Philosophy as Thinking the World According to the Principle of Least Effort

[The soul] performs [the task]; under favorable circumstances, the soul prefers a temporarily greater expenditure of force, which is however associated with a smaller magnitude or duration of effect, to a temporary extra effort that promises much greater or more lasting benefits in terms of effect.

Thus [we have] the principle of the least amount of force, as it is understood and applied here; thus [we have] the standpoint from which the development of philosophy has been subjected to a consideration that should have penetrated backward to the first point of origin and forward to the final unfolding of the thought of the world.

The more precise determination of the content of this thought has led to the demand for pure experience, and the attempt to establish pure experience according to concept and content simultaneously took shape as a critique of pure experience, also in the sense that natural science always liked to have its experience count as pure, even if it did not always clearly state it as such.

Alongside this relationship to the experience of natural science, one will suspect a relationship to the "Critique of Pure Reason" in the expression "Critique of Pure Experience," which is also cited on the title page, and, naturally, an oppositional one. It should not be denied that such an intention played a part; for a contrast of standpoints does in fact exist, and it seemed that by indicating this contrast in the title, one's own standpoint would immediately be cast into a characteristic light, which would also not be unwelcome to those who think differently as a means of facilitating mutual understanding.