what it wanted in unity and harmony; at the same time that it seemed to render it more intelligible by reflecting a light upon its principles as well as its consequences. But these appearances were illusory: the theory was not without merit and utility, but it could not answer all the intentions of the author. It was assailed, however, at the same time by Dogmatic and Sceptical antagonists (Flat, Heydenreich, Beck, etc.), but particularly by the author of Enesidemus. In consequence of these attacks, Reinhold himself became sceptical as to the validity of his own system, which he endeavoured to improve, partly by modifying the terms he had employed, and partly by strengthening its weak points. He ended, however, by renouncing it altogether, and adopted first the theory of Fichte, and afterwards that of Bardili. This genuine lover of Truth turned, in his latter days, his

See the following section.

2 [GOTTLOB ERNST. SCHULZE], Enesidemus: oder über die Fundamente der von dem Hrn. Prof. Reinhold in Jena gelieferten Elementarphilosophie, nebst einer Vertheidigung des Skepticismus gegen die Anmassungen der Vernunftkritik, Helmst. 1792, 8vo.

In reply to Enesidemus: J. H. ABICHT'S Hermias, oder Auflösung der die gültige Elementarphilos. betreffenden Enesidemischen Zweifel, Erlang. 1794, 8vo. J. C. C. VISBECK'S Hauptmomente der Reinholdischen Elementarphilos. in Beziehung auf die Einwendungen des Enesidemus, Leipz. 1794, 8vo. Darstellung der Amphibolie der Reflexionsbegriffe, nebst dem Versuche einer Widerlegung der Hauptmomente der Einwendungen des Enesidemus gegen die Reinholdische Elementarphilos, Frkf. am M. 1795, 8vo. (by BECK.)

In reply to Reinhold's theory: Einzig möglicher Standpunct, von welchem die krit. Philosophie beurtheilt werden soll, Riga, 1796, 8vo. Reinhold, Fichte, Schelling; von JAC. FRIES, Leipz. 1803, 8vo,

3 Sendschreiben an Lavater und Fichte über den Glauben an Gott, Hamb. 1799, 8vo. Ueber die Paradoxieen der neuesten Philos. Hamb. 1799, 8vo.

4 Beiträge zur leichten Uebersicht des Zustandes der Philos, beim Anfange des XIX Jahrh. Hamburg, 1801-3. 3 Hefte, 8vo. More recently: Anleitung zur Kenntniss und Beurtheilung der Philos. in ihren sämmtl. Lehgrebäuden, Wien, 1805, 8vo. (Anonym:) Versuch einer Auflösung der etc. Aufgabe, die Natur der Analysis und der analyt. Methode in der Philos. genau anzugeben und zu untersuchen, etc., Münch. 1805, 8vo.

BARDILI'S und K. LH. REINHOLD'S Briefwechsel über das Wesen der Philos. und das Unwesen der Speculation, herausg. von REINHOLD, Münch. 1804, 8vo.

attention to the critical examination of Language, as the source of all the misunderstandings which have arisen in Philosophy (conducting his researches with an especial regard to cases of Synonymy), with the hope of effecting that harmony among philosophical inquirers which was constantly his object. He endeavoured to elucidate the equivocal expressions and inconsistencies of the customary formal Logic, which he maintained to be the essential cause of the reproach so long incurred by Philosophy, that it was incompetent to make good its pretensions to the character of a Science. He endeavoured also, by a new theory of the faculties of human knowledge on scientific principles, to bring an end to the inquiries he had started in his former attempt.

His son E. Reinhold (professor of Philosophy at Jena), follows the steps of his father in his inquiries respecting the relations and connection between Logic and Language.3

399. J. Sigismund Beck (first professor at Halle, afterwards at Rostock), an acute disciple of Kant, endeavoured to recommend the Critical system by an abridgment of it, and by making the Critical point of view the point of view also of original representation; but his ideas were confused and his method bad, and he injured the cause which he sought to support, by drawing his conclusions without any previous analysis of the faculties of cognition on which they were founded. He also prepared the way for

1 Anfangsgründe der Erkenntiss der Wahrheit in einer Fibel, Kiel, 1808, 8vo. Rüge einer merkwürdigen Sprachverwirrung unter den Weltweisen, Weimar, 1809, 8vo. Grundlegung einer Synonmik für den allgemein. Sprachgebrauch in den philos. Wissenschaften, Kiel, 1812, 8vo. Dans menschl. Erkenntnissvermögen aus dem Gesichtspuncte des durch die Wortsprache vermittelten Zusammenhangs zwischen der Sinnlichkeit und dem Denkvermögen, ebend. 1816, 8vo.

2 Die alte Frage: Was ist die Wahrheit bei der erneuerten Streitigkeiten über die göttlich. Offenbarung und die menschl. Vernunft in nähere Erwägung gezogen? Altona, 1820, 8vo. (See particularly the concluding observation, § 62).

(On the other side :) Was ist Warheit? eine Abhandl. veranl. durch die Frage des etc., Reinhold, von dem Grafen H. W. A. von Kalkreuth, Breslau, 1821, 8vo.

3 ERN. REINHOLD, Versuch einer Begründung und neuern Darstellung der log. Formen, Leipz. 1819, 8vo. He also wrote: Grundzüge eines Systems der Erkenntnisslehre und Denklehre, Schleswig, 1822, 8vo.

the most absolute transcendental Idealism, by making everything depend upon the oneness of the understanding or original representation; deriving our very notions of Space and Time directly from that and from the conception of Dimension, and abolishing the broad distinction which subsists between Intuitional and Sensational Perception and Thought.

