| PAGE | ||
|---|---|---|
| I | German Philosophy: The Two Worlds | [3] |
| II | German Moral and Political Philosophy | [47] |
| III | The Germanic Philosophy of History | [91] |
| Index | [133] |
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICS
I
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY: THE TWO WORLDS
The nature of the influence of general ideas upon practical affairs is a troubled question. Mind dislikes to find itself a pilgrim in an alien world. A discovery that the belief in the influence of thought upon action is an illusion would leave men profoundly saddened with themselves and with the world. Were it not that the doctrine forbids any discovery influencing affairs—since the discovery would be an idea—we should say that the discovery of the wholly ex post facto and idle character of ideas would profoundly influence subsequent affairs. The strange thing is that when men had least control over nature and their own affairs, they were most sure of the efficacy of thought. The doctrine that nature does nothing in vain, that it is directed by purpose, was not engrafted by scholasticism upon science; it formulates an instinctive tendency. And if the doctrine