what reason is or not
Reason, for the philosophe, (the enlightened thinker, philosopher, the rational) , what grace is for the Christian.It is grace which impels the Christians to act;it is reason which impels the philosophe.
Other men are swept along by their passions without reflecting before they take action: they are men who walk in darkness; on the other hand the philosophe, even in his passions, acts only after reflecting; he is walking at night, but there is a torch in front of him.
The philosophe bases his principles on an infinite number of particular observations. The people adopt the priniciple without thinking about the observation which have led to do it: they think the maxim exists as it were on its own, but the philosophe goes back to the sources of the maxim; he examines its origins, he knows its true value, and uses as much of it as suits him.
....For the philosophe truth is not a mistress who corrupts his imagination and which he believes he can find everywhere; he limits himself to being able to distinguish it when he can percieve it. He does not confuse it with probability; he takes as true what is true, as false what is false, as doubtful what is doubtful and as probable what is only probable. He does more, in that a great strength of the philosophe is that, when he has no reason to judge, he can suspend judgement.
-Anon, "Philosophe", in the Encyclopedie 1765 (translated version)
posted by A pedestrian @ 10:36 PM
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