AND

CRITICISM OF ITS PRESENT

IMPORTANCE.

BY

FREDERICK ALBERT LANGE,

LATE PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF ZÜRICH AND MAKBURG.

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION

BY

ERNEST CHESTER THOMAS,

LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE. OXFORD.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER, & CO. LTD

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD.

1892.

The rights of translation and of reproduction

arc reserved.

England the classical land of Materialism, and of the union of religious

faith and Materialism, 3. English Materialists in the eighteenth

century: Hartley, 4; Priestley, 7. Scepticism in France: La Mothe

le Vayer, 9; Pierre Bayle, 1o. Beginning of intellectual inter-

course between England and France, 11. Voltaire, 12. His activity

in favour of the Newtonian philosophy, 13. His attitude towards

Materialism, 17. Shaftesbury, 19. Diderot, 23; his relation to

Materialism, 24. Transition to Robinet and his modification of

Materialism, 29. Intellectual condition of Germany, 32. Influence

of Descartes and Spinoza, 34. Influence of Englishmen, 36. The

'Correspondence on the Nature of the Soul,' 37. Various traces of

Materialism, 47.

CHAPTER II.

DE LA METTRIE

Pp. 49-91

Rectification of the chronology, 49. Biographical, 54. The 'Natural

History of the Soul,' 56. The hypothesis of Arnobius and Condillac's

Statue, 62. L'Homme Machine,' 63. Lamettrie's character, 77.

His theory of morals, 80. His death, 90.

CHAPTER III.

"THE SYSTEM OF NATURE'

Pp. 92-123

The leaders of the literary movement in France, and their relation to

Materialism, 92. Cabanis and the materialistic physiology, 93.

The System of Nature: general character, 93. Its author, Baron

d'Holbach, 94. Holbach's other writings, 95. His ethic, 96. Con-

tents of the work; the anthropological portion and the general

foundations of the study of nature, 97. Necessity in the moral

world;
relations to the French Revolution, 102. 'Order and dis-

order are not in Nature;' Voltaire's polemic against this principle,

104. Consequences of Materialism through the Association of Ideas,

106. Results for the conception of the aesthetic, 107. Diderot's

conception of the Beautiful, 108. The justification of ethical and

æsthetic ideas, 109. Holbach's attack upon the Immateriality of

the Soul, III. Remark as to Berkeley, 112. Attempt at a physio-

logical basis for morals, 113. Political passages, 114. The second

part of the work: attack upon the idea of God, 115. Religion and

morality, 119. General possibility of Atheism, 121. Conclusion of

the work, 122.

CHAPTER IV.

THE REACTION AGAINST MATERIALISM IN GERMANY Pp. 124-150

The philosophy of Leibnitz as an attempt to surmount Materialism,

124.

Popular effect and true sense of philosophical principles; his

doctrine of the Immateriality of the Soul, 127. Optimism and its

relation to the mechanical theory, 131. Doctrine of Innate Ideas,

132. Wolff's philosophy and the doctrine of the Simplicity of the

Soul, 133. Animal Psychology, 134. Writings against Materialism,

135. The insufficiency of the School-philosophy as against Materi-

alism, 141. Materialism displaced by the ideal effort of the

eighteenth century, 142. Reform of the Schools from the beginning

of the century, 143. The search for the Ideal, 146. Influence of

Spinozism, 147. Goethe's Spinozism and his judgment of the

System of Nature, 148.

The Return of German philosophy to Kant. Abiding significance of

Criticism. Reversal of the metaphysical standpoint, 153. Move-

ment and Sensation: the world as phenomenon, 157. Experi-

ence as product of Organisation. Kant in his relation to Plato

and Epikuros, 158. Kant in opposition to Subjectivism and to

Scepticism. Impulse from Hume: his standpoint, 159. Kant and

Experience, 163. Analysis of Experience. Synthetic judgments

a priori, 164. The discovery of a priori elements, 190. Sensibility

and Understanding, 194. Space and Time as forms of Sensibility.

Whether Sensation cannot measure itself by Sensation. Psycho-

physics, 198. Apriority of Space and Time equally tenable, 199.

Attitude of Materialism towards the doctrine of Space and Time,

203. The Categories, 204. Hume's attack upon the notion of

Causality, 205. Deduction of the categories, 208. Errors of the

deductive process. Sound Common Sense. The basis of notions

a priori, 209. Various conceptions of the notion of Causality, 211.

Attitude of Empiricists and Materialists to the notion of Causality,

213. The thing-in-itself, 216. The deduction of the Categories and

the origin of ideas, 219. Free will and the moral law, 227. The

intellectual world as ideal, 232.

CHAPTER II.

PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM SINCE KANT

Pp. 235-294

The native lands of modern philosophy turn to practical life, while

metaphysic remains to Germany. The course of intellectual

development in Germany, 235. Causes of the revival of Materi-

alism; influence of the natural sciences; Cabanis and the Somatic

method in physiology, 240. Influence of habituation to conflicts of

opinion and freedom of thought, 244. The philosophy of nature,

245. Tendency to Realism since 1830, 245. Feuerbach, 246. Max

Stirner, 256. Decay of poetry; development of commercial activity

and natural science, 257. Theological criticism and Young Ger-