The present contribution explicates the premises of Troxler’s metaphysics, psychology, and anthropology in the early modern period. The recourse to the early modern theory of the soul is in accordance with the tendency toward a rationalization of the sciences as analyzed by Troxler, the perception of man as a dualistic being separated into body and mind, and the Kantian conception of God as the idea of pure reason. Troxler counters the “dead philosophies” of Kant and German idealism with “vitalism of the spirit” centered around the concept of “Gemühtsideen.”