Empirismus
und Skeptis in D.
Windelband - History of Philosophy
1872.
Ph. Damiron, Memoires pour strvir a VHistoire de la Philosophie au 18" Steele.
3 vols. , l'aria 1858-64.
K. Zeller, (iesehichte der dentschen Philosophie seit Leibniz. MUnohen, 1873. Also II. Hettner, Litteraturgesrhichte des 18. Jahr. 3 parts.
The natural rhythm of intellectual life brought with it the result that in the modern as in the Greek philosophy a first cosmologico- metaphysical period was followed by a period of an essentially anthropological character, and that thus once more the newly awakened, purely theoretical efforts of philosophy must yield to a practical conception of philosophy as " icorld-ifisdom. " In fact, all features of the Oreek sophistic movement are found again with ripened fulness of thought, with broadened variety, with deepened content, and, therefore, also, with added energy in their antitheses in the Philosophy of the Enlightenment, which coincides approxi mately in time with the eighteenth century. In the place of Athens now appears the whole breadth of the intellectual movement among European civilised peoples, and scientific tradition counts now as many thousands of years as it then counted centuries; but the tendency as a whole and the objects of thought, the points of view and the results of the philosophising, show an instructive similarity and kinship in these two periods so widely separated in time and so different in the civilisations which formed their background. There prevails in lx>th the same turning of thought toward the subject's inner nature, the same turning away from metaphysical subtlety with doubt and disgust, the same preference for an em
pirical genetic consideration of the human psychical life, the same inquiry as to the possibility and the limits of scientific knowledge, 437
438 Philosophy of the Enlightenment. [Part V.
and the same passionate interest in the discussion of the prob lems of life and society. No less characteristic, lastly, for both periods is the penetration of philosophy into the broad circles of general culture and the fusion of the scientific with the literary movement.
But the basis for the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century was given in the general features of a secular view of life, as they had been worked out during the Renaissance by the fresh move ments in art, religion, politics, and natural research. While these had found their metaphysical formulation in the seventeenth cen tury, the question now came again into the foreground, how man should conceive, in the setting of the new Weltanschauung, his own nature and his own position : and in the presence of the value set upon this question, the interest in the various metaphysical concep tions in which the new Weltanschauung had been embodied, retreated more and more decidedly into the background. Men contented themselves with the general outlines of metaphysical theories, in order to employ themselves the more thoroughly with the questions of human life ; and all the doctrines of the Enlightenment which offer such a vehement polemic against speculation are, in truth, working from the beginning with a metaphysics of the " sound com mon sense " which at last raised its voice so high, and which ulti mately only assumed as self-evident truth that which had fallen to it from the achievements of the labour of preceding centuries.
The beginnings of the philosophy of the Enlightenment are to be sought in England, where, in connection with the well-ordered con ditions which followed the close of the period of the revolution, a powerful upward movement of literary life claimed philosophy also in the interests of general culture. From England this literature was transplanted to France. Here, however, the opposition of the ideals which it brought with it to the social and political status, worked in such a way that not only was the presentation of the thoughts more excited and vehement from the outset, but the thoughts themselves also take on a sharper point, and turn their negative energy more powerfully against the existing conditions in Church and state. At first from France, and then from the direct influence of England,1 also, Germany received the ideas of the Enlightenment, for which it had already received an independent preparation in a more theoretical manner: and here these ideas found their last deepening, and a purification and ennobling as well,
1 Cf. G. Zart, Der Einjluss der englischen Philosophen auf die deutsche Philos. de. i 18. Jahrh. (Berlin, 1881).
Philotophy of the Enlightenment. 439
as they came to an end in the German poetry with which the Renaissance of classical Humanism was completed.
John Locke became the leader of the English Enlightenment by finding a popular form of empirico-psychological exposition for the general outlines of the Cartesian conception of the world. While the metaphysical tendency of the system brought forth an idealistic after-shoot in Berkeley, the anthropologico-genetic mode of con sideration extended quickly and victoriously to all problems of philosophy. Here the opposition between the sensualistic associa- tional psychology and the nativistic theories of various origin con tinued to have a decisive influence upon the course of development. It controlled the vigorous movement in moral philosophy, and the development of deism and natural religion, which was connected with it ; and it found its sharpest formulation in the epistemological field, where the most consistent and deepest of English thinkers, David Hume, developed empiricism to positivism, and thereby called
forth the opposition of the Scottish school.
The pioneer of the French Enlightenment was Pierre Bayle, whose
Uictionnaire turned the views of the cultivated world completely in the direction of religious scepticism ; and it was along this line chiefly that the English literature was then taken up in Paris. Voltaire was the great writer, who not only gave this movement its most eloquent expression, but also presented the positive elements of the Enlightenment in the most emphatic manner. But the development pressed with much greater weight toward the negative side. In the common thinking of the Encyclopaedists became com pleted step by step the change from empiricism to sensualism, from naturalism to materialism, from deism to atheism, from enthusiastic to egoistic morals. In opposition to such an Enlightenment of the intellect, whose lines all converge in the positivism of Condillac, there appeared in Rousseau a feeling-philoso]>hy of elemental power, leading to the intellectual shaping of the Revolution.
Germany was won for the Enlightenment movement by the Leibnizian philosophy and the great success which Wolff achieved, in his activity as a teacher, in developing and transforming but here, in consequence of the lack of unifying public interest, the tendency toward individual culture was predominant. For the ends of this individual culture, the ideas of the " philosophical century " were elaborated in psychological and epistemological as well as in the moral, political, and religious fields with great multiplicity, but without any new creation of principles until fresh life and higher points of view were brought by the poetical movement and the great personalities of its bearers, Lessing and Herder, to the dry intelli
a
it,
440 Philosophy of the Enlightenment. [Pabt V.
gence with which a boastful popular philosophy had extended itself, especially in connection with the Berlin Academy. 1 This circum stance kept the German philosophy of the eighteenth century from losing itself in theoretico-sceptical self-disintegration like the Eng lish, or from being shattered in practical politics like the French : contact with a great literature teeming with ideas new great epoch of philosophy was here prepared.
