ABSTRACT
World-history is a dramatic problem: it is nothing but the destiny of the collective soul of humanity, pursuing a path that is varied and full of confusion and change, but yet runs on in accord with definite psychological laws. Man discovered for the first time for many ages that he had reason and that reason is all-powerful. He discovered himself as a thinking being, an "ens rationale", or rather, he regenerated these forces in himself; that, if we will, is the meaning of the "Renaissance". This modern age, at least according to what is taught in all the schools, was caused by the discovery of America. Rationalism, the will-o'-the-wisp, which arbitrarily illumines and validates only those sections of reality which do not contradict "experience" and the "laws of thought", is solely a temporary prejudice, destined to disappear after a definite period of supremacy. The whole history of the modern age is simply the increasing intensification and super-intensification of rationalism.
