GERMAN PHILOSOPHY
AND POLITICS
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1915
Copyright, 1915,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
PREFACE
The will of John Calvin McNair established a Foundation at theUniversity of North Carolina upon which public lectures are to be givenfrom time to time to the members of the University. This book containsthree lectures which were given in February of this year upon thisFoundation. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many courtesies enjoyedduring my brief stay at Chapel Hill, the seat of the University.
Columbia University,
New York City, April, 1915.
CONTENTS
| 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 atroubled question. Mind dislikes to find itself a pilgrim in an alienworld. A discovery that the belief in the influence of thought uponaction is an illusion would leave men profoundly saddened withthemselves and with the world. Were it not that the doctrine forbids anydiscovery influencing affairs—since the discovery would be an idea—weshould say that the discovery of the wholly ex post facto and idlecharacter of ideas would profoundly influence subsequent affairs. Thestrange thing is that when men had least control over nature and theirown affairs, they were most sure of the efficacy of thought. Thedoctrine that nature does nothing in vain, that it is directed bypurpose, was not