John Locke, born 1632, at Wrington near Bristol, was educated at Oxford, and became involved in the changeful fortunes of the statesman Lord Shaftes bury. He returned home from exile in Holland with William of Orange in 1688, filled several high political offices under the new government which he also often publicly defended, and died while living in the country at leisure, in 1704. His philosophical work bears the title An Essay concerning Human
Understanding (1690) besides this are to be mentioned Some Thoughts on Education (1693), The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), and, among his posthumous works, Of the Conduct of the Understanding. Cf. Fox Bourne, The Life of J. L. (Lond. and N. Y. 1876); Th. Fowler, J. L. (Lond. 1880); [Locke, by A. C. Fraser, Blackwood series, Edin. and l'hila. 1890, and article Locke in Enc. Brit. ; T. H. Green in his Int. to Hume; J. Dewey, Leibniz's New Essays, Chicago, 1888 Edition of his works by Low, 1771, also ed. Loud. 1853 Philos. wks. in Bohn Lib. Crit. ed. of the Essay by Fraser, 1894].
George Berkeley was born in Killerin, Ireland, in 1685, took part as a clergy man in missionary and colonisation attempts in America, became Bishop of Cloyne 1734, and died 1753. His Theory of Vision (1709) was a preparation for his Treatise on the Principles of Unman Knowledge (1710). This main work was later followed by the Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, and by Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher. Edition of his works by Fraser,
vols. , Lond. 1871 the same writer has also given a good exposition of his thought as whole (Blackwood series, Edin. and Lond. 1881). Cf. Collyns Simon, Universal Immaterialism, Lond. 1862.
The Associational Psychology found its chief supporters in Peter Brown (died 1735 Bishop of Cork The Procedure, Extent, and Limits of Human Un derstanding, 1719), David Hartley (1704-1757 De Motus Sensns et Idearnm Oeneratione, 1746; Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expec tations, 1749), Edward Search, pseudonym for Abraham Tucker (1705-1774 Light of Nature, vols. , Lond. 1788-1777), Joseph Priestley (1733-1804 Hart ley's Theory of the Human Mind on the Principle of the Association of Ideas, 1775; Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit, 1777), John HorneTooke (1736-1812 'EireA rrTtpUvra. or The Diversions of Parley, 1798; cf. Stephen. Memoirs of J. H. T. , Lond. 1813), Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802 Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life, 1794-1796), finally, Thomas Brown (1778-1820; Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect, 1804 posthumously, the Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1820, delivered in Edinburg). Cf. Br. Schoen\a. nV. ,Hartley u. Priestley alsBegriinderdesAssociationism us (Halle, 1882); L. Ferri, Sulla Dottrina Psichologica dell' Associazione, Saggio Storico Critics (Rome, 1878) [Fr. tr. Paris, 1883. Cf. also Hartley and James Mill by G. S. Bower, Lond. 1881. For bibliography for the writers mentioned in this and the following paragraphs consult Porter's appendix to Eng. tr. Ueberweg's
Hist. Phil. }.
Of the opponents to this movement who Platonise in the older manner,
Richard Price (1723-1791) became known especially by his controversy with Priestley —
Priestley, The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity (1777); Price, Letters on Materialism and Philosophical Necessity; Priestley, Free Discussions of the Doctrines of Materialism (1778).
Cf. Ch. Bartholmess, Histoire Philosophique de VAcademie de Prusse, Paris, 1869.
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Philoaopfiy of the Enlightenment. 441
Among the English moral philosophers. Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1071-1713) takes a most important place. His writings were collected under the title, Characteristic* of Men, Manners, Opinion* and Times (1711). Cf. G. v. Gizycki, Die Philosophie Sh. 's (Leips. and Heidelberg, 1876). — After him various groups diverge. The intellectualistic tendency is represented by Samuel Clarke (1676-1720; A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of Hod. 1700 ; Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human Liberty, 1716; cf. his <-orrespoiid«uce with Leibniz) and William Wollaston (1659-1724 ; The Relig ion of Mature Delineated. 1722). — The morality based on feeling was repre sented by Kraut-is Hutcheson (1694-1747 ; Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, 1726 ; A System of Moral Philosophy, 1766 ; cf.
Tli. Fowler, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson, Lond. 1882) ; Henry Home, pseud. for Lord Kaines (1680-1782 ; Essays on the Principles of Morality and Xatural Iteligion, 1751; Elements of Criticism, 1762); Edmund Burke (1730-1707; J'hitosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beauti
ful, 1766); Adam Ferguson (1724-1816; Institutions of Moral Philosophy, 1769), and in a certain sense also, Adam Smith (1723-1790; Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1760) ; the principle of authority was defended by Joseph Butler ( 1002-1762; Sermons upon Human Mature, 1726) [Butler, in Blackwood series by W. h. Collins, 1881], and William Paley (1743-1806; Principles of Moral and IWiticnl Philosophy, 1785). The ethics of the associonational psychology ww developed chiefly by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832 ; Introduction to the Principles of . Morals and Legislation, 1789; Traiti de legislation Civile et I'rnale, brought together by E. Dumont, 1801 ; Deontology, ed. by J. Bowring, 1H34 ; works in 11 vols. , Edin. 1843). — In a peculiar isolated position appears Bernhard de Mandeville (1670-1733 ; The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices made Public Benefits, 171)0, later with illustrative dialogues, 1728; Inquiry into the Oiigin of Moral Virtue, 1732 ; Free Thoughts on Religion, Church, tiovern- nvnt. 1720). ' On him cf. P. Sakmann (Freiburg. 1898).
The literature of Deism coincides, for the most part, with the above-named literature of moral philosophy ; but in addition to those named the following writers are also prominent : John Toland (1670-1722 ; Christianity not Myste rious. 1000 ; Letters to Serena, 1704 ; Adeisidtemon, 1700 ; Pantheisticon, 1710) ; Anthony Collins (1876-1720; . 4 Discourse of Free Thinking, 1713) ; Matthew Tindal i 1050-1733; Christianity as Old as the Creation, 17:10) ; Thomas Chubb '1079-1747 ; A Discourse concerning Reason \rith Regard to Religion, 1730) ;
rhoraa* Morgan (died 1743 ; The Moral Philosopher, 3 parts, 1737 ff. ) ; finally, I-oni BoUngbroke (1672-1761); works ed. by Mollet in 6 vols. , 1763 f. ; cf. V. v Kaumer, Ahhandl. der Berl. Akad. 1840). —Cf. V. Lechler, Oetchichte des
emjlivhen Deismus (Stuttgart and Tub. 1841).
