Kurze Encyklopädie der Philosophie

To give more light to the plan of this book, however, it must be stated that various requests preceded it, which can essentially be traced back to two directions. On the one hand, a popular exposition was requested; on the other, an easier overview of the way in which ethical, metaphysical, natural-philosophical, and psychological investigations interlock. The former desire could lead to the expansion of earlier presentations; the latter, on the contrary, seemed to make tighter compression necessary.

To accomplish both at once is certainly possible within certain limits, if one considers that every philosophical work becomes for the reader what he makes of it.

For those who demand an overview, the frequently cited earlier works are, without a doubt, present before their eyes. They will therefore look them up. Hints suffice for them; and it may not be burdensome for them to seek these out even more in the later chapters than in the earlier ones.

Others, for whom the exposition is to be popular, nevertheless do not love verbosity; they allow for abbreviations in such matters that have more difficulty than general interest. Thus, much could almost entirely be omitted that had already received its fully sufficient execution in the proper place at an earlier time.

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