ABSTRACT
The school of irrationalism and romanticism is right to protest against false Enlightenment; for its principles are false, and are wrong upon matters of fact. But perhaps it is possible nevertheless that there should exist a genuine and satisfactory rational Enlightenment. The rationalism apprehends the essential forms of the world in their totality, and in doing so apprehends its own limits. With regard to rationalism as such, and apart from its service in the theory of Enlightenment, it must be remembered that rationalism is the theory of all the essential types, and not only of the mechanical ones. The romantic modern tendency against Enlightenment was described above as spiritual sloth—as the surrender of conscious weakness in the face of great difficulties. The author then speaks about another form of sloth—the practical sloth found chiefly in the field of practical politics.
