Studies of the Max Kade Institute

two years, however, the philosophical discussion begins to exhibit a
different character. Essellen continues to emphasize the importance
of the debate over materialism and idealism and the controversy
concerning whether man's actions are dictated by the necessity of
nature or controlled by man's free will, calling it the main question
of the time.15 However, from some points of view he seems to take
a more compromising attitude, insisting that there is idealism within
materialism and that one must promote idealism to guard against a
baser morality which seems to be rampant in modern society.16 He
writes that the differences between the materialist and the idealist
are removed in art, and that the two types must be united in other
realms as well. 17Soon thereafter, deploring the moral level of the
time, despite the fact that reason has come into its own rights,
he presents an inquiry into Christianity's doctrine of eternal life
undertaken to determine its moral value, an unusual line of thinking
for a materialist.18
Despite Essellen's attempt to bridge the gap and effect some
harmony between materialism and idealism, however, the discussion
of these issues in Atlantis begins to take on a more controversial
tone. Much of this is due to Karl Heinzen, the editor of Der
Pionier. Because he was another materialist one would expect to
find in him a friend rather than an opponent of the point of view
of Atlantis. But anything other than a very strictly materialist
position incites his wrath. When Atlantis published a critique of
materialism written by Bernhard Stallo, Der Pionier answered with
an abrasive attack on his position. Essellen retorted with words
which are very different in tone from his earlier philosophical essays:
"was den positiven Inhalr [sic I der Polemik anbetrifft, [kann ]
das Publikum selbst [urtheilen ] aus schon erschienenen und noch
erscheinenden Artikeln fiber diesen Gegenstand und die Art und
Weise, wie die Atlantis denselben behandelt. . . . Das Feld des
persbnlichen Skandals gehdrt anerkanntermaBen dem Herrn Heinzen
und nicht dem Redakteur der Atlantis. . . ."
This only encourages Heinzen. A few months later, Der Pionier
begins to publish articles in response to the position taken by
Atlantis, which are signed "Dissector." The complaint is advanced
that one cannot connect the natural sciences and philosophy any
more than the natural sciences and theology, whereas articles in
Atlantis have suggested that advances into new undiscovered areas

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