Abstract
FOR the philosophers of the French Enlightenment theirs were grand days. They were grand because the errors of history and of circumstance were at long last understood ; reason would put everything right. Thus the enthronement of scientific method ; the fields were white to harvest with the fruits of Cartesianism, all ready for the garnering ; and this not necessarily against the winter, for such seasons would be mild in future, their edges rounded off by a generous humanity, which quality, by the way, was thought to be identical with reason itself.
The Faith of Reason
The Idea of Progress in the French Enlightenment. By Charles Frankel. Pp. x+165. (New York : King's Crown Press ; London : Oxford University Press, 1948.) 16s. net.
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RAWLINS, F. The Faith of Reason. Nature 163, 270 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163270d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163270d0