Rationality and Reason Today

The Zeitgeist is not well disposed to reason. Reason stands in the crossfire of criticism. There are two kinds of attack. One is well-known: For decades reason has been criticized as being dominating, oppressive, destructive, downright Eurocentric or merely irrelevant. One might at best still speak of rationality, but on no account of reason. "Farewell to Reason" is a motto of the age.

The second, more subtle kind of attack comes not from the enemies of reason, but from those who claim themselves to be defenders of occidental rationality. They say: We don't need reason any more, all we need is rationality, and throughout modernity we have developed a comprehensive range of rationalities able to cover all conceivable questions. Amidst these highly differentiated versions of rationality, no room and no issue remains for reason any more.

Opposing both kinds of attack, I will outline a concept of reason which might be appropriate today. I will call it "transversal reason." I develop this concept in two stages. In the first part of this article I explain the situation of rationality as I see it. My thesis is that the contemporary shape of rationality requires and also makes possible a new concept of reason, which I then discuss in the second part.