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 with the distinction between obscure and clear conception; sense-perception can likewise be perfectly clear. He makes a sharp distinction between the ground of cognition and the ground of reality, and criticizes Wolfs attempt to establish the principle of causality by purely logical methods. He also exposes the error at the root of the ontological argument (Entwurf der notwendigen Vernunft- wahrheiten, 1745). In the problem of methods, J. H. Lambert (1728-1771) drew a sharp and clear distinction between the analytical and the constructive methods in philosophy (Neues Organum, 1764). J. N. Tetens (1736-1805) (in the work mentioned above) finally demonstrated that every act of the intellect, just as every act of attention, at once assumes a relation of difference or similarity.—These three investigators are Kant's immediate predecessors. Tetens may even have had access to Kant's earlier writings.

2. It is evident from the foregoing presentation that the so-called philosophy of the enlightenment contains many implications which transcend its essential doctrines. But Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) stands out especially as the thinker of the German enlightenment who projects himself beyond the conflicting antitheses of the age. Despite his wide divergence from Rousseau as respects character and talent, his position in the history of thought is nevertheless analogous. As a matter of fact, he was not a productive writer himself, but he had a keen and fine sense for originality in thought as well as for that internal consistency, which can never be exhausted in the definitely expressed forms of life. His attitude towards both the rationalists and the orthodox was therefore that of a critic. As a theological critic he appealed to primitive Christianity which is older than the much discussed Bible