Since different individuals reached different conclusions, the result was strife, and theological
decisions were sought, no longer in assemblies of bishops, but on the battle-field. Since neither
party was able to extirpate the other, it became evident, in the end, that a method must be found of
reconciling intellectual and ethical individualism with ordered social life. This was one of the
main problems which early liberalism attempted to solve.
Meanwhile individualism had penetrated into philosophy. Descartes's fundamental certainty, "I
think, therefore I am," made the basis of knowledge different for each person, since for each the
starting-point was his own existence, not that of other individuals or of the community. His
emphasis upon the reliability of clear and distinct ideas tended in the same direction, since it is by
introspection that we think we discover whether our ideas are clear and distinct. Most philosophy
since Descartes has had this intellectually individualistic aspect in a greater or less degree.
There are, however, various forms of this general position, which have, in practice, very different
consequences. The outlook of the typical scientific discoverer has perhaps the smallest dose of
individualism. When he arrives at a new theory, he does so solely because it seems right to him;
he does not bow to authority, for, if he did, he would continue to accept the theories of his
predecessors. At the same time, his appeal is to generally received canons of truth, and he hopes to
persuade other men, not by his authority, but by arguments which are convincing to them as
individuals. In science, any clash between the individual and society is in essence transitory, since
men of science, broadly speaking, all accept the same intellectual standards, and therefore debate
and investigation usually produce agreement in the end. This, however, is a modern development;
in the time of Galileo, the authority of Aristotle and the Church was still considered at least as
cogent as the evidence of the senses. This shows how the element of individualism in scientific
method, though not prominent, is nevertheless essential.
Early liberalism was individualistic in intellectual matters, and also in economics, but was not
emotionally or ethically self-assertive. This form of liberalism dominated the English eighteenth
century, the founders of the American Constitution, and the French encyclopædists. During the
French Revolution, it was represented by the more