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130 THE FOURFOLD ROOT. [CHAP. V.
and confers so great a superiority on man, is, as we have
shown, based upon his faculty for these representations,
this faculty evidently and unquestionably constitutes that
Reason, which from time immemorial has been reputed
the prerogative of mankind. Likewise all that has been
considered by all nations and in all times explicitly as
the work or manifestation of the Reason, of the Xdyoc,
Aoytjuoy, \oytffriK6v, ratio, la ragione, la razon, la raison,
reason, may evidently also be reduced to what is only
possible for abstract, discursive, reflective, mediate know
ledge, conditioned by words, and not for mere intuitive,
immediate, sensuous knowledge, which belongs to animals
and de
also. Cicero rightly places ratio et oratio together, 1
scribes them as quce docendo, discendo, communicando, disceptando,
judicando, conciliat inter se homines, &c. &c., and 2
rationem dico, et, si placet, pluribusverbis, mentem, consilivm,
cogitationem, prudentiam, And 3
ratio, qua una prcestamus
beluis, per quam conjectura valemus, argumentamur, refelli-
mus, disserimus, conficimus aliquid, concludimus. But, in all
ages and countries, philosophers have invariably expressed
themselves in this sense with respect to the Reason, even to
Kant himself, who still defines it as the faculty for prin
it cannot be denied that
ciples and for inference ; although
he first gave rise to the distorted views which followed. In
my principal work, 4 and also in the Fundamental Pro
blems of Ethics, I have spoken at great length about the
agreement of all philosophers on this point, as well as
about the true nature of Reason, as opposed to the dis
torted conceptions for which we have to thank the pro-
1 "
Cicer. De Offic." i. 16.
3
" De Leg."
i. 10.
Idem,
2
Idem,
" De nat. deor." ii. 7.
4 See "Die Welt a. W. u. V." 2nd edition, vol. i. 8, and also in
the Appendix, pp. 577-585 (3rd edition, pp. 610-620), and again vol. ii.
ch. vi. ; finally
pp. 146-151).
" Die b. G-P. d. Ethik," pp. 148-154 (2nd edition,