RUDOLF EUCKEN
APOSTLE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
To the history of and criticism of these conceptions and
their terminology Professor Eucken has brought thorough and
careful reading, acute and candid criticism, and a clear
and solid style. While he is at home among the systems of
the past, he seems equally familiar with the controversies
of the present. Above all, he has studied brevity, and has
mastered the art of expressing in a few words the results of
patient research and critical discrimination.
The writer of this notice was constrained to recommend the
work for translation to his friend and former pupil by his
estimate of the intrinsic value of the treatise and the
desire that it might be brought within reach of English
readers as eminently suited to the times. He can say with
assured confidence that there are few books within his
knowledge which are better fitted to aid the student who
wishes to acquaint himself with the course of superlative
and scientific thinking and to form an intelligent estimate
of most of the current theories.[1]
These were the words with which Professor Eucken was introduced to
the American public in 1880 by one who was a good judge of men and
books, the primary qualification of a college president. Thirty-two
years later Professor Eucken came to America; this time in person, but
under the auspices of Harvard and the University of New York, instead
of Yale. This time he reached a larger audience; partly owing to his
greater fame, partly to a change in the popular attitude toward the
views he presents. In 1908, when Eucken received the Nobel prize for
the greatest work of idealistic literature, there was no book of his
accessible to the English reader, for the translation instigated by
President Porter was out of print. Since then all his important works
have been brought out in England and America; and the periodical
indexes record a growing interest in his thought, corresponding to that
which is manifested in Germany.
The Nobel prizes have failed to carry out the intention of their
founder, which was to place $100,000 or so immediately into the hands
of a man who had made a signal contribution to science, literature,
or peace. Instead of this, the Nobel committees absorb a liberal moiety
of the income of the fund in local "administrative expenses" and
usually give the residue, now amounting to some $37,000, to men whose
reputations have long been established; for example, in literature,
Sully-Prudhomme, Mommsen, Björnson, Mistral, Kipling, and Heyse. But
in so interpreting their mandate the Nobel committees have fulfilled
another useful function, possibly as much needed as that conceived by
Alfred Nobel. If they have not discovered original genius, they have at
least pointed it out to the world at large. The men thus distinguished
as having contributed to human progress have extended their influence
over their contemporaries, as well as received a due appreciation of
their efforts. The Nobel prize does not add to the stature of a man,
but it does elevate him to a pulpit.
In the case of Eucken the value of this is evident. He did not need the
assistance of the Nobel fund in order to prosecute his researches, for
the laboratory expenses of a metaphysician are but slight, and Jena is
as cheap a place to live as can nowadays be found in civilized lands.
The award of the prize did not, of course, add to his reputation in
philosophical circles, but Eucken does not believe that the influence
of a philosopher should be confined to philosophical circles. He
repudiates entirely the aloof, impartial, disinterested spectator
attitude which philosophers in general have thought it necessary to
pretend to assume. The question is, in short, what kind of a scientist
the philosopher should imitate: the chemist who transforms the world
in which he lives, or the meteorologist who merely records the
atmospheric currents without attempting to guide them? Eucken is not
only a teacher; he is a preacher. He has a message which he believes
of vital importance to his contemporaries, so it cannot be a matter of
indifference to him that he is, in his later years, gaining a wider
audience, that his works are the most widely current philosophical
writings of the present day in Germany,[2] and are being extensively
translated into other languages.
This growing popularity is all the more noteworthy since it is not
attained by any novelty of form, or even brilliancy of style. Eucken
never tries to stimulate thought by shocking the reader with
audacious paradoxes, as did Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, as do Shaw and
Chesterton. He has none of the freshness of phraseology and wealth
of novel illustrations which attract to James and Bergson their wide
circle of admirers. He does not, like Ostwald and Haeckel, make use of
the direct and concrete mode of expression which has been introduced
into literature by modern science. Eucken always writes in a serious
and methodical style, elaborating his line of thought as he goes along
with exactness and just proportion; expressing himself in general and
abstract terms, rarely making use of imagery or concrete illustrations,
never introducing personalities. A sweeter-tempered philosopher never
lived. He speaks no evil, even of the dead. He indulges in no polemics
with his contemporaries. In his historical works he passes through all
fields of thought, gleaning good grain wherever he goes, and saying as
little as possible about the tares and brambles that he finds with it.
Very curiously, it has been Eucken's lot to have been closely
associated, on the faculties of small universities, with the two men
whose views are most antagonistic to his: at Basel with Nietzsche and
at Jena with Haeckel, and he has been on the best of terms with both
of them. I was particularly interested in what Professor Eucken told
me of Nietzsche, whose personality and philosophy were in such violent
contradiction. This advocate of ruthless brutality, this scorner of
sympathy and compassion, was in reality a most tender-hearted man, but
too shy and sensitive to be popular; and when his feelings were hurt he
wrote down in a passion what he felt at the moment.
