Excerpt from The Aesthetic Experience: Its Nature, and Function in Epistemology That the epistemological problem is the most urgent in current philosophical discussion is to be inferred from the introduction into the more complete works of Logic and Metaphysics of topics that directly pertain to neither. The preliminary discussions found in such works as Bradley's, Bosanquet's, and Sigwart's Logic are not however psychological precisely, neither are they to be regarded as an indication that Psychology is becoming sufficiently ample in its programme to include what previously was regarded as subject-matter of more or less independent philosophical disciplines. The introductory chapters in the works thus named are rather epistemological than psychological. Paulsen is historically justified in holding that Epistemology arises always as a critical reflection on Metaphysics with which it is, at the first, identified. From Kant and Locke until now the conviction has been growing that knowing precedes being, so that the priority which Metaphysics so long held should be given to Epistemology. The limitations as well as the possibilities of human knowledge are to be sought within the knowing process rather than in some already determined objective existence. Since the time of Locke and Kant, epistemological inquiry has been increasingly to the fore. There was 'constant whetting of the knife' until the time of Lotze, who felt that the whetting process should end and an actual theory of the object of knowledge established. But despite the constant whetting of the knife the conviction will not down that the whetting has not yet been sufficiently done. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.