The turmoil and brutality of the twentieth century have made it
increasingly difficult to maintain faith in the ability of reason
to fashion a stable and peaceful world. After the ravages of global
conflict and a Cold War that divided the world's loyalties, how are
we to master our doubts and face the twenty-first century with
hope?
In "Return to Reason," Stephen Toulmin argues that the potential
for reason to improve our lives has been hampered by a serious
imbalance in our pursuit of knowledge. The centuries-old dominance
of rationality, a mathematical mode of reasoning modeled on theory
and universal certainties, has diminished the value of
reasonableness, a system of humane judgments based on personal
experience and practice. To this day, academic disciplines such as
economics and professions such as law and medicine often value
expert knowledge and abstract models above the testimony of diverse
cultures and the practical experience of individuals.
Now, at the beginning of a new century, Toulmin sums up a
lifetime of distinguished work and issues a powerful call to
redress the balance between rationality and reasonableness. His
vision does not reject the valuable fruits of science and
technology, but requires awareness of the human consequences of our
discoveries. Toulmin argues for the need to confront the challenge
of an uncertain and unpredictable world, not with inflexible
ideologies and abstract theories, but by returning to a more humane
and compassionate form of reason, one that accepts the diversity
and complexity that is human nature as an essential beginning for
all intellectual inquiry.
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