At the University of Basel Professor Eucken often served with Nietzsche
on the examining committee of candidates for the doctorate in classical
philology. On such occasions, if the student appeared to be getting
the worst of it in the verbal contest, Nietzsche would be observed to
become more and more nervous until, finally, he could contain himself
no longer and would break in with leading questions: "I suppose you
mean so-and-so?" or "Do you not believe this or that?" until he got
the student to say just about what he should have said in the first
place. Professor Eucken does not regard the widespread influence
of Nietzsche as altogether evil, believing he should not be held
responsible for all the vagaries and extravagances of his devotees. The
reason of Nietzsche's popularity, according to Eucken, is his strong
individualism; for the Germans, in spite of governmental control
and the Social Democracy, are pronounced individualists in character.
The German will insist upon having his own house, his own seat, his
own opinion. This sounded strange to the American, accustomed to have
Germany referred to as the most regimented of nations.
But modern Germany is a land of incongruities and contradictions, a
wild confusion of swirling cross-currents. The increase of population,
the checking of emigration, the amazing prosperity, the extension of
commerce, the demand for territorial expansion, would indicate a sound
physical constitution and a healthful growth. The immense sale of
serious works on religion and philosophy shows a revival of interest
in spiritual affairs. Yet, if we were to judge of the character of
the people by the most conspicuous of its achievements in art and
literature, we should say that modern Germany is hopelessly decadent
and corrupt. In drama and fiction Gallic license is allied with Gothic
coarseness. In pictorial art hideousness and viciousness are depicted
by means of strange and violent methods. Germany of to-day, as seen
by the tourist, is a land of spotted painting, spotted literature,
and spotted faces.[3] In the little university town of Jena the
incongruities of modern Germany are curiously conspicuous. In this
historic stronghold of Protestantism, this leader in the Enlightenment,
the home of Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Fichte, the Humboldts, Hegel,
Schelling, and Wieland, the barbarous customs of the past have the
strongest hold. A student is likely to miss his seven o'clock Wednesday
lecture on the spiritual life because he sat up till two o'clock
drinking compulsory beer with his corps brothers in the middle of the
marketplace. And he may cut out his eight o'clock Saturday lecture
because he has an imperative engagement to cut off the nose or the ear
of a fellow student at the Mensurort of Döllnitz.
Among the nobler manifestations of the spirit of new Germany the
tourist is likely to take most interest in the architecture. Here,
indeed, he will find much that is displeasing and eccentric, but that
in itself is encouraging, for it shows that we are in the presence
of a living art which is not content to keep to the safe and beaten
paths, but would strike out new ways for itself. In city and country
unexpected forms and colors delight the eye on villa, monument, and
public building; new and ingenious solutions of problems as old as
man. The modern German architect is not the imitator, but the rival,
of the master builders of the past. He knows how to harmonize the
old with the new, utilizing the old to give him inspiration, but
not permitting it to hamper him. A striking example of this is the
new university buildings of Jena, erected on the three hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the university in 1908. The whole group cost
only three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, not so much as
some single buildings in our leading universities, yet I know of none
more satisfactory from both the utilitarian and the esthetic point of
view. Here the problem of harmonization was particularly difficult; not
only must the new buildings fit into the picture of old Jena, but a
tower of the ancient ducal castle was actually to be incorporated. Yet
the architect, Theodor Fischer, has made no sacrifices to the spirit
of antiquity. At Oxford the newer buildings either clash violently
with their elders or imitate them so closely as to be almost equally
inconvenient and uncomfortable. The Jena buildings look as though they
might well have been built by Kurfürst Johann Friedrich der Grossmütige
in 1558, but are up to date, commodious, hygienic, well ventilated,
steam heated, equipped with electric lights and clocks, and electric
vacuum cleaners.
There are no superfluous statues stuck around in niches and on
pedestals. The adornment, plastic and polychromatic, is strictly
structural. It is put where it belongs. With the possible exception of
a Rodin bust of Minerva in the vestibule, I did not see any "objects
of art" that I could have carried off without tearing down the
building. On the stone of the north façade are roughly chiseled the
Ephesian Diana in the gable, and, beneath, four Egyptian-like figures
representing the four faculties. That of _Philosophie_, with solemn and
inscrutable face, is very appropriately nearest to the lecture room of
Professor Eucken. As we enter we see opposite the portal to the _Aula_,
the university hall of state, on either side of which are gigantic
paintings emblematic of the transmission of culture, a grown man on one
side holding out his torch to a young man, that he may light his torch
by it. The most important picture at the Jena University is the _Auszug
deutscher Studenten im Jahre 1815_ by Hodler, who used as a model for
the middle figure the youngest son of Professor Eucken.
