Critics of Enlightenment Rationalism

by Gene Callahan (Editor), Kenneth B. McIntyre (Editor)

Overview

This book provides an overview of some of the most important critics of “Enlightenment rationalism.” The subjects of the volume—including, among others, Burke, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, T.S. Eliot, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, C.S. Lewis, Gabriel Marcel, Russell Kirk, and Jane Jacobs—do not share a philosophical tradition as much as a skeptical disposition toward the notion, common among modern thinkers, that there is only one standard of rationality or reasonableness, and that that one standard is or ought to be taken from the presuppositions, methods, and logic of the natural sciences.

The essays on each thinker are intended not merely to offer a commentary on that thinker, but also to place that thinker in the context of this larger stream of anti-rationalist thought. Thus, while this volume is not a history of anti-rationalist thought, it may contain the intimations of such a history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030425982
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	05/13/2020
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	313
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Eugene Callahan teaches at New York University. He is the author of Economics for Real People (2002), Oakeshott on Rome and America (2012), and co-editor of Tradition v. Rationalism (2018).

Kenneth B. McIntyre is Professor of Political Science at Sam Houston State University. He is the author of The Limits of Political Theory: Michael Oakeshott on Civil Association (2004) and Herbert Butterfield: History, Providence, and Skeptical Politics (2012).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. Burke on Rationalism, Prudence and Reason of State.- 3. Alexis de Tocqueville and the Uneasy Friendship between Reason and Freedom.- 4. Kierkegaard’s Later Critique of Political Rationalism.- 5. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Hammer Goes to Monticello.- 6. "Pagans, Christians, Poets".- 7. Wittgenstein on Rationalism.- 8. Heidegger’s Critique of Rationalism and Modernity.- 9. Gabriel Marcel: Mystery in an Age of Problems.- 10. Michael Polanyi: A Scientist Against Scientism.- 11. C.S. Lewis: Reason, Imagination, and the Abolition of Man.- 12. Hayek: Postatomic Liberal.- 13. "Anti-rationalism, Relativism, and the Metaphysical Tradition: Situating Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics".- 14. Eric Voegelin and Enlightenment Rationalism.- 15. Michael Oakeshott’s Critique of Modern Rationalism.- 16. Isaiah Berlin on Monism.- 17. Russell Kirk: The Mystery of Human Existence.- 18. Jane Jacobs and the Knowledge Problem in Cities.- 19. Practical Reason and Teleology: MacIntyre’s Critique of Modern Moral Philosophy.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Callahan and McIntyre have brought together a distinguished and cosmopolitan array of contributors who have produced a lively and provocative collection of essays exploring and analyzing the modern phenomenon of Enlightenment rationalism, whose distinguished critics range from the historically important Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Friedrich Nietzsche, to our near contemporaries Hans-Georg Gadamer, Eric Voegelin and Michael Oakeshott. The connecting and fascinating thread that runs through the volume is a relentless critique of a style of thinking that prioritizes the pursuit of certainty, and a blind belief in the powers of instrumental reason to overcome all adversity.”
—David Boucher, Professor of Political Philosophy and International Relations, Cardiff University, UK

“This volume could not have arrived at a better time. McIntyre and Callahan have given us an excellent set of essays that speaks directly to the fetishization of humanreason. Each of the thinkers examined reminds us of the fallibility of human beings—a lesson we sorely need to revisit every generation or so.”
–Richard Avramenko, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

“This is a remarkable and remarkably comprehensive collection on thinkers who questioned enlightenment rationalism, both in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The list is impressive: Tocqueville, Kierkegaard, Burke, Nietzsche, Eliot, as well as Oakeshott, Hayek, Alasdair MacIntyre, and a number of others equally stellar, and equally deep and complex. The essays are by accomplished scholars, and show that the opposition to enlightenment rationalism was both diverse and strikingly coherent, and a treasure trove for thinking beyond the enlightenment. It will be especially valuable for those with interests in one of these thinkers to see them in the context of the larger fraternity to which they belong.”
–Stephen Turner, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, University of South Florida, USA

"The variety of topics considered, the range of thinkers included, the striking and ultimately illuminating juxtaposition of approaches combine to cast, not a spotlight, but indeed multiple of points of light on a rich selection of important thinkers from the later-modern period. Scholars and students interested in modern critics of modernity will benefit from the range of figures treated here and the depth of the commentaries on them."
–Alexander S. Duff, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of North Texas, USA