thought of Plato, of Aristotle, and of the heroes
of modern philosophy is ever proving anew its fructifying
power. Nowhere do we find such instructive errors
as in the sphere of philosophy; nowhere is the new
so essentially a completion and development of the
old, even though it deem itself the whole and assume
a hostile attitude toward its predecessors; nowhere
is the inquiry so much more important than the final
result; nowhere the categories “true and false”
so inadequate. The spirit of the time and the
spirit of the people, the individuality of the thinker,
disposition, will, fancy—all these exert
a far stronger influence on the development of philosophy,
both by way of promotion and by way of hindrance,
than in any other department of thought. If a
system gives classical expression to the thought of
an epoch, a nation, or a great personality; if it
seeks to attack the world-riddle from a new direction,
or brings us nearer its solution by important original
conceptions, by a subtler or a simpler comprehension
of the problem, by a wider outlook or a deeper insight;
it has accomplished more than it could have done by
bringing forward a number of indisputably correct principles.
The variations in philosophy, which, on the assumption
of the unity of truth, are a rock of offense to many
minds, may be explained, on the one hand, by the combination
of complex variety and limitation in the motives which
govern philosophical thought,—for it is
the whole man that philosophizes, not his understanding
merely,—and, on the other, by the inexhaustible
extent of the field of philosophy. Back of the
logical labor of proof and inference stand, as inciting,
guiding, and hindering agents, psychical and historical
forces, which are themselves in large measure alogical,
though stronger than all logic; while just before stretches
away the immeasurable domain of reality, at once inviting
and resisting conquest. The grave contradictions,
so numerous in both the subjective and the objective
fields, make unanimity impossible concerning ultimate
problems; in fact, they render it difficult for the
individual thinker to combine his convictions into
a self-consistent system. Each philosopher sees
limited sections of the world only, and these through
his own eyes; every system is one-sided. Yet
it is this multiplicity and variety of systems alone
which makes the aim of philosophy practicable as it
endeavors to give a complete picture of the soul and
of the universe. The history of philosophy is
the philosophy of humanity, that great individual,
which, with more extended vision than the instruments
through which it works, is able to entertain opposing
principles, and which, reconciling old contradictions
as it discovers new ones, approaches by a necessary
and certain growth the knowledge of the one all-embracing
truth, which is rich and varied beyond our conception.
In order to energetic labor in the further progress
of philosophy, it is necessary to imagine that the