Auditorium Number 1, the largest classroom of the new building, is
assigned to Eucken, and we find it already about half filled, although
it is not yet seven o'clock in the morning. Some seventy students
I count, and among them about a dozen women, not segregated, but
scattered here and there, for Jena is coeducational now, and masculine
resentment at the intrusion of women has quite died out. The students
may seat themselves wherever they choose, affixing a card with name
and hour if they want to hold a particular place. These cards and even
the desks are scrawled with automatic writing and sketches by the
inattentive hands of students. The seats, long benches with a fixed
desk and book rack in front, are better than those found in English
universities, but not so good as the American individual seats. There
are plenty of windows along one side of the room, and the walls--white
above, light green below--diffuse the rays agreeably. The floor slants
down to a plain pine desk and a small blackboard. On the wall is a
mosaic portrait of the late Professor Abbé, the real patron of the
University, for a prosperous optician is of much more use to a modern
university than a needy Gross-Herzog.
Promptly on the hour a vigorous shuffling and stamping of feet
announces the arrival of the professor, who begins with "_Mein'
Herren und Damen_" as his first foot steps upon the platform. A German
professor always gives good measure, a full hourful, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over; no period of preliminary meditation
on what he shall say and of casual conversation at the end, as often in
America. Nor do the German professors find it necessary to adopt the
low voice, indifferent air and hesitating utterance regarded at Oxford
and Harvard as the mark of the gentleman and the scholar. In fact I
find, in roaming about our universities, that so many of our younger
men have adopted this pitch and tempo, being often inaudible and never
impressive to the back seats, that I am tempted to lay down the law
that the younger the instructor the poorer the voice. When I complain
of it they reply coldly: "One can never shout and tell the truth."
But Eucken is evidently not afraid that being heard will impair his
veracity. You might take him for a revivalist. You would not be wrong
if you did. His voice rings out loud and clear. He is tremendously in
earnest. Occasionally, when he thinks of it, he sits down. But not
for long. He springs to his feet and throws himself forward on the
reading-desk in the effort to really reach his audience. He clasps his
hands to his breast and then throws his arms out wide, as though to
seize the _Geistesleben_ with which his heart is overflowing and spread
it far over a materialistic and indifferent generation. Who can doubt
the reality of "the spiritual life" after he has seen Eucken? It shines
in his face. We do not need to be told that Activism is his philosophy.
It shows in his movements. He lives his theories. Few philosophers do,
luckily for most of them.
"Happiness" is the subject of this lecture. The spiritual life is
the theme of it, as always. The spiritual life, he says, goes out
from within and transforms the world, thus giving true happiness. We
must work with the world movement if we would partake of its divine
purpose. And here he quotes Plotinus, the first religious philosopher,
for whom he has as high regard as have Maeterlinck and Bergson. We
must utilize the force of faith; must bring this Christian power
into modern life. True ability is moral ability. Labor is not merely
activity; it has a purpose; it is directed against opposition. By
strife and striving we must reach the reality of the spiritual life.
Through labor and love we attain our true selves. The fulfilling of
duty is inner freedom. The unrest and stress of the present day are the
signs of a new spiritual birth. The function of philosophy is not
to afford intellectual or esthetic gratification, but it is to deepen
and enrich life. To the fine old German saying, "A man is more than
his work", Eucken added "Mankind is more than his culture." It is a
_Lebensanschauung_ rather than a _Weltanschauung_ that he teaches, for
to him a theory of life is more important than a theory of the cosmos.
These are merely a few fragmentary thoughts that I gathered in that
memorable hour. Of no value in themselves, I give them merely to prove
that I got something out of the lecture, for I never understood spoken
German until I heard Eucken. But even a deaf man would have found it
profitable to be there. A second lecture followed immediately, on
"Pessimism and Optimism", delivered with the same vigor and listened
to with the same interest. Professor Eucken was then sixty-seven
years old, and would have been Carnegied if he were in an American
university, instead of giving lectures from seven to nine. His hair and
beard are pure white, but set off handsomely his pink cheeks and his
bright blue eyes still unspectacled.
And when he leaves the lecture room he does not leave his work, but
goes to more of it at home. On one wall of his study is a photograph
of Michael Angelo's "Creation", from the Sistine Chapel, and on the
opposite a cast of a section of the Parthenon frieze. Between these is
the desk of the man who has brought together the highest aspirations
of Greek and Christian culture; a table stacked high with papers and
manuscripts.
His correspondence is now voluminous, but he answers all letters
promptly and carefully, writing his replies in the old-fashioned way,
with a pen. He receives all visitors and will talk of his philosophy to
a single auditor with the same unwearied enthusiasm as to an audience.
Even those who are repelled by the severity of his literary style are
attracted by the charm of his personality, and this accounts in large
part for his devoted following in all parts of the world.
