The Philosophy of Disenchantment

In "The Philosophy of Disenchantment", Edgar Everton Saltus explores how the modern mind learns to live when old certainties fade. With wit and sharp insight, he examines the slow unraveling of inherited beliefs—religious, moral, and intellectual—that once gave life a clear shape and purpose. But instead of offering simple despair, Saltus invites the reader to confront disenchantment as a kind of awakening: a transition from comforting illusions to a more honest way of seeing the world. Through essays that move between culture, thought, and human nature, the book asks what remains when metaphysical guarantees disappear. Saltus challenges sentimental explanations and exposes the ways people cling to comforting narratives, arguing that true understanding requires intellectual courage. The Philosophy of Disenchantment is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1888.