Abstract
The growth of the idea of progress depended, as we have seen, to a great extent on a belief in the power of reason in man. In fact, the eighteenth century has often been referred to as the Age of Reason. In this period man’s estimation of himself and of his fellow man increased. Man was generally considered to be a rational being or at least capable of becoming rational. Even those who recognized the power of the nonrational in man tended to emphasize man’s capacity for rational behavior. John Locke (1632–1704), for example, stated: “The three great things that govern mankind are Reason, Passion and Superstition; the first governs a few, the two last share the bulk of mankind, and possess them in their turns; but superstition is most powerful, and produces the greatest mischiefs.”1 This does not seem to be a very optimistic statement concerning man’s reasoning power. Locke continues however in a hopeful vein: “Reason supplied with content by new individual experience, and not by innate, racial or divinely implanted intuition, is able to control the natural inclinations; and in that power of control lies the freedom of man...
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Bailey, R.B. (1958). Mass Society as Irrational. In: Sociology Faces Pessimism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0859-9_3
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