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FRIES AND HERBART
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theory of the reconciliation of all antitheses in the "higher unity," as well as with the accepted conception of Christianity. This furnished the motive for the deplorable controversy with the state church, which occupied the latter years of his life.


C. The Undercurrents Of Critical Philosophy In The Romantic Period.

It is important for the continuity of the history of philosophy that there were philosophers, even in the period of romanticism and speculation, who undertook to carry out a strictly critical and empirical treatment of the fundamental concepts. Two of Fichte's students at Jena deserve mention in this connection as belonging to the first rank. These men soon protested that the method by which Fichte and his disciples were trying to develop the Kantian philosophy was not correct. The significance of Fries and Herbart however does not depend alone upon the fact that they are representatives of the critical philosophy, but likewise upon their scientific method of treating the problem of psychology. This latter fact makes them, especially Herbart, the forerunner of modern psychology. Beneke, who had been considerably affected by the English school, likewise joins them.

1. Jacob Friedrich Fries (1775-1843), like Schleiermacher, was educated at a Moravian college, and, despite the fact that a native impulse for untrammelled science had carried him far beyond the ideas of his early teachers, he nevertheless continued his adherence to them to the end, especially in the matter of the emphasis which he placed on the emotions. While professor at Jena, Fries participated in the Wartburg celebration, on account of which he was forbidden to continue his lectures in philos-