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TRANSITION TO POSITIVISM
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D. The Transition from Romanticism Positivism.

1. The Dissolution of the Hegelian School. The profound influence and the wide dissemination of the Hegelian philosophy is due more particularly to the supposed successful reconciliation of faith and knowledge, of ideality and reality. But these alleged results were put to the test shortly after Hegel's death. There was some doubt whether the belief in a personal God and in a personal immortality could be reconciled with Hegelian philosophy (Fr. Richter: Die Lehre von den letzten Dingen, 1833), and it was claimed that the logical consequence of the Hegelian philosophy of religion was not the Christology of the church, but the mythical theory of the Person of Christ (D. F. Strauss: Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet, 1835).

The Hegelians divided on this question, and we soon hear of a Hegelian right and a Hegelian left. Those on the right (represented particularly by Göschel, Rosenkranz and J. E. Erdman) held that the theory of the master, properly understood, was in harmony with positive faith and with the doctrine of the Church. Those on the left, on the other hand, drew most radical conclusions from the teaching of the master who was apparently so very conservative, both in the department of the philosophy of religion (Strauss and Feuerbach) and in that of the philosophy of law and society (A. Ruge, Karl Marx, Ferdinand Lasalle).

There were also men however who granted to the Hegelian left that Hegelianism was incapable of defending theism, but who at the same time thought it possible to vindicate theism by the method of pure thought. They endeavored to show that all fundamental ideas cate-