ABSTRACT
The twentieth century has seen a variety of responses to what many philosophers have considered to be the failure or deficiencies of reason, as evidenced by the crisis in value and the unremitting violence that continues unabated. Thinkers such as Richard Rorty undertake a “total” critique of reason, seeking to elevate forms of discourse such as poetry above reason as the best resources for seeking a way to live. Others, such as José Ortega y Gasset and John William Miller, undertake a comparatively “immanent” critique of reason, seeking to inscribe reason within time and history as a way to overcome the excesses of the Eleatic tradition of reason examined in Chapters 1 and 2. Ortega and Miller offer crucial resources for rethinking the potential of reason in moral reflection, although they leave us with a lacuna that can be filled only through the turn to embodiment and the affective dimension of our constitution.
