The philosophy of Boström has been compared to that of Hegel’s speculative metaphysical system of epistemological rationalism.21 The differences between the two systems were that while Hegel held that the physical world actually was real to a certain degree, and that the Absolute therefore actually did in fact manifest itself in and through the relative world, Boström argued that the Absolute (or God) possessed reality independently of the Relative, the physical world (which in turn derived its reality from the Absolute).22 To Boström the impermanence of the Relative was thus only illusory and hence unreal.23 For according to Boström’s rational idealism it was impossible to accept the natural conclusion following from Hegel’s idea regarding the Absolute, namely that the Absolute (alternatively God) manifested itself through the Relative, as this involved the degradation of the Absolute (God) implying that the Absolute was a relative concept, defined by its degree of relativity rather than by its intrinsically absolute nature, for that would entail that God depended on the physical world for God’s existence, an idea that Boström rejected.24 According to Boström’s philosophy there was but one (absolute) reality and that was God - a statement effectively denying the true and original reality of the sensible (such as space, time, matter, change and movement) in favor of the insensible, supernatural, spiritual, and eternal. The ontology of Boström’s philosophy affected its epistemolgy insofar as it prescribed but one real form of knowledge, namely knowledge of a rational and non-empirical nature, which was the form of expression that science proper should emulate.25 The apparently superficial differences between Boström’s and Hegel’s philosophies were, however, great enough for Boström and his adepts to make Hegel’s system the issue of one of the a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 41 21 Phalén, “Selbstdarstellungen,” p. 311; Nordin, Boströmska skolan, pp. 51-52. 22 Phalén, “Selbstdarstellungen,” p. 311; Nordin, Boströmska skolan, pp. 51-52. 23 Phalén, “Selbstdarstellungen,” p. 311. Nordin, Boströmska skolan, pp. 51-52; 24 Nordin, Boströmska skolan, pp. 53-54. 25 Boström, “Boström, Christopher Jacob,” in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon. Ny följd Band 2., pp. 359-361. Cf. Nordin, Boströmska skolan, pp. 23-35.
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