Bereft of Reason – On the Decline of Social Thought & Prospects for its Renewal (Paper) - Softcover

Halton, Eugene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226314626 ISBN 13: 9780226314624

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1997

Synopsis

In this critique of contemporary social theory, Eugene Halton argues that both modernism and postmodernism are damaged philosophies whose acceptance of the myths of the mind/body dichotomy make them incapable of solving our social dilemmas. Claiming that human beings should be understood as far more than simply a form of knowledge, social construction or contingent difference, Halton argues that contemporary thought has lost touch with the spontaneous passions - or enchantment - of life. Exploring neglected works in 20th-century social thought and philosophy - particularly the writings of Lewis Mumford and Charles Peirce - as well as the work of contemporary writers such as Vaclav Havel, Maya Angelou, Milan Kundera, Doris Lessing and Victor Turner, Halton argues that reason is dependent upon non-rational forces - including sentiment, instinct, conjecture, imagination and experience. We must, he argues, frame our questions in a way which encompasses both enchantment and critical reason, and he offers an outline here for doing so.

About this title

About the Author

Eugene Halton is professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Meaning and Modernity: Social Theory in the Pragmatic Attitude and Bereft of Reason: On the Decline of Social Thought and Prospects for Its Renewal, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226314626
• ISBN 13: 9780226314624
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 314