History of Modern Philosophy | Page 8

and why of things whose existence is certified elsewhere. The result is
a formalism in thought side by side with profound and fervent
mysticism. Doubt and trust are strangely intermingled, and a feeling of
expectation stirs all hearts. On the one side stands sinful, erring man,
who, try as hard as he may, only half unravels the mysteries of revealed
truth; on the other, the God of grace, who, after our death, will reveal
himself to us as clearly as Adam knew him before the fall. God alone,
however, can comprehend himself--for the finite spirit, even truth
unveiled is mystery, and ecstasy, unresisting devotion to the
incomprehensible, the culmination of knowledge. In mediaeval
philosophy the subject looks longingly upward to the infinite object of
his thought, expecting that the latter will bend down toward him or lift
him upward toward itself; in Greek philosophy the spirit confronts its
object, the world, on a footing of equality; in modern philosophy the
speculative subject feels himself higher than the object, superior to
nature. In the conception of the Middle Ages, truth and mystery are
identical; to antiquity they appear reconcilable; modern thought holds
them as mutually exclusively as light and darkness. The unknown is the
enemy of knowledge, which must be chased out of its last hiding-place.
It is, therefore, easy to understand that the modern period stands in far
sharper antithesis to the mediaeval era than to the ancient, for the latter
has furnished it many principles which can be used as weapons against
the former. Grandparents and grandchildren make good friends.

[Footnote 1: On the separation and union of the three worlds, _natura,
gratia, gloria_, in Thomas Aquinas, cf. Rudolph Eucken, Die
Philosophie des Thomas von Aquino und die Kultur der Neuzeit, Halle.
1886.]
When a new movement is in preparation, but there is a lack of creative
force to give it form, a period of tumultuous disaffection with existing
principles ensues. What is wanted is not clearly perceived, but there is a
lively sense of that which is not wanted. Dissatisfaction prepares a
place for that which is to come by undermining the existent and making
it ripe for its fall. The old, the outgrown, the doctrine which had
become inadequate, was in this case Scholasticism; modern philosophy
shows throughout--and most clearly at the start--an anti-Scholastic
character. If up to this time Church dogma had ruled unchallenged in
spiritual affairs, and the Aristotelian philosophy in things temporal, war
is now declared against authority of every sort and freedom of thought
is inscribed on the banner.[1] "Modern philosophy is Protestantism in
the sphere of the thinking spirit" (Erdmann). Not that which has been
considered true for centuries, not that which another says, though he be
Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas, not that which flatters the desires of the
heart, is true, but that only which is demonstrated to my own
understanding with convincing force. Philosophy is no longer willing to
be the handmaid of theology, but must set up a house of her own. The
watchword now becomes freedom and independent thought,
deliverance from every form of constraint, alike from the bondage of
ecclesiastical decrees and the inner servitude of prejudice and cherished
inclinations. But the adoption of a purpose leads to the consideration of
the means for attaining it. Thus the thirst for knowledge raises
questions concerning the method, the instruments, and the limits of
knowledge; the interest in noëtics and methodology vigorously
develops, remains a constant factor in modern inquiry, and culminates
in Kant, not again to die away.
[Footnote 1: The doctrine of twofold truth, under whose protecting
cloak the new liberal movements had hitherto taken refuge, was now
disdainfully repudiated. Cf. Freudenthal, Zur Beurtheilung der
Scholastik, in vol. iii. of the _Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie_,

1890. Also, H. Reuter, _Geschichte der religiösen Aufklärung im
Mittelalter_ 1875-77; and Dilthey, Einleitung in die
Geisteswissenschaften, 1883.]
This negative aspect of modern tendencies needs, however, a positive
supplement. The mediaeval mode of thought is discarded and the new
one is not yet found. What can more fittingly furnish a support, a
preliminary substitute, than antiquity? Thus philosophy, also, joins in
that great stream of culture, the Renaissance and humanism, which,
starting from Italy, poured forth over the whole civilized world. Plato
and Neoplatonism, Epicurus and the Stoa are opposed to Scholasticism,
the real Aristotle to the transformed Aristotle of the Church and the
distorted Aristotle of the schools. Back to the sources, is the cry. With
the revival of the ancient languages and ancient books, the spirit of
antiquity is also revived. The dust of the schools and the tyranny of the
Church are thrown off, and the classical ideal of a free and noble
humanity gains enthusiastic adherents. The man is not to be forgotten
in the Christian, nor art and