originally published 7/1/2009

James Peters discusses historical understandings of reason and rationality and how they differ from the modern notion of rationality which is imbued with autonomy and impersonal, universal objectivity. Such a modern notion was alien to Plato and Aristotle both, who understood rationality as inextricably tied to the pursuit of the good through the imagination, first and necessarily formed through participation in a moral community. One is not simply born rational, nor does one develop rationality as an autonomous individual such that all individuals, universally, are endowed with rationality merely by virtue of their consciousness. On the contrary, rationality is formed in the context of moral communities that may differ across space and time. Reason, then, is not a-historical and abstract, but situated in history and community. Peters is the author of The Logic of the Heart: Augustine, Pascal, and the Rationality of Faith (Baker Academic, 2009).

21 minutes

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