems in
Beziehung auf Eeinhold's Beitrage, etc., Jena, 1801, 8vo. ; and the
Critical Journal published conjointly with Schelling.
10 System der Natur- und Transcendental philosophic, in Verbindung
dargestellt, Landsh. 1803 — 4, II Thle. Svo. His later publications
413.] schellixg's school. 449
faithful expositor of the system)1 ; and reduced to a course
of philosophy by Ign. Thanner,2, and Th. A. Riecner? By
Zimmer* and JBuchner5 the theory was applied to the prin-
ciples of Religion and Ethics ; and by Baclimann 6 and
Nusslein"1 to ^Esthetics. The former of these ended by
adopting other opinions.
Among the adversaries of the system were several dis-
tinguished partisans of the theory of Kant, as well as the
are : Institutiones Philosophise Universe, etc., scripsit Jon. Schad,
P. I. Logicam complectens, Charkow, 1812. Institutiones Juris Nat.
ibid. 1814, 8vo.
1 A professor at Wurzburg. Klein, Beitrage zum Studium der Phi-
losophic als Wissenschaft des All. nebst einer vollst. und fassl. Darstel-
lung ihrer Hauptmomente, Wurzb. 1805, 8vo. Verstandeslehre, Bamb.
1810. Versuch, die Ethik als Wissenschaft zu begriinden, etc., Budolst.
1811. Darstellung der Philos. Religions- und Sittenlehre, Bamb. und
Wurzb. 1818, 8vo.
2 A professor at Salzburg. Thanner's Versuch einer moglichst
fachslichen Darstellung der absoluten Indentitatslehre, etc., Munclien,
1810, 8vo. Handbuch der Vorbereitung und Einl. zum selbst. Avissen-
schaftl. Stud. bes. der Philosophic Erster formaler Theil : die Denk-
lehre, MiXnchen, 1807. Zweiter mat. Theil : die Metaphysik, 1808, 8vo.
Also, Lehrbuch der theoretische Philosophic nach den Grundsatzen
der absoluten Identitatslehre fur akad. Vorles. I Th., Logik. ; II Th.,
Metaphysik (auch mit dem Titel : Logische, Metaphys. Aphorismen, etc.),
Salzb. 1811 — 12, 8vo. Lehr- und Handbuch der prakt. Philos. fiir
akad. Vorles. I Th. Allgem. prakt. Philos. und Naturrecht, ebend.
1811, 8vo.
3 A professor at Amberg. Rixner, Aphorismen aus der Philos. als
Leitfaden, Landshut, 1809, 8vo. umgearbeitet : Aphorismen der
gesammten Philos. zum Gebr. seiner Vorles. Ill Bdchen, Sidzbach,
1818, ff. 8vo.
4 Zimmer's Philos. Religionslehre, I Th. Lehre von der Idee des
Absoluten, Landshut, 1805, 8vo. Philos. Untersuchung iiber den allg.
Verl'all des menschl. Geschlechts, ebend. 1809, 8vo.
5 Buchner, Ueber Erkenntniss und Philos., Landshut, 1S06.
Orundsatze der Ethik, 1808, 8vo. Das Wesen der Religion, Dillingcn,
1805, 8vo. Zweite Aufi., Landsh. 1809.
6 A professor at Jena. Bachmann : Die Kunstwissenschaft in ihrem
allg. Umrisse dargestellt fiir akad. Vorles. Jena, 1811, 8vo. Ueber
Philos. und Kunst, Jena u. Leipz. 1812, 8vo. (see bibl. §§ 1, 41). Von
der Venvandtschaft der Physik und psychol. Preisschrift. Utrecht u.
Leipz. 1821. System der Logik, L/eipz. 1829, 8vo.
7 Nusslein's Lebrb. der Kunstwissenschaft, Landshut, 1819, 8vo.
Grundlinien der allg. Psychologie, etc., Mainz, 1821, 8vo. Der Logik,
Bamb. 1824, 8vo.
2 G
450 THIED PEBIOD. [SECT.
authors of certain new doctrines ; such as Ilerbart, Bouter-
welc, and Jacobi, whom we shall have occasion to mention
below. The religious opinions of Schelling were especially
attacked by the theologians ; who appear, however, to have
often understood them but imperfectly. Others (for in-
stance Daub) endeavoured to apply them to Eeligion.
Other Systems.
413. Ft. JBouterweTc,1 an acute reasoner who had origi-
nally embraced and even given a new exposition of the
theory of Kant, abjured the tenets of his master from a
conviction that they were not proof against Scepticism, and
professed himself dissatisfied with the partial character of
Fichte's Idealism. He maintained that Science demands
the Absolute, without which no knowledge nor even thought
is possible, inasmuch as something real, — a Being, or Esse,
— the Absolute, — is pre-supposed in all demonstration,
(this Absolute is the unknown X, which, according to Kant,
lies at the bottom of all appearances). Accordingly he
endeavoured to demonstrate in his ' Apodiktik ' the ineffi-
ciency of former philosophical systems, alleging that they
had attempted to arrive at cognition and conviction only by
means of mental conceptions and certain formularies, with-
out ever arriving at real and living Science. His leading
principles were, that all Thought and Sensation are founded
on some real ground and Esse — the Absolute ; which itself
is dependent on nothing else. Such an Esse is not disco-
verable by Thought, inasmuch as Thought pre-supposes its
existence, as something superior to itself. Consequently,
we are driven to conclude either that all Being is imaginary
and all Thought without foundation, or that there exists an
absolute faculty of cognition, which neither feels nor thinks,
constituting the fundamental principle of Reason itself, and
by virtue of which all Being is demonstrable. Subsequently
Bouterwek retracted this doctrine, and adopted a new
universal theory of Truth and Science, leading to a mode-
rate system of Transcendental nationalism, by means of
the principle of the Faith of Reason in itself. He defined
the end of philosophy to be the solution of the enigma of
nature and man, by distinguishing between the appearances
1 Born 1766, at Goslar ; died a professor at Gottingen, 1828.
413.] BOUTEBWEBT, 451
and the realities of objects, as far as it is attainable by
unassisted human reason. This must be effected by a
system of demonstration (ApodiJctik), to which empirical
.Psychology and Logic (in the popular sense of the term)
can contribute only the premises. This theory, like that of
Jacobi (§ 415), supposes all merely logical thought to be
mediate. All immediate knowledge (without which all dis-
cursive notions assume the character of mediate, and con-
sequently become nugatory) is dependent on the original
connection existing between the powers of Thought and
the Internal Sense in the Virtuality of Spiritual life — in
the oneness of the active powers of our nature, whether
subjective or objective. Eeason has confidence in herself
so far as she is pure Reason, and has confidence in truth
so far as she recognises therein (by virtue of the connection
just mentioned) her own independent energy; and dis-
covers in this energy the germ of conceptions, by means of
which she can elevate herself above sensible impressions to
the contemplation of the original principle of all Existence
and Thought (the idea of the Absolute). Consequently
Truth, in the metaphysical sense of the word, (or the agree-
ment of our thoughts with the supersensuous essences of
things, and their necessary connection with the first prin-
ciple of all Thought and Esse), — can be cognized by reason
immediately. Metaphysics (in connection with which comes
religious philosophy founded on religious sentiment) com-
plete the scientific development of this idea by instructing
us how far a knowledge of the nature of things is possible
to the human mind. Philosophical Ethics and Natural
Law are connected with the theoretical department of Phi-
losophy by means of Universal Practical Philosophy.
The subject of Natural Eight forms a special chapter in
philosophical Ethics, in which Right is treated as a reason-
able title, in virtue of which man, as a moral being, lays
claim to all the external conditions appertaining to him, in
all things relating to virtue and justice.
Bouterwek also laboured to establish a system of JEs-
thetics on psychological principles, and independent, to a
certain extent, of Philosophy.
Fr. Bouterwek, Aphorism en, den Freunden der Yernnnftkritik
nach Kant's Lehre vorgelcgt, G'olt. 1793, 8vo. Paulus Septimius : oder
2 g 2
452 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
die letzten Gelieimnisse des Eleusin. Priesters. (Philos. Pioman), Halle,
1795, II Thle. 8vo. Idee einer allgmeinen Apodiktik, etc. Gott. 1799,
II Th. 8vo. Anfangsgriinde der speculativen Philosophic, Gott. 1800,
8vo. Die Epochen der Vernunft nach der Idee der Apodiktik, Gott.
1802, 8vo. Anleitung zur Philosophic der Naturwissenschaft, Gott.
1803, 8vo. Neues Museum der Philosophic und Literatur, herausge-
geben von F. Boutekwek, Gott. 1803. Immanuel Kant : ein Denkmal,
Hamburg, 1805. Dialogen, Erste Sammlung. Halle, 1798. Funf
kosmopolitanische Briefe, Berl. 1794. Kleine Schriften philoso-
phischen, sesthetischen und literarischen inhalts, Gott. 1818. Briefe
an Theokles (liber Seelengrosse) Berlin, 1792. iEsthetik, Leipz. 1806,
II Th.; 3te Aufl. 1824, 8vo. Idcen zur Metaphysik des Schonen; in vier
Abhandl. ebend. 1807, 8vo. Praktische Aphorismen ; Grundsatze zu
einem ncuen Systeme der moral. Wissenschaften, Leipz. 1808. Lehr-
buch der Philos. Vorkentnisse (Allgemeine Einl., Psychologic und
Logik enthaltend ; sollte an die Stelle der angefiihrten Anfangsgriinde
treten.) Gott. 1810, 8vo. ; 2te Ausg. 1820, 8vo. Lehrb. der Philos.
Wissenschaften, nach einem neuem Bysteme entworfen, II Thle. Gott.
1813, 8vo. 2te verm, und verb. Aufiagc, ebend. 1820, 8vo. (the part
relating to religious philosophy being entirely re-written). Religion
der Vernunft, etc., ebend. 1824, 8vo.
414. C. G. Bardili1 endeavoured to make The Absolute
the basis of all philosophy on a new principle. He believed
himself to have detected such an one in Thought, and
sought to constitute Logic the source of real cognition;
elevating it to the rank of Metaphysics. Hobbes, and the
physician Leidenfrost (in his Confessio, 1793), had already
represented Thought as calculation, but Bardili was the
first to imagine that he could discover in Thought per se
(contemplated under its formal character), a real existence ;
nay, even the essence of the Deity. The nature of Thought
is such, that while it continues always the same it is capable
of infinite repetition and multiplication. It is A quatenus
A, in A : — Identity. Thought as Thought is neither Sub-
ject nor Object, nor the relation of the one to the other ;
but their common elementary principle, in which the con-
ceptions and judgments of the mind have their origin, being
at the same time an infinitivus determinants and a determi-
iwtum. This principle of Thought, however, determines
nothing until applied to something else, that is, to Matter ;
which is a necessary postulate of the system. The charac-
teristics of Thought, as Thought, are Unity in Plurality:
1 Born at Blaubeuern, 1761 ; died at Stuttgard, 1808.
414.] BAEDILL 453
— Identity. The characteristics of Matter are Diversity
and Multiplicity. Thought, the First and Absolute prin-
ciple, is not determined by Matter ; but vice versa, the latter
by it. The application of Thought to Matter brings with it
a judgment in the thing thought ; 1. as something real ap-
prehended by the mind (B — Eeality). 2. as a mere con-
ception of the mind (B — Possibility). The agreement of
Thought with Matter constitutes Keality, which is only a
more express determination of the Possible. Thus, in the
conception of every object, pure possibility and reality per-
form the functions of arithmetical factors. God is pure
possibility repeating itself in every thing and determining
every thought, the first foundation of all truth, and conse-
quently also of logic.
Bardili styled his obscure and empty abstraction a Primary
Logic, and announced its pretensions with considerable osten-
tation, but without much success.1 The system of Rational
Baalism it was designed to support was no less unsuccessful,
notwithstanding the subtle analysis of Eeinhold (§ 398.)
About the same time many systematic essays appeared,
which were either too eccentric and obscure, or too shallow
to answer the demands of science. Of this number was the
Arcliimetria of the ingenious Swede, Th. Tkorild,2 which.
1 Bardili 's Grnndriss der ersten Logik, gereinigt von den Irrthu-
mern der bisherig. Logik, besonders der Kantischen, Stuttg. 1800, 8vo.
Philosophische Elementarlehre, I Heft. Landsh. 1802 ; II Heft, 1806,
8vo. Beitrage zur Beurtheilung des gegenwartigen Zustandes der
Vernunftlehre, Landsh. 2 vols. 8vo. 1802—1806.
At an earlier period Bardili had distinguished himself as an acute
thinker by his Epochen der vorzuglichten philosophischen Begriffe,
I Th. Halle, 1788, 8vo. Sophylus : oder Sittlichkeit und Natur, als
Fundament der Weltweisheit, ebend. 1794. Allgemeine praktische
Philosophic, ebend. 1795. Ueber die Gesetze der Ideenassociation,
ebend. 1796, and, Ueber den Ursprung des BegrifFs von der Willens-
freiheit (gcgen Forberg), Stuttg. 1796. Bricfe iiber den Ursprung
der Metaphysik (anonym.) Altona, 1798, 8vo.
2 Died a professorat Greifswald, 1808. Maximum, sive Arcliimetria.
Berol. 1799, 8vo. He defines it as, Generalis critica Tanti et Totius :
the foundation of knowledge he finds in the necessity of thus thinking.
There are only true objects ; all error and all difference of cognition
consists in the quantum (Wieviel). His Philosophiscb.es Glaubensbe-
kentniss appears to have been suppressed by authority. His complete
works were published at Upsala, 8vo. 1819,
454i THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
refers everything to the theory of Magnitudes, containing
many eccentric ideas, afterwards developed by others ; and
the ' Epicritique' of F. Berg,1 who assumes Logical "Will
as the key to the nature of all Eeality; and lastly, the
'Altogether-practical Philosophy,' of Bilckert2 and Weiss*
(§ 416). The labours of J. H. Abicht* are not more
deserving of specification ; consisting in a compilation of the
works of others, in which nothing but the phraseology is his
own.
PHILOSOPHY OF SENTIMENT AND BELIEF.
Jacobi's Theory of Belief.
415. A friend of Hamann (§ 395), E. H. Jacobi,5 ad-
vanced a theory totally at variance with the Critical and
Dogmatical systems which then divided the philosophical
world, and allied to the more noble kind of mysticism. He
possessed a profound and religious mind, with lively and
genial powers of expression and a sincere hatred of the empty
formularies of system-makers. The last principle he carried
so far as almost to show himself an enemy of philosophical
reason itself, from a conviction that a consistent dogmatical
theory, like that of Spinoza, which admitted no truth without
demonstration, could conduct only to Determinism and Pan-
theism ; while the Critical theory, by its prejudice in favour
of demonstrative and mediate knowledge, was led to reject all
cognitions of supersensuous objects, without being able to
establish their reality by means of practical rational belief.
1 Berg, Epikritik der Philosophic, Arnstadt u. Rudolst. 1805.
2 Jos. Kuckert, der Realismus, oder Grundzuge zu einer durchaus
praktischen Philos. Leipz. 1801.
3 Chr. Weiss, Winke uber erne durchaus prakt. Philos. ebend. 1801.
Lehrbuch der Logik, ebend. 1801, 8vo.
4 Abicht's Kevidirende Kritik der Speculativen Vernunft, Alterib.
1799—1801, II Th. 8vo. System der Elementarphilosophie, oder
verstandige Naturlehre des Erkentniss- Gefiihls und d. Willenskraft,
Erlang. 1798, 8vo. Psychol. Anthropol. I Abth. Erl. 1831. Ency-
klopadie der Philos. Frkf. 1804, 8vo. Verbesserte Logik, oder Wahr-
heitsvvissenschaft, Furtlt. 1802, 8vo.
5 Born at Dusseldorf, 1743; became in 1804 president of the Aca-
demy of Munich, and died 1819.
415.] jacobi. 455
He was thus led to found all philosophical knowledge on
Belief; which he describes as an instinct of reason, — a
sort of knowledge produced by an immediate feeling of
the mind, — a direct apprehension without proof of the
True and Supersensuous ; drawing at the same time a clear
distinction between such belief and that which is positive.
All knowledge gives us only a secondhand conviction. The
external world is revealed to us by means of the external
senses ; but objects imperceptible to the senses, such as
the Deity, Providence, Free-will, Immortality, and Morality,
are revealed to us by an internal sense, the organ of Truth ;
which assumed at a later date the title of Eeason, as being
the faculty adapted for the apprehension of Truth. This
twofold revelation (of the material and the immaterial
worlds) awakens man to self-consciousness, with a feeling of
his superiority to external Nature, or a sense of Free-will.1
Man cognizes God and Freedom immediately through the
reason. In the same manner Jacobi would found the prin-
ciples of Morality on Sentiment. Eeason, as the faculty of
the Ideas, which reveal themselves to the Internal Sense,
supplies philosophy with its materials : the Understanding,
or the faculty of logical conceptions, gives these a form. It
is thus that he has expressed himself in his later works. He
admits the great merit of Kant in destroying the vain labour
of theorists, and establishing a pure system of practical phi-
losophy, but differs from him by asserting that not only
practical but also theoretical cognitions, relative to real but
supersensuous objects, are immediate ; and alleges that the
Critical system annihilates not only rational but also sensa-
tional apprehension {Wahrnehmung) . At the same time he
maintains the impossibility of any genuine philosophical
Science. Jacobi at first expressed himself somewhat ob-
scurely on this principle of an internal revelation and conse-
quent belief, the corner-stone of his system. In consequence
of this obscurity arose a multitude of objections and misap-
prehensions, which were also provoked by his neglecting to
discriminate accurately between Eeason and Understanding ;
and by the opposition between his theistical theory of Belief
and Sensation and the systems of his contemporaries ; as
1 J. G. Reiche, Eationis qua Fr. H. Jacobi e libertatis notione Dei
existentiam evincit, Expositio et Csnsura, p. I. Gotting. 1821, 8vo.
456 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
well as the want of systematic arrangement it betrayed.
We must not however be blind to the indirect services which
he has rendered to the cause of philosophy in Germany.
For Jacobi's writings on Spinoza, in answer to Mendelssohn, see
above, § 338 (bibl.)
His other works are :
Of David Hume and of Faith ; or Idealism and Realism, Breslau,
1787, 8vo., new ed. Ulm, 1795. Letter to Fichte, Hamburg, 1799,
8vo. On the undertaking- of Criticism to convert Reason into Under-
standing, in the 3rd number of the Memoirs of Reinhold on the
state of philosophy in the 19th century, Hamburg, 1801—3. Some
letters against Schelling, published in consequence of the book of
Koeppen, entitled : The doctrine of Schelling ; or, what is in the end
the philosophy of the Absolute Nothing? 1807, 8vo. Of Divine
Things, 8vo. Leipz. 1811. See above, the work of Schelling in reply
to the latter. See also the articles of Frederic Schlegel, in his Ger-
man Museum, 1812 — 13.
Complete Works. These contain, besides the works above indicated,
the celebrated philosophical romances of Jacobi, 5 vols. ; the 4th is
divided into 3 parts, 8vo. Leipzig, 1812 — 22. The 2nd volume con-
tains an interesting introduction to his philosophy, and the 4th his
correspondence with Hamann, published by Fred. Roth.
On Jacobi, see Schlegel's Characteristiken unci Kritiken, torn. 1.
Jacobi, nach seinem Leben, Lehren, und Wirken, dargestcllt von
SCHLICHTIGROLL, WEILLER, Und THIERSCH, 1819.
New Developments of tlie Philosophy of Sentiment.
416. The doctrine of Jacobi found numerous adherents,
especially among men accustomed to raise faith and sentiment
above the other faculties of the soul. But the vagueness
that we have already pointed out in this philosophy, in con-
nection with the relations that exist between the under-
standing and the reason, appears to have given rise to a
kind of schism amongst those who devoted themselves to its
development. Some of them considered ideas as revelations
of the Deity, through the medium of perception, and they
attributed these ideas to reason, as to their special faculty ;
they maintained moreover that notions play a completely
negative part in connection with ideas : that is to say, that
ideas could neither be reached, conceived, nor expressed by
means of notions ; that they manifest themselves in senti-
ment alone ; and lastly that belief precedes and exceeds all
416.] SCHOOL OE JACOBI. 457
knowledge. Others conceded more to notions; and made
philosophy to consist in the oneness of the reason and of
the understanding ; a oneness that, according to them,
would derive its substance from reason, and its form from
the understanding. This last opinion was adopted by
Jacobi himself, but only in his later years. Amongst the
advocates of the former of these doctrines must be included
Frederic K&ppen, a professor at Landshut, and afterwards
at Erlangen, a spiritual writer, and the author of an excel-
lent digest of the system of this school. To the second
party belong the labours of James Salat. Kceppen, a friend
and disciple of Jacobi, starts from the idea of Freedom.
According to him, liberty is a power that determines itself,
and takes its start from itself ; it is consequently a primary
cause, the substratum of all existence ; in a word, Being,
properly so called. But at the same time, Freedom is per-
fectly inconceivable to the understanding ; nay, its very
possibility cannot be clearly perceived, or its reality demon-
strated : it is a fact of knowledge and of activity, perceived
immediately, intuitively. Necessity is an order established
by liberty. An unlimited, an absolute liberty, is the Divine
Being. Reason is the faculty that is cognizant of liberty.
The nature of human Individuality consists in the relation
between the exterior and the interior. By this relation,
liberty is limited in man. Every philosophy is consequently
clualistic. It is this dualism that causes the eternal and
unavoidable contradiction of the science. It would follow,
moreover, from this, strictly speaking, that philosophy is
impossible ; and that scientific pretension, properly so
called, is always destined to rebound for ever vainly on
itself. The writings of Kceppen, like those of Jacobi,
whatever may be our judgment of the substance of their
doctrine, must be classed among the works that have exerted
a salutary influence on the philosophy of our times, in as
far as they combat the authority of scholastic philosophy and
blind dogmatism ; and that we find in them a lively develop-
ment of numerous ideas, some of which are original, and
others borrowed from Platonism.1 We must also place in
1 Feed. Kceppen, Of Eevelation considered in relation with the philo-
sophy of Kant and of Fichte, Hamburg, 1797, 2nd edit. 1804. The
Art of Living, Hamburg, 1801. The doctrine of Schelling, &c. (see.
458 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
this school Gaetan de Weiller,1 a friend of Jacobi, a Bavarian
secret councillor, secretary of the Academy of Sciences, and
director of the public schools of Munich, who died in 1826,
as well as Christian Weiss? a school and regency councillor
at Merseburg, whose psychological researches are deserving
of notice.
Progress of the School of Jacobi.
J. Salat, On the Spirit of Philosophy, 8vo. Munich, 1803. Reason
and Understanding, 2 parts, 8vo. Tubingen, 1808. On the Causes of
the cooling of Minds in Germany concerning Philosophy, Landshut,
1810. On a bright hope that appears in favour of Philosophy, ibid.
Moral Philosophy, ibid. 1810; 2nd edit, revised, 2 vols. Landshut,
1813-14. The Philosophy of Religion, 8vo. ibid. 1811. Explication
of some important points of Philosophy, with observations on the new
discussion between Jacobi, Schelling, and Fred. Schlegel, 8vo. Land-
shut, 1812. On the connection of History and Philosophy in general
Jurisprudence, Sulzbach, 1817. Sketch of Philosophy and of Religion,
8vo. Sulzbach, 1819. Socrates; or, On the new opposition between
Christianity and Philosophy, 8vo. ibid. 1820. The general principles
of universal Philosophy, considered from the ground of the amelio-
§406). Various works, 1806. On the End of Philosophy, Munich,
1807—8. Guide to Logic, Landshut, 1809. Sketch of Natural
Right, ibid. 1809. Digest of the nature of Philosophy, Nuremberg,
1810. (Against this work there appeared a work from the pen of
Peed. Schafberger, entitled : Criticism of the work called, Digest,
&c., with a theory proposed by the author, Nuremberg, 1813, 8vo.
