Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/562

Rh Philo- sophy. school of in Berlin, Hegel dominated the highest thought. llegcl. lI.'1uL'I‘. 5—l~l G E It I was kindly treate.l by Lessing, whose clcarstyle he appears ' to have taken as his model. Johannes von .liiller (1752-1809), the historian of Swit/.erlan-.1, used to be c nu- sidered by the Germans an eloquent writer, almost a prose poet, but he is now generally regarded as an affected rhetorician. ltaumer, in his chief work, ][i.s-tor3/ of the Ilulmzslcmfcn, gave forth the results of deep research in an animated and vigorous narrative. Schlosser, author of a Ilistury oft/re 151'://zleenlle Cent urg/, vas also an historian who combined purity and strength of style with learning. Niebuhr, in his Ilomcm Ilistm-_z/, pushed his scepticism too far, but he profoundly modified opinion in regard to the tests of historic credibilit_v. VIII. The I.u!c.~'t 1’erio¢l.-—'itl1 the death of Goethe in 1832 began a new era in German literature, an era not yet closed. The period has been one of intense political excitement. In 1848 the national aspiration for freedom and unity found decisive expression in action; since that time Germany has achieved unity by the sword, while she still slowly feels her way towards freedom. It was inevit- able that in such an epoch 1m1ch of the best energy of the nation should be devoted to politics, but there has also been great literary activity—activity deeply influenced by the practical struggles, hopes, and fears of the time. Philosophical speculation has been continued without interruption, and in many respects it has been, and still is, the deepest current in the intellectual life of Germany. From 1818 till his death in 1831, when he was a professor Ilis vast system, in which he attempted to explain the ultimate facts of the world and to bind by a. chain of deductive reasoning the elements of all knowledge, found enthusiastic adherents among the more ambitions of the younger literary men, and for many years after his death it determined the character of their work. Gradually, however, the school broke up into three distinct divisions, the right, the centre, and the left. Of these the most active were the members of the latter party, who interpreted IIegel’s doctrine in a revolutionary sense. Arnold Iluge, one of the most bril- liant writers of the school, applied Ilegelianism to politics, in which he associated himself with the extreme radicals. David Friedrich Strauss, who also started as a follower of Hegel, in his memorable Leben Jesu resolved the narratives of the Gospels into a series of myths, and found the vital element of Christianity in its spiritual teaching. Feuer- bach, going still further, vvarred against all religion, urging that it should be replaced by a sentiment of humanity. While the different sections of Ilegelians opposed each other, Schelling developed the later phases of his system; and thought was turned into a new channel by‘ Ilerbart, whose psychological work has been carried on at a later time by Lotze. Krause also attracted attention by philo- sophical ideas through which he aimed at solving the practical difficulties of modern life. Ulrici and the younger Fichte have exercised considerable influence as the advocates of a pautheistic doctrine by which they endeavour to reconcile religion and science. None of these names, however, have the importance which attaches to that of schopen- Arthur Schopenhauer, who, although his chief book was written in the lifetime of Goethe, did not secure a hearing until long afterwards. At the present time he stirs deeper inte1‘est than any other thinker. German philosophers have, as a rule,been utterly indifferent to style, but Schopen- hauer's prose is clear, ﬁrm, and graceful, and to this fact he owes much of his popularity. He expressed bitter con- tempt for his philosophical contemporaries, and, going back to Kant, claimed to have corrected and completed his system. Hismain doctrine is that will is the fundamental principle of existence ; but his importance arises less from his abstract teaching than from his desc1'iptions of the IANY [1.1rr:1:.-'r1‘I:E. misery of human hfc. llistory seemed to him but a record of turmoil and wretchedness; and there is high lite1'ary genius as well as moral earnestness in his graphic and scornful pictures of the darker aspects of the world. Eduard von llartmann, the latest original philosopher of Germany, works on essentially the same lines, but seeks to reconcile Schopenhauer not only with llegcl and Schelling but with Leibnitz. The growth of science has been one of the most powerful .9-ficllt factors in the recent intellectual development of Germany, and some of the best books of the period have been works presenting in a. popular form the results of scientific labour. Among these the first place still belongs to the ('osmu.s~ of Alexander von llumboldt. but it is made cnduringly impressive by the writer's power of handling vast masses of facts, by his poetic feeling for the beauty a11d the order of nature, and by the purity and nobility of his style. Some of the greatest men of science, such as Liebig, Virchow, and Ilehnholtz, have also made admirable attempts to render their subjects intelligible and interesting to ordinary readers. Biichner and Vogt have considerable merit as popular scientiﬁc authors, but their writings are marred by a polemical tendency, which induces them to dogmatize on metaphysical questions be- yond their proper range. In historical literature Germany has recently produced “is- The historian who enjoys the t'H'i-1* many eminent writers. widest popularity is Leopold ll-anke, who has instructed two generations by communicating in an agreeable style the results of extensive research i11 many different ﬁelds of in- quiry. Gervinus acquired a permanent place as an historian by his excellent ][[.s'tor_I/ qfl/re .'z'2zctccnl/L (,'cntur_z/. 'orks of high value have also proceeded from Giesebrecht, who has written on the Holy Roman Empire with enthusiastic appreciation of the great emperors; from Droysen, the diligent historian of Prussia ; from Dahlmann, whose labours included German, English, French, and Danish history 3 from Hitusser, whose masterpiece is an elaborate history of Germany since the death of Frederick the Great ; from Vaitz, the chief authority on the growth of the Ger- man eonstitution ; from Sybel, by whose researches much new light has been thrown on the French ltcvolntion 5 from hlommsen, the vigorous historian of ancient llome ; and fron. 'C‘urtius, whose history of Greece is not more remark- able for its learning than for the clear and attractive arrangement of its materials. Of late years much attention has been devoted to “Culturgeschichte,” which describes the life of a people in all its phases, either through the whole past or during a particular epoch. A favourable example of works of this class is Karl Bicdcrmann’s Gcrnmn_z/ in (Ice 1273/]: teen I/L C en t ur _I/. Itecent German literature is extraordinarily rich in his- tories of the individual elements of intellectual development. In its histories of philosophy it is absolutely supreme. llegcl still ranks as one of the greatest historians of philosophy, although the value of his expositions is lowered by a tendency to find his own doctrine in preceding thinkers. Erdmann, Schwegler, an(l U eberweg were among the most important workers in the same department; and with them may be named Kuno Fischer, who writes the history of philosophy with a striking power of sympathetic appreci- ation and in a fascinatingliterary style. Less attractive in manner than Fischer‘, Lungs, in his ][is(uI'!/ 0/'.l.'¢z(crz'r1l- ism, did full justice for the first time to the different phases of materialistic philosophy, and is especially happy in the skill with which he traces the growth of a recog- nition of law in the phenomena of nature. Since Lessing, zcsthetics have always formed a prominent branc-h of philosophy among the Germans _; and they have hardly Itsfundamentalconceptions Hum. are no longer in full accordance with the best tllUl1gllt,l)"1‘1t