ABSTRACT
It may well be that Reason with a capital ‘R’ – or, it may perhaps be better to say, the human capacity for reasoning – always ends up by getting itself into a mess – always has and always will. However that may be, it would seem that the last century has provided overall a particularly striking example of this. Of course, Reason, being what it is, always struggles to extricate itself from the mess; so it is wrong, no doubt, to speak of it ending up in one. There is and can be no conceivable end to its struggles with and against itself. Nevertheless the last century (or so) has provided what to many has appeared as a peculiarly distressing version of them, if to others perhaps a no less strangely liberating one. The story of Reason’s conflict with the emotions, or with bodily instinct, is a very old one, familiar through many different retellings. The more recent twist to this ancient story, however, is one of Reason’s own stubborn undermining of itself.
