Eucken attributes the movements in the first instance to the receding into the background of the idea of an overworld which gave meaning and value to life.

When doubt was thrown upon religion and idealism, when confidence in another world was shaken, man lost to an extent his moral support.

Where could he turn now for a firm basis to life?
He might, of course, turn from the invisible world to the world of sense, to nature.

But the first result of this is to make man realise that he is separate from nature, and again he fails to find support.

He is an alien in the world of nature, and disbelieves the existence of a higher world.