The immediate environment is powerless to give life any real meaning.

We must probe deeper into the eternal--and it is from such investigations that Eucken outlines a new theory of life.
But before we proceed to deal with Eucken's contribution to the problem, it will be profitable to stay awhile to consider how it is that we can obtain truth at all, and what are the tests that we can apply to truth when we think we have attained it.

It is the problem of the possibility of knowledge, really, that we have to discuss in brief.

Eucken himself does not pay much direct attention to this difficult question, for, as has been already pointed out, he refuses to be drawn from his main problem.

It is impossible, however, to appreciate Eucken without understanding clearly the position he takes up in this matter.
What is truth?
How can we know ?--these are entrancing problems for the profound thinker, and have been written upon frequently and at great length.