Читать книгу When Reason Goes on Holiday - Neven Sesardic - Страница 8

Preface

Analytic philosophers emphasize the importance of logic, clarity, and reason. This is what made studying philosophy especially attractive for many of us who lived under communism. When we saw how much these philosophers valued intellectual integrity and uncompromising pursuit of truth, we found their approach inspiring and we tried to emulate it. This helped us preserve our sanity in the world of constant lies that surrounded us.

It was therefore a huge disappointment when I started to discover that a number of the most prominent Western philosophers who were rightly admired for their scholarly contributions actually abandoned reason altogether when they turned to politics. I realized that some of the thinkers I once regarded as models of rationality rushed into supporting ill-conceived and inhumane political causes. Some were even apologists for the mendacious communist regime that so obviously trampled on human liberty and that was abhorred by those of us who experienced it firsthand.

My disappointment led to curiosity about the extent of this betrayal of reason by philosophers and its many manifestations. I tried to learn more about this strange phenomenon that has received surprisingly little attention. The results of that research are presented here.