The philosophism of the rich has set a fatal example to the poor, and has brought about intervals of too long duration when men have faltered in their allegiance to God.
Then, great social changes can only be effected by means of some common sentiment so powerful that it brings men into concerted action, while latter-day philosophism has discovered that law is based upon personal interest, which keeps men apart.
And this is as true of architecture (reduced to construction) as it is of the other arts, and
philosophism and scientism, the ultimate rationalizations.
Thus Maistre depicts the Revolution as a world-historical struggle to the death "between Christianity and philosophism" (CF, 45).
Prior to the Revolution, France had become corrupted by a century of philosophism, incapable of the moral leadership in Europe for which it was (in Maistre's eyes) originally destined.
It is the corrosion of this political order by Protestantism and philosophism and their outcomes--the murders of Charles I and Louis XVI--that led to the torrents of English and French blood which were shed in divine retribution (CF, 11-13).
Philosophism sees, for the first time, a Philosophe (or even a Philosopher) in office ...