After granting me an interview which took the heart out of his
afternoon, Professor Eucken returned good for evil by inviting me to
dinner in the evening, when I found that the lady on my right was
from Nebraska and the one on my left from Switzerland, while around
the table I saw a young Boer from the Transvaal, a don from Oxford,
a professor from Tokyo, and representatives of I don't know how many
other nationalities.
[Illustration: Mit beste Grüssen Ihr ... Rudolf Eucken]
The extension of the influence of Professor Eucken through this
hearty hospitality is due largely to his wife. Frau Eucken has happily
not confined herself to the duties which the Kaiser prescribes as
woman's only sphere, _Kirche, Kueche und Kinder_.[4] She is not only wife,
mother and housekeeper, but artist and musician as well. Her success in
managing what might be called an international salon of philosophy is
facilitated by her ability to converse in many languages. On account
of the generous hospitality extended to students and strangers by the
Eucken household a removal was made last year to a new villa in the
suburbs. Professor Eucken's wife and daughter came with him on his
visit to America.
Eucken's philosophy of life is dramatic. His life has been undramatic;
the even, ordered course of the typical German professor, made even
more uneventful by reason of his mastery of the gentle art of not
making enemies. Born in Aurich, East Friesland, January 5, 1846, he
studied at Göttingen under Lotze, and at Berlin under Trendelenburg;
taught for four years in a _gymnasium_; then for three years in the
University of Basel; in 1874 was called to the University of Jena,
where he has ever since remained, in spite of calls to larger
institutions. His inner life has been as uneventful as its external
aspects; a continuous, methodical, logical development of thought,
without leaps or backslidings.
First, in 1878, he laid the foundations in the study of the concepts
of philosophy which attracted the attention of President Porter.
Seven years later he was ready to outline his own guiding theory in a
volume bearing the characteristically Germanic title of "A Prolegomena
for the Investigation of the Unity of the Spiritual Life in the
Consciousness and Acts of Mankind." From this standpoint of the unique
significance of the spiritual life he then reviewed the whole history
of the evolution of philosophy from Plato to Nietzsche. His purpose
in this work, known in English as "The Problem of Human Life", was,
as he explains, "to afford historical confirmation of the view that
conceptions are determined by life, not life by conceptions", and "that
human destinies are not decided by mere opinions and whims, either of
individuals or of masses of individuals, but rather that they are ruled
by spiritual necessities with a spiritual aim and purport, and that
for man a new world dawns, transcending the merely natural domain--the
world, namely, of the spiritual life."
The sentences quoted are alone enough to show that Eucken's "history
of philosophy" is a very different thing from what usually goes by
that name, that is the chronicling of the speculations of successive
generations of metaphysicians, each one wiping clean the slate before
he began to write. Eucken sees an aim and purpose in philosophic
thought. He does not regard it as a mere amusement or as an
intellectual exercise, but rather as a method by which humanity may
grow into a higher sphere of existence. The vital need of the day,
then, is to awaken the present indifferent and busy generation to a
realization of the supreme importance of spiritual things and to the
necessity of bringing the Christian religion into vital connection with
modern thought.
This is the task to which Eucken devoted his energies when by the close
of the nineteenth century he had fully matured his views, and the rapid
succession of volumes which have since come from his pen are concerned
with the moral and intellectual difficulties which nowadays impede
religious progress.
The development of natural science and especially the theory of
evolution have led to the identification of man with nature. Yet the
very fact that we have come to know that we belong to nature shows
that we are more than nature.
A transcendence of nature is already accomplished in the
process of thought. A consideration of all the facts leads
us to the result that a life consisting solely of nature and
intelligence involves an intolerable inconsistency; form
and content are sharply separated from each other; thought
is strong enough to disturb the sense of satisfaction
with nature, but is too weak to construct a new world in
opposition to it. Life is in a state of painful uncertainty
and man is a Prometheus bound in that he must experience all
the constraint and meaninglessness of the life of nature,
and must suffer therefrom an increasing pain without being
able to change this state in any way.[5]
From time to time in the course of history, spiritual impulses arise
which are fundamentally different from physical self-preservation.
"They force human activity into particular channels; they speak to
us with a tone of command and require absolute obedience. Neither
the interests of individuals nor those of whole classes prevail
against them; every consideration of utility vanishes before their
inner necessity." Religious movements show life in a particular form;
something emerges in it which, unconcerned with the weal and the woe of
man, follows its own course and makes absolute demands. Man is not
altogether the creature of his environment, nor are his moral standards
determined by society. The individual is able in the light of his own
conscience to approve and value something which all around him reject;
and conversely to condemn and reject something which all around him
esteem and respect. This opposition of individuals to the condition of
things in the social environment has been the main source of all inner
progress in matters of morality.
This line of thought leads Eucken to the conclusion that a new life
distinct from that of nature arises in our soul. The spiritual life is
not the product of a gradual development from the life of nature, but
has an independent origin and evolves new powers and standards. We must
recognize in the spiritual life a universal life which transcends man,
is shared by him and raises him to itself. The philosophical treatment
of history ought first of all to trace the liberation of life from the
mere human; the inner elevation of our being to a more than human.
