Schleiermacher took up the philosophical prob lem where Fichte. Schelling. and Jacobi had left it. Ile agreed with Jacobi that thought cannot grasp the I...ence of reality; lienec philosophy i, not it complete science; but while it Is not complete, it is ever and reaching out toward the goal of the identity of thought and being. This goal, however, can be reached only in religion, the communion of the tinite with the infinite upon which it feels itself dependent. In I 1 etha It and Schopcnbauer there is a twofold op position to llegelianisint the former opposed his doctrine of real qualities to 1 legel's idea ltn the latter directed his pessimism (q.v.) against the idealistic estimate of the value of existence, and maintained that the real is an irrational principle of blind impulse. Beneke attempted to synthesize the results of previous philosophieal activity by developing a psychological philosophy, based on inner experience. Self-consciousness reveals di rectly to us the psychic eonstitut bin of man; sensation is only mediate knowledge of the outer world, which must be interpreted after the analogy of psychic life. Lot ze combined the Hegelian and Ilerbartian positions, while Hart mann aimed at a synthesis of Schopenhauer and ilet.tel. Among recent German thinkers the cry of "Back to Kant" is especially prominent; this NellKantiankm is represented by such men as Lange. Cohen, Volkelt, and Paulsen. other vigorous German school at present is that of the so-called immanent philosophy of Schuppe, Rehmke, and Schubert-Soldern, who deny the antithesis of idea and object. and assert an identical unitary consciousness in all beings. The immanent content of this eonseiousness is the world of space and Hine. Allied to this im manent philosophy is the empirocritieism of Avenarius, who, like Sehuppe, begins, not with the opposition of subject and object, but with the pure experienee of the unsophisticated man free of all preconceived theory. Tn this experi ence the so-called object of consciousness is an integral part: and of this experience philosophy is an exact deseription, had a temporary revival in the middle of the nineteenth century in Germany: its champions were Vogt, IL Wagner, •Nloleschott. Bilehner, Czolhe. and Miring. Sometimes identified with materialism is the monism of lined:el. who, however, is not a materialist, but an animist, holding all matter to be instinet with life; but inasmuch as the material, not the conscious, side of being, is em phasized, the doctrine is closely allied to Fechner had some years before Ilaeckel advocated an animism, which, however, had emphasized the conscious side of being. Wundt's philosophy is related to 'recliner's, inas much as he holds that the mechanical universe is "the outer wrapper behind which is hidden a spiritual creative activity, a striving, feeling, sensing, like ant which we experience in our sclyeti." 'Holding that eonation is the most funda mental essence of this activity, his view is voluntaristic.
Returning now to French philosophy, we may say that after the time of Descartes there been no epoeh-making thinkers in France except 1:1111—eau and Comte. Deserving of mention are Bayle. the skeptic: Voltaire, more positive in his attitude and with a leaning toward median !sin; Rousseau. the political philosopher, believ ing with Hobbes in a state of nature preceding society. but emphasizing the social nature of man. which TIobbes had ignored; La .lettrie and ( ondillae, sensationalist.; La Roehefoueanid an Helvetins, egoists; Bonnet, a rationalistic sensa tionali-t; Diderot and d'Alembert, pantheists. The last three, along with minor thinkers, are known as the Encyclopiedists, because of their coiiperation in the issue of the great Encyclop6die.
During the French Revolution the predominant philosophy was sensationalism, going under the name of ideology, given it by Destutt de Tracy. Cabanis emphasized the physiological basis of sensationalism; a little later :Maine de Biran, starting with the psychological fact of self-con sciousness, reached a view similar to Beneke's, in which the spiritual nature of self-activity re ceived recognition. He was thus the forerunner of spiritualism (q.v.), which was championed by Jouttroy and Royer-Collard, and had in Cousin its most prominent exponent. Spiritualism lived through the nineteenth century, being later rep resented by Ravaisson, Secretan, and Vacherot. Opposed to ideology were the traditionalists, who, while reaching spiritualistic results, were hostile to the method of the spiritualists. Accepting the Catholic doctrines as unimpeachable, they emphasized the supremacy of faith above reason. Reason inaugurated the Reformation and issued in the Revolution; it is the source of nothing but evil. Faith resting on inspired authority is alone able to reach the truth. So wrote De Maistre, Frayssinnons, and Bonald. But son would not down, and turned its attention to the social nature and relations of human beings. Saint-Simon, the founder of the French Socialistic School, was not himself so much a philosopher as a reformer; he practiced rather than theorized; but he interested many specula tive minds in social problems. The greatest of his disciples was Auguste Comte. Comte con tended that the only true and final philosophy is positive; true philosophy is an accurate descrip tion of facts and their experienced relations. He brushed aside all pretence of knowledge of anything more ultimate than the phenomena of experience. Positivism, however, according to Comte, is only the third stage of philosophical reflection. first attitude toward nature was theological; he attempted to explain phe nomena by referring them to supernatural pow ers. Then man became metaphysical, using ab stract conceptions, like force, as principles of explanation. Finally as the third stage came positivism, the insight into the futility of pre vious explanations, and the recognition of facts and their relations as philosophical ultimates. About the middle of the nineteenth century. in protest against Comte, a revival of Platonism di occurred in certain Catholic circles: Cartuyvels, 1 Hugouin, and Gratry maintained that ideas are modes of Clod's essence. Positivism passed over into agnosticism in Littr6. Taine, and Renal]. With the development of experimental psycho logy n psychological philosophy has been cul tivated by Ribot. Delbmuf. and Bernard. After Darwin's Origin. of Species appeared. evolutionism was eagerly taken up by French thinkers, chief among whom have been Fouillee and Guyan. But Kantian principles maintained their ground in the philosophy of Renouvier and his followers. Laehelier attempted a combination of Kautianism and spiritualism. .Against the determinism (q.v.) of positivism, psychologism, and evolutionism, Bout roux advocates a philosophy of contingency and freedom.
, Since Bruno's time Italy has mane little .original contribution to philosophy, although she can boast of many brilliant expositors of already existing systems. Vico and Beccaria can lay the best claim to originality, both working in the realm of the philosophy of law. Genovesi, the empiricist: Galluppi, the sensationalist ; llosmini and Gioberti, objective idealists: Mamiani, modified Platonist; Vera and Spaventa, liege Hans; Testa and Cantoni, Kantians; ViIkn•i and Dominieis, positivists: and Bonavino, Thomist, deserve passing mention.