Unreasonable Men

Seidler argues that the identification of masculinity with reason has played a central role in Western social theory and philosophy. Reason is defined in opposition to nature, and mind set against body, as men have learnt to take their reason for granted. This produces an "unreasonable" form of reason that men learn to use to legislate for others, before learning to speak more personally for themselves. This is part of the power that men can assume in relation to women, and which is embodied in dominant forms of social theory. Emotions and feelings are discounted as forms of knowledge, for they are deemed to be "personal" and "subjective" when contrasted with the "objectivity" and "impartiality" of reason. "Unreasonable Men" aims to demonstrate how an Enlightenment view of modernity excluded and silenced those whom it regarded as "others" for being closer to nature, thereby setting the terms in which "others" have to prove themselves rational to enter the "magic circle of humanity". Traditions of social theory carry both the dreams and demons of a modernity which could only recognize "injustice" and "oppression" as "real" and "objective" within the public world of men.