{"product_id":"2940012467355","title":"DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA VOLUME II","description":"Chapter I: Philosophical Method Among the Americans\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think that in no country in the civilized world is less attention\u003cbr\u003epaid to philosophy than in the United States. The Americans have no\u003cbr\u003ephilosophical school of their own; and they care but little for all\u003cbr\u003ethe schools into which Europe is divided, the very names of which are\u003cbr\u003escarcely known to them. Nevertheless it is easy to perceive that almost\u003cbr\u003eall the inhabitants of the United States conduct their understanding in\u003cbr\u003ethe same manner, and govern it by the same rules; that is to say,\u003cbr\u003ethat without ever having taken the trouble to define the rules of a\u003cbr\u003ephilosophical method, they are in possession of one, common to the whole\u003cbr\u003epeople. To evade the bondage of system and habit, of family maxims,\u003cbr\u003eclass opinions, and, in some degree, of national prejudices; to accept\u003cbr\u003etradition only as a means of information, and existing facts only as a\u003cbr\u003elesson used in doing otherwise, and doing better; to seek the reason\u003cbr\u003eof things for one's self, and in one's self alone; to tend to results\u003cbr\u003ewithout being bound to means, and to aim at the substance through the\u003cbr\u003eform;--such are the principal characteristics of what I shall call the\u003cbr\u003ephilosophical method of the Americans. But if I go further, and if I\u003cbr\u003eseek amongst these characteristics that which predominates over and\u003cbr\u003eincludes almost all the rest, I discover that in most of the operations\u003cbr\u003eof the mind, each American appeals to the individual exercise of his own\u003cbr\u003eunderstanding alone. America is therefore one of the countries in the\u003cbr\u003eworld where philosophy is least studied, and where the precepts of\u003cbr\u003eDescartes are best applied. Nor is this surprising. The Americans do not\u003cbr\u003eread the works of Descartes, because their social condition deters them\u003cbr\u003efrom speculative studies; but they follow his maxims because this very\u003cbr\u003esocial condition naturally disposes their understanding to adopt them.\u003cbr\u003eIn the midst of the continual movement which agitates a democratic\u003cbr\u003ecommunity, the tie which unites one generation to another is relaxed\u003cbr\u003eor broken; every man readily loses the trace of the ideas of his\u003cbr\u003eforefathers or takes no care about them. Nor can men living in this\u003cbr\u003estate of society derive their belief from the opinions of the class to\u003cbr\u003ewhich they belong, for, so to speak, there are no longer any classes, or\u003cbr\u003ethose which still exist are composed of such mobile elements, that\u003cbr\u003etheir body can never exercise a real control over its members. As to the\u003cbr\u003einfluence which the intelligence of one man has on that of another, it\u003cbr\u003emust necessarily be very limited in a country where the citizens, placed\u003cbr\u003eon the footing of a general similitude, are all closely seen by each\u003cbr\u003eother; and where, as no signs of incontestable greatness or superiority\u003cbr\u003eare perceived in any one of them, they are constantly brought back to\u003cbr\u003etheir own reason as the most obvious and proximate source of truth. It\u003cbr\u003eis not only confidence in this or that man which is then destroyed, but\u003cbr\u003ethe taste for trusting the ipse dixit of any man whatsoever. Everyone\u003cbr\u003eshuts himself up in his own breast, and affects from that point to judge\u003cbr\u003ethe world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe practice which obtains amongst the Americans of fixing the standard\u003cbr\u003eof their judgment in themselves alone, leads them to other habits of\u003cbr\u003emind. As they perceive that they succeed in resolving without assistance\u003cbr\u003eall the little difficulties which their practical life presents, they\u003cbr\u003ereadily conclude that everything in the world may be explained, and that\u003cbr\u003enothing in it transcends the limits of the understanding. Thus they fall\u003cbr\u003eto denying what they cannot comprehend; which leaves them but little\u003cbr\u003efaith for whatever is extraordinary, and an almost insurmountable\u003cbr\u003edistaste for whatever is supernatural. As it is on their own testimony\u003cbr\u003ethat they are accustomed to rely, they like to discern the object which\u003cbr\u003eengages their attention with extreme clearness; they therefore strip off\u003cbr\u003eas much as possible all that covers it, they rid themselves of whatever\u003cbr\u003eseparates them from it, they remove whatever conceals it from sight,\u003cbr\u003ein order to view it more closely and in the broad light of day. This\u003cbr\u003edisposition of the mind soon leads them to contemn forms, which they\u003cbr\u003eregard as useless and inconvenient veils placed between them and the\u003cbr\u003etruth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Americans then have not required to extract their philosophical\u003cbr\u003emethod from books; they have found it in themselves. The same thing may\u003cbr\u003ebe remarked in what has taken place in Europe. This same method has\u003cbr\u003eonly been established and made popular in Europe in proportion as the\u003cbr\u003econdition of society has become more equal, and men have grown more like\u003cbr\u003eeach other. Let us consider for a moment the connection of the periods\u003cbr\u003ein which this change may be traced.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081455091952,"sku":"2940012467355","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012467355_p0.jpg?v=1763569272","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012467355","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}