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This essay was written fifteen years ago as a sort of program for the author's thinking and laid away because he hesitated to set forth an ideal to which he could, as yet, contribute little or no fulfillment. In 1906, however, he published the first volume of his Person und Sache, and since that date he has prepared the second volume, which is to appear shortly. The personal grounds for withholding the essay have therefore disappeared. Moreover, in the fifteen years of the new century which have elapsed, he believes that he perceives a reawakening of interest in a systematic and unified view of the world. Hence he had already determined to publish the essay when the War began in the summer of 1914. This event, which again postponed publication for a time, is destined, he believes, to be the occasion, at least in Germany, of a period of constructive philosophical thought. Hence he issues this work of his youth, practically without change, with a dedication to the German youth "die im Waffenkampf der Geistesnahrung nicht entbehren wollen und die später im Geisteskampf um die Weltanschauung ihre gestählten Kräfte üben mögen."
The essay is divided into two parts, the first describing the nature of philosophy (Weltanschauung), the second estimating the attitude of the present time (the turn of the century) toward it. Philosophy, like religion and metaphysics, is an explanation of the world, but it is both broader and narrower than these, broader because there are unphilosophical explanations of the world, narrower because religion includes worship and metaphysics theory of knowledge. It has an objective aspect, since the 'world' includes both objects and values, and a subjective aspect, since the individual must perceive and comprehend these. On the theoretical side philosophy is a system of concepts, on the practical side a system of values. The ultimate problem is to combine both in a unified view. Such a system must be many-sided and harmonious, productive both in thought and action, "a creative work of art, a spiritual religion, an ethical view of life, yet at the same time, as a frame for these, a thoroughgoing logical system, a critical attitude of the inquiring mind toward all accessible things and values." On its subjective side philosophy is a personal creation like a work of art, but it is not purely a work of the individual, for it seeks to be both the formula and the watch-word of an epoch's culture.
The culture which culminated in the '8o's of the last century is distinguished by its lack of a philosophy in this sense. Science was dominated by the lust for unrelated facts and by excessive specialization. Philosophical systems,
