THE "HIGH" AND THE "LOW" Eucken makes the recognition of the existence of a Universal Spiritual Life the starting-point of his constructive work.

He takes up a position which he calls the noeological position.

Many theories take up a materialistic position; they assert the reality of the material world, and endeavour to explain the world of matter as something independent of the human mind.

Other theories assert the superiority of mind over matter, and endeavour to examine the mind as though it were independent of the material world.

These two types of theories have been in continual conflict; the one has attempted to prove that thought is entirely conditioned by sense impressions received from the material world, the other regards the phenomena of nature as really nothing other than processes of the mind.
Eucken finds reality existing in the spiritual life, which while neither material nor merely mental, is superior to both, admits the existence (in a certain sense) of both, and does away with the opposition between the rival types of theories.