Reason and Culture (New Perspectives on the Past) [Paperback]

Ernest Gellner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0631137114 | ISBN-13: 978-0631137115 | Edition: 1

This book brings together the philosophical, historical and sociological discussions of rationality and strives to make clear the underlying issues and the continuity of the debate under the various idioms.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Elegantly written, lucid; instructive and easy to read." Times

"Exciting, even exhilarating reading." Times Literary Supplement

"Fascinating and extremely well written work. Excellent bibliography and index. Highly recommended! All levels." Choice

"Reason and Culture amounts to a personal testament - Gellner's fullest, strongest, and most accessible formulation of his commitment to reason. The book is fascinating." Contemporary Sociology

"He writes here as elegantly, trenchantly and wittily as in his numerous other books." ANZJS

From the Back Cover

Since the seventeenth century, Western society has had a turbulent relationship with Reason. Descartes set out to reorganize all his opinions in the light of Reason, allowing, as Pascal bitterly reproached him, nothing else. In the course of the centuries which followed, the relationship with Reason became the object of a vigorous, often passionate debate. David Hume declared Reason to be impotent; Immanuel Kant observed that men suffered from "misology" as the result of their disappointed expectations of Reason; G. W. F. Hegel declared that the main insight of philosophy consisted of the realization that reason masterminded and guided all history.

The debate has not remained restricted to philosophy. Max Weber, the most influential modern sociologist, was obsessed with the distinctive role of Reason in Western society, and the part it played in engendering industrialism. Social anthropologists have been preoccupied both with the universality and the diversity of conceptual thought. Emile Durkheim taught them to ask why all men were rational, whilst Max Weber taught sociologists to ask why some men were more rational than others.

This book brings together the philosophical, historical and sociological discussions of rationality and strives to make clear the underlying issues and the continuity of the debate under the various idioms.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (August 3, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631137114
• ISBN-13: 978-0631137115
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,151,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modus tollens, November 2, 2005

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reason and Culture (New Perspectives on the Past) (Paperback)

Ernest Gellner's book is a magisterial summary of Western philosophy:

Descartes's individual reason against collective culture.

Hume's sensualism against reason: ideas are residuals of qualia and habit determines the world structure.

Kant's idealism against sensualism: the world can be constructed by pure reason and the subject is the centre of the world. But a problem persists: the antinomy between individual freedom and the laws of physics.

Durkheim's importance of rites for morality.

Hegel and Marx: truth is the historical process.

Schopenhauer: nature is evil, blind insatiate passion and aggression.

Nietzsche's upheaval of Schopenhauer: acceptance of nature, no slave morals.

Darwin and the all importance of biology.

Freud: sexuality and irrationalism, but no philosophical coherence.

Weber: the importance of a certain form of rationalism for capitalism.

Chomsky: language structures are innate.

Popper: no laws, only falsifications.

The excesses of Popper's followers: anything goes (Paul Feyerabend).

Wittgenstein: Gemeinschaft (community) against Gesellschaft (society).

The enemies of reason (tradition, authority, experience, emotions, unsystematic experiments) put its position in our society in danger. Rational research discovered that our habits (also language) are irrational and based on a heap of sensory perceptions. Humans are biological beings.

Nevertheless, reason is needed for the functioning of our society. It should impose a limit on irrationality by a 'modus tollens': all ideas which are in contradiction with the facts should be rejected.

This rather small book is a very profound overview of fundamental philosophical problems.

A must read.

I also highly recommend the works of Bryan Magee.