Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/370

 other hand, tells us that we must abandon the thought of regarding the subjective notion as something fixed and independent, and that, on the contrary, we must start from its one-sidedness. Both views have this in common, that they contain presuppositions, and what is distinctive in each is that the modern world makes the concrete the basis, while, according to Anselm’s view—the metaphysical view—on the other hand, it is absolute thought, the absolute Idea which is the unity of the Notion and reality, that forms the basis. This old view is, so far, superior, inasmuch as it does not take the concrete in the sense of empirical men, empirical reality, but as thought; and it is superior to the other also, because it does not keep to the idea of something imperfect. In the modern view the contradiction between the concrete and what is only notion or conception is not solved; the subjective notion exists, it has a real value, it must be considered as subjective, it is what is real. Thus the older point of view is greatly to be preferred, because its keynote rests on the Idea. The modern view, again, has one characteristic of a broader kind, since it represents the concrete as the unity of the Notion and of reality; while, in contrast to this, the older view does not get beyond an abstraction of perfection.