Rousseau invented basing faith on human nature rather than proofs
Evidence
This way of defending religious belief was invented by Rousseau. It has become so familiar that his originality may easily not be appreciated by a modern reader, unless he will take the trouble to compare Rousseau with (say) Descartes or Leibniz. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2503
Categorization
- XREF: Links forward to modern Protestant apologetics and contrasts with Descartes and Leibniz’s rational proofs. — connects to: Enlightenment-based sociology fragments because theories depend on observers’ beliefs about human nature
- QUESTION: Worth tracing how exactly later thinkers adopted this move from Rousseau.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2503