Critics of Enlightenment Rationalism
Editors:
Gene Callahan
and
Kenneth McIntyre
Volume 1 is now published by
Palgrave.
News on volume 2 can be found
here.
The aim of this project is to provide an overview of the many
critics of Enlightenment rationalism. The essays on each thinker
are intended not merely to offer a discussion of that thinker, but
also to place him or her in the context of this larger stream of
anti-rationalist thought.
Reviewers' comments:
-
"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
analysing 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 prioritises 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
-
"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
University of South Florida
-
"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 human reason. 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
Chair, Integrated Liberal Studies
Director, Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy
Editor-in-Chief, The Political Science Reviewer
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Table of Contents
-
Introduction
Gene Callahan
and
Kenneth McIntyre
-
Edmund Burke:
Burke on Rationalism, Prudence and Reason of State
Ferenc Hörcher,
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest
and The Institute of Philosophy of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences
-
Alexis de Tocqueville:
The Uneasy Friendship Between Reason and Freedom
Travis D. Smith
and
Jin Jin
-
Søren Kierkegaard:
Kierkegaard's Later Critique of Political Rationalism
Robert Wyllie
-
Friedrich Nietzsche:
The Hammer Goes to Monticello
Justin Garrison,
Roanoke College
-
T.S. Eliot:
Pagans, Christians, Poets
Corey Abel
-
Wittgenstein on Rationalism
Daniel Sportiello
-
Heidegger’s Critique of Rationalism and Modernity
Jack Simmons,
Georgia Southern
-
Gabriel Marcel:
Mystery in an Age of Problems
Steven Knepper,
VMI
-
Michael Polanyi:
A Scientist Against Scientism
Charles W. Lowney,
Hollins University
-
C.S. Lewis: Reason, Imagination, and the Abolition of Man
Luke Sheahan,
Duke University
-
F.A. Hayek:
Postatomic Liberalism
Nick Cowen,
New York University
-
Hans-Georg Gadamer:
Anti-rationalism, Relativism, and the Metaphysical Tradition:
Situating Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics
Ryan Holston,
VMI
-
Eric Voegelin and Enlightenment Rationalism
Michael P. Federici,
Middle Tennessee State University
-
Michael Oakeshott:
Michael Oakeshott's Critique of Modern Rationalism
John Coats,
Connecticut College
-
Isaiah Berlin:
Isaiah Berlin on Monism
Jason Ferrell,
Concordia University
-
Russell Kirk:
The Mystery of Human Existence
Nathanael Blake
-
Jane Jacobs and the Knowledge
Problem in Cities
Sanford Ikeda,
Purchase College
-
Alasdair MacIntyre:
Practical Reason and Teleology:
MacIntyre’s Critique of Modern Moral Philosophy
Kenneth McIntyre,
Sam Houston State University
