reative
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 noetics 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 fuer Geschichte der Philosophie_, 1890. Also, H. Reuter,
_Geschichte der religioesen Aufklaerung 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