In discussing the question of how man attains the spiritual life,
Eucken steers carefully between the position of Buddhism, that each man
must work out his own salvation without any aid from above, and the
extreme Calvinistic position, that man is purely passive and altogether
undeserving. Or to quote his own words:
It is necessary to acknowledge that in all the spiritual
movement which appears in the domain of man, there is a
revelation of the spiritual world; as merely human power
cannot lead the whole to new heights, in all development of
the spiritual life the communication of the new world must
precede the activity of man. At the same time, where we are
concerned with a life that is independent, and of which the
activity is conscious and self-determined, the change cannot
possibly merely _happen_ to man; it must be taken up by his
own activity; it needs his own decision and acceptance.
Only through ceaseless activity can life remain at the
height to which it has attained.
This leads to the distinctive form of Eucken's philosophy of life,
known as Activism. This is like Pragmatism in its rejection of the
mere intellectualistic view of life and in basing truth upon a
more spontaneous and essential activity. But Eucken's objection to
Pragmatism is stated in the following language:
Pragmatism, which has recently made so much headway among
English-speaking peoples and beyond them, is more inclined
to shape the world and life in accordance with human
conditions and needs than to invest spiritual activity with
an independence in relation to these, and apply its
standards to the testing and sifting of the whole content of
human life.
At its highest, religion has always been concerned with
winning a new world and a new humanity, not with the
achievement of something within the old world and for the
old humanity.
It will be seen that Eucken does not fall in with the tendency of the
times to subordinate the individual to society. The spiritual life
springs up, not in the "social consciousness", but in the soul of the
individual, elevating his spiritual nature above all environment.
But such a person is guarded against the arrogance of a superman by
realizing that this superiority is not due to personal merit, but
solely to the presence of the spiritual world.
This, as Eucken recognizes, may be called a form of mysticism, but it
differs decidedly from the older mysticism in some important respects.
It is not Quietism, but its opposite, Activism. Eucken does not regard
the individual as seeking a peaceful haven by absorption into the
infinite; on the contrary, the infinite enters the individual and
rouses him to intensest and creative activity.
Here Eucken shows a striking similarity to Bergson. The _Geistesleben_
might be regarded as a higher development or manifestation of the
_élan vital_. Both involve the conception of an upward impulse
acting at individual points which thus become centers of spontaneous
vital activity. It is curious that this view, so characteristically
modern and as novel as anything can be in the realm of metaphysical
speculation, should have simultaneously and independently been made
a fundamental doctrine by two philosophers so unlike in temperament
and training, the French philosopher starting from the standpoint of
mathematical physics and Spencerian evolution, and the German from
academic metaphysics and Christian theology. Such a coincidence, as
well as the reception which the teachings of Bergson and Eucken have
received in many lands, show that their common principle is in harmony
with the spirit of the age. Eucken and Bergson met for the first time
at Columbia University in 1912.
It might be feared that Eucken, emphasizing as he does the
individualistic origin of religious inspiration and realizing as he
does the injury done to the Christian cause by clinging to antiquated
formulas and medieval conceptions, would be inclined to undervalue
ecclesiastical institutions and to advocate too violent a break with
historic Christianity. But here again his moderation and sanity
are manifest. He cannot be called orthodox from the standpoint of the
established Lutheran Church. He agrees entirely with his colleague
Haeckel in condemning the union of Church and State, but for opposite
reasons; Haeckel because the Church receives thereby artificial
support; Eucken because the Church is thereby hampered in its freedom
of development.
He never, however, falls into the error of thinking that a "new"
religion can be made to order to suit the times, or even the needs of
any one person. He finds in historic Christianity all the essentials of
a permanent and universal religion, capable, when properly understood
and presented, of satisfying the severe requirements of modern thought
and feeling. But this is not to be accomplished by merely eliminating
whatever the modern mind finds objectionable.
A religion is not primarily a mere theory concerning
things human and divine--such a theory can, of course,
be quite easily put together with a little ingenuity--it
discloses ultimate revelations of the spiritual life,
further developments of reality, great organizations of
living energy, movements, in a word, which have convulsed
the age in which they came victoriously to birth, and have
subsequently proved themselves strong enough to attract
large portions of mankind, weld each of these inwardly
together, and set an invisible world before it as the main
basis of life. In such upheavals of the life of the people
there is opened a rich mine of fact which becomes the
property of all men, and includes valuable experiences of
humanity as a whole. He who would cut himself off from this
great stream of experience, inward as well as outward, will
soon find out how little the isolated individual can do in
matters of this kind. It is easy to find fault with what
tradition hands down, no less easy to draw up vague views of
one's own, but how immense is the distance which separates
procedure such as this from the creative effort which urges
its sure way forward, from the synthesis which embraces
all men's lives and exercises an elemental compulsion upon
them.[6]
Eucken's clairvoyant faith sees through the present anti-religious
atmosphere the dawning of a new era in which the spiritual life
shall again be dominant. Yet no one has recognized more clearly the
alienation of the Church from the cultural and the practical life of
the day. This chasm is no doubt greater in Germany, where the Catholic
and Protestant churches are State institutions and identified with
reactionary elements, than it is in our own country, where there is
fortunately no Church, but many churches, all equally free to adapt
themselves to changing conditions and to prove themselves useful to
society in their own way. But it must be admitted that our churches
are not availing themselves of this exceptional freedom and do not
show the originality and diversity which is characteristic of life and
growth.