England's greatest philosopher is David Home, bom, 1711, in Edinburg, and
rducated there. After he had spent some time as merchant, he lived for several years in France, occupied in study, and composed bis work of genius, the Treatise on Human Mature (printed 1739 f. ). The failure of this book induced
him to work it over and publish it under the title Inquiry concerning Human Cnderstanding, as a second volume of his more successful Essays, Moral, Politi- rul aud Literary (1748), and to add An Inquiry concerning the Principles of M'-rals (1761), and also The Matural History of Religion (1766). As librarian of the Advocates' Library in Edinburg he found opportunity to write his History iff England. After a stay in Paris, where he received great honour and came
into connection with Koussean among others, he was for some time I'nder- N<-t rotary of State in the Foreign Office, but finally returned to KdinburR. where hr died, 1776. The Dialogues concerning Saturn! Religion and some smaller trraiiwit appeared posthumously. Ed. of his works by (ireen and (irose In 4 vols. (Lond. 1876). His autobiography was published by his friend, Adam Smith (1777). Cf. J. H. Burton. Life and Correspondence of D. H. (Edin.
I8IO-50) ; E. Feuerlein in the Zeitschr. " iJer liedankc" (Berlin, 1863 f. ) ; K. Pfleiderer.
Empirismus und Skeptis in D. H. 's Philosophic (Berlin, 1874) ; T. Huxley, D. H. (Lond. 1870) ; Fr. Jodl, Uben n. Philosophie D. H. 's (Halle, 1873); A. Meinong, Hume-Studien (Vienna, 1877, 1882) ; (i. v. Oizvcki, Die Ethlk D. H. 's (Breslsu, 1878). fW. Knight, Blackwood series, 1886; cap.
Int. by T. H. (ireen in bis ed. of the works. Selby-Bigge eds. of the Treatise i I88t>) and the Enquiry (with Introd. 1894), Clar. Press, are excellent.
442 Philosophy of the Enlightenment. [Part V.
The Scottish School was founded by Thomas Reid (1710-1796, Professor at Glasgow ; Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principle* of Common Sense, 1764 ; Essays on the. Intellectual Power* of Man, 1786 ; Essays on the Active Powers of Man, 1788, complete ed. by W. Hamilton, Edin. 1827). [Selections ed. by E. H. Sneath, N. Y. 1892, contains bibliog. Cf. A. Seth, Scottish Philoso phy, Edin. and Lond. 1886, and art. Reid in Enc. Brit. } Besides Jame? Oswald (died 1793, Appeal to Common Sense in Behalf of Religion, 1766) and . fames Beattie (died 1806, Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, 1770), the school had its chief academical and literary representative in Dugald Stewart (1763-1828, Professor in Edinburg ; Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 3 parts, 1792-1827 ; ed. of his works by W. Hamilton, 10 vols. , Edin. 1864 ff. ).
Pierre Bayle, the type of sceptical polyhistory, born 1647 at Carlat, led a life disquieted by twice changing his Confession, was finally a professor in Sedan and Rotterdam, and died 1706. His influential life work is embodied in his Dietionnaire Historique et Critique (1695 and 1697). Cf. L. Feuerbach, P. Bayle nach seinen fur die Geschichte der Philosophic und Menschheit interessan- testen Momenten, Ansbach, 1833.
Of the works of Voltaire (Francois Arouet le Jeune, 1694-1778 ; the main events of his literary life are his flight to London, his stay with the Marquise du Chatelet in Cirey, his visit with Frederick the Great in Potsdam, and his rest in old age at the country seat Ferney, near Geneva), the following are principally to be considered here : Lettres sur les Anglais (1784), Mitaphysiqne de Newton (1740), Elements de la Philosophic de Newton mis a la Purtee de lout le Monde (1741), Examen important de Mylord Bolingbroke (1736), Can- dide ou sur V Optimisme (1767), Dietionnaire Philosophique (1764), Le Philosophe Ignorant (1767), Reponse au Systeme de la Nature (1777), the poem Les Svstemes, etc. Cf. E. Bersot, La Philosophic de V. (Paris, 1848); D. F. Strauss,
maticians such as Maupertuis (1098-1759 ; active in connection with the Berlin Academy ; Essai de Philosophic Morale, 1760 ; Essai de Cosmologie, 1751 ; controversial writings between him and the Wolffian, S. Konig, collected Leips. 1758), or d'Alembert (Melanges de Litterature, <THistoire et de Philoso phic, 1752); others proceed more naturalistically, such as Button (1708-1788; Histoire Naturelle Ge. nerale et Particuliere, 1749 ff. ) and Jean Battiste Robinet (1735-1820; De la Nature, 1761 ; Considerations Philosophiques de la Grada tion Naturelle des Formes d'Etre 1767).
Sensualism appears in connection with materialism in Julien Offrai de Lamettrie (1709-1761 ; Histoire Naturelle de V Ame, 1745; V Homme Machine, 1748 ; VArtde Jouir, 1751 ; (Euvres, Berlin, 1751 ; on him F. A. Lange, Gesch. des Mater. , I. 326 ff. [Eng. tr. Hist, of Mater. , Vol. II. 49 ff. ] ; Nerfee Quepat, Paris, 1873); it appears solely as psychological theory with Charles Bonnet (1720-1793 ; Essai de Psychologic, 1755 ; Essai Analytique sur les Facullis de VAme, 1769 ; Considerations sur les Corps Organises, 1762 ; Contemplation de la Nature, 1764 ; Palingenesies Philosophiques, 1769), and with a positivistic pointing in Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-1780 ; Essai sur VOrigine de la
V. (Leips. 1870); J. Morley, V. (Lond. and N. Y. 1872).
More sceptical in metaphysical aspects appear natural scientists and mathe
Connaissance Humaine, 1746; Traite des Systimes, 1749; Traiti des Sensa tions, 1754 ; Logique, 1780 ; Langue des Calculs in the complete edition, Paris, 1798 ; cf. F. Rethorfi, C. ou VEmpirisme et le Rational isme, Paris, 1864). The last representatives of these theories are, on the one hand, Pierre Jean George Cabanis (1767-1808 ; Les Rapports du Physique et du Moral de V Homme, 1802 ;
(Euvres, Paris, 1821-25), on the other side, Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836; Elements d" Ideologic, in 4 parts, 1801-16, together 1826). — Cf. Fr. Picavet, Les Ideologues (Paris, 1891).