Philosophy of Christianism, 2 parts, Leipz. 1813 — 15. Political
Science, according to the principles of Plato, ibid. 1819. Letters to a
Friend on books and the world, 2 vols. ibid. 1820 — 23.
1 Weiller, (see §§ 37 and 397 for several of his works) Introduction
to a free examination of philosophy, Munich, 1804, 8vo. Understand-
ing and Reason, ibid. 1806. Ideas towards the history of the develop-
ment of Religious Faith, 3 vols. Munich, 1808 — 14. Of Virtue, as the
first of arts ; a development of some points of moral philosophy, and of
high psychology. Fundamental Observations on Psychology, ibid.
1817, 8vo. Academic [Dissertation] on morality considered as a
dynamic, Munich, 1821, 4to. Little Writings, &c. ibid. 1822—26.
At a previous epoch Weiller had written : Of Humanity in its present
and future state, ibid. 1799. Essay on a plan of knowledge for youth,
ibid. 1800. Essay on a complete system of the Art of Education,
ibid. 1802—5, 8vo., 2 parts.
■ 2 Christ. Weiss : Of the living God, and of the ways by which man
can arrive at Him, 8vo. Leipz. 1812. He had previously published :
Researches on the nature and activity of the Human Soul. .
417.] SCHOOL OF JACOBI. 459
ration of the human race, 8vo. Munich, 1820. Manual of Psychology,
ibid. Moral Science, first or second branch of Philosophy, 3rd edit,
partly improved, ibid. 1821. The Philosophy of Religion, second or
third branch of Philosophy, 2nd edit, entirely improved, ibid. 1821.
Essays on Supernaturalisin and Mysticism, 8vo. Sulzb. 1823. Manual
of Morality, 8vo. Munich, 1824. Elements of Religious Philosophy,
Sulzbach, 1819. Elements of Moral Philosophy, of General Philo-
sophy, of Psychological Anthropology, Munich, 1827.
The following works have been published in opposition to some of
his doctrines : On the art of coining words and creating an illusion : a
supplement to the Philosophical Writings of M. Salat, and especially
to his Socrates, Amber g> 1821. In reply to this satire there appeared :
New reflexions on the art, etc. dedicated to M. Salat, 8vo. 1821.
417. James Salat, born in 1766, at Abbtsgemiind, pro-
fessor of philosophy at Landshut, in his half didactic, half
polemical works, makes the internal revelation of divine
things the basis of his philosophy. The Objective, according
to this philosopher, appears at first as the object of philo-
sophy, afterwards as the natural disposition of men for
philosophy. This natural disposition develops itself in such
a manner as to bring on the revelation of divine things,
which itself precedes all subjective activity. In conse-
quence of this revelation, the soul seizes hold of and recog-
nises divine things ; only this cognition is not a logical act,
but a realization of these same divine things, taking place
in the depths of our soul, and having its starting-point in
the will.
After that divine things are conceived, the next object is,
to understand them and to render them intelligible. The
Understanding steps in here, supported on philosophy.
Metaphysics are nothing but philosophy considered scienti-
fically ; Logic, Anthropology, and even the criticism of the
faculty ot cognition, only constitute a propaedeutic. In the
same way that man may be regarded under three aspects,
philosophy also is divided into three branches : moral philo-
sophy, the philosophy of natural law, and the philosophy of
religion. Frederic A. Ancillon, councillor of the Secret
Legation at Berlin, and Ch. Aucj. Clodius, professor at
Leipsic, approximate in their ideas to Jacobi, without, how-
ever, belonging to his school.
460 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
Anti-dogmatism of Schulze.
418. Ernest ScJiulze, an Aulic councillor and professor at
Grottingen, bom in 1761, at Heldrungen in Thuringia,
proved with great sagacity the insufficiency of the theory of
Seinhold (§ 398) concerning the faculty of representation;
and in the same way that Jacobi had formerly opposed his
Doctrine of Faith to systematic philosophy, in like manner
Schulze opposed his criticism of theoretic philosophy to this
same philosophy, with the view of destroying the illusions of
an imaginary knowledge, and to favour, on a more extended
plan than that of Kant, the knowledge of reason in itself,
by discovering the essential error of every philosophy.
[From his various researches, Schulze came to the conclusion
that the origin of human knowledge cannot be an object
of knowledge ; that every philosophy that proposes to make
known this origin is impossible ; that all the statements given
forth by the different schools on the origin of our know-
ledge are only empty and fantastic conceptions ; lastly, that
we must confine our curiosity to the examination of the
elements of our cognitions, of their distinction, and of the
laws that determine the relation of our conviction with
the different kinds of our knowledge (Critique, p. 258,
part I). These are the fundamental pursuits of the scep-
ticism of Schulze, or, as he styled it, his Anti-dogmatism,
which is based on a natural and necessary disposition of the
human mind. This scepticism acknowledged, therefore, the
facts of Consciousness, and even maintained that it belonged
to the constitution of human nature to acknoAvledge Con-
sciousness to be what it is, and to act in accordance
with it.
As a deduction from ulterior observations, Schulze ends
by narrowing more and more the limits of his scepticism.
Thus, whilst denying the possibility of certain criteria of
truth, or of the agreement of our cognitions with their
objects, he granted to the human mind the faculty of dis-
cerning what relates to the disposition of our faculty of
cognition in general, and of distinguishing it from all that
is only individual (Enc, § 17). Later, being convinced of
the insufficiency of scepticism, he devoted himself to the
418.] ERNEST SCIITTLZE. 461
research of the origin of certitude, of the development and
of the limits of human knowledge, in conformity with the
exact rules of natural observation (Psychological Anthropo-
logy, 3rd edit.). His actual ideas approach considerably
the doctrines of Jacobi, and agree with those of the philo-
sophers who acknowledge Plato as their head, distinguish
Reason from the Understanding, and see in Eeason the
source of supersensuous knowledge, and the means of
arriving at the solution of the real problems of philosophy.
It is according to different phases of sentiment, that
faculty which distinguishes man from the lower animals,
that Schulze divides philosophy into four principal branches,
namely, 1st. Theoretical Philosophy, or Metaphysics, em-
bracing the development of the religious feeling ; 2nd. Prac-
tical Philosophy, comprising Ethics, Polity, and the Morality
of nations, embracing the moral feeling (for he does not admit,
like Bouterwek, a special natural law, see § 413, note) ;
3rd. Logic, in the acceptation of the ancients, embracing
the intellectual feeling; and finally, ^Esthetics, embracing
the feeling of the beautiful. He regards modern logic
(formal logic) as well as empirical psychology, as nothing
more than the propaedeutics or initiatory preparation of
philosophy.
Gottlieb Ernest Schulze, Some Observations on the religious philo-
sophy of Kant, Kiel, 1795. On the highest aim in the study of
Philosophy, Leipz. 1789. Elements of the Philosophical Sciences,
1788-90, 2 vols. 8vo. (Enesidemus (see § 406). Criticism of Theo-
retical Philosophy, Hamb. 1801, 2 vols. 8vo. The principal motives
of Scepticism in relation to human knowledge, in the Museum of
Bouterwek, vol. Ill, 2nd number. Principles of General Logic,
Helmstadt, 1802; 4th edit, corrected, 1822. Guide to find the prin-
ciples of Civil Law and of Penal Law, Gott. 1813.
A controversial article appeared against the scepticism of Schulze,
entitled : The relation of Scepticism to Philosophy, &c. in the Critical
Journal of Sohelling and of Hegel, torn. I.
Schulze published, moreover : An Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical
Sciences; for the use of his students, Gott. 1814; 3rd edit. 8vo. 1824.
In it will be found a complele exposition of the doctrine of the author.
Physical Anthropology, Gott. 8vo. 1816; 2nd edit. 1819; 3rd edit.
1826. Philosophical Morality, 8vo. Gott. 1817.
462 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
Herbart.
419. Besides Bouterwek and Schulze, Joihn Frederic
Merbart, born at Oldenburg, professor at Konigsberg, and
particularly excited by Fichte, has developed peculiar opi-
nions opposed to the greater part of the existing systems,
and which he has succinctly consigned to posterity in several
treatises under a polemical form. He wishes philosophy to
abandon the psychological direction which has been erro-
neously praised in modern times. According to him, to
attempt to measure the limits of the faculty of cognition,
and to criticise metaphysics, is to have the strange illusion
of thinking that the faculty of cognition is more easy to
understand than the object itself with which metaphysics
concerns itself: this illusion is so much the greater, since
all the conceptions by means of which we represent to
ourselves the faculty of cognition, proceed from a meta-
physical source. The psychological premises on which the
criticism is based are for the most part obtained surrep-
titiously. Philosophy is an elaboration of conceptions,
called forth by the collection of observations relating to
these same conceptions. Its method is the method of rela-
tions; that is to say, a method that consists in seeking for the
ideas necessary to complete an order of thoughts : it starts
. from the supposition of contradictions in a given object —
contradictions that push you on to a higher degree in
thought. The elaboration of conceptions consists sometimes
in their elucidation and explication ; hence logic freed from all
psychological mixture : at other times, it consists in cutting
off, in connecting, and completing — hence metaphysics ; when
the author sometimes returns to the doctrine of the Eleatae.
Psychology, Natural Philosophy, and Religious Philosophy,
are in his eyes parts of applied metaphysics. The science
of ideas, united to a judgment competent to approve or
condemn, is ^Esthetics, which, applied to a given object, is
distributed in a series of doctrines, among which that which
bears the character of necessity, has received the name of
the doctrine of duties and of virtue (Practical Philosophy).
In these different parties, the author develops views that
are peculiar to him, and which evidence a great sagacity,
but which often become obscure on account of their brevity,
420.] HERBART. 463
and require meditation ; as for instance, his theory of the
destruction and preservation of Natures, in his speculative
psychology founded on mathematics, and his theory of repre-
sentations considered as forces. It is proper to notice his
criticism of the principles at present dominant in psy-
chology, his critique of Kant's doctrine of free-will, and his
own determinative or necessarian doctrine (in the sense of
Leibnitz) on the same subject.
Herbaet : General Poedagogik, &c. Gott. 1806 ; and other works on
Poedagogik ; such as : the Idea of the A B C of Pestalozzi, developed in
relation to the study of scientific theories, Gott. 1802, 2nd edit. 1804.
On the method of Pestalozzi, &c. Bremen, 1804. On Philosophical
Study, Gott. 1807. Treatise on general practical Philosophy, 8vo.,
Gott. 1808. The principal questions, of Metaphysics, 8vo. Gott. 1808.
Articles on speculative philosophy, in the Philosophical Archives of
Konigsberg, Konigsb. 1811 — 12. Observations on the causes that
oppose an agreement between philosophers on the first principles of
practical philosophy ; a dissertation contained in the posthumous phi-
losophical works of Christ. James Krause, 8vo. Konigsberg, 1812.
Theoria de attractione elementorum : Principia metaphysica, § I, II,
8vo. Regiom. 1812. Manual, serving as an Introduction to philosophy.
Konigs. 1813: 2nd edit, considerably enlarged, iMd. 1821 j 4th edit.
1837. Manual of Psychology, Konigsberg and Leipzig, 1816; 2nd
edit. 1834. On Evil, 8vo. Kon'gsb. 1819. De Attentionis mensura,
causisque primariis; Psychology Principia statica et mechanica exemplo
illustraturus, &c. 4to. Regiom. 1822. On the possibility and neces-
sity of applying mathematics to psychology, 8vo. Konigsb. Psycho-
logy scientifically treated, and founded on experience, metaphysics,
and mathematics, 2nd part, 8vo. Heidelb. 1824. General Metaphysics,
1st part, Konigsberg, 1828. Short Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Halle,
1831, 2nd edit. 1841. Analysis of Right and Morals. Gotting. 1836.
Commentatio de Realismo Naturali, qualem propos. T. E. Schulzius,
Gott. 1837. De Principio Logico exclusi medii inter contradictoria
non negligendo Commentatio, Bonn, 1840. Psychological Researches,
Gott. 1839—40.
Comparison of the system of Fichte with that of Professor Herbart.
by Hekm. Willm. de Keyserlingk, 8vo. Konigsberg, 1817.
To the school of Herbart belongs Ernest Stiedenroth, author of
Theory of Science considered especially in its relation with Scepticism,
8vo. Gott. 1819. Psychology, 2 parts, Konigsb. 1824—25.
Schleiermacner.
420. Frederic ScJileiermacher, professor of theology, and
preacher, first at Halle and afterwards at Berlin, was born
at Breslau in 1768, and contributed greatly, by his addresses
464 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
and writings, to a more liberal culture of philosophy in
genera], and especially of moral and religious philosophy.
[Religion, according to him, attends to the same object as
metaphysics and moral science ; they only difter as regards
the form; their common object is the universe and the
relation of man to this same universe. The essence of
philosophy consists neither in thought nor in action; it
consists in the union of Feeling with Perception. Hence
arises a living perception, which cannot take place with-
out our perceiving the Divinity in ourselves as the eternal
unity of the universe, which alone in its turn brings God
into the consciousness of man. Eeligion consists in repre-
senting all the events of this world as the acts of God ; in
loving the Being (Weltgeisf) who presides over the uni-
verse ; in contemplating His operation with delight. Such
is the end of Eeligion. But it is necessary for man to
find humanity in order to contemplate the world, and to
rise to religion ; and the only way by which he can rightly
find it is in love and through love. To be united, though
the finite, with the infinite ; to be eternal for a moment ;
is the immortality imparted by religion. But religion ne-
cessarily appears always under some definite form.; accord-
ingly Schleiermacher rejects what is called natural religion.
In his later works, h© maintains that piety considered in
itself is neither an acquired knowledge nor a praxis ; piety
is a particular direction and determination of feeling : in
fine, the sublimest degree of feeling. By feeling, he implies
the immediate consciousness, inasmuch as it falls within the
■category of time and appears under opposite forms, more or
less marked, composing the agreeable and disagreeable.
Feeling gives us, moreover, the consciousness of our de-
pendence on a God, which constitutes the elevated element
of all religions.
Schleiermacher exerted a still greater influence on the pro-
gress of philosophy by his Critique of Morality, a work dis-
playing a true platonic power of dialectics. He points out in
this work, with a great display of talent, the defects of the
various doctrines of morals from Plato to Kant and Fichte.
"He proceeds to show indirectly the conditions of Ethics, as
a science, both in connection with its highest principle, and.
in connection with a perfect development of the whole
421.] krxjg. 465
system. He effects his object in such a masterly style, that
it would be impossible to treat of Ethics in a complete and
fundamental manner without observing the rules that he
lays down. Schleiermacher insists especially on the follow-
ing point : that the notions of duty, of virtue, and of the
good or end of this life are equally essential to morality.
Finally Schleiermacher has deserved well of posterity, by
various special treatises on history and philosophy.
Fred. Schleiermacher, Discourses on Religion, addressed to his
enlightened cotemporaries (at first anonymous), Berlin, 1799 ; 3rd edit,
enlarged, 8vo. 1821. Monologues: a new year's gift, 3rd edit. 8vo.
Berlin, 1822. The Christmas Festival : a Christmas gift. Berlin, 1846,
The Christian Faith explained in its totality, according to the prin-
ciples of the evangelical church. 2 vols. 8vo. Berlin, 1821. The Prin-
ciples of a Criticism of the different systems of morality hitherto
published, 8vo. Berlin, 1803. Memoir on the scientific notion of
virtue; in the collection of the Royal Academy of Berlin, 4to. ]820.
Critical Essay on Luke, translated by Rev. E. Thirlwall, 8vo. Lond.
1825. And many other philosophical and theological works, which are
collected in Schleiermacher's Sammtliche Werke (complete works), in
three divisions : Theological, Sermons, and Philosophical, 28 vols. 8vo.
Berlin, 1843 — 51. We have alluded elsewhere to his translation of
Plato, and to the important introductions that accompany each dialogue
(§ 128).
OF THE SYSTEMS THAT TEND TOWAEDS THE
DEVELOPMENT OE CRITICISM.
Krug.
421. It was the object of other philosophers to rectify
and develope some of the views previously pointed out.
Amongst these we may remark William Traugott Krug,
born at Wittenberg, professor in the first instance at
Leipsic, and subsequently at Konigsberg ; and James Fre-
deric Fries, born at Barby, professor at Heidelberg, and
afterwards professor as well as Aulic councillor, at Jena.
These philosophers contributed especially to the develop-
ment of criticism; one by representing philosophy under
the systematic form of transcendental synthetism ; the other
by endeavouring to supplant the critique of Kant by a new
critique of 'pure reason. According to Krug, the act of
philosophizing is thought entering into itself, to know and
2 h
466 THIRD PEKIOD. [SECT.
understand itself, and by this means to be at peace with itself.
This is the reason why, in philosophy, the cognizant subject
is identical with the object cognized. Fundamental philo-
sophy, which precedes every system of philosophy, has for
its object the discovery of philosophical knowledge. The
following are its principal points : 1st, In relation with the
starting-point, or first principle of knowledge : the Ego is
the real principle, inasmuch as it takes itself as the object of
its knowledge (the philosophizing subject). It is from it
that proceed, as from an active principle, the ideal principles,
which are essentially different from the real principles, or in
other words, the material and formal principles of philoso-
phical knowledge. The material principles are the tacts of
Consciousness grasped in conceptions, which are all compre-
hended in the proposition : I am an agent. The formal prin-
ciples (determining the form of knowledge) are the laws of
my activity ; they are as multifarious as activity itself : the
first of these laws is : Seek for harmony in thy activity.
2nd. How far ought these researches to be carried? (the
absolute limit of philosophy). The Consciousness is a syn-
thesis of being, or Esse, and knowing,* or Science, (das Seyn
and das Wissen) in the Ego. Every consciousness is thus
circumstanced, which implies that being and knowing are
united in us a priori. This transcendental synthesis is
therefore the original and inappreciable fact which forms the
absolute limit of philosophizing. Since being and knowing
(Seyn und Wissen) united together in the Consciousness,
cannot be deduced the one from the other, their union is
completely primitive. The system of such a philosophy is
called transcendental synthetism. 3rd. What are the different
forms of activity ? The primitive activity of the Ego is either
immanent (speculative) , or transitory (practical) . Sensibility,
intelligence, and reason are its different potencies. Philoso-
phy, regarded as the science of the primitive legislation of the
human mind in all its activity, is therefore divided into a
speculative part and a practical part. The first is subdivided
into formal doctrine (Logic) and into material doctrine,
(Metaphysics and ./Esthetics), inasmuch as the first regards
* The great subtlety of the German mind and tongue make it almost
impossible to give a fair notion of their metaphysics in English without
the invention of a new vocabulary. — Ed.
422.] itbies. 467
the matter of thought per se, and the latter (^Esthetics)
considers it in relation with sentiment. The latter is like-
wise subdivided into formal doctrine (the science of right
and law) and into material doctrine (morals and religion).
Each of these considers the legislation of the human mind
under a different aspect. Such are the points that Krug
endeavoured to develope in several of his writings with no
common precision and clearness.
Several of his works have been already pointed 'out. We shall,
moreover, mention the following : Project of a New Organum of Philo-
sophy, 8vo. Meissen, 1801. On method in Philosophy and on Philo-
sophical Systems, 8vo. ibid. 1802. Fundamental Philosophy, Zullichau,
and Freistadt, 180&; 2nd edit, corrected, 1819; 3rd edit. 1828 (this
is his principal work). System of Theoretical Philosophy: 1st part,
The Theory of Thought : 2nd part, The Theory of Knowledge, or
Metaphysics : 3rd part, The Theory of Taste, or ^Esthetics, Konigsb.
1806-10; 2nd edit, corrected, 1819-23; 3rd edit. 1825. A System of
Practical Philosophy: 1st part, The Theory of Eight: 2nd edit. 1830,
8vo. ; 2nd part, The Theory of Virtue, 2nd edit. 1838, 8vo.: 3rd part,
The Theory of Religion, ibid. 1817-19 (published also in separate parts).
Aphorisms of the Philosophy of Right, 1 vol. Leipz. 1800, a work after-
wards continued under this title : Dissertations on Natural Right, Leipz.
1811. Manual of Philosophy, 3 vols. 8vo. Leipz. 1820-21; 2nd edit,
corrected, ibid. 1822, 8vo.; 3rd edit. 1828. Principles of a new theory
of Sentiment and Sensibility : an Anthropological Essay, 8vo. 1 823. Dij
cseopolitik : or a new Restoration of the Political Sciences by means of
the Law of Right, Leipz. 8vo. 1824. Pisteology, &c. 1825. The Juris-
prudence of the Church, &c. 1826. A general Dictionary of the Philo-
sophical Sciences, with their literature and their history, 4 vols. 8vo.
Leipz. 1827. The following works of the same author belong to an earlier
period : Letters on the perfectibility of Revealed Religion (anonymous),
Jena, 1795-96. Lectures on the influence of Philosophy on the
morality, religion, and the well-being of humanity; with a dissertation
on the Idea and the parts of Philosophy, ibid. 1796, 8vo. Lectures on
the proper character of Practical Philosophy, ibid. Little Philoso-
phical Writings, ibid. On Conviction: on its different kinds, and
different degrees, ibid. 1797 (anonymous). Fragments and Recol-
lections of my Philosophical Life (2 collections), 8vo. Berlin, 1803-1;
besides many other publications.
Mies.
422. Fries lays stress, like Kant, on the necessity of
criticising the faculty of cognition. He maintains that a
reform of philosophy may be compassed by means of a
philosophical anthropology. He finds two fundamental
2 h 2
468 TniED PEEIOD. [sect.
faults with Kant : 1st. The vicious logical arrangement of
his doctrine, by which he makes the value of his categories
to depend on transcendental proofs, and that of his ideas on
moral proofs, instead of rising, without any proof, to the
immediate knowledge of reason. On this point Tries
approaches the views of Jacobi. 2nd. The confounding of
psychological ideas with philosophy, properly so called, and
not properly distinguishing the aids that psychology fur-
nishes to metaphysics from metaphysics themselves. He
regarded the life and independence of Kant's practical phi-
losophy as the most beautiful part of his system. Fries
maintains that he has remedied the errors of Kant, and that
he has placed the doctrine of belief, which is the focus of all
philosophical conviction, on a solid basis. And he asserts
that ho has effected this by means of researches carried on
in the spirit of Kant himself. Fries, as well as Kant, makes
the limits of science his starting-point ; hence he arrives at
pure faith of reason in that which is eternal, a faith that is
strengthened by presentiment {Ahnung). Knowledge, or
science, is only concerned with sensuous phenomena ; the
true essence of things is the object of faith ; we are led by
feeling, to anticipate, even amidst appearances, the value of
belief, which is the offspring of the limitation itself of know-
ledge. Here again , in placing feeling and presentiment
(Ahnung) above science, Fries approaches the doctrine of
Jacobi. His labours in connection with philosophical an-
thropology, which he regards as the fundamental science of
all philosophy, are of great interest. They contain particular
theories on spiritual life, and particularly on the three fun-
damental faculties of the mind — Cognition, Feeling ( Gemilth,
the faculty of being interested), and the Faculty of Action,
which is supposed to precede the two former. Afterwards
follow his theories on the three degrees of development —
sense, habit, understanding (as the power of self-command
and self-formation) ; on the degrees of thought, qualitative
and quantitative abstractions of the imagination, mathe-
matical intuition, attention, the difference between the
understanding and the reason, etc. His anthropological
logic contains also some excellent views on the subject of
reasoning, method, and system. He regards practical philo-
sophy as the theory of the value and end of human life and
422.] FEiES. 469
of the world, or the theory of human wisdom. It is there
that you find the last goal of all philosophical research ; it
is divided into a moral theory and a religious theory (Theory
of the final goal of the universe). The former may be also
subdivided into general ethics, or theory of the value and end
of human actions, theory of virtue, and theory of the state.
The statements and the style of Fries are frequently defi-
cient in the accuracy and clearness that might be desired.1
Frederic Calker,2 professor at Bonn, presented the ideas of
Pries under a more systematic form, and with a terminology
peculiar to himself. According to him, philosophy is the
1 (James) Fries. Besides several works that have been already indi-
cated, several articles in the Studien, a periodical collection published
by Daub and Creuzer, and several works relating to mathematics, to
the natural sciences, and to politics, he also published : A System of
Philosophy considered as an evident (1) science, 8vo. Leipz. 1804.