Eucken is conciliatory, but no compromiser. He does not solicit for
religion a humble place in modern life by using arguments like those
employed in the sale of "patent medicines", that it is innocuous at
the least and may somehow do some good. He meets modern science upon
her own ground. He claims for religion an equal practicality and
efficiency; he demands for it a greater certitude, and he is willing,
as Jesus was willing, to put it to the pragmatic test.
Since we have found that religion is linked thus closely
with the whole, we need not make any timid compromise with
certain superficial contemporary movements and content
ourselves with a lower degree of certainty, saying, for
instance, that we can never altogether eliminate the
subjective element, and that religious truths can never
have the certainty of such formulae as 2 x 2 = 4. On the
contrary, we maintain that it is a very poor conception of
religion which deems any certainty superior to hers, and
does not claim for her truth a far more primary certainty
than that of the formula 2 x 2 = 4. Only a shallow and
perverse conception of truth can allow the certainty of the
part to exceed the certainty of the whole.[7]
Either religion is merely a product of human wishes
and ideas under the sanction of tradition and social
convention--and then neither art nor might nor cunning can
prevent so frail a fabrication from being whelmed by the
advancing spiritual tide--or else religion is based on facts
of a suprahuman order, and in that case the most violent
onslaught cannot shake her; rather will it help her in the
end, through all the stress and toil of human circumstance,
to discover where her true strength lies, and to express in
purer ways the eternal truth that is in her.[8]
POSTSCRIPT, 1917
I have thought best to leave the article on Eucken just as I published
it in _The Independent_ of February 27, 1913, with only a few slight
changes in tense and time references. It presents a picture of German
life and thought as I saw it shortly before the war, and it would
be impossible for me to bring it up to date now when the British
censorship prevents German books and papers from reaching America. I
can only add some quotations from Eucken's recent writings to show his
attitude toward the war.
In the fall of 1914, Eucken joined with his colleague in the university
and his opponent in philosophy, Professor Ernst Haeckel, in a public
statement charging that British greed and egotism had caused the
Great War.[9] In the following spring Eucken sent an appeal to the
American people in the form of eight questions which I quote entire.
You say that we are a nation militarist and greedy for
conquest. Permit us a few questions with regard to that rash
statement.
First.--How do you explain that in times gone by Germany
did not take advantage of the difficulties of her present
opponents--as, for instance, England's difficulty during the
Boer war or Russia's difficulty during the Japanese war? If
we had meant conquest should we have chosen the very moment
when half the world was against us, and we were numerically
in the minority? Do you really think that we are as stupid
as all that?
Second.--Next, how do you explain that all parties in
Germany approve of the policy of the government and loyally
hold together, including the Social Democrats? Yesterday
they were our decided opponents. Do you believe that the
Socialists have overnight, as it were, become changed from
decided opponents to adherents of militarism?
Third.--How do you explain the fact that the Americans
who were in Germany at the outbreak of the war in an
overwhelming majority sided with us? Does not the opinion
of those who see events quite near--nay, who live through
them--carry greater weight than the view of such as observe
occurrences from a remote distance?
Fourth.--You believe that the Germans are oppressed and
narrowed down by the rule of militarism. How do you explain
that education and technical and scientific research are
so highly developed and universally esteemed in Germany and
that for this reason so many Americans come to Germany in
order to study sciences and arts?
Fifth.--You always discuss war with regard to Belgium,
France and England only. Have you forgotten Russia, with
her one hundred and fifty million inhabitants and her army,
which is by far the largest in the whole world? Russia is
a danger to Germany and to the whole of Europe and just
now insists on the possession of Constantinople. Have you
forgotten that Russia, by interfering with the Servian
murder case, began the war, and that England, according to
the parliamentary statement made by Foreign Secretary Sir
Edward Grey, was determined, even before the German invasion
of Belgium, to abandon her neutrality in favor of France?
Sixth.--You generally argue that all Europe was in profound
peace and that only the greed of Germany disturbed that
peace. Have you forgotten that long before the war there
was a triple entente which was directed against Germany and
that the entente newspapers openly discussed the war plans
hatched against Germany and even recommended 1916 as a
suitable year for commencing hostilities?
