Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason

Description

A fascinating history that reveals the ways in which the pursuit of rationality often leads to an explosion of irrationality It's a story we can't stop telling ourselves. Once, humans were benighted by superstition and irrationality, but then the Greeks invented reason. Later, the Enlightenment enshrined rationality as the supreme value. Discove

Justin E. H. Smith is professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris 7-Denis Diderot. His books include The Philosopher: A History in Six Types (Princeton). An editor at large of Cabinet Magazine, he also writes frequently for the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, and other publications. Twitter @jehsmith

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year" "Irrationality is . . . stippled with fascinating meditations and vignettes."---Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Review of Books "Irrationality is unique among recent paeans to Enlightenment and liberalism in marrying a resolute defence of reason with a recognition of how futile such defences tend to be. As Smith expertly reveals, wherever one looks in the history of Western philosophy, rationality is haunted and teased by its other."---William Davies, London Review of Books "Smith is an excellent dramatizer of this dialectic, a witty and provocative guide leading the reader through chapters on logic . . . pseudoscience . . . and death . . . with a distinctive voice and considerable wit."---Jonathan Egid, Times Literary Supplement