The Philosophical Theory of Jurisprudence, and Criticism of every
positive Legislation, 8vo. Jena, 1804. Science, Faith, and Presentiment,
Jena, 1805. New Critique of Reason, Heidelberg. Ib07, 3 vols. 8vo.;
2nd edit. 1828—1831. A System of Logic, ibid. 1811 ; 2nd edit. 1819,
8vo. 3rd edit. 1837. General views of Political Law, 1816. Defence of
my theory of a Sensuous Intuition against the attacks of Dr. Ernest
Eeinhold, 18mo. Jena, 1819, in relation to an article on his system of
Logic, in the Literary Journal of Jena, No. CIV, 1819. Reinhold re-
plied in the following work : Correction of some mistakes on the part of
M. Fries in his Defence, &c, against my attacks, 8vo. Leipz. 1820.
Manual of Universal Morality, 8vo. ibid. 1818. A Manual of Anthro-
pological Psychology, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. Jena, 1820-21. 2nd edit.
1831 — 39, 2 vols. The Philosophy of Nature treated mathematically,
according to the Philosophic Method : an Essay, &c. 8vo. Heidelberg,
1822. Julius and Evagoras, or the Beauty of the Soul : a philosophical
romance, 2 vols. ibid. 1822. The Theories of Love, Faith, and Hope;
or, Principles of the theory of Virtue, and of the theory of Faith, 8vo.
ibid. 1823. The Polemical Works of Fries, 1 vol. containing, with
additions, the work on Eeinhold, Fichte, and Schelling (pointed out
in the § 405), 8vo. Halle, 1824. A System of Metaphysics; a Manual
for the use of Schools, 8vo. Heidelberg, 1824. Polity, or Philosophical
Doctrine of the State, 1848. Handbook of Practical Philosophy :
1st part, Ethics, Heidelberg, 1818 ; 2nd part, Handbook of Religious
Philosophy and Philosophical ^Esthetics, Heidelberg, 1832, 8vo.
2 Fred. Calker, On the Signification of Philosophy, Berlin, 1818.
Theory of the primitive laws of the True, of the Good, and of the
Beautiful, 8vo. 1820. Propsedeutik of Philosophy, No. I, containing
the Methodology of Philosophy, Bonn, 1820. No. II, the System of
Philosophy in the form of tables, ibid. 1820. Logic and Dialectics;
with a sketch of the history of this Science, 8vo. Bonn, 1822.
470 THIRD PEEIOD. [SECT.
science of the knowledge of the internal world; psychology,
logic, and metaphysics (the theory of the primitive laws of
the true, the good, and the beautiful), form parts of this
science.
JDe Wette, professor at Bale, endeavoured to apply the
ideas of Fries to theology.
Views springing from the Doctrine of Identity.
Eschenmayer; Wagner; Krause.
423. C. A. Eschenmayer, sl professor at Tubingen, was a
man more conspicuous for activity of imagination and
strength of feeling than for acuteness of mind. Departing
in some measure from the doctrine of Schelling, he placed
the limits of speculation at the portals of Faith, whereof the
Divinity is the object. He represents the last step ot philo-
sophy (the attainment of the conception, or the potency, of
the infinite and eternal) as the first step towards the negation
of philosophy. (Faith, the potency of the sovereign good).
He reproaches Schelling with not having recognized this
province situated beyond the limits of speculation and of the
absolute. All that is intelligible and explicable belongs to
science ; but the unintelligible and the inexplicable is the
property of religion. In this manner Eschenmayer endea-
voured to establish a doctrine of religious mysticism very
different from the doctrine of Schelling. It is, however,
easy to detect the influence of the philosophy of nature in
his psychology, where he makes use of mathematical forms.
Eut in opposition to Schelling, he regarded it as the elemen-
tary science of all philosophy, and he strove to reconcile
the various philosophical sciences with it.
Jac. Wagner, a professor at Wurtzburg, and a man of spiri-
tual mind, taught, in opposition to Schelling, that it is impos-
sible to have a scientific knowledge of the absolute, since the
absolute cannot be attained by any predicate of cognition or
of Esse. Consequently, the absolute ought to be presupposed
and admitted in the first instance. Every edifice of thought
ought to rise from the idea of the divinity as its foundation ;
but care must be taken not to apply any structural idea to
that of the Divinity. The world is the living form of the abso-
lute ; it is creative Nature, under the form of extension, and
423.] ESCHENMATEB. 471
cognizant Spirit under the form of intensity ; and over all
presides the Soul of the World — the Deity. At a later
date he maintained that philosophy should become fused
into mathematics ; that it ought to be a science founded on
religion, capable of being considered in universal history,
and in the natural sciences. It ought to hold the equi-
librium between the ideal and the real, and it ought to be
organically constituted by the law of the world contained in
mathematics. This law of the world is the type under which
God reveals himself, physically, as well as morally. The
basis of this type is presented by Unity, which developes
itself under opposite forms ; and it is itself the foundation
of all the phenomena that exist in space and time, and the
doctrine of numbers and of figures may be derived from it.
"Wagner endeavours to prove, in his mathematical phi-
losophy, that the law of the universe, and consequently the
pure type of ideas, is found in mathematics, and that it is on
this type that philosophy raises its structures. This law of
the universe determines the four momentums of every thing
that admits of development, such as history, human life — in
short, every natural phenomenon; these four momentums
are : the primitive unity, the unity which receives another
unity by opposition (duplicity), and unity restored. It was
according to this method, which will remind the reader of
the essays of Raymond Lulli and Bruno, that Wagner
framed his doctrine respecting the State aud Education.
Charles Chr. Frederic Krause was born at Eisenach (1781),
attended Eichte's and Schelling's lectures at Jena (1802-4),
where he delivered lectures himself, as privat Docent, on
Logic, Natural Law, Mathematics, and Natural Philosophy.
He delivered a course of lectures at Berlin in 1813, and
afterwards settled at Munich, where he died in 1832. He
unfolded a peculiar system in a variety of publications,
which, though incomplete, yet contain a great number of
ingenious and original ideas. His religious doctrine is espe-
cially removed from that of Schelling. He lays down as
his fundamental principle, the view that the primitive Being
is placed eternally above nature and reason, which are the
two secondary spheres of the universe; but at the same
time the primitive Being penetrates and permeates essen-
tially the two secondary spheres. Such is, according to
472 THIED PERIOD. [SECT.
Krause, the fundamental type of every development, and
especially of philosophy, which is divided into universal
philosophy (Ontology), rational philosophy, natural philo-
sophy, and synthetical philosophy; Mathematics constitute,
in his estimation, an inferior division of philosophy.
C. A. Eschenmayer, Philosophy in its state of transition to non-
philosophy, Erlang en, 1803. Schelling replied to this work in his
Philosophy and Religion ; see above (§ 4C9), The Hermit and the
Stranger: a dialogue on holiness and on history, Erlang. 1805. In-
troduction to the right understanding of Nature and of History, 8vo.,
Erl. 1806. Eschenmayer to Schelling, on his article concerning the
Free-will of man, with the answer of Schelling, in the general Jour-
nal of the Germans, &c, Vol. I, sect. 1, No. 38. Psychology divided
into three parts, Empirical, Pure, and Applied, 8vo. Stuttgardt and
Tubingen, 1817; 2nd edit., 1822, ibid. Philosophy of Religion:
part I, Rationalism, Tub. 1818; part II, Mysticism, ibid. 1822; part
III, Supernaturalism, 1824. A System of moral philosophy, Stuttg.
and Tubingen, 1818. Normal Law (Natural Law), 8vo. ibid. 1819.
Mysteries of the Inner Life, Tubingen, 1830. The Hegelian Prin-
ciple of Religion compared with the Christian, Tubingen, 1834, 8vo.
Jac. Wagner, A System of Ideal Philosophy, see § 412. Pro-
gramme on the Nature of Philosophy, 8vo. Bamberg, 1804. Journal
of Science and Art, 1st No. Leipz. 1805. Of Philosophy and Physic,
Wiirtzburr/, 1805. Theodicee, 8vo. Bamb. 1810. Sketch of Political
Science, 8vo., Leipz. 1805. Mathematical Philosophy, Erlangen,
1811. (For a more elementary digest of this system, see Buchwald's
"Principles of the Theory of Quantities in relation with space and time,
8vo. Erlang. 1818). The State, 8vo. Viurtzburg, 3 815. Religion,
Science, Art, and the State, considered in their reciprocal relations
8vo. Erl. 1818. The Sciences enlightened: an article published in
the Isis of Oken, XI, 1820. A system of Instruction, or Metho-
dology of the studies in schools, 8vo. Aarau, 1821. The doctrine con-
tained in this work had been previously indicated in a work by the
same author, entitled : Ideas for a universal Mythology of the old
world, Frankfort, 1808, whereof the criticism may be seen in the Isis
of Oken, St. IX, 1818, St. I, 1820, and especially in St. IV, 1821.
Ch. Christ. Fred. Krause, Dissertatio de Philosophiee et Matheseos
notione et earum intima conjunctione, Jena, 1802. Sketch of Histo-
rical Logic, ibid. 1803. Sketch of Natural Law,, &c. part I, ibid.
1803. Sketch of a philosophical system of Mathematics, ibid. 1804.
Introduction to the Manual of Arithmetic, published at Dresden in
1812, in conjunction with Fisher's Introduction to the Philosophy of
Nature ; (the same work, entitled : Plan of the system of Philosophy,
part I, ibid. 1804. The two following works give the best notion of
the system of Krause; System of Morals, vol. I, containing: The
.Scientific Bases of Morals, Leips. 1810 (incomplete). Primitive
Picture of Humanity, Dresden, 1811 ; 2nd edit., 1819, 8vo. Journal
424.] HEGEL. 473
of the life of Humanity, 4to. ibid. 1811. Oratio de Scientia humana,
Svo. Berlin, 1814. Sketch of the system of Philosophy, part I, Gott.
1825. Sketch of the System of Logic, 2nd edit. 1828. ibid. Sketch
of the System of the philosophy of Law, 1828, ibid. Lectures on the
system of Philosophy, ibid. Lectures on the Fundamental Truths of
Science, 1829.
Krause's Posthumous MSS. were published in four subdivisions,
1834-48.
Hegel.
424. George William Frederic Hegel was born at Stutt-
gardt in 1770, and filled the professor's chair at Jena,
Nuremberg, Heidelberg, and finally at Berlin. (See § 412).
He rejected the Intellectual Intuition of the philosophy of
Nature, and studied to make philosophy an intelligible science
and knowledge by means of dialectics. He called philosophy
the Science of Reason, because it is the idea and conscious-
ness of all Esse in its necessary development. It is his
principle to include all particular principles in it. Now as
the Idea is reason identical with itself, and as, in order to be
cognizant of itself, or in other words, as, in order to be self-
existing {fiir sich seyri), it places itself in opposition to
itself, so as to appear something else, without, however,
ceasing to be one and the same thing; in this case Philosophy
becomes divided : 1st. Into Logic considered as the science
of the Idea in and for itself. 2nd. Into the Philosophy of
Nature considered as the science of the Idea, representing
itself externally (Eeason thrown out in Nature) . 3rd. Its
third division is that of the Philosophy of Mind, expressing
the return of the Idea within itself, after having thrown
itself without externally. All Logic, according to Hegel,
presents three momentums : 1. The abstract or intelligible
momentum, which seizes the object in its most distinct and
determinate features, and distinguishes it with precision.
2. The dialectic or negative rational momentum, consists in
the annihilation of the determinations of objects, and their
transition to the opposite determinations. 8. The specula-
tive momentum perceives the unity of the determinations
in their opposition. Such is the method which philosophy
ought to follow, and which is frequently styled by Hegel the
immanent movement, the spontaneous development of the
conception. Logic is essentially Speculative Philosophy,
474 THIKD PEEIOD. [SECT.
because it considers the determinations of thought in and
for itself, consequently of concrete and pure thoughts, or in
other words, the conceptions, with the significations of the
self-subsisting foundation of all. The primary element of
Logic consists in the oneness of the subjective and objec-
tive ; this oneness is the absolute science to which the mind
rises as to its absolute truth, and is found in the truth, that
pure Esse is pure conception in itself; and that pure conception
alone is true Esse. The absolute idealism of Hegel has con-
siderable affinity with Schelling's doctrine of Identity on
this point, but it shows a complete departure from it in the
method. With Hegel, Logic usurps the place of what had
been previously styled Metaphysics and Critique of pure
Eeason.
The first, and perhaps the most suggestive, of Hegel's
works, his Phenomenology of the Mind, contains a history
of the progressive development of the Consciousness. In-
stinctive or common knowledge only regards the object,
without considering itself. But the Consciousness contains,
besides the former, also a perception of itself, and embraces,
according to Hegel, three stages in its progress — Conscious-
ness, Self-consciousness, and Eeason. The first represents
the Object standing in opposition to the Ego, the second
the Ego itself, and the third, accidents attaching to the Ego,
i. e. Thoughts. This phenomenology constituted at first a
sort of introduction to pure science, whereas later it came
to form a part of his doctrine of the mind. Pure Science
or Logic is divided, 1st, into the Logic of Esse or being (das
Seyri) ; 2nd, into the Logic of qualified nature {das Wesen) ;
3rd, into Logic of the conception or of the idea. The two
first constitute the objective logic ; and the last division the
subjective logic, containing the substance of vulgar logic.
Hegel treated as fully of the philosophy of right and of art,
as of the metaphysical part of his system. According to his
view, the essential in man is Thought ; but thought is not a
general abstraction, opposed to the particular abstraction;
on the contrary, it embraces the particular within itself
(concrete generality). Thought does not remain merely
internal and subjective, but it determines and renders itself
objective through the medium of the will (practical mind).
To will and to know are two inseparable things ; and the
425.] THE HEGELIAN SCHOOL. 475
free-will of man consists in the faculty of appropriating and
of rendering the objective world his own, and also in obey-
ing the innate laws of the universe, because he wills it.
Hegel places the existence of right in the fact that every
existence in general is the existence of a free-will. Right is
usually confounded with morality, or with duty placed in
opposition to inclination. There exists, however, a higher
morality raised above this, which bids us act according to
truly rational ends, and which ought to constitute the true
nature of man. We find the objective development of this
higher morality in the State and in History.
As regards the connexion existing between thought and
reality, Hegel has laid down this memorable proposition:
That which is rational is real, and that which is real is
rational (there is no empty abstract vacuum beyond). It
is important here to distinguish, in the temporary and
transitory appearance, the substance that is immanent,
and the eternity which is present. Hegel proceeds to
make an application of this idea to political science, by
attempting to grasp and represent the state as a rational
whole, instead of constructing a new one. He develops
his method with great sagacity, but the form in which he
dresses it is so arid and dry, that it is extremely difficult to
understand. Such are the leading features of Hegel's sys-
tem, which exerted for a considerable time an almost sove-
reign sway over the philosophical public in Germany, and
which, in a modified form, may still be regarded as the
orthodox metaphysics of modern Germany, notwithstanding
the numerous and vigorous attempts that have been made
to supersede it.*
The Hegelian School.
425. Soon after Hegel commenced the publication of
The Journal for Scientific Criticism (1817), the Hegelian
philosophy began to show its power. This magazine was at
first exclusively devoted to the external propagation of
Hegelianism, and it added daily to the number of prose-
* It is scarcely possible to do common justice to such a complicated
system as Hegel's in a compendium like the present. — Ed.
For Hegel's works, see next section and page.
476 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT.
lytes. Subsequently to Hegel's death its spirit became
more tolerant, and suffered departures from the strict letter
of the master, until it sank gradually to an ordinary review,
and died a natural death, in 1847, from want of sympathy
in the public. Immediately after the death of Hegel his
orthodox school of followers effected the publication of all
his works, an undertaking which he himself had desired.
Amongst these may be enumerated hiy Lectures on the
Philosophy of Eeligion, of Nature, and of History, and also
his Lectures on the History of Philosophy. The editors of
his various works were MarJieineJce, JoJiann ScJiulze, Gems,
Von Henning, HotJw, Fbrster, and Michelet ; to these must
be added Bosenkranz, who appeared at a later date as the
biographer of Hegel.*
Hegel had enounced the proposition: that a party can
only maintain its supremacy by separating into two parties,
for which reason the division that arises in a party, though
apparently a misfortune, is in reality an advantage. This
principle was exemplified in the Hegelian school, where
disputes arose concerning the Person of God, the Immor-
tality of the Soul, and the Person of Christ, which termi-
nated in the division of the great school into two camps.
Daumer, Weisse, GoscJiel, Bosenkranz, ScJialler, and others,
attempted to connect the theistic idea of God with the
common notion of the Divinity contained in the Hegelian
philosophy, and to prove the former from the latter ; whilst
BlascJie, Michelet, Strauss, and others, maintained that the
pantheistic idea of God was the only true result of the
Hegelian principle, and represented God as the universal
substance or the Eternal Universe, which becomes first
absolutely conscious of itself in humanity. GoscJiel, Hein-
riclis, Bosenkranz, ScJialler, and others, attempted moreover
to justify the ecclesiastical idea of Christ, as specifically the
only God-Man, on philosophical grounds, whereas BlascJie,
Conradi, Miclielet, Strauss, and others, maintained that the
unity of the Divinity and of Humanity was not realized in
one individual, but in the whole of humanity, so that the
latter in reality is the God-Man. Finally, GoscJiel, the
younger FicJite, Weisse, and others, sought to demonstrate
* G. W. F. Hegel's Werke, durch einer Verein von Freunden des
verewigten, &c. 18 vols. 8vo. Berlin, 1834 — 45.
426.] STRAUSS AND FETJERBACH. 477
the idea of a personal immortality from the Hegelian philo-
sophy, whilst Blasche, Conradi, Daumer, Michelet and others,
understand the idea of immortality as the eternally present
quality of the spirit, and maintained that the eternity of
the spirit as such, consisted in the extinction of the indi-
vidual.
For the rest, the influence of the Hegelian philosophy
has extended to all the sciences, since they have all been
reconstructed from the basis of that philosophy, and in
some degree have been completely reformed and changed
by it, notwithstanding the great resistance it encountered
in a one-sided Empiricism and the prejudices of custom.
"Whilst the orthodox adherents of Hegel, the so-called Old
Hegelians, or Hegelians of the right, flocked around the
' Journal for Philosophy and speculative Theology,' founded
by the younger Eichte, in 1837, the review entitled the
' Halle Journal for German Science and Art,' founded in
1838, by Ruge and Eschenmayer, became the organ of the
Young Hegelian school. This journal was conducted by
Huge alone, since 1840, under the title of the ' German
Journal for Science and Art,' and became the advocate of
the religious and political reforms proposed by the New
Hegelian party, developing latterly so radical a tendency
that it became obnoxious to the government about 1843,
and was suppressed by the interference of the police. The
1 Journal of the Present,' edited at Tubingen, by Schwegler,
since 1843, as well as the ' Journal of speculative Philo-
sophy,' edited by Noack, at Worms, since 1846, perished
together with Eichte's periodical in the political troubles of
1848, after the two former journals had defended the cause
of free science against every dogmatically stationary system
of German spiritual life, with virile power and enthusiasm.
Strauss and Feueroacli.
426. The influence of the Hegelian philosophy has been
especially felt in theology ; and amongst those who particu-
larly laboured in this province we may notice Daub, at
Heidelberg ; Marheineke, at Berlin ; T&osenlcranz, at Konigs-
berg ; Conradi, at Derheim (in Rhenish Hesse) ; Erdmann,
at Halle ; Valke, at Berlin ; Zeller, at Tubingen ; and others
478 THIKD PEEIOD. [SECT.
who more or less contributed in giving this colouring to the
contemporary theology of protestant Germany. At length
there appeared, in 1837, a pupil and countryman of Hegel,
David Frederic Strauss,1 who sought to emancipate the
genuine kernel of Hegel's religious doctrine from all foreign
elements and orthodox additions. It was with this view
that he published, first his ' Critique of the Gospel History,'
and afterwards his ' Dogmatik,' in which he attempted to
develope what he represented as the true spirit of the Hege-
lian philosophy, and to stand forth as a true and genuine
Hegelian himself. It was Louis Feuerbach? however, who
carried the consequences of Hegel's position to their ulti-
mate results ; but in doing so he has exceeded the very
position which he himself at first assumed, when he was led
to make the statement that the being of man is the highest
object of philosophy, and that all speculation is mere vanity,
which attempts to transcend nature and humanity. He has
introduced this view into the province of religion, in his
* Nature of Christianity' (1841), and has represented reli-
gion as the relation of man to himself — to his own being.
At the same time, he describes this relation to his own
being as if it were to another being, inasmuch as man can
reduplicate his personality, and represent himself as God.
1 D. F. Strauss, Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet, 4th edit. 8vo.
Tubing. 1840. Leichtfassliche Bearbeitung desselben, 8vo. Winterthur,
1843. Streitschriften zur Vertheidigung meiner Schrift, Uber das
Leben Jesu, 8vo. Tubingen, 1837. Die Christliche Glaubenslehre, in
ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung, und im Kampf mit der modernen
Wissenschaft, 2 vols. 8vo. Tubingen, 1840. Charakteristiken und
Kritiken, 8vo. 1844. Zwei friedliche Blatter. Der Romantiker auf
dem Throne der Caesars; oder, Julian der Abtriinnige, 8vo. Mannheim,
1848. Der politische und der theologische Liberalismus, 8vo. Halle,
1848. Sechs theolog. -politische Volksreden, 8vo. 1848.
2 L. Feuerbach's Sammtliche Werke, vols. I — VII, 8vo. 1846-49.
Vol. I. Erlauterungen zum Wesen des Christenthums. Vol. II. Philo-
sophische Kritiken und Grundsatze. Vol. III. Gedanken uber Tod
und Unsterblichkeit. Vol. IV. Geschichte der philosophie von Bacon
bis Spinoza. Vol. V. Darstellung und Kritik der Leibnitzschen Philo-
sophie. Vol. VI. Pierre Bayle. Vol. VII. Das Wesen des Christen-
thums. Das Wesen der Religion, 2nd edit. 8vo. Leipz. ] 849. Das
Wesen des Glaubens im Sinne Luther's, 8vo. 1844. See also, J. P.
LANGE'sKritische Beleuchtungvon L. Feuerbach's Wesen des Christen-
thums, 12mo. Heidelberg, 1850.
427.] DEFECTS OP HEGELIANISM. 479
The only true and genuine province of religion, regarded
from the ground of Feuerbach's theory, is the being of
humanity : man has his highest being, his God in himself —
in his very nature, or rather in that of his race. The
Atonement, which is the general tendency of religion, is in
reality a natural atonement • another man is from his very
position the mediator between my own individuality and the
holy idea of the race. Whosoever rises to the love of the
race, he is a Christ, — nay, he is Christ himself; immediately
that the consciousness of the race, as a race, arises in you,
the ecclesiastical Christ disappears, without our losing his
real being on that account. Thus, in Feuerbach's eyes,
man and nature, which belongs to the complete and true
being of man, are the real sum and substance of religion.
We are indebted to Huge for -having more accurately ex-
plained and more elaborately developed this religion of
humanity: this writer has ably unveiled this phase of
modern religion in his treatise entitled * The Religion of our
Times.'
ATTEMPT TO FOUND A NEW SYSTEM OF
PHILOSOPHY.
Schopenhauer, Reiff, and Planch.
427. The present tendencies of philosophy in Germany
have struck out branches in two directions. They belong
either partially to the school of Herbart and Krause, or
have outgrown the orthodox Hegelian principle, from which
they have departed, either by following up this principle in
all its theoretical and practical consequences and applying
it as a critique to all objects presented to it, or by giving
Hegelianism a leaning to Schelling's last position, and
cramping Hegel's position into a union with historical
Christianity, thus bringing about a christianized Hegelian-
ism. No really fruitful advance of philosophy to a higher
platform can be traced in these groping efforts.
