All this is not a matter of speculation, but of fact. And it is in the
recognition of this fact that Eucken's philosophy of religion
constitutes a new kind of idealistic movement--a movement tending more
and more in the direction of Christianity. But he differs here again
from the absolute idealists and the pragmatists. The former base their
Absolute upon the demands of logic, whilst Eucken bases all upon the
demands and potencies of life; the pragmatists emphasise the primary
place of the will in the development of the inner life, but they have
certainly ignored the presence of over-individual norms, as the goal of
volition, whilst Eucken holds to the necessity of both. With the
absolutists the relation of the Absolute with the will is not clearly
perceived, and consequently the Absolute becomes merely an object of
thought and contemplation; and in all this the individual does not
become aware of a burning desire to move in the direction of the goal.
[p.143] The pragmatist leaves the individual at the mercy of the
momentary content of consciousness; this content is quite as likely to
be trivial as to be great; and hence there is no absolute standard
present to determine the nature and value of this content of the moment,
and consequently no more than a life of effortless drifting can issue
out of all this.

This blend of absolutism and pragmatism is richer in its content than
either of the two. Each has missed something of importance, and it is
here supplied by Eucken.

Norms and potency become two indissoluble factors in the evolution of
the higher life. As already stated, the norms have an objectivity of
their own, and consequently when they enter into life, life becomes
conscious of their being something _given_ and not brought into