Critics of Rationalism
Editors: Gene Callahan and Lee Trepanier
The aim of this collection is to compare and contrast the ideas of leading critics of rationalism. Our original quartet of subjects included Eric Voegelin, Michael Polanyi, F.A. Hayek, and Michael Oakeshott. But as we have worked on the volume, we decided to expand the scope to include other, similar figures, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Alasdair MacIntyre and Aurel Kolnai. While each can be seen as a critic of "rationalism" (even though not all of them used that term), were they each attacking the same thing? In what senses did their analyses overlap, and in what senses did they differ? Clarifying these issues will provide important insights into this major intellectual trend of the past century.