The entire development of philosophy in Germany, begin-
ning with Kant and closing with Hegel, revolves and resides
in the idea of the Consciousness. Kant had said ; " Our
cognition is on the one hand limited by Sensuousness, i. e,
480 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
by the perception of something objective and real without
us, which presents us with the raw material for cognition to
work upon. On the other hand it is limited by the forms of
Consciousness originally indwelling in our mind ; whilst the
very material of thought presented to us through the Senses
is not a thing in itself, or reality as such, but only the same
reflected in the mirror of our Consciousness." Eichte like-
wise pronounced this thing in itself as a subjective, though
at the same time a necessary stage of our thinking ; or, in
his language, as the Not-I thrown out by the I (Ego) or
thinking process, previous to all Consciousness.
Schelling led back the problem to the question : how the
Objective without us could become a Subjective within us ;
or how the Real could become the Ideal, that is, the thing
known ? He grasped the Absolute as the original union of
Thought and Being (DenJcen und Seyn), of Consciousness
and Existence, which absolute Identity he endeavoured to
place in a process of Self-development and Self-realization.
Hegel completed this attempt of a real system of the Self-
development of the Absolute in the dialectics of thinking,
which should at the same time contain all Being (Seyn) in
itself. The principle of the Hegelian philosophy is Thought
(das DenJcen), which thinks in the form of the Conception or
according to dialectics, and which thus, as a rational
Thinking (DenJcen), generates the whole contents of know-
ledge from itself, and develops it in a systematic form as
Science. This thinking of the philosopher is at the same
time absolute Thinking, in so far as it has become raised in
man, by the process of its phenomenological development,
to its truth, i. e., to the consciousness of the identity of
its Being with that of the Absolute. The philosopher's
thought is moreover proved to be absolute Thought by re-
producing this process in the Individual and by rising to the
Self-Consciousness of the Absolute.
It was undoubtedly a merit in Hegel to have modelled
perspicuously and distinctly, into a perfectly fashioned
system, this idea of philosophy, as a development of thought
in the form of a necessity in thinking, and of systematic
dependence. Yet we find in Hegel the want of a real
demonstration that Being and Thinking, Existence and
Consciousness, are really identical. Their identity was only
427.] SCHOPENHATJEB. 481
maintained, but never proved, by Hegel. The Hegelian
system, instead of really reconciling Being and Thinking,
the real and the ideal, and developing this reconciliation as
a system, is nothing more than the repetition of a one-sided
idealism. According to it the real itself must be thought,
and the development of the world must be represented as
that of thought ; that is to say, all Esse or Being, all Reality,
is resolved into Consciousness. Thus the Consciousness is
grasped as the principle of philosophy, and the movement
of the world is attached to the development of Conscious-
ness from the shadowy dream of instinctive life up to the
noon-day height of self-conscious Thought.
Notwithstanding the sublime and imposing character of
this spiritual Idealism, it shows itself to be onesided, and
incapable of completely and solidly penetrating the reality
of the universe ; and there are still shadowy and obscure
remains and relics in the development of the Consciousness
which do not appear in Hegel's idealism. An attempt has
been lately made in opposition to it, of elevating the Will
instead of Consciousness to be the principle of philosophy,
.and of regarding the development of Will instead of that
of the Consciousness, as the Nature (Wesen) and Soul of
the Universe. The adherents of the latter view have en-
deavoured to introduce this principle into all the sciences,
representing the Will as the fundamental substratum (Grwkt-
wesen) of the Universe, which developes itself on the dif-
ferent platforms of Nature, Spirit, and History. The
thinker who first struck out into this new path, thereby
pioneering the future road for philosophy, was Arthur
Schopenhauer. He was born at Dantzic about 1790, and
is the son of the banker named Schopenhauer, and of
the celebrated authoress, Johanna Schopenhauer, whose
maiden name was Trosina. This lady resided, after the
death of her husband, in 1806, first at Weimar, and after-
wards at Frankfort and Jena, where she died in 1838.
The son, who was a countryman, of Kant, and had attended
Fichte's lectures, has published several works at Berlin,
since 1813, amongst which a book entitled 'The World
regarded as Will and Conception' (1818) displayed the
genius of an original thinker. Founding his system on
the thought that the act of Will from which the world has
2 I
482 THIBD PE11I0D. [SECT.
arisen, is our own, Schopenhauer sought to build up his
philosophy, without having actually completed it as a system
of real Idealism, which should fulfil the object that he
proposed, namely that of concentrating the reality of all Exist-
ence and the root of universal Nature, in the Will, and of
showing the latter to be the heart and focus of the world.
Starting from the critique of the Hegelian system, Reiff
of Tubingen has based upon Schopenhauer's foundation,
a new system which converts the Nature (Wesen) of the
JEgo, or the pure Ego, into the principle of philosophy ; and
elevates the System of the Will's tendencies or phases
(Willensoestimninngeri) to the rank of the fundamental
Science of Philosophy.
The System of the Will's phases, according to Beiff,
contains the development of the world : those elements
which are intimately associated with every one's Conscious-
ness, and which constitute his inmost being, his strength
and his weakness, his weal and his woe, are world-creating
and world-moving forces. These are not to be sought for
above ; we have only to look within in order to find them.
A young countryman of Eeiff' s, named Planclc, has become
associated with him and his views, at Tubingen, and has
endeavoured, in his work entitled ' The Age,' l (2 vols.
1850 — 51) to erect the reconciliation of Idealism and
Bealism, begun by Eeiff, into a complete system of Eeal-
Idealism. However, these new efforts of philosophy belong
to the present, and have not yet passed into history. It is
sufficient for us to have discovered from the preceding
sketch that the present position of philosophy in Germany
is that which converts the Will, instead of the Conscious-
ness, into the absolute productive principle of the world,
and which regards all reality in nature, spirit, and history,
as a manifestation of Will. It is the present object of the
philosophical mind to pave the way to a new era by the
introduction of this principle (whose first proposition is the
following : Iivill ; therefore lam) : The oneness of thinking
and being is the Will. The adherents of this new school
anticipate that the future philosophy of Germany, by be-
1 K. Ch. Planck, Die Weltalter. Vol. I, System des reinen Ideal-
ismus, 1850. Vol. II, Das Ileich des Idealisinus, 1851. Die Genesis
des Judenthums, 8vo. 1843.
428.] MODERN GEEMAN SCHOOL. 483
coming the Metaphysics of the Will, will attain the crown
and summit of human wisdom.
OTHER RECENT SYSTEMS.
I. Germany.
428. Besides the authors specified in the last section, we
must briefly signalize among the recent German systematic
essays contemporary and subsequent to Hegel, the ' Archi-
tectonic' of Fred. Chris toph. Weise, professor at Heidelberg;
the essays of William Kern, of John, Baron Sinclair, of
Charles Louis Vorpahl, who maintains that Being is derived
from Birth. "We have also to notice the doctrine of Identity
modified by Adalbert Kayssler, professor at Breslau, deceased
in 1822 ; considerations on man, resembling in some degree
the ideas of Jacobi and of Schelling, by David Theod. Aug.
Suahedissen, professor at Marburg ; the popular observations
of C. F. G. Gravel and F. LinJcmaier ; the interesting
sketches of Herger, which approach in some measure the
ideas of Hegel; and the principles of a philosophy of
nature, by TieftruncTc. One of the most remarkable of the
later German metaphysicians is Fred. Fdicard JBeneke, who
approximates the Scotch school in many of his views, being
a decided realist, and endeavouring to arrive at ontological
results through the medium of psychological analysis. To
the above writers we must add ILerm. Wil. Fm. de Keyser-
linglc, privat-docent at Berlin, who published a system of per-
ceptive {Anschauung 's) philosophy ; besides numerous other
authors, who have contributed to the advancement of special
branches of philosophy by different publications. Amongst
these must be classed Gottlob Will. Gerlach, professor at
Halle; H. C. W. Sigwart, professor at Tubingen; Joseph Hill-
debrand, professor at Giessen, and previously at Heidelberg.
The theological discussions which have lately occurred, on
the connection between Reason and Revelation, and between
the Eree-will of man and Divine Grace, have not been devoid
of interest in a philosophical point of view ; and some have
imagined that they could solve these problems by means of
mysticism. A tendency has quite recently appeared among
the German philosophers towards a psychological and an-
2 i 2
484 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
thropological direction, in preference to pure speculation.
Several writers of eminence have combined this psycholo-
gical tendency with works on the history of philosophy,
such as Brandis, Hitter, Beinliold ji&n., etc. ; whilst the
diversity and conflict of speculative opinions naturally and
necessarily led the mind to a more searching examination of
the different positions taken up during various epochs in
the development of the science. Before closing our sketch
of the modern German school of philosophy, we have still
to notice another of its phases, which has been quite
recently developed, chiefly through the influence of Will,
•von Humboldt.1 We allude to the attempt to bring philology
to bear upon philosophy, and to explain many of its pro-
blems from the structure of language. This view has met
with considerable success and able advocates, and has com-
bated with some advantage the Hegelian doctrine, which is
naturally regarded by the adherents of the science of Lan-
guages as a play of words (WortenspieT) . The last best
work on the dispute between Hegelianism and this new
school of philological philosophy, is a book of H. Stcintlial,
entitled ' Die Sprachwissenschaft W. von Humboldt's und
die Hegel'sche Philosophic,' 8vo. Berlin, 1848.2
1 Born at Berlin in 1767, died 1835.
2 Muck valuable information on the present position and future
prospects of the philosophy of the present day, will be found in
J. D. Morell's Lectures on the Philosophical Tendencies of the age,
London and Edinburgh, 1848.
F. E. Beneke has published : System der Logik als Kunstlehre des
Denkens, 2 parts, 8vo. Berlin, 1842. System der Metaphysik und
Religionsphilosophie, 8vo. ibid. 1839. Grundlinien des natiirlichen
Systemes der praktischen Philosophic, 3 vols. 8vo. ibid. 1837-41. Die
Philosophic in ihrem Verhaltniss zur Erfahrung, 8vo. ibid. 1833.
Pragmatische Psychologic, oder Seelenlehre in der Anwendung auf das
Leben, 2 vols. 8vo. ibid. 1850. Experimental Psychology: elements
of this science considered as the basis of all science, 8vo. Berlin, 1820.
Theory of Knowledge according to the consciousness of Pure Reason,
8vo. Jena, 1820. De Veris Philosophise Initiis, 8vo. 1820. Founda-
tions of a Physique of Morals to serve as an appendix to the work of
Kant, entitled: Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals.
429.] GALL AND SPUEZHEIM. 485
Phrenology.
429. "We have still to notice a system of psycho-physi-
ology which took its rise in Germany about the commence-
ment of the present century ; but, meeting with no great
favour at home, passed into other lands, where it has met
with a more ready and friendly welcome.
Dr. Joseph Francis Gall, born at Tiefenbrunn, in Suabia
(some say in France), A.D. 1757,1 was led by his studies in
cerebral anatomy and in connection with the nervous system,
to the conclusion that the brain is not only the organ of the
mind, but that it is moreover composed of compartments
corresponding to the mental faculties. Dr. Grail Avas regarded
as a materialist, though many of his disciples have been de-
cided immaterialists ; and he became early associated with
his colleague, Dr. Spurzheim, a native of Longwich, near
Treves.* Having met with little encouragement in Germany
they removed to Paris, where the new science was received
with open arms.
Dr. Gall remained the latter part of his life in Prance,
where he prosecuted his inquiries and promulgated his
system with zeal and perseverance. He died in 1828. Dr.
Spurzheim became the apostle of the new science in other
and remoter lands, having held forth the doctrine of Crani-
ology, before numerous and attentive audiences, in England
and America, where he died in 1832.
Various additions have been made to the original system
of Gall by subsequent disciples, of whom the most eminent
in England have been George Combe2 and Dr. Elliotson?
1 Gall's Neue Physiologie des Gehirns, imd Physiologie des mensch-
lichen Geistes. Also, under the title of Vollst'andige Geisteskunde.
German transl. 6 vols. Nurnberg, 1st ed. 1829; 2nd ed. 1833, 8vo.
The work was published in French under the title of Organologie :
sur l'Origine des qualites morales et des facultes intellectuelles de
l'homme, 6 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1825. F. G. Gall's Works, translated by
"VV. Lewis, in 6 vols. Boston, 1835.
Gall and Spurzheim published together, Anatomic et Physiologie du
Systeme nerveux au general, et du Cerveau en particulier. Paris,
1818 — 19, 4 vols. fol. Physiognomical System of Doctors Gall and
Spurzheim, by Dr. J. E. Spurzheim, 2nd edit. Lond. 1S15.
* Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, born 1776 ; died 1 832.
2 System of Phrenology, 2 vols. 8vo. Moral Philosophy, 12mo. 1840.
3 The Zoist, a Journal of Cerebral Science and Mesmerism. Physio-
logy, 1 vol. 8vo.
486 THIED PEEIOD. [SECT;
the former an immaterialist, the latter a materialist. The
science has met with formidable antagonists, especially in
the Transcendental philosophers,1 nevertheless it appears,
on the whole, to have gradually gained ground, slowly but
steadily, especially in America.
Phrenology, according to the latest and most approved
classification, divides the brain, and therefore the mind (to
which it corresponds), into two orders of Faculties.
Order I, containing the Feelings, comprises the posterior
lobe of the brain, and is divided into two genera, the first con-
sisting of the Propensities, the second of the Sentiments.
Genus 1, or Propensities, nine in number, consists of, 1,
Amativeness; 2, Philoprogenitiveness : 3, Concentrativeness;
4, Adhesiveness ; 5, Combativeness : 6, Destructiveness ; 7,
Secrotiveness ; 8, Acquisitiveness ; 9, Constructiveness.
Genus 2, or Sentiments, twelve in number, consists of, 10,
Self-Esteem; 11, Love of Approbation; 12, Cautiousness ;
13, Benevolence ; 14, Veneration ; 15, Firmness; Conscien-
tiousness ; 17, Hope ; 18, "Wonder ; 19, Ideality ; 20, Wit ;
21, Imitation.
Order II comprises the Intellectual Faculties, and is
placed in the anterior lobe. It contains four genera.
Genus 1 consists of the Fxternal Senses, Touch, Taste,
Smell, Hearing, Sight.
Genus 2 contains the Knowing Faculties, which perceive
the existence and qualities of external objects : 22, Indivi-
duality ; 23, Form : 24, Size ; 25, Weight ; 26, Colouring.
Genus 3. Knowing Faculties which perceive the relations
of external objects: 27, Locality; 28, Number; 29, Order;
30, Eventuality ; 31, Time ; 32, Tune ; 33, Language.
Genus 4. Reflecting Faculties. 34, Comparison ; 35, Cau-
sality.
The organs are supposed to be double; each faculty having
two, lying in corresponding situations in the hemispheres of
the brain.
Such is the phrenological system of empirical psycho-
logy, which has derived powerful corroboration from the
examination of countless skulls, and the phenomena of
1 See some clever criticisms en Phrenology in Dr. G. Moore's Power
of the Soul over the Body. J. D. Morell's History of Modern Philo-
sophy in the 19th century, vol. I, pp. 412-28. Also Dr. Carpenter's
Human Physiology. , , J
430.] MODEBN ENGLISH SCHOOL. 487
phreno-mesmerism, but which has also been assailed by the
formidable weapons of satire and syllogism.
On an impartial survey of the theory, it appears to con-
tain the outline of truth mixed witli errors in detail. The
great primary divisions and organic classification appear
sound, but the minuter analysis of the functions of the brain
is in many cases gratuitous and illusory. It seems probable,
however, that ultimately the researches of phrenology are
destined to throw much light on the compound constitution
of man.
The theory of the facial angle, discovered by Camper*
and carried out by Blumenoach7, and PricJiard,3 as well as
Lavater's System of Physiognomy,4 have both an intimate
connection with Phrenology, which some authors have
thought not to have been unknown to the Greeks.
ldJ
II. England.
430. During the period now under consideration, the
other nations of Europe have only left feeble traces of a
genuine and original spirit in philosophy. In England, the
principles of Locke have continued to preserve considerable
influence, though several philosophers have lately arisen
who have opposed its materialistic tendency, and have
thrown the door wide for the admission of Rationalism.
Amongst the partizans of Locke and the Inductive school,
we must specially notice John Stuart 3£ill,5 an acute thinker,
1 P. Camper, Ueber den naturlichen Unterschied der Gesichtziige
in Menschen verschiedener Gegenden, &c, herausgegeben von dessen
Sonne, A. D. Camper, Berl. 1792.
2 J. F. Blumenbach's Institutions of Physiology, translated by Dr.
Elliotson, 2nd edit. Lond. 1818 (several recent editions). Blumen-
bach's Manual of Comparative Anatomy, translated by Lawrence, 8vo.
Lond. 1828, and reprinted.
3 Natural History of Man, by James Cowles Prichard, M.D. Lond.
1 vol. 8vo. 1842.
4 Physiognomik : vervollstiindigste neue Aufiage, Wien, 1829.
5 John Stuart Mill, Elements of Logic. A System of Logic,
Katiocinativc and Inductive, 2 vols. 8vo. 1843. Principles of Political
Economy, 8vo. Essays on unsettled questions of Political Economy,
8vo. 1844.
4SS THIRD PEBIOD. [SECT.
and an elegant writer, who has shown a decided bias towards
Hume's doctrine of Causation. One of the most recent
advocates of the empirical school in England, is a philo-
sopher named J. J. G. Wilkinson,1 who, though his mind is
coloured with the peculiar theology and philosophy of
Swedenborg, has shown his freedom from all sectarian bias,
and a most comprehensive grasp of thought. His introduc-
tion to his translation of Swedenborg' s Animal Economy is
a masterpiece of reasoning and composition, and displays a
truly Baconian power of thought and dignity of style.
Mr. Wilkinson's last work contains the outlines of a new
and highly ingenious philosophy of mind, deduced from the
analogy of the bodily organs, and represented with no
common acuteness of wit, fertility of imagination, and grace
of composition. It may, perhaps, be justly objected to Mr.
"Wilkinson's writings, that they are too rich in imagery, and
too subtle in thought, to come within the comprehension of
the generality of minds. His works have, however, obtained
considerable popularity in America.
To the list of recent English philosophical writers of the
Empirical school may be added the names of Sir William
Drummond? Thomas Hope? and Charles Bray ;4 and a writer
of some eminence, advocating a rationalistic system of spiri-
tualism, has lately appeared in the person of Professor
JF. Newman? of the London University.
431. Amongst the opponents of the Sensationalist and
"Necessarian doctrines emanating from the school of Locke,
we must class Dr. Whewett,6 professor at Cambridge, who
was recently engaged in an interesting controversy with
1 The Animal Kingdom, by Emanuel Swedenborg, translated, with,
an Introduction, by John James Garth Wilkinson. The Human
Body and its Connexion with Man, 1 vol. 8vo. 1851. Science for all:
an oration, &c.
2 Died 1828, at Rome.
Academical Questions, 1805, 4to. ; and On the Origin of several
Empires, States, and Cities, 3 vols. 8vo.
3 Essay on the Origin and Prospects of Man, 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1831.
4 The Philosophy of Necessity.
5 The Soul, her sorrows and her aspirations, 1 vol. post 8vo. 1848.
Phases of Faith, 1 vol. post Svo. 1850.
6 Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, 2 vols. Svo. London, 1847.
Elements of Morality.
431 — 132.] beowjS" and stewakt. 489
Mr. Mill on the idea of Causation, which Dr. Whewell
maintains not to be derived from experience. The professor
styles himself a Conceptionalist ; and his theory respecting
the origin and source of our intellectual notions may be
described as a compound of German and Scotch specu-
lation.
432. The Scotch school has, during the present century,
displayed a considerable departure from, and even hostility
to, the Empirical doctrine. Amongst its chief ornaments
and supporters we may cite Thomas Brown,1 professor at
Edinburgh, who exhibited some leaning towards the Empi-
rical school of Hume, in his notion of Power, which he
pronounces to be only that of immediate, invariable ante-
cedence. Brown resolved all our faculties and powers into
indications of ' states of mind,' and maintains that they
cannot be cognizant of the real objects of our perceptions,
and yet that they are all that we can ever really know of the
mind itself. Brown has followed the analogy of physiological
analysis in his psychological researches, which are entitled
to consideration and attention, but are liable to numerous
and serious defects, especially on the score of obscurity and
onesidedness. His style is elegant and chaste, and will
generally secure the admiration of his readers.
Dugald Stewartfborh at Edinburgh in 1753, deceased 1828,
was one of the last pupils of the Scotch school which was
led, by starting from the Empirical position, to a more search-
ing study of the faculty of Cognition. He makes his philo-
sophy of the mind to depend on the facts of consciousness.
The last and most eminent expression of the Scotch school
is represented b}r Sir William Hamilton, late professor at
1 Born 1778; died 1820.
T. Brown, On Cause and Effect, 1804, third edition (almost
rc-written), 1818. Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind,
4 vols. 8vo. Edinb. 1820 ; reprinted in one volume, 1821.
2 Stewart, Philosophy of the action and moral powers of Man,
2 vols. 8vo. 1828. Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind,
3 vols. 4to. Lond. 1792-1827. The first two volumes have been fre-
quently reprinted, but not the third. Philosophical Essays, 4to. Edin-
burgh, 1810, reprinted in 8vo. 1816, and since. Outlines of Moral
Philosophy, Edinburgh, 1818, 8vo. Preliminary Dissertation on the
Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy, 4to.
(written for the Encyclopaedia Britannica).
490 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
Edinburgh, who in his analogies and criticism of his prede-
cessors, especially in connection with the idea of perception,
has shown their errors and defects in a masterly way, and
has given admission to many views evidently derived from
contemporary philosophy in Germany and France.
Coleridge. Morell.
433. German philosophy has been gradually exerting an
increasing influence on thinking minds in England since
the beginning of this century. As a nation, it is true the
English are more addicted to commercial than to metaphy-
sical speculation, and in philosophy they have always shown
a greater leaning to the practical than to the theoretical
part, witness the ethical labours of Sir James Mackintosh,1
and the prevalence and diffusion of Gall's system of phre-
nology. It may be remarked in general that the prevailing
tendency of the English philosophers in the present century
has been to study those branches of philosophy only which
bear upon politics and natural science. In fact, the term
philosophy was till lately chiefly understood as implying
those branches, in England. It is not improbable that a
feeling of national self-sufficiency was a barrier against any
foreign importations. Several writers have, however, en-
deavoured to do justice to the merits of Kant ; and S. T.
Coleridge2 was early imbued with the spirit of German
philosophy, which appears in his prose writings, and which
he endeavoured to infuse into his countrymen. Kant and
Eichte were his favourite authors, and he transplanted
many of their terms into the English tongue. Yet Cole-
ridge was no systematic writer, but a metaphysical dilet-
tante. It was reserved for a more recent writer, John
Daniel Morell? to introduce German philosophy to the people
of England in a systematic form. Though deeply imbued
1 Sir James Mackintosh's Works, 3 vols. 1846 (born 1765, died
1832).
2 Born 1772 ; died 1834. Table Talk. The Friend, 3 vols.
3 Cousin-german of the editor. His principal works are, A Histo-
rical and Critical Yiew of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the
19th century, 1846, 2 vols. Svo. The Philosophical Tendencies of the
Age, 8vo. London, 1848. The Philosophy of Religion, Svo. 1849.
433 — 434.] MOEELL — CAELTLE. 491
with the spirit of modern German Metaphysics, he is not
the slave of any system, and has distinctly pronounced against
finality in this science, which he describes as one of progres-
sive development. Mr. Morell, though he cannot be classed
with any particular school, has exhibited a greater approxi-
mation to the Eclecticism of Victor Cousin than to any other
system. His works display a union of depth and clearness,
which have ensured their popularity. He has clearly and
systematically developed the distinction between Intuitional
Season and "Understanding, and defined the legitimate func-
tions and limits of these faculties.1
Before we dismiss the English philosophy of the present
century, we must not omit the name of Thomas Carlyle,
a man who, though no systematic philosopher, has probably
done more to spiritualize philosophy, in England, than any
other modern writer.2
III. France.
Philip Damiron, Essai sur l'histoire de la philosophie en France au
19me siecle, 8vo. Paris, 2me edit. 1828.