The literary concentration of the Enlightenment movement in France was the Encyclopaedia (Encyclopedic ou Dietionnaire Raisoonides Sciences, des Art* et des Metiers, 28 vols. , 1762-1772, supplement <uid maex, 7 \uls. , extending to 1780). Besides d'Alembert, who wrote me introduction, the editor and intellectual head of the circle from which it proceeded was Denis Diderot (1713-1784; Pensees Philosophiques, 1746 ; Pensees sur /' Interpretation de la Nature, 1754 ; of the posthumous publications the Promenade d'un Sceptique, the Entretien
Philoiophy of the Enlightenment. 443
d'Alemhtrt et de Diderot, and the Rive cTAlembert are to be emphasised , worthy of mention also is the Essai de Peinture; (Euvret Completes, Paris, 1875, 20 vols. ; cf. K. Rosenkranz, D. , $ein Leben und seine Werke, Leips. 1866 ; J. Morley, D. and the Encyclopedists, Lond. 1878). Further collaborators upon the Encyclopedia (aside from Voltaire and Kousseau, who became separated from the work at an early date) were Turgot (article Existence), Daubenton. Jaucourt, Duclos, Grimm, Holbacb, etc. From the same circle ("Les Philo- KipKes ") proceeded later the Byateme de la Nature (pseud, author, Mirabeau, 1770), which is in the main to be attributed to Dietrich von Holbach (1723-1789, from the Palatinate ; Le bon Sens ou Idees Naturelles oppose** aux Idees Sur- naturelles, 1772 ; Elements de la Morale Universelle, 1776, etc. ). [On the Systeme de la Nature cf. Lange, Hist, of Mat. , II. 92 ft. ] With him co-oper ated Grimm (1723-1807 ; Correspondence LitUraire, 1812), the mathematician Lagrange, the Abbe Galiani, Naigeon, and others ; the concluding chapter, " Abrege du Code de la Nature. " is perhaps from Diderot's pen ; Helvrftiua wrote a very popular exposition, " Vrai Sens du Systeme de la Nature," 1771. The same writer (Claude Adrien Helvetius, 1716-1771) gave the sharpest expres sion to the morals of the sensualislic associational psychology in his much read book, De VEsprit C1768 ; cf. also his posthumous work, De VHomme de ses Facultis etdeson Education, 1772V
The theory of English constitutionalism was adopted in France by Montes quieu (1689-1766 ; Lettres Persanes, 1721 ; De V Esprit des Lois, 1748). Social problems were treated on the one side by the so-called Physiocrats such as Queanay (Tableaux Economiques, 1768; ; Turgot (Reflexions sur la Forma tion et la Distribution des Richesses, 1774, opposed by Ualiani, Dialogues sur le
Commerce des Dies') and others, on the other side by the Communists such as Morally (Code de la Nature, 1766), and Mably, the brother of Condillac (De la legislation ou Principes des Lois, 1776.
The most notable figure of the French Enlightenment was Jean Jacques Rousseau (born, 1712, In Geneva, died, 1778, in Ermenonvllle after an adven turous life, which toward the end was troubled by melancholy and hallucinations of persecution). His main writings — aside from the autobiographical Confes sions [tx. , Lond. 1876] — are Discours sur lei Sciences et les Arts (1760), his- euurs sur V Origine et les Fondemens de VIntgalitt parmi Irs Hommes (\~~3), La Nouvelle Htloise (1761), Emile ou sur V Education (1762) [abr. tr. , Boston, 18861, Du Control Social (1762). Cf. F. Brockerhoff, if. , sein Leben und seine
Werke (Leips. 1863 and 1874) ; E. Feuerlein in " Der Oedanke " (Berlin, I860) ; L. Moreau, J. J. R. et le Steele Philosophique (Paris, 1870) ; J. Morley, . /. J. R. ( Loud. 1873) ; R. Fester, R. und die deutsche Ueschichtsphilosophie (Stuttgart, 1MX» ; [E. Caird, R. in Essays, Vol. I. |.
The philosophical theory of the Revolution was developed chiefly by Charles Francois de St. -Lambert (1716-1803 ; Principes des Marurs chez toutes les Nations ou Catechisme Universel, 1798), Const. Fr. C'hassebreuf Comte de Volney (1767-1820; Les Ruines, 1791; La Loi Naturelle ou Principes Phy siques de la Morale, diduits de F Organisation de V Homme el de V Vnicers ou
Catfchisme du Citoyen Francois, 1793), Marie Jean Ant. Nic. de Condorcet ( 1743-1794 ; Esquisse <Tun Tableau Historique du l*rogres de V Esprit Humain, 1796), Dominique Garat (1749-1833; cf. Conte Rendu des Stance* des Ecoles Normales, IL 1-40). Cf. L. Ferraz, La Philosophic de la Revolution (l*aris, 1800).
Gottfried WUhelm Leibnis, the many-sided founder of German philosophy, was born, 1640, in Lei pule, studied there and at Jena, received his decree in Altorf, and was then, through his acquaintance with Boyneburg, drawn into the diplomatic service of the Elector of Mayence. In this service, pursuing political and scientific plans of his own, he travelled as a member of an embassy to Paris and London, with an incidental visit to Spinoza in The Hague, and then entered the service of the court of Hanover and Brunswick as librarian and court his torian. In all these positions he was active in his public and diplomatic capacity
in the Interests of the German national spirit and of peace between the Confes sions. Later he lived at the court of the first Prussian (Jueen Sophie Charlotte, a Hanoverian princess, in Charlottenberg and Berlin, where the Academy was founded under his direction ; afterwards he lived for some time iu Vienna, to
444 Philotophy of the Enlightenment. [Part V.
consult archives. Here be gave the stimulus for the foundation of an academy, a project which was later carried out, and the St. Petersburg Academy was also due to his influence. He died, 1716, at Hanover. The manifold nature of his activity, and the way in which his life was split up, is shown also in the fact that his scientific views are, for the most part, deposited only in fragmentary essays, and in an incredibly extensive correspondence. The best edition of his philo sophical writings is the most recent by C. J. Gerhardt, 7 vols. (Berlin, 1876-90;. The metaphysical treatises have been cited above (p. 382). For bis influence upon the philosophy of the Enlightenment, the following come chiefly into con sideration, aside from the correspondence with Bayle and Clarke: Esaai* dt Thiodicee sur la Bonti de Dieu, la Liberti dt l'Homme et I'Origint du Mnl (Amsterdam, 1710), and the Xouceaux Essais sur I'EnUndrmi-nt Humain. first published in 1765, by Raspe. Cf. G. E. Guhrauer, G. W. Frhr. r. L. (Breslau. 1842) ; E. Pfleiderer, L. alt Patriot, Staatsmann und Bildungstrager (Leips. 1870); art. L. in Erich und Gruber's Enc. , by W. Windelband ; L. Feuer- bacb, Darstellung, Enttcicklung und Kritik der L. 'schen Phil.