Seventh.--You want to be good Christians and as such
work for peace among the nations. Can you reconcile such
Christianity with the fact that your country sends huge
consignments of arms and ammunition to our opponents and
thus intensifies and lengthens the war? Can you further
reconcile that with neutrality, a neutrality in spirit and
not merely in the letter?
Eighth.--Do not you think that a great nation with a
glorious past should see the events of the day with
its own eyes and that such independence of thought is
the highest test of true liberty? But you contemplate
present history more or less through English spectacles,
as if your country were still a British colony and not an
independent empire with its own goals and standards. In
such a passion-stirred age as ours neutrals have the lofty
duty to keep out of party strife and to endeavor to be just
and impartial to both sides. This endeavor is lacking in
Germany's American opponents.
That even the antagonisms aroused by the war have not shaken Eucken's
faith in the power of religion and philosophy to heal the wounds of
humanity is shown by a recent article on "The International Character
of Modern Philosophy" in the _Homiletic Review_ of New York. In this
he discusses with great impartiality the contributions which England,
France, Germany, and Italy have made to philosophy and concludes as
follows:
After all, philosophy is summoned to proclaim the unity of
mankind over against the present split among the peoples. To
be sure, this does not mean that individual philosophers are
less earnest to put forward the claims of their own people
than the claims of others; for they are not mere scholars,
they are also living men and citizens of their own nation.
When they see this assaulted and its existence put in peril,
it is for them a holy duty to come to the defense of the
fatherland--if not with the weapons of war, at least to do
their best with the weapons of the intellect. Meanwhile,
the belief is entirely proper that the intellectual gains
which are the result of philosophical labor remain unharmed
by war, that a realm of intellectual creation will retain
full recognition beyond the enmities of man. Keenest blame
is deserved by the attempt to array against each other the
intellectual leaders of a people which is for the moment
a foe, or to disparage the entire mental character of
the opponent. That is the stamp of a small and vengeful
disposition--he who aims to depreciate others to whom great
thanks are due dishonors himself. Let each, therefore,
remain true to his own people, but never forget the task
and aim of philosophy--to consider things under the form of
perpetuity, maintaining for humanity in the present a world
superior to all the littlenesses of human action.
A further and much more weighty task is from this arising
for philosophy--to work mightily for the inner unity of
human life and endeavor; the lack of such a unity has
contributed not a little to whet the antagonisms of the
nations.... Only when we are convinced that we belong
together essentially, that we have a great work to
accomplish in common and have to raise mankind from the
stage of nature to that of intellect--that we have to
carry on unitedly a fight against the manifold unreason
of life--only by the strengthening and operation of such
convictions can the division of humanity into hostile
nationalities be successfully withstood. Not through elegant
addresses and articles, only by means of a dynamic deepening
of life and the introduction of new power can we progress in
the solution of these problems.[10]
HOW TO READ EUCKEN
Eucken is not a man of one book. He has put forth his ideas in
many different forms; large volumes and little, works historical,
expository, argumentative, theoretical and practical, but his point of
view has remained throughout his long productive career essentially
unchanged, and is so clearly indicated in all his works that one may
be sure of obtaining the fundamental principles of his philosophy from
whatever volume he selects. If, however, I am expected to prescribe a
particular book as an introduction to Eucken, I should say that the
general reader who is interested in the relation of philosophy to
religion--and one who is not interested in that would not care to
read Eucken anyway--would find "Christianity and the New Idealism"
(translated by Lucy Judge Gibson and W. R. Boyce Gibson, Harper) most
suitable for the purpose. It is a small volume, as easy reading as
anything of Eucken's, and discusses frankly the present crisis in
religious thought and indicates what he believes the churches ought to
discard and what they must maintain of their inherited doctrines and
forms. "The Truth of Religion" (translated by W. Tudor Jones, Putnam)
covers similar ground, but in a more thorough and theoretical manner.
The volumes entitled in their English version "The Meaning and
Value of Life" (Gibson translation, Macmillan); "The Life of the
Spirit" (translated by F. L. Pogson, Putnam), are intended for the
non-philosophical reader; while "Life's Basis and Life's Ideals"
(translated by Alban G. Widgery, Macmillan); "Main Currents of Modern
Thought: A Study of the Spiritual and Intellectual Movements of the
Present Day" (translated by Meyrick Booth, Scribner); and "The Contest
for the Spiritual Life" (Putnam) are of a more technical character.
"The Problem of Human Life as Viewed by Great Thinkers from Plato
to the Present Time" (translated by Williston S. Hough and W. R.