434. After Condillac, the French remained subject to the
sway of Empiricism. The psychological method of Con-
dillac, Atomistic Physiology, and Ideology, were the limits
of French philosophy • a popular and witty style constituted
its form, the agreeable and the useful its object ; finally, a
philosophy, applied to life, and often accompanied by vanity
and frivolity, was the aim of all knowledge.
A new version of Theosophy, from the pen of the inge-
nious mystic, Louis Claude Saint Martin (born at Amboise
1 Two or three works have recently appeared in England treating of
philosophico-religious questions in a decidedly sceptical spirit. Among
these the most remarkable are : The Nemesis of Faith, by J. A. Froude.
The Creed of Christendom : its foundations and superstructure, by W.
R. Greg, and Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature, by H. G. Atkinson
and Harriet Martineau, a book of a decidedly atheistic spirit, which
has occasioned its general condemnation by the press and people of
England.
2 Carlyle's Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 4 vols. 8vo. 1839.
Sartor Resartus, 2nd edit, post 8vo. Lond. 1841. Heroes and Hero-
Worship, 3rd edit. Lond. post 8vo. 1846. Past and Present, 8vo.
1st edit. Lond. 1840.
492 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
in 1713, deceased in 1804), the translator of Jacob Bohm,
and a partizan of the sect of Martinez Pasqualis, did not
suit the French mind. On the other hand, the craniology of
Gall and Spurzheim met with a favourable reception in France.
Amongst the French philosophers of the period in ques-
tion who adhered to the system of Condillac, we must
notice J. M. Degerando,1 P. J. G. Caoanis, Count Destutt-
Traci/, noted for his ideology, P. Laromiguiere? Azais? Garat,
and Volney. In opposition to the sensuous philosophy
there arose, about this time, a theological school, to which
belong the names of Joseph de Maistref Lamennais? Bonaldf
Ballanche? and others.
Since the death of Charles Yillers, who recommended the
study of the Kantian philosophy to his countrymen, the
1 Degerando, Des Signes et de l'Art dc penser, 4 vols. Histoire
comparee de Philosophie, 8 vols. Du Ferfectionnement moral, 2 vols.
De la Bienfaisance publique, 4 vols. De l'education des Sourds-
muets de naissance, 2 vols.
2 Laromiguiere, Lecons de Philosophic, 2 vols. Paris, 1815 (born
1756).
3 Azais, Precis du Systeme Universel, 1 vol. L'Explication univer-
sale, 4 vols. Cours de philosophie generale, 8 vols. Paris.
4 Born 1753; died 1821.
5 Lamennais, Essai sur l'indifference en matiere de religion, avec
Defense, etc. 4 vols. Esquisse d'une philosophie, 5 vols. Discussions
critiques et Pensees diverscs sur la religion et la philosophie, 1 vol.
Amschaspands et Darvands. Melanges religieux et philosophiques.
Paroles d'un Croyant. Le Livre du Peuple. Politique a, l'usage du
peuple, 2 vols. De l'Esclavage moderne. Questions philosophiques et
politiques, 2 vols. De la Eeligion. Du Passe et de l'Avenir du peuple.
Servitude Yolontaire,
6 Bonald, Essai analytique sur les lois naturelles de l'ordre social,
ou du Pouvoir, du Ministre, et du Sujet dans la soci£t6, 1 vol.
Du Divorce considcre au 19me siecle, relativement a Tetat domes-
tique et a l'etat publique de la societe, 1 vol. Legislation primitive,
consideree dans les derniers temps par les seuls lumieres de la liaison;
suivie de plusieurs Traites et Discours politiques, 3 vols. Pensees
diverses et opinions politiques, 2 vols. Recherches Philosophiques sur
des premiers objets des connaissances morales, 2 vols. Melanges lit-
teraires, politiques et philosophiques, 2 vols. Demonstrations philo-
sophiques du principe constitutif de la societe, &c. 1 vol. ThSorie du
Pouvoir politique et religieux dans la societe civile, demontree par le
xaisonnement et par l'histoirc, 3 vols.
7 Ballanche, (Euvres completes, contenant les Essais de Palingencsic
Sociale. Antigone, Thomme sans nom, 4 vols. Paris.
434.] THE FKEtfCII SCHOOL. 493
French have made several attempts to approach the German
philosophy, and to give np the sensationalism of Condillac.
Victor Cousin1 (editor of Descartes, of Proclus, and of
Abelard, and translator of Plato), is a disciple of Royer
Collard, and has familiarized himself with the most recent
researches of Grerman philosophy. He has founded a new
school in France, taking as his fundamental principle the
meditative interrogation of the Consciousness: he is at the head
of those eminent men who have the most contributed to
diffuse a new Spiritualism, which has encountered a lively
opposition in the old school of Empiricism. To the same
epoch belong the names of Maine de Biran? Hoyer Collard?
jBerard* Virey,b and Jouffrojf a philosopher distinguished
by clearness of thought and elegance of style, who has
presented his countrymen with admirable translations of
Dugald Stewart and Browne. Keratry,1 Baron Massias*
1 Born 1792.
Victor Cousin, Cours de Philosophie, professe a la Faculte des
Lettres de 1816 a 1820, 1840, 1841. Cours de l'histoire de la Philo-
sophie, 1841. Introduction a l'Histoire de la Philosophie. Histoire de
la Philosophie du 18me siecle. Fragments phi losophiques. Philosophie
ancienne et scholastique. Manuel de l'histoire de la Philosophie, tra-
duit de l'Allemand de Tennemann, 1839. Des Pensees de Pascal, etc.,
1843. Le?ons de philosophie sur Kant, 1842. De la Metaphysique
d'Aristote, etc. 1838. Cours de Philosophie, professe" pendant l'amiee
1818, etc. Fragments Litteraires.
2 Maine de Biran, (Euvres philosophiques, 3 vols, edited by Cousin,
Paris, 1841 (born 1766 ; died 1824).
3 Royer Collard, Fragmcns (born 1753).
4 F. Berard, Doctrine dcs rapports du Physique et du Moral, pour
servir de fondement a la Physiologie intellectuelle et a la Metaphysique,
Paris, 1823.
5 Virey, De la Puissance vitale, Paris, 1823.
0 Born 1796.
Jouffroy, Cours de Droit naturel. Melanges philosophiques. Nou-
veaux Melanges de Philosophie. Cours iEsthetique.
7 Keratry, Examen philosophique des considerations sur le senti-
ment du Sublime et du Beau, dans le rapport des characteres, des
temperamens, des sexes, des climats, et des religions, 1 vol. Induc-
tions morales et philosophiques, 1 vol.
8 Baron Massias, Eapport de la Nature a l'Homme, 5 vols. 1821.
Probleme de l'Esprit, 1825. Traitede philosophie psycho-physiologique,
1830. Thgorie du Beau et du Sublime. Examens des Fragmens de
Eoyer Collard, et des Principes de la philosophie Ecossaise.
494 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
J. H. Droz,1 and Ponstetten, a Swiss, must also be added to
the list of modern French philosophers. Claude Francois
Le Joyaud and J. A. Fr. Alix rose above atomistic physics
in their application of philosophy to the natural sciences.
A modern French philosopher, named Auguste Comte?
has made himself notorious by carrying out sensationalism
to its extremest form, which leads him to reject all meta-
physics as impossible, and to maintain that positive science
is the only possible channel for obtaining knowledge. Ac-
cording to Comte, all kinds of knowledge pass through
three stages : 1st. The supernatural ; 2nd. The metaphy-
sical ; 3rd. The positive. His system, wrhich is remarkable
for ingenuity, establishes atheism as a material basis, and
excludes all researches beyond the facts of our senses, as
futile and useless, siuce it is impossible for man to pene-
trate into the essence of things. A considerable analogy
may be traced between Hume's and Comte' s systems, espe-
cially as regards Cause and Effect, which both regard only
in the li^ht of a relation.
'a'
SOCIALISTIC MYSTICS.
Fourier.
435. A new school of Socialistic philosophers has arisen
in France within the present century, whose writings have
exerted a powerful influence over the mind and destiny of
their countrymen, and of the whole civilized world. The
principal founders and authorities of this school are St.
Simon, Fourier, Leroux, and Proudhon ; of whom the three
former may be described as mystical, and the latter as scep-
tical Socialists. The most remarkable and original amongst
these systems are those of Charles Fourier, and Pierre
Leroux. Charles Fourier was born at Besancon in 1772,3
and followed, during the greater part of his life, different
branches of the mercantile profession. He published his
1 J. H. Droz, Essai sur l'Art d'etre heureux. De la philosophic
Morale; ou des differents systemes sur la science de la Vie. Appli-
cation de la Morale Politique.
2 His principal -work is, Cours de philosophic positive, 6 vols. 1842.
3 Died in 1837.
435.] SOCIALISTIC WEITEKS. 495
first work in 1808,1 and since then has published various
treatises and articles 2 in a Journal called the Phalanstere,
which advocated his principles. As a thinker he is remark-
able for the originality, eccentricity, and depth of his views.
His writings exhibit a gorgeous wealth of imagination,
coupled with an almost unparalleled logical acuteness. He
is equally efficient in destroying and constructing ; and one
is at a loss which to admire most, the power with which he
attacks existing systems, or the ingenuity which he displays
in substituting another. His philosophy may be divided
into Science and Praxis, or his Psychological and Ontological
Theory and its application in his Societary System. The
first comprises what he styles Passional Attraction, the last
its application to society in Industrial Association. His
psychology is confined to an analysis of the affections, from
which he infers that the Newtonian principle of attraction
is equally applicable to the social and mental worlds ; and
that society should be moulded in accordance with the
diversity and intensity of individual attractions.3 Unity in
Diversity and Harmony in Contrast, is what he professes to
achieve in his new Social System. This principle of passional
attraction is regarded by Fourier as his grand discovery,
which had been culpably neglected and overlooked by past
philosophers. On the whole his system is eminently deserv-
ing of a careful study, though hostile to some of our notions
of ethical propriety ; in which respect he approximates Plato
and other philosophers of antiquity. Among his chief merits
we may enumerate his Law of Series and his Potential Scale
of Human Characters ; and among his defects may be indi-
cated his exaggerated partiality in favour of analogies and
particular numbers.
1 Theorie des Quatre Mouvements, 1st edit. 1808.
Theorie de l'Unite universelle, 2nd edit. 4 vols. 8vo. Le Nouveau
Monde industriel et societaire, 2nd edit. 1 vol. 8vo. La Fausse In-
dustrie, 2 vols. pet. in 8vo. Articles in the Phalange (monthly-
review), 1845-46, 1847-48, and 1849. Quackeries of the sects of
St. Simon and Owen.
3 Ch. Fourier's Passions of the Human Soul, 2 vols. 8vo. 1851.
which has been translated by the editor of the present volume.
496 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
"Pierre Leroux.
436. Leroux1 may be classed among the most able modem
thinkers in France. He commenced his career as an ardent
admirer and adherent of St. Simon and Fourier, but he has
latterly made himself independent of their views, and started
an original theory. Leroux is a determined foe of all
Eclecticism, which he has ably combated for years. He
maintains that it is absurd to seek for a knowledge of man
in the simple Consciousness, or the Me ; and he affirms that
this Me or Ego is a mere abstraction, and does not exist in
reality. Every individual mind only exists as a part of the
whole, and we must study the whole of humanity to know
man. "We must look to the Science of Life for philosophical
truth. Leroux is a traditionalist in history; and he is
led by induction from the past to infer that in the same
way that Christianity is a legitimate deduction from the
universal consent of the world, and a natural stage in the
progressive development of man, in like manner it also will
eventually be superseded by another and a more perfect
system of religion and code of morals. His view of the
Deity appears to be strongly tinged with Pantheism ; but he
does not appear, like the German philososphers, to throw
doubt upon the absolute reality of our perceptions. His
style is eloquent and graceful; his mind is richly stored with
the fruits of extensive reading ; but his system is exposed to
the charge of being hazardous and imperfectly digested.
IV. Italy, and otlicr Countries.
437. Since the time of Giov. Batt. Vico,z and of his com-
patriot Antonio Genovese, the Italians have not shown much
1 Leroux has published the following works:
De l'Humanite, de son principe et de son avenir, 2 vols. R6futation
de l'Eclecticisme. Sept Discours sur la situation de la societe, et de
l'esprit humain, 7 vols. De la mutilation d'un 6crit posthume de
Thomas Joufiroy, 1 vol.
2 Giov. Batt. Yico, Principj d'una Scienza nuova d'intorno alia
commune natura delle nazione, 12mo. Napoli, 1725; (often reprinted,)
also contained in Vico, Opere, ordinate ed illustrate da Giuseppe Fer-
rari, 6 vols. 8vo. Milano, 1835-37. (Euvres Choises, trad, par M.
Michelet, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1833.
436 — 437.] tilaisGieei and beccaeta. 497
originality in mental philosophy, having chiefly devoted
themselves to the adoption of German metaphysics, or
to certain practical questions. In the latter category must
be classed Gaetan Filangieri1 and Cesare Bonesano,2 Marquis
Beccaria, who treated of legislation in a light principally
borrowed from foreign systems.3 The Italians have latterly
become more intimately acquainted with the writings of
Kant and other German philosophers, but especially with
German works on ^Esthetics and the philosophy of Art.
The most eminent Italian philosophers in the present day
are Vincenzo Giobertft and Count Mamiani.5 Gioberti, dis-
tinguished alike as a politician and a philosopher, professes
himself a zealous adherent of Catholicism, and hostile to the
whole tenor of German philosophy. His psychology, which
gives full admission to the supernaturalist principle, partakes
somewhat largely of mysticism. Mamiani displays great
ingenuity and acuteness in his works, which are highly
esteemed even in Prance and Germany. He is more critical
and less mystical than Gioberti, and has devoted much
attention to the subject of Method.
To the above Italian philosophers we must add Rosmini?
1 Born 1752 ; died 1787.
Filangieri, La Scienza della Legislazione, 8 vols. Nap. 1780, 8vo.,
and other editions. Translated into most European languages.
2 Born at Milan, 1735; died 1793.
Beccaria, Dei Delitti e delle Pene, Nap. 1784, 8vo., and other
editions. Translated into most European languages.
3 The French Ideology has especially been spread in Italy. There
has also appeared there a Collezione di Classici metafisici, Pavia,
1819-22. Sacchi translated Kant's works at Pavia; and Geminiani
translated A. W. von Schlegel's Lectures on. Dramatic Art. G. B.
Talia also published a work on Esthetics : Saggio di Estetica, Veneziaf
1822.
4 Gioberti, Introduzione alio Studio della Filosofia, 4 vols. 1841.
Degii Errori filosofici di A. Rosmini, 1841. Del Primato morale e
civile degli Italiani, 2 vols. Del Bello e del Buono, 1843.
6 Mamiani, Del Riconoscamento della Filosofia antica Italiana, Par.
1834. Sei Letteri del Mamiani a Rosmini, Par. 1838. Dell' Onto-
logia e del Metodo, Par. 1841. Dialoghi di Scienza. prima, 1846.
Maria Pagani: ovvero, Dell' Immortalita, 1846.
Rosmini, Saggio sull' origini delle Idee, 1830, 3 vols. A controversy
occurred between Gioberti and Rosmini, in which Dr. Wiseman is
supposed to have defended the latter.
2 K
498 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT.
a writer of an idealistic tendency ; Bomagnosi* whose views
have a considerable affinity with the speculations of Dugald
Stewart ; Baron Pasquale Gallupi? who successfully criti-
cised Condillac and the principles of Hume; and Paolo
Costa,3 a clever and ingenious writer, who examined the
writings of Reid, Hume, and Kant, in an impartial spirit.
The Danes, the Swedes, and the Dutch have lately dis-
played more ardour for philosophical researches, though
they are generally deficient in the originality of the German
mind. An exception must, however, be made in favour of
Sans Christian Oersted* a Danish philosopher, who has
thrown considerable lustre over the Danish name, by his
beautiful and ingenious speculations. He may be pro-
nounced a decided antagonist of Idealism, and devoted to a
new school of Realistic-Naturalism. Much of his system,
and many of his theories will appear mystical and poetical ;
nevertheless, there is a rich field of thought, and a copious
fund of experimental truth in the scientific and literary
labours of this ingenious writer. His leading object seems
to be, to animate Nature, which causes him to approxi-
mate the ancient theory of giving a Soul to the "World, and
of generating a kind of realistic Pantheism. There is much
that is singularly attractive and original in the speculations
of this philosopher, which seem especially adapted to secure
the admiration of sesthetical minds. The prominent feature
of his system, is the attempt to trace an identity between
the soul in Man and the soul in Nature. On this point
1 Born 1761; died 1835.
Romagnosi, Opere, 19 vols. Genesi del Diritto penale, 1791.
Introduzione alio Studio del Diritto Publico, Parma, 1802 ; 2nd
■^edit. Milan, 1825. Assunto primo della scienza del Diritto Naturale,
1820.
2 Gallupi, Saggio Filosofico sulla critica della conoscenza, Nap.
1819, 8vo. 6 vols, (containing an examination of the principal doctrines
of Ideology, Kantianism, and the Transcendental philosophy. Gal-
lupi has since published, Elementi di Filosofia, 5 vols. Messina,
1821-27, 8vo. Lettere filosofiche, Nap. 1837. Lezioni di Logica e
di Metafisica, 3 vols. Firenz. 1841.
3 Costa, Del Modo di comparre le Idee, Firenz. 1837. Dissertation
on Analysis and Synthesis.
4 Born 1777 ; died 1851. His principal work is entitled : Der Geist
in der Natur, Munchen, 1850. The Soul in Nature, translated, in
H. Bolin's Standard Library, 1852.
437.] MINOR CONTINENTAL WRITERS. 499
there is some analogy between Oersted and Schelling ; but
on most points be diverges widely from the Philosophy of
Nature.
In Holland critical philosophy obtained considerable credit
and numerous adherents. Its progress, however, was
checked by political agitations, by the mutual polemics of
the German metaphysicians, and by the differences springing
up in the Critical school itself. Van Hemert pronounced
in favour of Fichte. "We are especially called upon to
notice D. WyttenbacJi, who displayed great merits as the
historian of philosophy, and the ingenious Socratist, Francis
Hemsterhuis, both of whom approached the ancient philo-
sophers in a remarkable degree, especially in their
method.
The Hungarians, Transylvanians, and Greeks ; the Poles
and the Russians, have made themselves familiar with Ger-
man philosophy, by sending their youth to attend lectures
at the G-erman universities. The most eminent modern
[Russian philosophers are, SidonsJci, a man perfectly conver-
sant with the metaphysics of Germany and Prance; and
Kedrew, author of a work on the philosophy of Nature.1
It appears that the philosophy of Kant has been lately super-
seded by that of Hegel, in the Russian universities. The
most remarkable Polish writer on philosophy in modern
times, is Joseph C. SzaniansJci,2 sl native of East Galicia, who,
after having carefully studied Heg*el's system, transplanted
it into Poland soon after it was known in Germany.
1 Einleitung in die Philosophie. Also L. H. de Jacob's Essais
Philosophiques sur 1'Homme, ses principaux Rapports, et sa Destinge,
Halle, 1818; 2 vols. ; new ed. St. Petersburgh, 1822.
2 Szanianski published the following works :
Was ist Philosophies Warschau, 1802. Ueber die vorziiglichsten
moralischen systeme des Alterthums, Warschau, 1803. Ueberblick
der Philosophie seit den Zeiten ihres Verfalls bei den Griechen
und Rbmern, bis zum wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften, Warschau,
1804.
We may also mention the Pole, J. E. Jankowsky, (Professor at Cra-
cow), who published a Logic in 1822 in Polish, with a Review of the
progress of Poland in Philosophy. Also, J. Goluchowsky's (a Schel-
lingite) Philosophy in its relation to the life of nations, Erlangen, 1822,
8vo.
2 K 2
£00 THIRD PERIOD. [SECT..
V. America.
438. A faint echo of German philosophy has even reached
the distant shores of Brazil ;l and the Anglo-Saxon race in
the United States of North America has become perfectly-
familiar with European thoughts.
Among the most distinguished of the American writers
and thinkers, we must enumerate M. W. Emerson," a writer
distinguished for his genius, cultivated mind, and elegant
diction. He can hardly be ranked as a systematic philo-
sopher, but belongs more correctly to the class of philoso-
phical essayists, such as Montaigne. His metaphysical
views, as expressed in his Essay on the Over soul, seem
strongly coloured with idealistic Pantheism. Among the
American writers who have most contributed to diffuse
German philosophy and theology in the United States, one
of the first is Theodore Parker? who is a Rationalist in
theology, and a man of immense reading, thoroughly versed
in all the German philosophical and theological systems
since the time of Kant. America has produced several
other men eminent for their intellectual endowments, many
of "whom have adopted, either in toto or in part, the
Socialistic philosophy of Eourier and other French writers.
The most distinguished ornaments of this Socialistic school
in America, are Albert Brisbane? TV. JE. Ckanning, Henry
James and George Ripley. An able expositor of the German
Transcendental school has recently appeared in the person
of Mr. Statto*
Thus the New "World has proved its legitimate relation-
ship with the intellectual progress of the Old; and the
modern thinkers across the " great waters" appear to be in
no degree unworthy of their sires.
1 The Critical Philosophy is taught in the College of St. Paul's in
Brazil. See Zschokke's Wochentliche Unterhaltung's Blatter, Aarau,
1824, pt. III.
2 Essays, two series. Nature, an Essay. Man Thinking : an Oration.
Representative Men. 12mo. Bohn, 1849, &c. The Dial (periodical) con-
tains many papers of Emerson, Parker, &c.
3 Theodoee Parker, Discourse on Religion.
4 Social Destiny, by Albert Brisbane.
5 Stallo's General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature, New
York, 1841.
439.] conclusion. 501
Conclusion.
439. It is natural that the various and contradictory
attempts which have lately been hazarded by the philosophic
mind should cast some doubt on philosophy itself, and lead
men to despair of ever finding the solution of the problem
of Reason, which consists in finding a certain system of
knowledge founded on principles. And this suspicion seems
to be confirmed by the fact, that the Critical method followed
by Kant, which endeavoured to fix the measure and limit
of knowledge with the view of overthrowing the scepticism
of the Sensationalists, so far from checking the daring flight
of speculation, has only furnished it with new materials, and
given it a more lively and imposing character. Nevertheless
these various endeavours should lead us to hope that E-eason
will at length arrive at the knowledge of itself; that it will
determine the sphere assigned to it, and continue to unfold
more and more the true philosophic method ; and that it
will learn from the past how to avoid the shoals on which so
many adventurous thinkers have been stranded. A time
will probably come when the different modes of philoso-
phizing, which now only seem to be aberrations, will be
recognized as the necessary conditions of the true cultiva-
tion of Reason and "Wisdom.
THE END.
503
CHKONOLOGUCAL TABLE
FOR
THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.
B.C.
Some Olymp,
640
630
629
611
608
598
597
584
561
557
548
547
543
540
536
504
500
496
494
490
489
480
472
470
469
460
114
116
125
143
146
156
157
170
193
197
206
207
211
214
218
250
254
258
260
264
265
274
282
284
285
284
35,1
35,3
38
42/2
43,1
45,3
45,4
49
55,1
56
53,1
58,2
57,2
60
61
69
70,1
71,1
71,3
72,3
72,4
75,1
77
77,3
77,4
80
Thales born, ac. to Apollodorus.
Solon born.
Thales born, ac. to Meiners.
Anaximander born.
Pythagoras born, ac. to Larcher.
Solon published his laws. Pherecydes born about
the same time.
Thales foretold an eclipse.'
Pythagoras born, ac. to Meiners.
Solon died.
Anaximenes flourished.
Thales died.
Anaximander died.
Thales died, ac. to some. Pherecydes died.
Pythagoras founded a school at Croto.
