Page:History of Modern Philosophy (Falckenberg).djvu/607

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HOLLAND. 585 Oersted (1777-185 1 ; Spirit in Nature, German translation, Munich, 1850-51), and Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785- 1872). A change vas brought about by the philoso- phers of religion Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55) and Rasmus Nielsen (1809-84; Philosophy of Religion, 1869), who opposed speculative idealism with a strict dualism of knowledge and faith, and were in turn opposed by Georg Brandes (born 1842) and Hans Brochner (1820-75). Among younger investigators the Copenhagen professors, Harald Hoffding* (born 1843) '■^^^ Kristian Kroman t(born 1846) stand in the first rank. Land {Mind, vol. iii. 1878) and G. von Antal (1888) have written on philosophy in Holland. Down to the middle of the nineteenth century the field was occupied by an idealism based upon the ancients, in particular upon Plato: Franz Hemsterhuis (1721-90; Works, new ed., 1846-50), and the philologists Wyttenbach and Van Heusde. Then Cornelius Wilhelm Opzoomer :}: (1821-92 ; professor in Utrecht) brought in a new movement. Opzoomer favors empiricism. He starts from Mill and Comte,but goes be- yond them in important points, and assigns faith a field of its own beside knowledge. In opposition to apriorism he seeks to show that experience is capable of yielding universal and necessary truths ; that space, time, and causality are received along with the content of thought; that mathematics itself is based upon experience ; and that the method of natural science, especially deduction, must be applied to the mental sciences. The philosophy of mind considers man as an indi- vidual being, in his connection with others, in relation to a higher being, and in his development ; accordingly it divides into psychology (which includes logic, aesthetics, and ethol- ogy), sociology, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of history. Central to Opzoomer's system is his

  • Hdffding : The Foundations of Human Ethics, 1876, German translation,

1880; Outlines of Psychology, 1882, English translation by Lowndes, i8gi, from the German translation. 1887; Ethics, 1887, German translation by Ben- dixcn, 1888. f Kroman ; Our Knowledge of Nature, German translation, 1883 ; A Brief Logic and Psychology, German translation by Bendixen, 1890. J Opzoomer: The Method of Science, a Handbook of Logic, German transla- tion by Schwindt, 1852 ; Religion, German translation by Mook, 1869.