Boyce Gibson, Scribner) differs decidedly from the ordinary history
of philosophy in that the author is not trying to set at odds and
overthrow the successive philosophers, but is seeking for whatever in
them is good and permanent, finally coming to "see them linked together
as workers in one common task: the task of building up a spiritual
world within the realm of human life, of proving our existence to be
both spiritual and natural."
Single lectures and articles by Eucken readily accessible in English
are: "Religion and Life" (Putnam); "Back to Religion" (Pilgrim Press);
"Can We Still Be Christians?" (Macmillan); "Naturalism or Idealism"
(the Nobel Lecture). Twenty of his papers are included in "Collected
Essays of Rudolf Eucken" (Scribner, 1914).
The titles of Eucken's chief works in German and in the English
versions are as follows: "Die Grundbegriffe der Gegenwart" (The Main
Currents of Modern Thought), 1878; "Die Einheit des Geisteslebens in
Bewusstsein und Tat der Menschheit", 1888; "Die Lebensanschauungen
der Grossen Denker" (The Problem of Human Life), 1890; "Der Kampf
um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt", 1896; "Der Wahrheitsgehalt der
Religion" (The Truth of Religion), 1901; "Grundlinien einer neuen
Lebensanschauung" (Life's Basis and Life's Ideal), 1907; "Hauptprobleme
der Religionsphilosophie der Gegenwart" (Christianity and the New
Idealism), 1907; "Sinn und Wert des Lebens" (The Meaning and Value of
Life), 1905; "Einführung in eine Philosophie des Geisteslebens" (The
Life of the Spirit), 1908; "Erkennen und Leben" (Knowledge and Life,
1912).
Of the numerous books and articles about Eucken which have appeared in
Europe, it will be sufficient to mention: "Rudolf Eucken. Die Erneuerer
des deutschen Idealismus", by Theodor Kappstein (Berlin-Schöneberg:
Bucherlag der "Hilfe"); "Rudolf Eucken's Werk, Eine neue idealistische
Lösung des Lebensproblems", by Kurt Kesseler (Bunzlau: Kreuschmer,
1911); "Eucken's dramatische Lebensphilosophie", by Otto Braun
(_Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Philosophische Kritik_, 1909);
"Rudolf Eucken's Christenthum", by Ludwig von Gerdtell (Verlag von
Becker). On Eucken's seventieth birthday, January 5, 1916, the
_Zeitschrift für Philosophie_ published a _Festschrift_ devoted to
his work. "La philosophie de M. Rudolph Eucken", by Emile Boutroux
(_Académie des Sciences morales et politiques_, 1910).
It is unnecessary to give a list of articles about Eucken in American
magazines because any library that contains the files will have a
periodical index, but a few references may be given: "Religious
Philosophy of Eucken", Harvard Theological Review (vol. 2, p. 465,
1909); "Eucken and St. Paul", by Richard Roberts, _Contemporary Review_
(vol. 97, p. 71); "Religious Philosophy of Eucken", by Baron F. von
Hügel, _Hibbert Journal_ (vol. 10, p. 660); "Eucken's Philosophy of
Life", by W. Fite, The Nation (vol. 95, p. 29); "Eucken's New Gospel
of Activism", _Current Literature_ (vol. 53, p. 67); "Idealism of
Rudolf Eucken", by S. H. Mellone, _International Journal of Ethics_
(vol. 21, p. 15).
There are two excellent expositions of Eucken's philosophy in English,
by his students and translators: "Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy of Life",
by W. R. Boyce Gibson (Macmillan), and "An Interpretation of Rudolf
Eucken's Philosophy", by W. Tudor Jones (Putnam). A briefer compendium,
"Eucken: A Philosophy of Life", by A. J. Jones, has appeared in a
series of handy volumes known as "The People's Books" (New York: Dodge
Publishing Company). Meyrick Booth (Ph.D. of Jena) has published
"Rudolf Eucken: His Philosophy and Influence," London (Unwin, 1913).
[1] "The Fundamental Concepts of Modern Philosophic Thought, Critically
and Historically Considered" by Rudolf Eucken, Professor in Jena.
Translated by M. Stuart Phelps, Professor in Smith College. With
additions and corrections by the author and an introduction by Noah
Porter, president of Yale College. Appleton, 1880.
[2] So says Professor Heinrich Weinel in an interesting article on
"Religious Life and Thought in Germany To-day", in the _Hibbert
Journal_, July, 1909.
[3] My visit to Jena, described in the following pages, was made in
1910.
[4] These must, I suppose, be translated into English as "kirk, kitchen
and kids."
[5] "Life's Basis and Life's Ideal", p. 118.
[6] "Christianity and the New Idealism", p. 146.
[7] "Christianity and the New Idealism", p. 28.
[8] "The Truth of Religion."
[9] Published in _The Independent_, September 28, 1914.
[10] "The International Character of Modern Philosophy," _Homiletic
Review_, April, 1916.
End of Project Gutenberg's Six Major Prophets, by Edwin Emery Slosson