Xenophanes settled at Elea.
Pythagoras died. Parmenides flourished, ac. to
some.
Anaxagoras and Philolaus born. Heraclitus and
Leucippus flourished.
Anaximenes died.
Ocellus Lucanus flourished.
Democritus born.
Battle of Marathon.
Pythagoras died, ac. to some.
Battle of Salamis.
Diogenes of Apollonia flourished.
Democritus born, ac. to Thrasyllus.
Socrates born. Parmenides flourished.
Parmenides came from Elea to Athens with Zeno.
Democritus born, ac. to Apollodorus.
Empcdocles flourished, ac. to some.
504
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
B.C.
Rome
Olymp.
456
298
81
450
304
82,3
444
310
84
442
312
86
432
322
87,1
431
323
87=2
430
324
87,3
429
325
87,4
428
326
88,1
427
327
88,2
414
340
91,3
407
347
93,2
404
350
94,1
400
354
95,1
389
365
97,4
384
370
99,1
380
374
100
102
364
390
104,1
361
393
104,4
360
394
105
356
398
106
348
406
108,1
343
411
109,2
340
414
110,1
339
415
110,2
337
417
110,4
336
418
111,1
335
419
111,2
324
430
114,1
323
431
114,2
322
432
114,3
320
434
115
316
438
116,1
314
440
116,3
313
441
116,4
305
449
118,3
300
454
120,1
Anaxagoras repaired to Athens.
Xenophon born.
Melissus.
Gorgias wrote his treatise Ilfpt Qvaewg.
Protagoras and Prodicus flourished.
Beginning of the Peloponessian war.
Anaxagoras accused.
Plato born, ac. to Corsini.
Plato born, ac. to Dodwell. Pericles died.
Anaxagoras died.
Gorgias sent ambassador to Athens. Diagoras fl.
Diogenes of Sinope born.
Democritus died, ac. to Eusebius.
Close of the Peloponnesian war.
Socrates died ; his disciples retired to Megara.
Euclid and Archytas flourished.
Plato's first voyage to Syracuse.
Aristotle born. Pyrrho born.
Antisthenes and Aristippus flourished.
Aristotle repaired to Athens.
Eudoxus flourished.
Plato's second voyage to Syracuse.
Plato's third voyage to Syracuse.
Xenophon died.
Alexander born.
Plato died ; Speusippus succeeded him.
Aristotle became preceptor to Alexander.
Diogenes and Crates (the Cynics) Pyrrho and Anax-
archus flourished. Zeno of Cittium born.
Speusippus died. Xenocrates began to teach.
Battle of Cheronaea. Epicurus born.
Philip, king ol Macedon, died.
Aristotle opened his school at the Lycasum.
Diogenes the Cynic died.
Alexander the Great died. Ptolemy, tho son of
Lagus, succeeded him in Egypt.
Aristotle died ; Theophrastus succeeded him.
Demetrius Phalereus, and Dicaearchus of Mcssana
flourished.
Arcesilaus born (or later).
Xenocrates died ; Polemo succeeded him.
Theophrastus became celebrated. Crates.
Epicurus opened his school at Athens.
Stilpo, and Theodorus the Atheist, flourished.
Zeno founded a school at Athens.
Diodorus and Philo.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
505
Rome
Olymp.
466
468
123,1
123,3
469
474
482
484
485
490
123,4
125,1
126,4
127,2
127,3
128,3
494
513
537
542
546
130
134,1
141,3
143
144
569
599
148,4
156,3
608
158,3
612
619
625
639
159,3
161,2
162,4
647
167,2
170
666
171,1
667
171,2
685
691
178
172,2
182,2
183,1
711
184,2
724
727
187,3
188,2
Pyrrho died.
Theophrastus died. Pyrrho died about the same
time ; succeeded by Strato.
Ptolemy Philadelphus became king of Egypt.
Chrysippus born.
Timon flourished.
Epicurus died.
Strato died; succeeded by Lyco.
Zeno, the Stoic, died (or later) ; succeeded by
Cleanthes.
Persaeus. — Aristo of Chios. — Herillus flourished.
Arcesilaus died (or later).
Carneades born.
Zeno of Tarsus flourished.
Chrysippus died, ac. to Menage. Diogenes of
Babylon.
Pansetius born (ac. to some, later).
Embassy from the Athenians to Rome. (Critolaus,
Carneades the Stoic, and Diogenes of Babylon).
Greece and Carthage subjected to Rome.
Antipater of Tarsus.
Macedon became a Roman province.
Posidonius born.
Carneades died ; succeeded by Clitomachus.
Paneetius accompanied Scipio Africanus to Alex-
andria.
Cicero born.
Clitomachus died ; succeeded by Philo. Posidonius
flourished.
Sylla took Athens. Philo retired to Rome.
Antiochus.
Lucretius born (ac. to others, earlier). Posidonius
died.
Antiochus died.
Judaea became a Roman province.
Posidonius died ; succeeded by Jason.
Lucretius died.
Cratippus, the Peripatetic, flourished.
Cicero died.
Egypt became a Roman province.
Augustus became Emperor,
born.
Philo the Jew
506
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.C.
14
15
33
34
37
41
50
54
65
66
69
79
81
82
89
90
95
97
99
118
120
122
131
134
138
139
160
161
165
170
Roman Emperors.
Augustus.
Tiberius.
Caligula.
Claudius.
Nero.
Galba, Otho,
Vitellius.
Titus.
Domitian.
Nerva.
Trajan.
Adrian.
Antoninus Pius.
M. Aurelius An-
toninus.
Birth of Christ.
Seneca the philosopher born.
Sextus the Pythagorean.
Nieolaus of Damascus, and Xenarchus
nourished.
Athenodorus the Stoic.
Sotion.
Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Philo the Jew flourished.
Elavius Josephus born.
Plutarch of Chseronea born.
Seneca died.
Cornutus and Musonius exiled.
Apollonius of Tyana flourished.
Musonius Rufus recalled from exile.
Domitian banished the philosophers and
mathematicians from Rome.
Justin Martyr born.
Epictetus flourished.
Apollonius of Tyana died.
Plutarch flourished.
Tacitus.
Gnostics.
Secundus of Athens. Plutarch died.
Euphrates the Stoic died.
Galen born. Favorinus. Basilides the
Gnostic.
Arrian flourished.
Akibha the Rabbin died.
Calv. Taurus. Apollonius the Stoic.
Basilides the Stoic.
Apuleius.
Alcinous. Numenius.
Peregrinus the Cynic, and Justin Martyr
died.
Lucian.
Athenagorus and Tatianus. Atticus the
Platonist.
Bardesanes.
CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE.
507
A.C.
Roman Emperors.
180
Commodus.
Maximus of Tyre. Death of Antoninus.
Irenaeus. Juda the Rabbi. The Talmud.
185
Origen born.
193
Pertinax.
Ammonius Saccas founded a school.
Julianus.
Clemens of Alexandria. Alexander of
Sept. Severus.
Aphrodisias.
Galen died.
200
Plotinus born. Philostratus.
205
212
Caracalla.
Clemens of Alexandria died.
218
Macrinus.
Tertullian died.
220
Antoninus Helio-
gabalus.
222
Alex. Severus.
232
Plotinus became a disciple of Ammonius.
233
Porphyrius born.
235
Maximinus.
238
Gordian.
Ulpianus.
239
Gordian the son.
242
Plotinus travelled into Persia.
243
Plotinus came to Rome.
244
Philip.
246
Amelius became a disciple of Plotinus.
253
Trajanus Decius.
252
Trebonianus.
Gallus and Vi-
bius.
Hostilianus.
252
Longinus flourished.
253
iEmilius Valeri-
anus.
Origen died.
269
Flavius Claudius.
270
Aurelian.
Plotinus died.
275
Longinus put to death.
276
Flavius Tacitus.
277
Aurel. Probus.
The Manichceans.
282
Aurelius Carus.
284
Diocletian.
Arnobius.
304
Constantine and
Maximianus.
Porphyrius died.
306
Constantine the
Great.
321
Constantine con-
verted to Chris-
tianity.
Iamblichus flourished.
326
Arnobius died.
508
CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.C.
330
333
337
340
354
355
360
363
364
379
380
384
391
394
395
398
400
401
402
408
409
410
412
415
418
430
434
450
457
470
474
476
480
485
Eoman Emperors.
Constantius and
Constans.
Julian.
Jovianus.
Valentinianus
and Yalens.
Theodosius the
Great.
Arcadius and
Honorius.
Greek Emperors.
Arcadius.
Theodosius II.
Marcianus.
Leo I.
Leo II.
Zeno Isauricus.
End of the Wes-
tern Empire.
Lactantius died.
Iamblichus died.
Themistius.
Eusebius bishop oi Ceesarea died.
Augustine born.
Themistius taught at Constantinople.
Sallustius.
Eunapius.
Nemesius flourished.
St. Jerome nourished.
Gregorius of Nazianzus died.
Gregorius of Nyssa.
The Roman empire divided.
St. Ambrosius died.
Nemesius died.
Plutarch the son of Ncstorius flourished.
Macrobius. Pelagius.
Synesius.
Proclus born.
Death of Hypatia.
Pelagius condemned.
St. Augustine, and Plutarch the son of
Nestorius, died.
Syrianus flourished.
Hierocles and Olympiodorus flourished.
Syrianus died.
Claudianus Mamertinus flourished. Boe-
thius born.
Marcianus Capella flourished.
Salvanius. Cassiodorus born.
Proclus died. Ammonius the son of Her-
mias. Hierocles.
CHIiONOLOGICAL TABLE.
509
Greek Emperors.
Anastasius.
Justin I.
Justinian.
Justinian II.
Tiberius II.
Mauritius.
Phc-cas.
Heraclius.
Constantine III.
and IV.
Constans II.
Constantine V.
Justinus II.
Leontius.
Tiberius III.
Philippicus.
Anastasius II.
Theodosius III.
Leo III. Isauricus
Constant. VI.
Almanzour the
Khalif.
Irene.
Emperors of
Germany.
Charlemagne.
Louis the Pious.
Lothaire.
Louis II.
iEneas of Gaza flourished.
Marinus died.
Marinus succeeded by Isidorus*
Boethius beheaded.
The Schools of philosophy closed at Athens.
Philoponus flourished.
Cassiodorus retired to a convent.
Damascius and Simplicius flourished.
Cassiodorus died.
Gregory the Great died.
Flight of Mahomet.
Isidorus of Seville died.
The Venerable Bedc bom.
Bede died.
Alcuin born.
John of Damascus died.
Ehabanus Maurus born.
Haroun al Easchid.
Alkendi flourished.
Alcuin died.
510
CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A. C. {German Emperors.
855
856
875
877
879
880
886
887
891
899
912
919
937
954
974
980
987
999
1002
1003
1020
1025
1034
1036
1039
1042
1055
1056
1060
1072
1079
1080
1089
1091
1092
1096
1100
1107
1109
1114
1117
1118
1120
Charles the Bald.
Louis III.
Charles the Fat.
Arnolphe.
Louis IV.
Conrad.
Henry the Fowler
Otho the Great.
Otho II.
Otho III.
Henry II.
Conrad II.
Henry II L
Henry IY.
Henry V.
Ehabanus died.
J. Scot Erigena came to France.
Alfred the Great.
Erigena died.
Photius died.
Alfarabi died.
Avicenna born.
Gerbert, Pope Sylvester II.
Sylvester II died.
Mich. Const. Psellus born.
Anselm born.
Avicenna died.
Lanfranc entered the convent of Bee.
Hildebert of Lavardin born.
Anselm became prior of Bee.
P. Damianus died. Algazel born.
Abelard born.
Berengarias of Tours died.
Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, died.
Bernard of Clairvaux died.
Eoscellin found guilty of heresy at Soissons.
Hugues of St. Victor born.
Psellus died (later, ac. to some).
Eustrachius of Nicsea.
Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, died.
Alghazali d. at Bagdad (ac. to Hammer).
Alanus of Eyssel born.
Anselm ot Laon died.
Abelard taught at Paris.
Abelard became monk of St. Denis.
William of Champeaux, bishop of Chalons,
died.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
511
A. C. German Emperors,
1126
1127
1134
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1146
1150
1153
1154
1164
1173
1180
1190
1193
1198
1203
1205
1206
1209
1214
1217
1218
1221
1224
1234
1236
1245
1247
1248
1250
1251
1252
1253
Lothaire.
Conrad III.
Fred. Barbarossa.
Henry VI.
Otho IV.
Frederic II.
Conrad IV.
Algazel died at Bagdad.
Hiidebert died.
Moses Maimonides born.
Hugo of St. Victor died.
Gilbertus Porretanus became bishop of Poic-
tiers.
Abelard died.
Assembly of ecclesiastics at Paris and Eheims
to oppose Gilbertus Porretanus.
Lombardus wrote his Sentences.
Will, of Conches died. Eob. Pulleyn died.
Bernard of Clairvaux died.
Gilbertus Porretanus died.
Peter Lombardus and Hugo of Amiens died.
Eichard of St. Victor and Eobert of Melun
died.
John of Salisbury died. Walter of St. Victor.
Thophail died.
Albert the Great born, according to some.
Alanus of Eyssel died.
Moses Maimonides and Peter of Poictiers
died.
Albert the Great born, according to others.
Peter of Poictiers and Averroes died.
David of Dinant. Amalric of Chartres died.
Eoger Bacon born.
Averroes died, according to some.
Michael Scot at Toledo.
Bonaventura born.
Thomas Aquinas born.
Eaymond Lulli born.
Albert the Great, doctor of theology at Paris.
Alexander of Hales died.
Thomas Aquinas went to Paris. iEgidius
Colonna born.
Will, of Auvergne, bishop of Paris, died.
Thomas Aquinas began to lecture on Lom-
bardus.
Peter of Abano born.
Foundation of the Sorbonne.
Eobert Grosset^te died.
512
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.C.
German Emperors.
1254
Niceph. Blemmydes flourished.
1256
Thorn. Aquinas became Doctor of Theology.
1264
Yincent of Beauvais died.
1273
Rodolphus I.
1274
Thomas Aquinas died. Bonaventura died.
1275
J. Duns Scotus and Walter Burleigh born.
1277
John XXI. (Petr. Hispanus) died.
1280
Adolphus of Nas-
Albert the Great died.
1292
sau.
Roger Bacon died, according to Wood.
1293
Albert I.
Henry of Ghent died.
1294
Roger Bacon died, according to some.
1300
Richard of Middleton died.
1308
Henry VII.
J. Duns Scotus died.
1310
Georgius Pachymeres died about this time.
1314
Louis V.
1315
Raymond Lulli died.
Franc. Mayron introduced disputes in the
Sorbonne.
1316
iEgidius Colonna died.
Peter of Abano died.
1322
Occam resisted the Pope.
1323
Herve (Hervseus Natalis) died.
1325
Franc. Mayron died.
1330
Occam sought the protection of the emperor
Louis.
1332
Will. Durand of Saint Pourcain, died.
Theodorus Metochita died.
1337
Walter Burleigh died.
1343
Occam died.
1346
Charles IY.
1347
Occam died, according to others.
1349
Thomas of Bradwardine and Robert Holcot
died.
1350
Peter d'Ailly born.
1357
Thomas of Strasburg died.
1358
J. Buridan still alive.
Gregory of Rimini died.
1361
J. Tauler died.
1363
J. Gerson born.
1374
Petrarch died.
1379
Wenceslaus.
1380
Kic. Oramus, or Oresmius, died.
1382
Thomas a Kempis born.
1395
Bessarion and George of Trebisond born.
1396
Marsilius of Inghen died.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
513
A.C.
German Emperors.
1397
Henry of Hesse died.
1400
Eobert.
1401
Nicolas Cusanus born.
1408
Laur. Valla died.
1410
Sigismund.
Matthaeus of Cracow died.
1415
Emmanuel Chrysoloras died.
1419
J. Wessel Gansfort born.
1425
Peter D'Ailly died.
1429
J. Gerson died.
1430
Theodorus Gaza arrived in Italy.
1435
Marsilius Ficinus born.
1436
Raymond de Sabunde taught at Toulouse.
1438
Albert II.
George Gemisthus Pletho and Bessarion
repaired to Florence.
1440
Frederick III.
Invention of Printing. Foundation of the
Platonic Academy at Florence.
Nicolas de Clemange died.
1443
Eodolphus Agricola born.
1453
Taking of Con-
stantinople.
1455
Nicolas V. died. Eeuchlin born.
1457
Laur. Valla died.
1462
P. Pomponatius born.
1463
John Picus of Mirandula born.
1464
Geo. Scholarius Gennadius and Nicolas Cu-
sanus died.
Cosmo de' Medici and Pius II. died.
1467
Erasmus born.
1471
Thomas a Kempis died.
1472
Bessarion died.
1473
Persecution of the Nominalists at Paris.
Augustinus Niphus born.
1478
Theodorus Gaza died.
1480
Thomas More born.
1481
Franc. Philelphus died.
1483
Paulus Jovius born.
1484
Jul. Cass. Scaliger born.
1485
Eodolphus Agricola died.
1486
J. Argyropulus and George of Trebisond
died, ac. to some.
Agrippa of Nettesheim born.
1489
J. Wessel died.
1492
Maximilian I.
Lorenzo de' Medici died. Louis Vives born.
1493
Discovery of
America.
Hermolaus Barbarus died. Theophrastus
Paracelsus born.
2 L
514
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.C.
German Emperors.
1494
J. Picus of Mirandula and Angelus Politiamia
died.
1495
Gabr. Biel died.
1497
Melancthon born.
1499
Marcilius Ficinus died.
1500
,
Dominicus of Flanders died.
1501
Jerome Cardan born.
1508
Bernardinus Telesius born.
1509
Andr. Caesalpinus born.
1512
Alex. Achillinus died.
1515
Petrus Ramus born. Macchiavelli flourished.
1517
Beginning of the
Reformation.
1520
Charles V.
Fr. Piccolomini born.
1522
J. Reuchlin died.
1525
P. Pomponatius died. Fr. Zorzi flourished.
1527
Nich. Macchiavelli died.
1529
Fr. Patritius born.
1532
Ant. Zimara died. Jac. Zabarella born.
1533
J. Fr. Picus of Mirandula killed.
Nic. Leonicus died. Val. Weigel and Mon-
taigne born.
1535
H. Cornelius Agrippa died. Sir T. More
beheaded.
1536
Erasmus died. Fr. Zorzi died.
1537
Jac. Faber died.
1540
Marius Nizolius and L. Vives died.
Institution of the Jesuits.
1541
Theophr. Paracelsus died. Charron born.
1542
Gasp. Contarini died.
1543
Copernicus died.
1546
Augustinus Niphus died.
1547
Jac. Sadoletus died. Nic. Taurellus and
Justus Lipsius born.
1552
Paulus Jovius died. Caes. Cremoninus born.
1553
Sim. Porta died.
1555
Ferdinand I.
1560
Phil. Melancthon died.
1561
Franc. Bacon born.
1562
Ant. Talaeus died. Fr. Sanchez born.
1564
Maximilian II.
1568
Thomas Campanella born.
1569
1572
P. Ramus died. Dan. Sennert born.
J. Sepulveda died.
1574
Robert Fludd born.
CHKOFOLOGICAL TABLE.
515
A. C. German Emperors.
1575
1576
1577
1578
1580
1581
1583
1586
3 588
1589
1592
1596
1597
1600
1603
1604
1606
1614
1619
1621
1623
1624
1625
1626
1628
1630
1632
1634
1637
1638
1639
1642
1644
1645
1646
1647
1648
1649
1650
Kodolph II.
Matthias.
Ferdinand II.
Ferdinand III.
Jac. Bohm born.
Jer. Cardan died.
J. P. Van Helmont born.
Berigard born. Alex. Piccolomini died.
Giordano Bruno quitted Italy.
Lord Herbert of Cherbury born.
Grotius born.
Jac. Schegk died. Luc. Vanini and Le
Vayer born.
Bernardus Telesius born. Th. Hobbes born.
Val. Weigel died.
Jac. Zabarella died.
Mich, de Montaigne died. Gassendi and
Comenius born.
R. Descartes born. J. Bodin died.
Fr. Patritius died.
Giord. Bruno burnt.
P. Charron and And. Caesalpinus died.
Fr. Piccolomini died.
Nic. Taurellus and Just. Lipsius died.
Mart. Schoock born. Fr. Suarez died.
Fr. Merc. Van Helmont born.
L. Vanini burnt.
J. Barclay died.
Blaise Pascal born.
Jac. Bohm died.
Clauberg, Geulinx, and Wittich born.
Fr. Bacon died.
Rud. Goclenius died.
Huet born. Caes. Cremoninus died.
Fr. Sanchez died.
Benedict Spinoza, J. Locke, Silv. Regis,
Sam. Puffendorf, and Rich. Cumberland
born.
B. Becker born.
Dan. Sennert and Robert Fludd died.
Nic. Malebranche born.
Th. Campanella died.
Galileo died. Newton born.
J. Baptiste Van Helmont died.
Grotius died.
Leibnitz and Poiret born.
Bayle born.
Herbert of Cherbury and Mersenne died.
Scioppius died.
Descartes died.
2l2
516
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.C.
German Emperors.
1651
William of Tschirnhausen born.
1654
J. Selden died.
1655
Gassendi died. Chr. Thomasius born.
1657
Leopold I.
1659
Adr. Heerebord died. Wollaston born.
1662
Blaise Pascal died.
1663
Berigard died.
1665
J. Clauberg and Mart. Schoock died.
1666
J. De Silhon died.
1669
Geulinx and J. Coccejus died.
1670
Sorbiere died.
1671
Comenius died. Ant. Earl of Shaftesbury b.
1672
Le Vayer died.
1675
Sam. Clarke born.
1676
M. Von Kronland and Voetius died.
1677
Ben. Spinoza died. Th. Gale, Fr. Glisson,
and Harrington died.
1679
Chr. Wolf born. Jer. Hirnhaym and Hobbes
died.
1680
Jos. Glanville and La Rochefoucauld died.
1684
Berkeley born. Jac. Thomasius died.
1685
Lamb. Velthuysen died.
1687
Henr. More and Wittich died.
1688
Cud worth and Parker died.
1694
Ant. Arnault and Sam. Puffendorf died.
Fr. Hutcheson and Voltaire born.
1695
Nicole died.
1698
Balthasar Becker and J. Pordage died.
1699
Fr. Merc. Van Helmont died.
1704
J. Locke and Bossuet died.
1705
Joseph I.
J. Ray died.
1706
Bayle died.
1707
Silv. Regis died.
1708
Tschirnhausen and Jacquelot died.
1.711
Hume born.
1712
Crusius and Rousseau born.
1713
Charles VI.
Ant. Earl of Shaftesbury died.
1715
Malebranche died. Condillac and Helvetius
born.
Gellert born.
1716
Leibnitz died.
1718
M. Aug. Fardella died.
1719
P. Poiret and Rich. Cumberland died.
1720
Bonnet born.
1721
Huet died.
1722
Boulainvilliers died.
CHEOKOLOGICAL TABLE.
517
A.C.
German Emperors.
1723
Adam Smith born.
1724
Wollaston died. Kant born.
1727
Newton died.
1728
Chr. Thomasius and Thtimmig died.
1729
Sam. Clarke, Collins, Gundling, and Fr.
Buddeus died.
And. Riidiger died.
1731
J. Priestley born. Mandeville died.
1733
W. Derham died.
1735
Le Clerc died.
1736
Charles VII.
1740
Frederic II, King
of Prussia.
1742
Garve born.
1743
Jacobi born.
1744
Baptist Vico and Joachim Lange died.
Platner born.
1745
Francis I.
1747
Fr. Hutcheson died.
1748
De Crouzaz and Burlamaqui died.
1750
Bilfinger died.
1751
La Mettrie died.
1752
Hansch died.
1754
Berkeley and Christ. Wolf died.
1755
Montesquieu died.
1756
1757
David Hartley died. Gall born.
1758
Ch. Reinhold born.
1759
Maupertuis died.
1762
Alex. Baumgarten died. Fichte born.
1765
Joseph II.
