PHILOSOPHY 1 



"The role of France in the evolution of modern phil- 

 osophy is perfectly clear: France has been the great 

 initiator. Elsewhere as well there have appeared phil- 

 osophers of genius; but nowhere has there been, as in 

 France, an uninterrupted continuity of original philo- 

 sophical creation." Does this claim of Bergson ("La 

 Science franchise," I, 15) in behalf of French philosophy 

 appear too sweeping? Yet even a slight survey of the 

 course of French thought goes far towards justifying 

 it. Not that French philosophers have always developed 

 their ideas systematically and in detail; on the contrary 

 they have shown a certain distrust of system-making, 

 preferring instead to keep their ideas in close contact 

 with the concrete problems of experience which suggested 

 them. The happy result of this tendency is seen in the 

 peculiarly intimate relation throughout French history 

 between philosophy and the other main thought-currents 

 of the day, literary and art criticism, social and political 

 movements, religious reforms, scientific discoveries and 

 achievements. Perhaps in no country as in France have 

 the current philosophical ideas permeated and influenced 

 the great mass of the people. No nation has lived so 

 concretely its philosophy. 



Two of the most fundamental but opposed methods 

 and tendencies in all modern thought were initiated by 

 Frenchmen. DESCARTES gave to modern rationalism its 



1 [Drafting Committee: R. B. PERRY, Harvard University; J. H. 

 TUFTS, University of Chicago; C. B. VIBBERT, University of Michigan; 

 R. M. WENLEY, University of Michigan. ED.] 



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