Word: rationalist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...need to falsify history as has been done in the totaltarian countries," he said. "We do not need to indoctrinate. All we need to do is to set aside our cheap rationalist utilitarianism, our Babbittism, and return to a true understanding of history...
...rationalist and firm believer in liberty of conscience, Jefferson summed up his purpose in a letter to John Adams: "We must reduce our volume to the simple Evangelists; select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus. . . . There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently His and which is as easily distinguished as diamonds in a dunghill...
...awarded the Prix Goncourt. His first novel, it is sometimes spoken of as the fountainhead of the revival of idealism in French literature. In manner as well as in substance it dares extremes of intensity which may be guaranteed to unsettle the digestion of any polite rationalist...
...showed boldness as well as subtlety in trying to find economic solutions to the tangles that forced Europe toward war. He backed the economic rationalist, Paul Van Zeeland, as Belgian Premier as long as he could, and tried to realize free trade in the Oslo Group of small Northwestern nations. He thought economic collaboration would lead to other, higher ground. Said he: "Give humanity . . . not words, but proofs that the Western countries have, above their more immediate problems of material nature, a spiritual force emanating from the spirit of brotherhood...
Speaking in a soft, expressive voice, and gesticulating freely but not dramatically, small, white-haired Dean Matthews went on to explain away rationalism. Predicating his remarks with a defense of free thought, he declared that even the rationalist, who would place all faith on his own reason, was subject to the laws of probability, for human reason may not lead to truth,--may be based on false hypotheses. Moreover, some attitude must be taken toward life, for we must live; and of the several alternatives religious faith is by far the most satisfying...