Herm. Sam. Reimarus died.
1766
Thomas Abbt and Gottsched died.
1769
Gellert died.
1770
Winckler, D'Argens, and Formey died.
1771
Helvetius died.
1772
J. Ulr. Cramer died. Swedenborg died.
1774
Quesnay died.
1775
Crusius and Walch died. Schelling born.
1776
Hume died. Spurzheim born.
1777
Meier and Lambert died.
1778
Voltaire and Rousseau died.
1779
Sulzer died.
1780
Condillac and Batteux died.
1781
Ernesti and Lessing died.
1782
Henry Home and Iselin died.
1783
D'Alembert died.
518
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
!
A.C.
German Emperors.
1784
Diderot died.
1785
Baumeister and De Mably died.
1786
Mendelssohn died.
1788
Hamann and Filangieri died. i
1789
French Revo*
lution.
1790
Leopold II.
A. Smith, F. Hemsterhuys and Basedow d.
1791
Kich. Price, Daries, and Nettelbladt died.
1792
Francis II.
Victor Cousin born.
1793
Bonnet, Moritz, and Beccaria died.
1796
Th. Reid died. Jouffroy born.
1798
Garve died.
1800
Sol. Maimon died.
1801
Heidenreich and Irving died.
1802
Engel died.
1803
J. Beattie and Herder died.
1804
Kant, Jos. Priestley, and Saint-Martin d.
1806
Tiedemann died.
1808
Bardili died.
1809
J. A. Eberhard, Steinbart, and Thos. Payne,
died.
1812
K. Chr. E. Schmid died.
1813
J. A. H. Ulrich died.
1814
Fichte died.
1815
Mesmer died.
1816
Ferguson died.
1817
De Dalberg died.
1818
Platner and Campe died.
1819
Jacobi and Solger died.
1820
Wyttenbach and Klein died. Gall d.
1821
Feder and Buhle died.
1822
Eschenmayer died.
1823
Eeinhold and Maass died.
1828
D. Stewart and Bouterwek died.
1829
Frederic Schlegel.
1831
Hegel.
1832
Krause. Schulze. Spurzheim died.
1834
Schleiermacher.
1837
Ferdinand IV.
Fourier.
1838
1840
1841
1842
1843
1850
1851
Francis.
Joseph I.
Schopenhauer died.
Krug.
Herbart.
Degerando.
Fries. Fr. Baader.
Jouffroy.
Oersted.
INDEX.
[THE NUMBERS REFER TO THE PAGES.]
Abano, Peter, 242
Abbt, Thos. 357
Abelard, Peter, 220
Abicht, J. H. 412, 454
Abubekr, 229
Abu Said Abul Cheir, 228
Academies, Ancient, 101 — 112
i New, 112—143
Platonic, at Florence, 256
Acbenwall, Gottfd. 352
Achillinus, Alex. 266
Acontius, Jac. 255
Adelung, J. C 18
Adrastus, 159
^Edesius, 189
yEgidius Colonna, 238, 240
jEneasofGaza, 190, 199
^Enesidemus, see Sehulze, 163
jEschines, Socratic, 91
Agassiz, M. 394
Agricola, Rudolph, 255
Agrippa the Sceptic, 165
of Nettesheim, 255, 260
Akibha, Rabbi, 172
Alain de Ryssel, 222
Albert the Great, 233
Alberti, Valen. 295, 309, 338
Albinus, 161,214
Albius, T. 323
Alcinous, 161
Alcinffion, 64
Alcuin, 207, 214
Alembert, D*, 328, 382
Alexander Achillinus, 266
ofiEga;, 158
- of Aphrodisias, 159
of Hales, 224
- see Alexandrists
Alexandrians, see New Platonists
Alexandrists, 264
Alexinus, 99
Alkendi, 228
Alfarabi, 228
Algazel, 229
Alison, 377 i
Alix, 494
Amafanius, 153
Amalric, or Amauric de Bene, 224
Amelius, 187
Ammonius, 193
Saccas, 178
■ of Alexandria, the Peripa
tetic, 159, 178
Anaxagoras, 78
Anaxarchus of Abdera, 76
Anaxilaus, 161
Anaximander, 57
Anaximenes, 58
Ancillon (the elder), 22, 346
F. 316, 459
Andreas, Antonius, 241
Valent. 262
Andala, 311
Andronicus, 158
Aneponymus, Geo. 116, 225
Angelus Politianus, 254
Anniceris, 96
Anselm of Canterbury, 217
of Laon,217
Antiochus, 145
Antipater of Sidon, 134, 145
Antisthenes, 91, 92
Antoninus, M. Aurel. 156
Apollodorus, 132
Apollonius of Tyana, 160
Apono, Pet. ab, 242
Apuleius, Luc. 162
Arabians, 225. Sects of Arabian FLi-
losophers, 227, 230
Archelaus of Miletus, 80
Arcesilaus, 101, 143
Archytas of Tarentum, 65
Arete, 94
Argens, Marq. D', 338
520
INDEX.
Argyropulus, J. 253
Aristaeus of Croto, 64
Aristeus, 169
Aristippus, 91, 94
■ Metrodidactus, 94
Aristo of Ceus, 126
of Chios, 134
Aristobulus the Peripatetic, 169
Aristocles, 159
Aristotle, 101. Works, 112, 206, 233,
263
Aristotelians, school of Aristotle, see
Peripatetics
Aristoxenus, 125
Arcesilaus, 101, 143
Arnauld, Ant. 309, 319, 334
Arnobius, 196, 262
Arnold of Villa Nova, 242
Arrian, 156
Asclepiades, 193
Asclepigenia, 193
Asclepiodotus, 193
Ashbunier, Dr. 391
Assariah, or Fatalists, 231
Assisi, St. Francis of, 370
Ast, Fred. 19,47,53,101,448
Athenagoras, 1 98
Athenodorus of Tarsus, 154
Atomistic Philosophy, 46, 55, 73
Epicur. 130, 392
Attic Philosophy, 85
AtticusT. Pomponius, 153
the Platonist, 178
Aubery,F. 295
Aufidius Bassus, 153
Augustin, St. 196, 204
Augustinus Niphus, 265
Averroes, 229
Averroists, 264
Avicenna, 228
Axiothea, 111
Azais, 492
Baader, Franz, 392, 410, 446
Bachmann, Fr. 2, 19, 20, 449
Backer, Dr. 393
Bacon, Fran. 271, 2S6, 284
Roger, 241
Baier, J. 303
Ballanche, 492
Barante, 381
Barbeyrac, 22, 202, 339
Barclay, John, 287
Bardisanes, 174
Bardili, Christ. God. 23, 65, 264, 452
Basedow, J. Bern. 386, 390
Basilides the Epicurean, 132
the Stoic, 155
the Gnostic, 174
Basso, Sebast. 117,292
Bassus, Auridius, 153
Batteux, Ch. 23, 64, 79, 94, 129, 378
Baumeister, Fr. Chr. 348, 364
Baumgarten, Alex, Gottl. 356, 364
Grusius, 150, 219
Baur.175, 214
Bayer, 435
Bayle, Pierre, 15, 17, 304, 331, 336
Beattie, James, 328, 374
Beausobre, 174, 385
Beaumarchais, 378
Beccaria, M. di, 497
Beck, Jac. Sig. 412, 421, 422
Becker, 304, 310, 311
Bede, the Venerable, 207
Beguelin, 346
Benecke, F. E., 483
Ben David, Laz. 45, 412, 415
Benedict, 370
Berard, 493
Berenger of Tours, 216
Berg, Franz, 454
Berger, Imman. 22
J. E. 483
Bergier, 381
Berigard, CI. G. de, 268,292
Berkeley, Bp. 332, 333
Bernard of Clairvaux, 223
Bernier, 293
Bernouilli, J. 384
Berosus, 43
Bertrand, 393
Bessarion, 253
Beuchus, Fr. 268
Bias, see Seven Sages
Biedermann, 399
Biel, Gab. 247
Bilfinger, G. Bern. 39, 346, 350, 363
Bio of Borysthenes, 95
Biran, M. de, 493
Blasche, B. H. 448, 476
Blemmydes, Niceph. 116, 225
Bluet, 335
Blumenbach, J. F. 487
Bock, A. F. 384
Bodin, John, 271
Bodmer, W. R. 381
Boeckh, 61, 65, 102, 109
Boethius, 199, 206
Dan. 2, 11, 86, 148
Boe'tie, E. 280
INDEX.
521
Bohm, Jac. 302, 322
Bohme, 435
Boismont, B. de, 391
Bonald, 492
Bouaventura, John, 234
Bonesano, 497
Bonnet, 328, 371,379
Bonstetten, Ch. 494
Born, G. 412
Bosch, 417
Bossuet, 335
Boulainvilliers, 317, 313
Bouterwek, 54, 168, 177, 400, 450, 451
Bower, Al. 374
Bowroski, 400
Bradwardine, see Thomas
Brahmins, 37
Braid, 391
Brand, 294
Brandis, Christ. Aug. 2, 61, 66, 114,
484
Bray, 488
Bredenhurg, 317
Brewster, Sir D. 394
Brisbane, A. 500
Bromley, Thos. 322
Brougham, Lord, 372
Brown. Pet. 327
T. 489
Brucker, 15— 18,23, 67, 97, 105,125,
138
Bruckner, 415
Bruno, Gior. 268, 273
Bryant, 375
Bryso, or Dry so, 100
Buchner, 449
Buddeus, S. F. 16, 23, 24, 45, 49, 133,
139, 157,352,359
Bugerel, 293
Buhle, J. Gott. 20, 21, 24,55, 113, 114,
128, 225, 414
Biilfinger, see Biliinger
Buonal'ede, App. 17, 20
Buridan, John, 246
Burignv, 22, 160, 191
Burke, Ed. 377
Burlamaqui, J. J 383
Burleigh, Walter, 241 245
Burton, J. H. 372
Busse, 409
Cabanis, 492
Cabbala, Cabbalists, 172, 256, 257
Cajetanus, Thos. de Vio, 238
Calauus, 38
Calker, Fr. 469
Callicles, 82, 84
Callipho, 145
Camerarius, Joac. 267
Campanella, Thos. 287, 288, 298
Campe, John Heinr. 389
Camper, 487
Canz, J. Gottl. 363
Capella, Marc. 206
Capito, R. see Robert Grosseteste
Cardan, J. 263, 270
Carlowsky, Sig. 471
Carlyle, T. 491
Carneades, 134, 144
Carpentarius, see Charpentier
Carpo crates, 174
Carpzovius, Jo. Benj. 39, 134, 200
Carriere, 266
Carry, J. 375
Cartesius, or Descartes, 305
Cartesians, 309
Carus, Fred. Aug. 2, 9, 14, 18, 21, 78
Cassiodorus, 206
Casmann, Otto, 269
Cassius, C. 153
Catius, 153
Cato, M. Pore. 154
Cattenburg, V. 294
Cebes the Theban, 91
Celsus, 154
Cerdon the Gnostic, 174
Cerinthus the Gnostic, 174
Cesalpini, And. 266
Chgeremon, 155
Chaldeans, 42
Chalibceus, 399
Champeaux, see William
Channing. W. E. 500
Chardel, 391
Charleton, Gault, 130
Charlier, see Gerson
Charpentier, Jac. 115, 116, 117, 269
Charpignon, 393
Charron, Pierre, 280
Chilo, see Seven Sages
Chinese, 38
Chrysanthius, 189
Chrysippus, 133, 134, 141
Chrysoloras, Emmanuel, 253
Church, Fathers of the, 194
Cicero, 1 52
Clarke, John, 332
Saml. 330, 331, 341, 349
Clauberg, J. 309
Claudian, 189
Claudianus Mamertinus, 202
522
INDEX.
Claudius, Matt. 390
Cleanthes of Assos, 134, 138
Clement, St. of Alexandria, 54, 196,
198
Clerc, J. le, 59, 324, 327, 337
Clerselier, Claude de, 309
Clinias, 64
Clinomachus, 100
Clitomachus, 145
Clodius, 459
Cloquet, 394
Cocceii, the, 352
Cocceji, S. de, 292
Coccejus, J. 311,352
Coleridge, 416, 490
Collard, Royer, 493
Collier, Arthur, 332, 333
Collins, Ant. 331
Colotes, 132
Colquhoun, 395
Combe, G. 485
Comenius, J. A. 302
Comte, 494
Conches, G. de, 221
Condillac, Et. Bonn, de, 328, 379
Condorcet, 328, 378
Confucius, 39
Conratli, 476
Conring, Hern. 113, 213
Contarini, Gasp. 265
Conz, C. Phil. 24, 154, 156
Cooper, see Shaftesbury
Copiosus, 238
Cornutus, An. 155
Costa, P. 498
Cousin, Victor, 493
Coward, Will. 330
Cramer, D. F. 390
Jo. Ulr. 364
Crantor, 112
Crates of Athens (Acad.) 112
of Thebes, (the Cynic), 93
Cratippus, 158
Cremonini, Cees. 265
Crescens, 158
Creuzer, G. Frid. 24, 37, 48, 179
L. 348, 414
Critias, 84
Critical Method, 30, 400
■ Idealism, 400
Crito, 91
Critolaus, 126, 134
Croix, S. de la, 393
Cromaziano, A. see Buonafede
Crouzaz, J. P. de, 96, 338, 349, 358
Crusius, 358, 359
Cudworth, Ralph, 17, 320
Cufaeler. Abr. 317
Cumberland, Rich. 299, 329
Cuper, Franz, 317
Cusanus, see Nicolaus
Cuvilliers, H. de, 392
Cynics, 92, 154, 158
Cyrenaics, 92, 94
Dalberg, C. Th. Ant. Mar. 390
Dallseus, 207
Damascius, 193
Damianus, Pet. 216
Daniel, Gabr. 308
Darling, Dr. 391
Darwin, 393
Daub, 450, 476
Daumer, 476
David de Dinant, 224
David, L. B. 412
Darjes, Joach. J. 21, 356, 358, 361
Degerando, 18, 492
Delbruck, Ferd. 86, 101, 415
Deleuze, C. 393, 394
Demaistre, J. 469
Demetrius Phalereus, 125
Democritus, 74
school of, 128
Demonax, 158
Derham, Will. 332
Descartes, see Cartesius
Deslandes, A. F. 17
Dessatir, the, 41
Destutt de Tracy, 492
Determinism (Leibnitz), 319
Dexippus, 189
Diagoras of Melos, 75, 84
Dicsearchus, 125
Diderot, Denis, 1 56, 382
Dietz, Jo. Chr. Fr. 412
Dio Chrysostom, 155
Diodorus Cronus, 99
of Tyre, 126
Diogenes of Apollonia, 58, 80
— — of Babylon, the Stoic, 134
Laertius, 15, 53, 127, 155
of Tarsus — of Seleucia, 132
of Sinope, the Cynic, 93
Diomenes of Smyrna, 76
Dionysius the Areopagite, 201, 207
the Epicurean, 132
Dodwell, H. 46, 59, 330
N. 125
Dogmatism, 31
Dominic of Flanders, 238
Dorotheus, 134
ISDEX.
523
Drechsler, J. M. 330
Drewes, G. 25
Droz, J. 494
Drummond, Sir W. 4S8
Dry so (Bryso), 100
Dualism, 32
Duboc, E. 418
Duller, 435
Duns Scotus, 238
Dupotet, 395
Durand, 243
Eberhard, Jo. Aug. 19, 103, 194, 356,
386,410,418
Eberstein, W. L. G. 21, 214
Eclectics, 162
German, 383
Ecphantus, 64
Egidius, H. L. 435
Egyptians, 43
Eleatic School, 55, 65
Elis, School of, 100
Elliotson, Dr. 394, 485
Emerson, R. W. 500|
Empedocles, 76
Empiricism, 32
■ English, see Sensationalism
French, 377
■ German, 385
Encyclopedists, 381
Engel,J. 107,389
Ennemoser, J. 395
Ephectics, 97
Epicharmus of Cos, 64
Epictetus, 156, 157
Epicurus, 76, 127
Epicureans, 101, 127, 153, 393
Epimenides of Crete, 49
Epochs of the History of Philosophy, 11
Erasmus, 255
Erdmann, 399, 477
Eretria, School of, 100
Erigena, J. Scot, 215
Ernesti, Jo. Aug. 364
Erwin, 448
Eschenburg, F. Joach. 389
Eschenmayer, E. A. 448, 470
Esdaile, Dr. 391
Esenbeck, 393
Essenes, 169
Ethnographical Method, 11
Etmuller, 393
Eubulides, 99
Eubulus, 163
Euclid of Megara, 91, 99
Eudemus of Rhodes, 125
Euhemerus. 95
Euuapius, 53, 189
Euphantus, 100
Euphranor, 163
Euphrates, 155
Eusebius, 189
Eustathius, 189
Eustratius, 225
Euthydemus, 84
Euxenus, 160
Evalthus, 84
Evander. 144
Ewald, J. L. 194, 416
Faber, or Lefevre, J. 255
Fabricius, Jo. Ab. 21, 133, 170
Fardella, Mich. Ang. 320
Fatalists, 231
Favorinus, 164
Feder, J. G. H. 342. 388, 410, 418
Fenelon, 20, 313
Ferguson, Ad. 376
Feuerbach, P. J. A. 414
Ludw. 478
Fichte, Im. 1 77
Jo. Gottl. 422, 476
Ficinus, Mars. 101, 108, 257, 258
Filangieri, Gaet. 497
Fischaber, G. C. F. 435
Flatt, F. 56, 410, 413, 420
Fludd, R. 301
Flugge, 24, 308
Fo, 39
Fonseca, 238
Fontenelle, 339
Folioth, Rob. 222
Forberg, K. F. 433
Forge, Louis de la, 309
Formey, 18, 338
F6rster,476
Foucher, Sim. 40, 96, 143, 319, 323,
Fourier, 494
Franc, 268
Francis, St. 374
Francke, Geo. Sam. 22, 313
Franciscus, Geo. Venetus, 260
Patrizzi, 272
Mayronis, 241
Frank, T. 393
Freigius, Thorn. 268
Freitag, Jo. 293
Frederic the G reat, 385
Fries, Jac. 413, 414, 415, 420, 467
Froude, 491
Fiilleborn, Ge. Gust. 9, 12, 17, 21, 54,
65, 66, 67, 114, 121, 122, 177, 185
524
INDEX.
Gale, Theoph. 320
Gall, Dr. 485
Galen, Claud. 53
Gallupi, Pasq. 498
Gandavensis, H. 238
Gans, 470
Gansford, or Gcesevot, see Wessel
Garat, 492
Garve, Christopher, 9, 25, 387, 388
Gassendi, Pet. 21, 126, 127, 293, 302
Gassner, 394
Gataker, Thos. 133, 270
Gaudentius, Pag. 20,115
Gaunilon, 217
Gaza, Theodore, 254
Gellert, Ch. Furchteg, 388
Gellius, Aulus, 162
Gennadius, 254
Genovese, A. 496
Gentilianus, 187
Gentilus, All. 294
George of Trebisond, 254
Georget, 393
Georgias, 82
Gerard, Alex. 375
E. 352
de Vries, see Vries
Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II.) 216
Gerhard, Eph. 364
Gerlach, G. W. 179, 483
Gerson, Jo. 248
Gerstenberg, 410, 411
Geulinx, Am. 307, 310
Gilbert de la Porree, 221
Gioberti, Vin. 497
Glafey, Adr. Fr. 23
Glanville, Jos. 323
Glisson, 344
Glvco, or Lyco, 125
Graelin, 393
Gnomse, 50, 55
Gnostics, 173
Goclenius, Rud. 101, 269
Goess, G. F. D. 1,20
Goethals, H. 238
Goethe, 400
Gorgias, 82
Gbrres, Jos. 34, 446
Gdschel, 476
Gottsched, J. C. 352, 364
Govea, Ant. 269
Grand, Ant. le, 142, 304, 309
Gravesande. 327, 328
Greeks, 7, 8, 47, 51
in Italv, 253
Greg, W. R. 491
Gregory of Rimini, 247
Dr. 394
Grohmann, Jo. Chr. Aug. 2, 400
Gros, K. H. 415
Grosseteste, Robert, 233
Grotius, Hugo, 24, 294, 338
Guilbert de la Porree, see Gilbert
Gundling, Nic. Jer. 22, 67, 352, 356
Gurlett, J. G. 15, 19
Gyinnosophists, 38
Haddock, 391
Haen, de, 393
Hamann, Jo. G. 390, 409
Hamilton, Sir W. 374, 489
Hammer, Jos. 227
Hansch, Mich. Ch. 352
Hansius, 400
Harmonia pra?stabilita, 346
Harrington, J. 298
Harris, Jas. 390
Hartley, Dav. 32S, 371
Hartman, G. V. 353
Hausius, K. G. 409
Hazlitt, W. 376
Hebrews, 7, 45
Hedonics, 95
Heerebord, Adr. 310
Hegel, 448, 473
Hegesias, 96
Hegesinus, 144
Hegius, 193
Henricus Gandavensis, 238
Henry of Hesse, 247
of Oyta, 247
Heineccius, J. G. 18, 352, 364
Heinecken, 393
Heinrichs, 476
Heinsius, Dan. 270
Heliodorus, 193
Helmont, Jo. Bapt. 300, 396
Fr. Merc, van, 300
Helvetius, Adr. 380, 381
Hemert, Paul, 417, 471
Hemming, Nic. 294
Hemsterhuis, Franc. 499
Henning, 476
Henrici, G. 23, 414, 415
Heraiscus, 193
Heraclides of Pontus, 112, 125
the Sceptic, 163
Heraclitus of Ephesus, 71, 137
Herbart, J. Fr. 102, 152, 450, 462
Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, 299
Herder, Jo. Gf. 313, 389, 410
INDEX.
525
Herennius, 179
Herillus, 134
Hermachus, 132
Hermaic Chain, 191
Hermias (New Platonic) 1 90
Hermolaus Barbaras, 254
Hermotimus, 78
Herodotus of Tarsus, 1 65
Hervaus, 238, 241
Hesiod, 49
Heumann, C. A. 16, 49, 142, 157
^-,F. H. 417
Heusinger, J. H. G. 415, 416, 434
Heydenreich, 20, 274, 313, 420, 414,
412
Heyer, 388
Heyne, Chr. Glob. 48, 49, 71, 84, 148,
Hierocles, 190
Hieronymus de Ferrariis, 241
^— — — — — of Rhodes, 125
Hildebrand, Jos. IP, 483
Hildebert of Tours, 218
Hindostan, see India.
Hipparchia, 93
Hippasus, 64
Hippias of Elis, 82, 84
Hippo, 64
Hippocrates, 395
Hirnhaym, Jer. 323
Hirzel, H. C. 385
Hissman, Mich. 16, 25, 340
Hobbes, Th. 295, 308, 338
Hoehne, J. 416
Hoffbauer, Jo. Christoph. 413, 414,
415
Hoffman, Dan. 267
Hdpfuer, Lud. Jul. Fr. 356
Holbach, Baron de, 381
Holcot, Rob. 247
Holland, G. J. 3S1
Hollmann, Sam. Chr. 359
Home, Henry, 376
Homer, 48
Homoiomeriae, 79
Honorius, 218
Hope, 488
Horn,G. 18
Hotho, 476
Huet, P. Dan. 17, 308, 335
Hufeland, G. 25, 414
, Dr. 393
Hugh of Amiens, 222
St. Victor, 222
Hugo, Gust. 351
Humboldt, W. 41, 394, 484
Hume, Dav. 371, 385, 401
Hutcheson, Franc. 333
Hutten, Ulr. von, 255
Hypatia, 193
Tamblichus, 58, 188
Ickstadt, J. A. 364
Idealism, 31
, transcendental, 403, 406
, see Kant, Fichte, Berkeley
Ideas, 23
, Platonic, 104
Identity, Absolute, 32
India — Indian Philosophy, 8, 35
Ionic Philosophy, 55, 392
Irving, Washington, 227
Irvving, Carl. Fr. 3S9
Iselin, J. 390
Isidorus of Gaza, 193
of Seville, 207
Israelites, see Hebrews
Italic School, 60
Ith,J. 415
Jachmann, M. B. 400, 415
Jacobi, Lud. Heinr. 372, 413, 414
416,417
■, F. Heinr. 274, 313, 390, 419
434, 450, 454, 457
Jahsche, Glob. Benj. 410
James of Edessa, 208
, H. 500
Jankowsky, J. E. 499
Jansenists, 309
Jaquelot, Isaac, 306, 317, 337
Jariges, 313
Jassche, B. 407
Jav, 381
Jeiles, X. 317
Jeni>ch, D. 408
Jerusalem, Jos. Fr. 45
Jesuits, 334
Jews, see Hebrews, 169
John XXI, 238
of Damascus, 208
of Mercuria, 248
Sarisburiensis, 217, 223
Philoponus, 20S
Jones, Sir W. 377
Jonsius, J. 16
Josephus, 45, 170
Jouflroy, 493
Jourdain, 225
Jovius Paulus, 265
Joyaud, 494
526
INDEX.