Ph. Damiron, Memoires pour strvir a VHistoire de la Philosophie au 18" Steele.
3 vols. , l'aria 1858-64.
K. Zeller, (iesehichte der dentschen Philosophie seit Leibniz. MUnohen, 1873. Also II. Hettner, Litteraturgesrhichte des 18. Jahr. 3 parts.
The natural rhythm of intellectual life brought with it the result that in the modern as in the Greek philosophy a first cosmologico- metaphysical period was followed by a period of an essentially anthropological character, and that thus once more the newly awakened, purely theoretical efforts of philosophy must yield to a practical conception of philosophy as " icorld-ifisdom. " In fact, all features of the Oreek sophistic movement are found again with ripened fulness of thought, with broadened variety, with deepened content, and, therefore, also, with added energy in their antitheses in the Philosophy of the Enlightenment, which coincides approxi mately in time with the eighteenth century. In the place of Athens now appears the whole breadth of the intellectual movement among European civilised peoples, and scientific tradition counts now as many thousands of years as it then counted centuries; but the tendency as a whole and the objects of thought, the points of view and the results of the philosophising, show an instructive similarity and kinship in these two periods so widely separated in time and so different in the civilisations which formed their background. There prevails in lx>th the same turning of thought toward the subject's inner nature, the same turning away from metaphysical subtlety with doubt and disgust, the same preference for an em
pirical genetic consideration of the human psychical life, the same inquiry as to the possibility and the limits of scientific knowledge, 437
438 Philosophy of the Enlightenment. [Part V.
and the same passionate interest in the discussion of the prob lems of life and society. No less characteristic, lastly, for both periods is the penetration of philosophy into the broad circles of general culture and the fusion of the scientific with the literary movement.
But the basis for the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century was given in the general features of a secular view of life, as they had been worked out during the Renaissance by the fresh move ments in art, religion, politics, and natural research. While these had found their metaphysical formulation in the seventeenth cen tury, the question now came again into the foreground, how man should conceive, in the setting of the new Weltanschauung, his own nature and his own position : and in the presence of the value set upon this question, the interest in the various metaphysical concep tions in which the new Weltanschauung had been embodied, retreated more and more decidedly into the background. Men contented themselves with the general outlines of metaphysical theories, in order to employ themselves the more thoroughly with the questions of human life ; and all the doctrines of the Enlightenment which offer such a vehement polemic against speculation are, in truth, working from the beginning with a metaphysics of the " sound com mon sense " which at last raised its voice so high, and which ulti mately only assumed as self-evident truth that which had fallen to it from the achievements of the labour of preceding centuries.
The beginnings of the philosophy of the Enlightenment are to be sought in England, where, in connection with the well-ordered con ditions which followed the close of the period of the revolution, a powerful upward movement of literary life claimed philosophy also in the interests of general culture. From England this literature was transplanted to France. Here, however, the opposition of the ideals which it brought with it to the social and political status, worked in such a way that not only was the presentation of the thoughts more excited and vehement from the outset, but the thoughts themselves also take on a sharper point, and turn their negative energy more powerfully against the existing conditions in Church and state. At first from France, and then from the direct influence of England,1 also, Germany received the ideas of the Enlightenment, for which it had already received an independent preparation in a more theoretical manner: and here these ideas found their last deepening, and a purification and ennobling as well,
1 Cf. G. Zart, Der Einjluss der englischen Philosophen auf die deutsche Philos. de. i 18. Jahrh. (Berlin, 1881).
Philotophy of the Enlightenment. 439
as they came to an end in the German poetry with which the Renaissance of classical Humanism was completed.
John Locke became the leader of the English Enlightenment by finding a popular form of empirico-psychological exposition for the general outlines of the Cartesian conception of the world. While the metaphysical tendency of the system brought forth an idealistic after-shoot in Berkeley, the anthropologico-genetic mode of con sideration extended quickly and victoriously to all problems of philosophy. Here the opposition between the sensualistic associa- tional psychology and the nativistic theories of various origin con tinued to have a decisive influence upon the course of development. It controlled the vigorous movement in moral philosophy, and the development of deism and natural religion, which was connected with it ; and it found its sharpest formulation in the epistemological field, where the most consistent and deepest of English thinkers, David Hume, developed empiricism to positivism, and thereby called
forth the opposition of the Scottish school.
The pioneer of the French Enlightenment was Pierre Bayle, whose
Uictionnaire turned the views of the cultivated world completely in the direction of religious scepticism ; and it was along this line chiefly that the English literature was then taken up in Paris. Voltaire was the great writer, who not only gave this movement its most eloquent expression, but also presented the positive elements of the Enlightenment in the most emphatic manner. But the development pressed with much greater weight toward the negative side. In the common thinking of the Encyclopaedists became com pleted step by step the change from empiricism to sensualism, from naturalism to materialism, from deism to atheism, from enthusiastic to egoistic morals. In opposition to such an Enlightenment of the intellect, whose lines all converge in the positivism of Condillac, there appeared in Rousseau a feeling-philoso]>hy of elemental power, leading to the intellectual shaping of the Revolution.
Germany was won for the Enlightenment movement by the Leibnizian philosophy and the great success which Wolff achieved, in his activity as a teacher, in developing and transforming but here, in consequence of the lack of unifying public interest, the tendency toward individual culture was predominant. For the ends of this individual culture, the ideas of the " philosophical century " were elaborated in psychological and epistemological as well as in the moral, political, and religious fields with great multiplicity, but without any new creation of principles until fresh life and higher points of view were brought by the poetical movement and the great personalities of its bearers, Lessing and Herder, to the dry intelli
a
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440 Philosophy of the Enlightenment. [Pabt V.
gence with which a boastful popular philosophy had extended itself, especially in connection with the Berlin Academy. 1 This circum stance kept the German philosophy of the eighteenth century from losing itself in theoretico-sceptical self-disintegration like the Eng lish, or from being shattered in practical politics like the French : contact with a great literature teeming with ideas new great epoch of philosophy was here prepared.
