self shut up in a solipsistic world, and ignorant of everything except his own mental states and
their relations.
Hume, by his consistency, showed that empiricism, carried to its logical conclusion, led to results
which few human beings could bring themselves to accept, and abolished, over the whole field of
science, the distinction between rational belief and credulity. Locke had foreseen this danger. He
puts into the mouth of a supposed critic the argument: "If knowledge consists in agreement of
ideas, the enthusiast and the sober man are on a level." Locke, living at a time when men had
grown tired of "enthusiasm," found no difficulty in persuading men of the validity of his reply to
this criticism. Rousseau, coming at a moment when people were, in turn, getting tired of reason,
revived "enthusiasm," and, accepting the bankruptcy of reason, allowed the heart to decide
questions which the head left doubtful. From 1750 to 1794, the heart spoke louder and louder; at
last Thermidor put an end, for a time, to its ferocious pronouncements, so far at least as France
was concerned. Under Napoleon, heart and head were alike silenced.
In Germany, the reaction against Hume's agnosticism took a form far more profound and subtle
than that which Rousseau had given to it. Kant, Fichte, and Hegel developed a new kind of
philosophy, intended to safeguard both knowledge and virtue from the subversive doctrines of the
late eighteenth century. In Kant, and still more in Fichte, the subjectivist tendency that begins with
Descartes was carried to new extremes; in this respect, there was at first no reaction against Hume.
As regards subjectivism, the reaction began with Hegel, who sought, through his logic, to
establish a new way of escape from the individual into the world.
The whole of German idealism has affinities with the romantic movement. These are obvious in
Fichte, and still more so in Schelling; they are least so in Hegel.
Kant, the founder of German idealism, is not himself politically important, though he wrote some
interesting essays on political subjects. Fichte and Hegel, on the other hand, both set forth political
doctrines which had, and still have, a profound influence upon the course of history. Neither can
be understood without a previous study of Kant, whom we shall consider in this chapter.