Julian, 189, 197
Justi, de, 346
Justin Martyr, 196, 197, 201
Kahle, L. M. 346
Kahler, L. A. 467
Kaimes, Lord, 376
Kant — Kantian Philosophers, 400 — 417
Kayle, L. M. 328
Kayssler, A. 20, 483
Redrew, 499
Kempis, see Thos.
Keratrv,493
Kern, W. 4S3
Keyserlingk, H. W. E. 463, 483
Kieser, D. G. 394, 448
Kiesewetter, J. G. K. C. 412, 413, 416
King, W. (Archbishop), 332
Kinker, J. 416
Kircher, A. 393
Klein, Gell. 449
Kluge, 353, 393
Knutzen, Mart. 364
Kohler, Henr. 346, 356
Koppen,Fr. 110,194,457
Krause, K. C. F. 471,448
Kronland, Marc. M. 301
Krug, W. T. 12, 17, 19, 124, 134, 137,
465
Kunhardt, H. 10, 94, 109, 156, 414
Lactantius (L. Coel. Firm.) 196
Lacvdes, or Lakydes, 144
Lambert, Jo. Heinr. 384
Larnennais, 492
Lamprecht, 340
Lamy, P. 313
, Franc. 349
Lanfranc, 216
Latijje, Jo. Joach, 354, 357
, S. G. 365
Lao-Kiun, 40
Laromiguiere, P. 492
Lasthenia, 111
Launoy, Jo. 126
Lausanne, M. de, 393
Lavater, 487
Law, Theod. Lud. 317
, Will. 335
Lead, J, 322
Lee, Henry, 327
Leechman, W. 333
Le In nan n, 294
Leibnitz, G. W. 15, 42, 255, 304, 319,
337, 340
Leibnitz-Wolfian School, 354
Lentullus, 308
Leo, T. B. A. 409
Leonicus, Nic. 265
Leonteus, 132
Leontium. 132
Leroux, P. 494, 496
Lessing, Jo. Gottl. Eph. 389, 400
Leucippus, 73
Lillbopp, 393
Linkmaier, 483
Lipsius, Just. 133, 137, 269
Locke, J. 319, 324, 371, 378
Lombardus, 222
Longinus, Dion. 178
Lossius, J. Chr. 90, 3S7
Loyola, 370
Lucas, 313, 317
Lucian of Samosata, 154
Lucretius, Tit. 154
Luden, H. 294
Ludovici, K. G. 349
, C. G. 353
Lulli, Ravm. 241
Lullists, 242, 261, 274
Luzac, El. 380
Lycaeum, 114
Lyco, or Glyco, 125
Maass, Jo. G. E. 25,413, 414,416
Mably, Gal. Bonn. 382
Machiavelli, Nic. 271
Mackintosh, Sir J. 490
Maclauren, 328
Macrobius, 54, 190
Magi, 41
Magic, 185, 261
Magikon, 392
Magnenus, Joh. Chrys. 74, 292
Maignanus, (Maignan), 394
Maistre, J. de, 492
Major, 241
Maimon, Sal. 172,413
Maimonides, Mos. 231
Malchus, see Porphyrins.
Malebranche, Nic. 309, 318, 334
Mamertinus, Claud. 202
Mamiani, 497
Mandeville, Bern. 334
Manes, 174
Mangold, F. X. V. 381
Mar bach, 214
Marcus Aurelius, see Antoninus.
Marcianus Capella, see Capella.
Marcion the Gnostic, 174
INDEX.
527
Marheinelce, 476
Marinus, 191,193
Marsilius, tee Ficinus.
■ — of Inghen, 245
Martin, St. 302, 491
Martineau, H. 491
Martini, Conr. 267
Massias, 395, 493
Materialism, 32
Mathematical School, 60
Matthew of Cracow, 247
Maupertuis, P. L. M. de, 365, 378
Maximus of Ephesus, 189
of Tyre, 162
Maxwell, 396
Mayo, Dr. 391, 394
Mayronis, Franc. 241
M'Culloch, 377
Medabberin, 231
Megarics, 98
Mehmel, G. E. A. 434
Meier, Ge. Fr. 365
Meiners, Chph. 19, 20, 23, 25, 41, 43,
58, 89, 106, 108, 131, 139, 141, 150,
157, 177, 188. 219, 387, 390, 410
Meisner, 353
Meister, Jo. Chr. Fr. 25, 356
Melancthon, Phil. 255, 266
Melissus, 68
Mellin, G. S. A. 412
Mencius, Mung-chee, or Meng-dseu, 40
Menander the Gnostic, 174
Mendelssohn, M. 213, 386, 409
Mendoza, Pet. H. de, 238
Menedemus of Eretria, 91, 100
the Cynic, 93
Menippus, 93
Menodotus, 165
Mersenne, Pierre, 323
Mesmer — Mesmerism, 390- 394
Messene, 95
Metempsychosis, 37, 44, 62
Methods of the Philosophers, 30
Metrocles, 93
Metrodorus of Chios, 75
— — of Lampsacus, the Epicu-
rean, 132
1 of Stratonicea, 132
Mettrie, La, 380
Meyers, I.ud. 308, 317
Michael Scott, 233
Michelet, K. L. 123, 476
Mildmav, Sir J. 3/6
Mill, J.S. 487
Millington, J. 446
Milton, 369
Mirabeau, V. R. 381
Mirandula, see Picus
Miemyer, 416
Mirbt", E S. 400
Mnesarchus,64
Moderatus, 161
Mohammed, 227
Monadologia, 344
Monboddo, J. B. L. 390
Monimus, 93
Monism, 32
Monlorius, Jo. Bapt. 113, 241
Montaigne, Mich, de, 249, 280
Montesquieu, 378
Moral Philosophy, English, 329
Scotch, 333
French, 334
— German, 338
More, Sir Thos. 297
Hen. 302, 321
Morell, J. D. 400, 491
Moritz, Carl Phil. 389
Mosaic Philosophy, 259, 302
Moschus, 46
Moshemius, J. L. 321
Mothe, de la, see Vayer
Muelen, W. Van de, 294
Muller, Jac. Fr. 357
G. C. 415
Musseus, 48
Musonius Rufus the Stoic, 154
Mussmann, 400
Mysticism, Platonic Philosophy allied
to, 256, 320
Nagel, Jo. A. 226
Nasse, W. 393, 448
Naturalism, 31
Nausiphanes of Teios, 75
Neander, J. Aug. 174
Neeb, 139, 408,412
Nees, 393
Nemesius, 199, 202
Nessas, or Nessus, of Chios, 75
Nettelbladt, Dan. 356, 364
Neoplatonists, 112,161
of Alexandria, 170, 177
— among the Fathers of the
Church, 196
Newman, Prof. 488
New Pythagoreans, 159
Newton, Sir Isaac, 328, 349
Nicola, 387
Nicolas of Autricuria, 247
of Clemange (de Clemangis), 247
Cusanus, 267
528
INDEX.
Nicolas of Damascus, 158
Oraraus, see Oramus
Nicole, Peter, 309, 334, 335
Nicomachus, 161
Niemeyer, A. H. 416
Niethammer, F. J.. 432, 433
Niphus, Augustus, 265
Nitsch, 416
Nizolius, Marius, 255
Noack
Nominalists, 218, 243, 245
Norris, John, 327
Numenius, 171
Nunnesius, Pet. Jo 114
Nusslein, F. A. 449
Occam, Will. 243
Occasionalism, 310, 319
Ochus, see Moschus.
Ocellus Lucanus, 64
Oken, Lud. 446
Oersted, 498
Olbers, 394
Oldenburg, Jo 317
Oldendorp, Jo. 294
Olearius, Gfr. 71, 89, 177
, G. Phil. 76
Olympiodorus, 190
Omeisius, Magn. 110, 129, 142
Onesicritus, 93
Optimism of Stoics, 138
of Plotinus, 185
of Leibnitz, 347
Oramus, or Oresmius, Nic. 247
Orientals — Oriental Philosophy, 34
Origen, Christian Philosophy of, 54, 154,
199, 202
Heathen Philosophy, 179
Orpheus, 48
Oswald, 374
Othlo, 218
Oudendorp, J. 294
Oyta, Henry of, 247
Pachymerus, G. 225
Palmer, 375
Panaetius, 134,138
Paracelsus, Theoph. 261, 301
Paroebates, 96
Parker, Sam. 102, 317, 322
, Theod. 500
Parmenides, 67
Parrow, J. E. 415
Parsees, 41
Pascal, Blaise, 320, 309, 334
Passavant, Dr. 392, 394
Pasqualis, 492
Patritius (Patrizzi), Franc. 112, 268,
272
Payne, T. 377
Pelagius, 205
Pemberton, H. 328
Peregrinus, Proteus, 158
Periander, see Seven Wise Men
Perionius, Joach. 269
Peripatetics — Peripatetic School, 114,
158,264
Persaeus, 134
Persians, 40
Peter d'Ailly (de Alliaco), 246
of Apono, or Abano, 242
of Novara, see Lombardus
of Poitiers, 222
Petetin, 393
Petrus Hispanus, 238
Lombardus, see L.
Pfaff, C. M. 336
Pfafhi, C. M. 336
Pfaffrad, Gasp. 268
Phaedo, 91, 100
Phaedrus, 132
Pherecydes, 56, 60
Philo, the Academic, 145
tbe Jew, 170, 178
the Dialectic, 99 .
Philodemus, 132
Philolaus, 65
Philoponus, Jo. 208
Philosopher, appellation of, 60
Philosophers in France, 378
Phiseldeck, 412
Phoenicians, 46
Phornutus, see Cornutus
Photius, 208
Phrenology, 485
Piccolomini, F. 265
Picus of Mirandula, 258
, Joh. Franc. 259
Pittacus, see Seven Wise Men
Planck 479
Plainer, Ern. 17, 129, 254, 387, 389,
410
Plato— Platonism, 101 — 112
Platonic Philosophy, 256
Platonic Academy at Florence, 258
Playfair, W. 377
Plessing, F. V. L. 7, 20, 43, 105, 113
Pletho, Ge. Gemist. 253
Plinius, C. Secundus, 154
Plotinus, 168, 178, 179, 180
Ploucquet, Gottf. 56, 74, 97,130, 384
Plutarch of Athens, 190
INDEX.
529
Plutarch of Chseronea, 161
Politz, K. H. L. 415, 418
Poiret, Pet. 302, 310, 317, 322
Polemo of Athens, 112
Poles, 499
Politianus, Angelus, 254
Polus, 82
Polysenus of Lampsacus, 132
Polystratus, 132
Pomponatius, Pet. 264, 396
Pordage, Joh. 302, 322
Porphyrius, 179, 180, 187, 219
Porta (Portius), Sim. 265
Posidonius of Apamea, the Rhodian,
135, 138
Potamo, 162
Premontval, 382, 398
Price, R. 376, 397
Prichard, 4S7
Priestley, Jos. 24, 375, 328
Priscns, 189
Proclus, 190
Proculians, 154
Prodicus of Ceos, 82, 83
Protagoras, 82, 83, 84
Proudhon, 494
Psellus, Mich. 116
Ptolemy, 163
PurTendorf, Sam. 338, 339
Pulleyn, see Robert.
Putter, 352
Puvsegur, 395
Pyrrho,91,96,97
Pyrrhonists, 97
Pythagoras, 55, 58, 162
Pythagoreans, 58, 61, 162
Pythagorean Women, 61
Philosophers, 55, 58
Quesnay, Fr. 383
Ramists, 268
Ramus, Pet. 268, 270, 113, 117, 121
Rapin, 115
Rationalism, 31
Ratze, 415
Raumer, 448
Ray, J. 332
Raymond de Sabonde, 249
Real, G.de, 383
Realism — Realists, 31
of the Schoolmen, 214, 218
of Thos. Aquinas, 236
of Scotus, 239
Regis. Pierre Syl. 309
Reichenbach. B. 391, 394
Reid, Thos. 374
ReifT, 479
Reimarus, Henr. Sam. 383, 410
Reinbeck, Jo. Gust. 363
Reinhold, E. 418, 421
C. L. 1, 19, 59, 106. 409,
411,418,433,434,484
Renard, 393
Reswitz, 390
Rettwig, 295
Reuchlin, Joh. 260
Reusch, Jo. Pet. 363
Rhabanus Maurus, 214
Rhode, J. G. 34, 36, 41
Richard of Middleton, 238
of St. Victor, 222
Riebov, or llibbov, G. H. 363
Rink, 400
Riplev, G. 500
P.itchie, T. E. 372
Ritter, H. 12, 55, 57, 76, 314, 484
Rixner, Thadd. Ans. 19, 449
Robinet, J. B. 360, 381, 383
Robertson, J. B. 446
Rochefoucauld, Fr. de la, 328, 334
Rochemaillet, G. M. D. 280
Roell, Alex. 311
Romans, 147, 151
Robert Folioth of Melnn, 222
Grosseteste (Capito), 233
Holcot, 247
Pulleyn, 222
Rohault, Jac. 309
Romagnosi, 498
Roscellin, John, 219
Rosenkranz, 400, 471
Rosmini, 497
Rostan, 395
Roth, F. 456
Rousseau, Jean Jacq. 378, 382
Riidiger, Jo. Andr. 328, 358
Ruckert, Jos. 454
Rums, Musonius, 154
Riige, 479, 482
Sabeism, 41, 44
Sacchi, 20
Sadoletus, Jac. 254
Saintes, Am. 400
St. Martin, see Martin
Salat, Jac. 457, 458
Sallust, 189
Salmasius, CI. 270
Salverte, 391
Sanchez (Sanctius), Fr. 303
Sanchoniatho, 46
2 M
530
INDEX.
Sandby, Rev. G. 391
Saturninus, the Sceptic, 167
the Gnostic, 174
Scaliger, Jul. Caes. 265
Schad, J. B. 433, 448
Schaller, 476
Scharrock, Rob. 299
Schaumann, J. C. G. 412, 415
Sceptics, 21, 32, 33, 95, 101, 143, 145,
147, 163
New, 278, 303, 324, 337
Schegk, J. 267
Schelliug, Fr. Wilh. Jos. 47, 435, 436,
437
, K. E. 448
Schelvers, F. J. 447
Scherbius, Phil. 267
Schierschmidt, J. J. 365
Schiller, Fried. 415
Schilling, Wences. 267
Schlegel, Fr. 4, 36
. F. A. W. 35, 446
Schleiermacher, Fr. 56, 71, 80, 88,463,
464
Schlichtegroll, 386, 456
Schmalz, Theod. 414, 415
Schmid, Ch. E. 25, 413, 415, 416, 435
Schneider, Fr. 351
Scholarius, Geo. see Gennadius
Scholastics — Scholastic Philosophy,
209,213
Period of, 214
— Attack on, 254
Schoock, Mart. 323
Schopenhauer, Arth. 479
Schoppe (Scioppius), Casp. 139, 270
Scottish Moral Philosophers, 333, 374
Schrubert, Jos. H. 447
Schubert, 400
Schulz, Jo. 411,476
Schulze, G. E. 104, 138, 324, 351, 410,
415,420,460
Schulzius, T. E. 463
Schwab, Jo. Chr. 22, 100, 410
Schwartz, F. H. C. 416
Schwegler
Scioppius, see Schoppe
Scribonius, Wilh. Ad. 268
Scotists, 241
Scotus, J. Duns, 238
, Erigena, 215
Scott, Michael, 233
Search, Edw. (Tucker), 375
Secondat, C. see Montesquien
Secundus, 160
Selden, Jo. 295
Selle, 418
Seneca, 156, 157
Sennert, Dan. 293
Sensationalism, 31, 324
Sepulveda, Jo. Gen. 265
Severianus, 193
Sextius, Q. (Pythag.) 160
Sextus, Q. (Stoic), 157
Empiricus, 165
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 330
Shegk Jac. 267
Seven Wise Men, 50
Sidonski, 499
Sigwart, H. C. W. 346, 483
Sieyes, Emm. 383
Silhon, Jean de, 323
Simeon, Ben. Joach. 172
Simo of Athens, 91
Simon, St. 494
E. 391
Magus, 174
Porta, 265
of Tournay (Tornaceusis), 224
Simonides of Ceos, 49
Simplicius, 159, 194
Sinclair, J. Bar. von, 4S3
Smith, Ad. 377
W. 433
Snell, Dan. Chr. W., 412, 413, 416
Phil. Lud. 19
Socher, John, 19, 101
Socrates, 86, 91
Socratics, 92
Sofis, Sufis, Sufismus, 228
Solger, K. W. F. 448
Solon, 50
Sonnerti, D. 293
Sophists, 55, 81
Sopater, 189
Sorberii, S. 293
Sorbiere, Sam. 126, 323
Sosipatra, 193
Sotion, 160
Spalding, 65, 98
Sperling, Jo. 293
Speusippus, 111
Spinoza, 312
Spiritualism, 32
Spurzhiem, 485
Stallo, 500
Stabius, H. 323
Stanley, Thos. 17
Stiiudlin, K. F. 21 , 23, 25, 45, 1 08, 197,
203,215,409,414
Steflens, 446
Steidenroth, E. 313, 463
INDEX.
531
Steinbart, 386
Steinheim, 386
Steinthal, 484
Stewart, Dugald, 377, 394, 489
Stilling, J 392
Stilpo of Megara, 99, 100
Stobams, J. 53, 193, 208
Stoics— Stoic School, 101, 133, 154,
269
Storr, 415
Strahler, Dan. 357
Strato, 125
Strauss, D. F. 476, 478
Struve, 24
Suarez, Franc. 238, 270
Suabedissen, Th. Aug. 22, 137,483
Suisset (or Swinshead), 247
Sulzer, Jo. G. 385
Supematuralism, 32, 199, 320
Swedenborg, 366
Swieten, Van, 393
Sylvester II, see Gerbert
Synesius, 198
Synthetism, 32
Syrianus, 159, 190
Systeme de la Nature, 380
Szanianski, 499
Talams (Talon), Audoraar, 268
Tartaretu3, 241
Tatianus, 198
Tauler, 248
Taurellus, Nic. 268, 270
Taurus, Calvisius, 161
Teignmouth, Lord, 377
Teleauges, 64
Telecles, 144
Telesius, Bern. 268, 271
Tennemann, 2, 18, 101, 108, 324
Tertre, Father du. 319
Tertullian, 196, 201
Teste, 393
Tetens, J. Nic. 388
Thales, 56
Thanner, Ign. 449
Theano, 65
Themista, 132
Themistius of Paphlagonia, 159, 190
Theon of Smyrna, 161
Theology of Plato, 107
St. Augustin, 204
■ Thomas Aquinas, 237
■ Campanella, 290
Leibnitz, 347
Theodorus Gaza, 254
Theodoras Metochites, 225
of Cyrene, 95
Theophrastus of JEressus, 124
Paracelsus, sec P.
Theosophy — Theosophists, 2G1, 300
Thiersch, 456
Tholuck, F. A. D. 228
Thomas a Kempis, 249
Aquinas, 236
■ de Bradwardine, 245
de Strasburg, 245
de Vio Cajetanus, 238
Thomasius, Jac. 16, 21, 138, 213, 218
Chr. 23, 351
Thomists, 240
Thophail, 229
Thorbecke, Rud. 143
Thorild, Thorn. 453
Thrasyllus, 161
Thrasymachus, the Sophist, 82, 84
Thummig, L. Ph. 364
Thibetians, 38
Tieck, J. 448
Tiedemann, Dietr. 15, 22, 54, 76, 101,
108, 133, 389, 410
Tieftrunk, Jo. H. 413, 415, 483
Timseus of Locri, 64
Tiraocrates, 132
Timon of Phlius, the Sceptic, 97
Tittel, G. A. 388, 410
Townshend, Rev. C. H. 391
Tralles, Lud. 380
Trembley, J. 379
Trismegistus, 43
Thoxler, J. V. P. 447
Tschirnhausen, E. W. 328, 350
Tucker, Ab. 476
Turretini, Fr. 335
Ulpian, 193
Ulrich, Joh. Aug. Heinr. 356, 3S8, 398
Unzer, 393
Valentinus, 174
Valla, Laurentius, 254
Vanini, Luc. 265
Vatke, 477
Vattel, E. de, 349
Vaudeuil, Mde. de, 382
Vayer, Franz, de La Mothe, 303
Velasquez, Gabr. 238
Velleius, C. 153
Velthuysen, Lamb. 299
Verati, 393
Vico, Gio. Batt. 496
Victorinus, 206
2 M 2
532
INDEX.
Villers, Ch. 416, 492
Villemandy, Pet. de, 113, 33S
Vincent of Beauvais, 232
Virey, 493
Visbeck, J. C. C. 420
Vives, Lud. 213, 255
Voetius, Gisb. 308
Voider, 310
Volney, 492
Voltaire, 328, 365, 378
Vorpahl, Lud. Heinr. 483
Voss, Ger. Jo. 21
Vries, Ger. de, 79, 311
, J. Van, 78
Wabst, C. G. 324
Wachler, 389
Wachter, Jo. Ge. 317
Warner, Jo. Jac. 42, 102, 448, 470
Walch, Jo. Ge. 21, 81, 122, 174, 359,
382
Walther, P. F. 448
Wasianski, C. 400
Weber, Jos. 448
Weichart, 393
Weigel, Valent. 262
Weishaupt, Ad. 410
Weiller, K. 2, 19, 456
Weinholt, 393
Wise men, Seven, 50
Weise, Ferd. Chph. 483
Weiss, Chr. 9, 31, 454, 458, 476
Weisse, Chr. Herm. 115, 483
Werdenhagen, John Angel. 267
Werdermann, J. C. G. 24
Wessel, Joh. Burchard, 249
Whewell, W. 488
Widmer, 234
Wier, Joh. 261
Wilkinson, J. J. G. 488
Weishaupt, A. 410
Will, philosophy of, 404, 481
Winckler, Joh. Heinr. 364
Winckler, Bened. 294
Windheim, 346
William of Auvergne, 232
of Champeaux, 220
• -de Conches, 221
Willich, 416
Wilson, Dr. 393
Windheim, Ch. E. 16, 109
Windischmann, K. 18, 38, 10S, 447
Winkelman, 400
Wirgman, T. 456
Wittich, Chph. 311, 317
Wolf, Chr. 318, 353, 356
Wolfart, 348
Wolfists— Wolfian System, 362
Wollaston, Will. 330
Wray, John, 332
Wright, 328
Wustman, J. E. 360
Wvttenbach, Dan. 24, 152, 155, 417,
499
Xenarchus, 158
Xeniades, 70
Xenocrates, 112
Xenophanes, 66
Xenophon, 91
Zabarella, Jac. 265
Zacharia, R. S. 414, 415
Zeller, 477
Zend-Avesta, 40
Zeno of Elea, 69
the Epicurean, of Sidon, 132
the Stoic, of Cittium, 133
of Tarsus, 134, 137
Zenodotus, 193
Zentgrave, 295, 338
Zimara, Marc. Ant. 266
Zimmer, B. 449
Zoroaster, 40, 41
•, writings of, 168, 1S6
Zorzi (Giorgio) 260
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