JAC. SIGISM. BECK, Erläuternder Auszug aus den kritischen Schriften des Prof. Kant. Riga, 1793-94, I und II B. Vol. III is directed against REINHOLD, with this title: Einzig möglicher Standpunct, aus welchem die kritische Philosophie beurtheilt werden muss, Riga, 1796, II Bde. 8vo. Grundriss der kritischen Philosophie, Halle, 1796, 8vo. Propädeutik zu jedem wissench. Studio, ebend. 1796. Commen、 tar über Kant's Metaphisik der Sitten, I Th. 1798, 8vo. BECK subsequently put forth: Grundsätze d. Gesetzgebung, 1806. Ein Lehrbuch der Logik, Rost. u. Schwerin, 1820, 8vo.; and Lehrb. des Naturrechts, Jen. 1820, 8vo.

Fichte's Doctrine of Science.

For the bibliography see below, § 405.

400. The philosophical labours of J. G. Fichte greatly exceeded the various attempts succeeding the diffusion of Kant's system.

He was born May 19, 1762, at Rammenau, in Upper Lusatia (Ober-Lausitz), and, after having studied at the school of Pforta and at the universities of Jena and Leipsic, passed several years in Switzerland and Prussia; and in 1793 became professor of Philosophy at Jena; resigned his office in 1799, and retired to Berlin: in 1805 filled a professorial chair at Erlangen, and afterwards in the university of Berlin; where he died, 1814. Fichte made it his object to constitute the Critical philosophy a science, founded on the most exact principles, with the hope of precluding all future errors and misapprehensions, and of annihilating Scepticism; the cause of which was defended, among others, by Schulze and Sol. Maimon. Encouraged by the success which his "Essay towards a Criticism of Revelation in general," obtained," and by the example of Reinhold's theory of the perceptive

1 † Idea of the Doctrine of Science: Pref. p. 5. † General Principles of the Doctrine of Science. p 12.

2 Königsb. 1792: second edition, 1793.

faculties, he gave full scope to his original and independent genius, which, with a firmness approaching obstinacy, led him constantly to maintain and boldly to profess the conclusions to which he had once arrived. His object was to find a system which might illustrate by a single principle, the material and formal properties of all science; might establish the unity of plan which the Critical system had failed to maintain, and solve that most difficult of all problems regarding the connection between our conceptions and their objects. Such was the origin of his Scientific Theory,' which supposes that neither Consciousness nor the objects to which it refers,-neither the material nor formal parts of knowledge, are to be considered as data; but are the results of an operation of the Ego, and are collected by means of Reflection. Fichte does not, like Kant, begin by an analysis of our faculties for acquiring knowledge,-of practical reason and judgment; nor yet, as Reinhold had done, by assuming a primitive fact,-that of Consciousness; but supposes an original act of the subject (the Ego), from which he derives the very construction of Consciousness itself.

The method he pursues is as follows. He begins by investigating the conception of Science. It is a system of Knowledge determined by a higher principle, which expresses the contents and form of science. The Doctrine of Science is the science that demonstrates the possibility and validity of Science, the solidity of the principles on which it is founded as regards the form and contents, and consequently the connection of all human science. Inasmuch as this Theory or Doctrine of Science is the highest of all scientific systems, it must be dependent on a peculiar principle, not deducible from that or any other science. The Theory of Science is independent of all others,—of itself valid and possible, and is, because it is. The Doctrine of Science implies. also a System connected with it; and contrariwise, the fact of a System implies that of a Theory, and of a first and absolute principle; the circle of argumentation being complete and inevitable. There are, however, in general, three Principles of Science : 1, one absolute and unconditional as regards contents and form; 2, a principle unconditional in Wissenschaftslehre.

form, but conditional in its contents; 3, a principle unconditional in contents, but conditional in form. A Theory of Science is Philosophy, which has for its object the necessary process of the human mind in the freedom of activity. When the energies of our minds have been determined to any particular pursuit, (such as Logic, Geometry, etc.), they become the objects of a Special Science; the determination to such particular pursuits being a contingent direction imparted to free action, and consequently incomplete. On the other hand the Theory of Science is alone complete in itself, and forms a perfect whole. The objects it contemplates are, agreeably to what has been stated, the original operations of the human mind (the What), which take place according to a certain determinate method and form (the How). These become the objects of Consciousness by means of the faculty of Reflection, whose office it is to abstract and disengage the element of Consciousness in all things. In this way we attain to Absolute Unity, which comprehends all cognitions and their principles; in other words, to the pure Ego. Reflection and Abstraction are subject to certain laws of Logic, which are absolute postulates of the Theory or Doctrine of Science.

401. First principle, A=A. X represents the syste matic dependency of the whole. A and X being supposed to exist in the Ego, may be signified by this formulary, Ego sum Ego. This is the self-evident principle of Philosophy and Science in general (Principle of the Accord of the unconditional Postulate); expressing the necessary form and substance of Self-consciousness. In virtue of this principle we form judgments; to judge being an act and operation of the Ego. The Ego then establishes, absolutely and independently, its own existence; being at once the agent and the result of activity: in which consists the essence of Consciousness. The first operation of the Ego is that of Reflection on itself, which is occasioned by a postulated impediment opposed to its hitherto unrestrained activity. The Ego places itself in the position of the subject, inasmuch as it opposes itself as subject to the obstacle contemplated. The second principle (involved in the former), is this that the Ego is not the Non-Ego (Principle of Opposition). There remains yet a third principle, condi