Reason and Tradition

Abstract

Anti—Enlightenment political philosophy takes a number of different forms. The first of the challenges to Enlightenment thought to be discussed here is found in the work of various historicist thinkers, most notably Alasdair MacIntyre, but similar commitments are shared with those sometimes referred to as communitarians along with the broader philosophical approach known as hermeneutics. Historicism involves the following commitments concerning rationality and morality. The first contention is that rationality is neither universal nor neutral. It does not provide the one and the same stand—point at all times for all people. Its content, its methods of analysis, its standards of validity, and even its logical rules can and may righty alter. All rational enquiry, including political theory and moral theory, is infused with and constituted by the particularity of social contexts, including practices and activities, political communities, and traditions. However, according to MacIntyre, it does not follow that rationality is for that reason weakened or undermined. Although rational enquiry is ‘context—bound’ and ‘tradition—constituted’, it is from within such social contexts that we have access to standards of rational justification, and so it is only within such social contexts that we can deliberate and debate rationally at all.