John Locke, born 1632, at Wrington near Bristol, was educated at Oxford, and became involved in the changeful fortunes of the statesman Lord Shaftes bury. He returned home from exile in Holland with William of Orange in 1688, filled several high political offices under the new government which he also often publicly defended, and died while living in the country at leisure, in 1704. His philosophical work bears the title An Essay concerning Human
Understanding (1690) besides this are to be mentioned Some Thoughts on Education (1693), The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), and, among his posthumous works, Of the Conduct of the Understanding. Cf. Fox Bourne, The Life of J. L. (Lond. and N. Y. 1876); Th. Fowler, J. L. (Lond. 1880); [Locke, by A. C. Fraser, Blackwood series, Edin. and l'hila. 1890, and article Locke in Enc. Brit. ; T. H. Green in his Int. to Hume; J. Dewey, Leibniz's New Essays, Chicago, 1888 Edition of his works by Low, 1771, also ed. Loud. 1853 Philos. wks. in Bohn Lib. Crit. ed. of the Essay by Fraser, 1894].
George Berkeley was born in Killerin, Ireland, in 1685, took part as a clergy man in missionary and colonisation attempts in America, became Bishop of Cloyne 1734, and died 1753. His Theory of Vision (1709) was a preparation for his Treatise on the Principles of Unman Knowledge (1710). This main work was later followed by the Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, and by Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher. Edition of his works by Fraser,
vols. , Lond. 1871 the same writer has also given a good exposition of his thought as whole (Blackwood series, Edin. and Lond. 1881). Cf. Collyns Simon, Universal Immaterialism, Lond. 1862.
The Associational Psychology found its chief supporters in Peter Brown (died 1735 Bishop of Cork The Procedure, Extent, and Limits of Human Un derstanding, 1719), David Hartley (1704-1757 De Motus Sensns et Idearnm Oeneratione, 1746; Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expec tations, 1749), Edward Search, pseudonym for Abraham Tucker (1705-1774 Light of Nature, vols. , Lond. 1788-1777), Joseph Priestley (1733-1804 Hart ley's Theory of the Human Mind on the Principle of the Association of Ideas, 1775; Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit, 1777), John HorneTooke (1736-1812 'EireA rrTtpUvra. or The Diversions of Parley, 1798; cf. Stephen. Memoirs of J. H. T. , Lond. 1813), Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802 Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life, 1794-1796), finally, Thomas Brown (1778-1820; Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect, 1804 posthumously, the Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1820, delivered in Edinburg). Cf. Br. Schoen\a. nV. ,Hartley u. Priestley alsBegriinderdesAssociationism us (Halle, 1882); L. Ferri, Sulla Dottrina Psichologica dell' Associazione, Saggio Storico Critics (Rome, 1878) [Fr. tr. Paris, 1883. Cf. also Hartley and James Mill by G. S. Bower, Lond. 1881. For bibliography for the writers mentioned in this and the following paragraphs consult Porter's appendix to Eng. tr. Ueberweg's
Hist. Phil. }.
Of the opponents to this movement who Platonise in the older manner,
Richard Price (1723-1791) became known especially by his controversy with Priestley —
Priestley, The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity (1777); Price, Letters on Materialism and Philosophical Necessity; Priestley, Free Discussions of the Doctrines of Materialism (1778).
Cf. Ch. Bartholmess, Histoire Philosophique de VAcademie de Prusse, Paris, 1869.
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Philoaopfiy of the Enlightenment. 441
Among the English moral philosophers. Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1071-1713) takes a most important place. His writings were collected under the title, Characteristic* of Men, Manners, Opinion* and Times (1711). Cf. G. v. Gizycki, Die Philosophie Sh. 's (Leips. and Heidelberg, 1876). — After him various groups diverge. The intellectualistic tendency is represented by Samuel Clarke (1676-1720; A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of Hod. 1700 ; Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human Liberty, 1716; cf. his <-orrespoiid«uce with Leibniz) and William Wollaston (1659-1724 ; The Relig ion of Mature Delineated. 1722). — The morality based on feeling was repre sented by Kraut-is Hutcheson (1694-1747 ; Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, 1726 ; A System of Moral Philosophy, 1766 ; cf.
Tli. Fowler, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson, Lond. 1882) ; Henry Home, pseud. for Lord Kaines (1680-1782 ; Essays on the Principles of Morality and Xatural Iteligion, 1751; Elements of Criticism, 1762); Edmund Burke (1730-1707; J'hitosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beauti
ful, 1766); Adam Ferguson (1724-1816; Institutions of Moral Philosophy, 1769), and in a certain sense also, Adam Smith (1723-1790; Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1760) ; the principle of authority was defended by Joseph Butler ( 1002-1762; Sermons upon Human Mature, 1726) [Butler, in Blackwood series by W. h. Collins, 1881], and William Paley (1743-1806; Principles of Moral and IWiticnl Philosophy, 1785). The ethics of the associonational psychology ww developed chiefly by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832 ; Introduction to the Principles of . Morals and Legislation, 1789; Traiti de legislation Civile et I'rnale, brought together by E. Dumont, 1801 ; Deontology, ed. by J. Bowring, 1H34 ; works in 11 vols. , Edin. 1843). — In a peculiar isolated position appears Bernhard de Mandeville (1670-1733 ; The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices made Public Benefits, 171)0, later with illustrative dialogues, 1728; Inquiry into the Oiigin of Moral Virtue, 1732 ; Free Thoughts on Religion, Church, tiovern- nvnt. 1720). ' On him cf. P. Sakmann (Freiburg. 1898).
The literature of Deism coincides, for the most part, with the above-named literature of moral philosophy ; but in addition to those named the following writers are also prominent : John Toland (1670-1722 ; Christianity not Myste rious. 1000 ; Letters to Serena, 1704 ; Adeisidtemon, 1700 ; Pantheisticon, 1710) ; Anthony Collins (1876-1720; . 4 Discourse of Free Thinking, 1713) ; Matthew Tindal i 1050-1733; Christianity as Old as the Creation, 17:10) ; Thomas Chubb '1079-1747 ; A Discourse concerning Reason \rith Regard to Religion, 1730) ;
rhoraa* Morgan (died 1743 ; The Moral Philosopher, 3 parts, 1737 ff. ) ; finally, I-oni BoUngbroke (1672-1761); works ed. by Mollet in 6 vols. , 1763 f. ; cf. V. v Kaumer, Ahhandl. der Berl. Akad. 1840). —Cf. V. Lechler, Oetchichte des
emjlivhen Deismus (Stuttgart and Tub. 1841).
