
Bereft of Reason
On the Decline of Social Thought and Prospects for Its Renewal
Eugene Halton(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Will be published approx. on 15. April 1995
Book
Hardback
314 pages
978-0-226-31461-7 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
549 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-31461-7 (9780226314617)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
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.
Content
1: The Codification of Social Theory 2: Of Life and Social Thought 3: The Cultic Roots of Culture 4: Lewis Mumford's Organic Worldview 5: The Transilluminated Vision of Charles Peirce 6: Jurgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Etherealization 7: The Neopragmatic Acquiescence: Between Habermas and Rorty 8: The Modern Error and the Renewal of Social Thought Notes Acknowledgments Index