England's greatest philosopher is David Home, bom, 1711, in Edinburg, and
rducated there. After he had spent some time as merchant, he lived for several years in France, occupied in study, and composed bis work of genius, the Treatise on Human Mature (printed 1739 f. ). The failure of this book induced
him to work it over and publish it under the title Inquiry concerning Human Cnderstanding, as a second volume of his more successful Essays, Moral, Politi- rul aud Literary (1748), and to add An Inquiry concerning the Principles of M'-rals (1761), and also The Matural History of Religion (1766). As librarian of the Advocates' Library in Edinburg he found opportunity to write his History iff England. After a stay in Paris, where he received great honour and came
into connection with Koussean among others, he was for some time I'nder- N<-t rotary of State in the Foreign Office, but finally returned to KdinburR. where hr died, 1776. The Dialogues concerning Saturn! Religion and some smaller trraiiwit appeared posthumously. Ed. of his works by (ireen and (irose In 4 vols. (Lond. 1876). His autobiography was published by his friend, Adam Smith (1777). Cf. J. H. Burton. Life and Correspondence of D. H. (Edin.
I8IO-50) ; E. Feuerlein in the Zeitschr. " iJer liedankc" (Berlin, 1863 f. ) ; K. Pfleiderer.
Empirismus und Skeptis in D. H. 's Philosophic (Berlin, 1874) ; T. Huxley, D. H. (Lond. 1870) ; Fr. Jodl, Uben n. Philosophie D. H. 's (Halle, 1873); A. Meinong, Hume-Studien (Vienna, 1877, 1882) ; (i. v. Oizvcki, Die Ethlk D. H. 's (Breslsu, 1878). fW. Knight, Blackwood series, 1886; cap.
Int. by T. H. (ireen in bis ed. of the works. Selby-Bigge eds. of the Treatise i I88t>) and the Enquiry (with Introd. 1894), Clar. Press, are excellent.
442 Philosophy of the Enlightenment. [Part V.
The Scottish School was founded by Thomas Reid (1710-1796, Professor at Glasgow ; Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principle* of Common Sense, 1764 ; Essays on the. Intellectual Power* of Man, 1786 ; Essays on the Active Powers of Man, 1788, complete ed. by W. Hamilton, Edin. 1827). [Selections ed. by E. H. Sneath, N. Y. 1892, contains bibliog. Cf. A. Seth, Scottish Philoso phy, Edin. and Lond. 1886, and art. Reid in Enc. Brit. } Besides Jame? Oswald (died 1793, Appeal to Common Sense in Behalf of Religion, 1766) and . fames Beattie (died 1806, Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, 1770), the school had its chief academical and literary representative in Dugald Stewart (1763-1828, Professor in Edinburg ; Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 3 parts, 1792-1827 ; ed. of his works by W. Hamilton, 10 vols. , Edin. 1864 ff. ).
Pierre Bayle, the type of sceptical polyhistory, born 1647 at Carlat, led a life disquieted by twice changing his Confession, was finally a professor in Sedan and Rotterdam, and died 1706. His influential life work is embodied in his Dietionnaire Historique et Critique (1695 and 1697). Cf. L. Feuerbach, P. Bayle nach seinen fur die Geschichte der Philosophic und Menschheit interessan- testen Momenten, Ansbach, 1833.
Of the works of Voltaire (Francois Arouet le Jeune, 1694-1778 ; the main events of his literary life are his flight to London, his stay with the Marquise du Chatelet in Cirey, his visit with Frederick the Great in Potsdam, and his rest in old age at the country seat Ferney, near Geneva), the following are principally to be considered here : Lettres sur les Anglais (1784), Mitaphysiqne de Newton (1740), Elements de la Philosophic de Newton mis a la Purtee de lout le Monde (1741), Examen important de Mylord Bolingbroke (1736), Can- dide ou sur V Optimisme (1767), Dietionnaire Philosophique (1764), Le Philosophe Ignorant (1767), Reponse au Systeme de la Nature (1777), the poem Les Svstemes, etc. Cf. E. Bersot, La Philosophic de V. (Paris, 1848); D. F. Strauss,
maticians such as Maupertuis (1098-1759 ; active in connection with the Berlin Academy ; Essai de Philosophic Morale, 1760 ; Essai de Cosmologie, 1751 ; controversial writings between him and the Wolffian, S. Konig, collected Leips. 1758), or d'Alembert (Melanges de Litterature, <THistoire et de Philoso phic, 1752); others proceed more naturalistically, such as Button (1708-1788; Histoire Naturelle Ge. nerale et Particuliere, 1749 ff. ) and Jean Battiste Robinet (1735-1820; De la Nature, 1761 ; Considerations Philosophiques de la Grada tion Naturelle des Formes d'Etre 1767).
Sensualism appears in connection with materialism in Julien Offrai de Lamettrie (1709-1761 ; Histoire Naturelle de V Ame, 1745; V Homme Machine, 1748 ; VArtde Jouir, 1751 ; (Euvres, Berlin, 1751 ; on him F. A. Lange, Gesch. des Mater. , I. 326 ff. [Eng. tr. Hist, of Mater. , Vol. II. 49 ff. ] ; Nerfee Quepat, Paris, 1873); it appears solely as psychological theory with Charles Bonnet (1720-1793 ; Essai de Psychologic, 1755 ; Essai Analytique sur les Facullis de VAme, 1769 ; Considerations sur les Corps Organises, 1762 ; Contemplation de la Nature, 1764 ; Palingenesies Philosophiques, 1769), and with a positivistic pointing in Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-1780 ; Essai sur VOrigine de la
V. (Leips. 1870); J. Morley, V. (Lond. and N. Y. 1872).
More sceptical in metaphysical aspects appear natural scientists and mathe
Connaissance Humaine, 1746; Traite des Systimes, 1749; Traiti des Sensa tions, 1754 ; Logique, 1780 ; Langue des Calculs in the complete edition, Paris, 1798 ; cf. F. Rethorfi, C. ou VEmpirisme et le Rational isme, Paris, 1864). The last representatives of these theories are, on the one hand, Pierre Jean George Cabanis (1767-1808 ; Les Rapports du Physique et du Moral de V Homme, 1802 ;
(Euvres, Paris, 1821-25), on the other side, Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836; Elements d" Ideologic, in 4 parts, 1801-16, together 1826). — Cf. Fr. Picavet, Les Ideologues (Paris, 1891).
The literary concentration of the Enlightenment movement in France was the Encyclopaedia (Encyclopedic ou Dietionnaire Raisoonides Sciences, des Art* et des Metiers, 28 vols. , 1762-1772, supplement <uid maex, 7 \uls. , extending to 1780). Besides d'Alembert, who wrote me introduction, the editor and intellectual head of the circle from which it proceeded was Denis Diderot (1713-1784; Pensees Philosophiques, 1746 ; Pensees sur /' Interpretation de la Nature, 1754 ; of the posthumous publications the Promenade d'un Sceptique, the Entretien
Philoiophy of the Enlightenment. 443
d'Alemhtrt et de Diderot, and the Rive cTAlembert are to be emphasised , worthy of mention also is the Essai de Peinture; (Euvret Completes, Paris, 1875, 20 vols. ; cf. K. Rosenkranz, D. , $ein Leben und seine Werke, Leips. 1866 ; J. Morley, D. and the Encyclopedists, Lond. 1878). Further collaborators upon the Encyclopedia (aside from Voltaire and Kousseau, who became separated from the work at an early date) were Turgot (article Existence), Daubenton. Jaucourt, Duclos, Grimm, Holbacb, etc. From the same circle ("Les Philo- KipKes ") proceeded later the Byateme de la Nature (pseud, author, Mirabeau, 1770), which is in the main to be attributed to Dietrich von Holbach (1723-1789, from the Palatinate ; Le bon Sens ou Idees Naturelles oppose** aux Idees Sur- naturelles, 1772 ; Elements de la Morale Universelle, 1776, etc. ). [On the Systeme de la Nature cf. Lange, Hist, of Mat. , II. 92 ft. ] With him co-oper ated Grimm (1723-1807 ; Correspondence LitUraire, 1812), the mathematician Lagrange, the Abbe Galiani, Naigeon, and others ; the concluding chapter, " Abrege du Code de la Nature. " is perhaps from Diderot's pen ; Helvrftiua wrote a very popular exposition, " Vrai Sens du Systeme de la Nature," 1771. The same writer (Claude Adrien Helvetius, 1716-1771) gave the sharpest expres sion to the morals of the sensualislic associational psychology in his much read book, De VEsprit C1768 ; cf. also his posthumous work, De VHomme de ses Facultis etdeson Education, 1772V
The theory of English constitutionalism was adopted in France by Montes quieu (1689-1766 ; Lettres Persanes, 1721 ; De V Esprit des Lois, 1748). Social problems were treated on the one side by the so-called Physiocrats such as Queanay (Tableaux Economiques, 1768; ; Turgot (Reflexions sur la Forma tion et la Distribution des Richesses, 1774, opposed by Ualiani, Dialogues sur le
Commerce des Dies') and others, on the other side by the Communists such as Morally (Code de la Nature, 1766), and Mably, the brother of Condillac (De la legislation ou Principes des Lois, 1776.
The most notable figure of the French Enlightenment was Jean Jacques Rousseau (born, 1712, In Geneva, died, 1778, in Ermenonvllle after an adven turous life, which toward the end was troubled by melancholy and hallucinations of persecution). His main writings — aside from the autobiographical Confes sions [tx. , Lond. 1876] — are Discours sur lei Sciences et les Arts (1760), his- euurs sur V Origine et les Fondemens de VIntgalitt parmi Irs Hommes (\~~3), La Nouvelle Htloise (1761), Emile ou sur V Education (1762) [abr. tr. , Boston, 18861, Du Control Social (1762). Cf. F. Brockerhoff, if. , sein Leben und seine
Werke (Leips. 1863 and 1874) ; E. Feuerlein in " Der Oedanke " (Berlin, I860) ; L. Moreau, J. J. R. et le Steele Philosophique (Paris, 1870) ; J. Morley, . /. J. R. ( Loud. 1873) ; R. Fester, R. und die deutsche Ueschichtsphilosophie (Stuttgart, 1MX» ; [E. Caird, R. in Essays, Vol. I. |.
The philosophical theory of the Revolution was developed chiefly by Charles Francois de St. -Lambert (1716-1803 ; Principes des Marurs chez toutes les Nations ou Catechisme Universel, 1798), Const. Fr. C'hassebreuf Comte de Volney (1767-1820; Les Ruines, 1791; La Loi Naturelle ou Principes Phy siques de la Morale, diduits de F Organisation de V Homme el de V Vnicers ou
Catfchisme du Citoyen Francois, 1793), Marie Jean Ant. Nic. de Condorcet ( 1743-1794 ; Esquisse <Tun Tableau Historique du l*rogres de V Esprit Humain, 1796), Dominique Garat (1749-1833; cf. Conte Rendu des Stance* des Ecoles Normales, IL 1-40). Cf. L. Ferraz, La Philosophic de la Revolution (l*aris, 1800).
Gottfried WUhelm Leibnis, the many-sided founder of German philosophy, was born, 1640, in Lei pule, studied there and at Jena, received his decree in Altorf, and was then, through his acquaintance with Boyneburg, drawn into the diplomatic service of the Elector of Mayence. In this service, pursuing political and scientific plans of his own, he travelled as a member of an embassy to Paris and London, with an incidental visit to Spinoza in The Hague, and then entered the service of the court of Hanover and Brunswick as librarian and court his torian. In all these positions he was active in his public and diplomatic capacity
in the Interests of the German national spirit and of peace between the Confes sions. Later he lived at the court of the first Prussian (Jueen Sophie Charlotte, a Hanoverian princess, in Charlottenberg and Berlin, where the Academy was founded under his direction ; afterwards he lived for some time iu Vienna, to
444 Philotophy of the Enlightenment. [Part V.
consult archives. Here be gave the stimulus for the foundation of an academy, a project which was later carried out, and the St. Petersburg Academy was also due to his influence. He died, 1716, at Hanover. The manifold nature of his activity, and the way in which his life was split up, is shown also in the fact that his scientific views are, for the most part, deposited only in fragmentary essays, and in an incredibly extensive correspondence. The best edition of his philo sophical writings is the most recent by C. J. Gerhardt, 7 vols. (Berlin, 1876-90;. The metaphysical treatises have been cited above (p. 382). For bis influence upon the philosophy of the Enlightenment, the following come chiefly into con sideration, aside from the correspondence with Bayle and Clarke: Esaai* dt Thiodicee sur la Bonti de Dieu, la Liberti dt l'Homme et I'Origint du Mnl (Amsterdam, 1710), and the Xouceaux Essais sur I'EnUndrmi-nt Humain. first published in 1765, by Raspe. Cf. G. E. Guhrauer, G. W. Frhr. r. L. (Breslau. 1842) ; E. Pfleiderer, L. alt Patriot, Staatsmann und Bildungstrager (Leips. 1870); art. L. in Erich und Gruber's Enc. , by W. Windelband ; L. Feuer- bacb, Darstellung, Enttcicklung und Kritik der L. 'schen Phil.
