Jaspers, Karl. Reason and anti-reason in our time

Abstract

The review examines Reason and Anti-Reason in our Time, by Karl Jaspers, originally published in German in 1950 under the title Vernunft und Widervernunft in unserer Zeit, read here in the Portuguese translation issued by Minotauro, with a preface by Delfim Santos. The text follows the three lectures that make up the work — the scientific demand, reason, and the struggle against reason — starting from the thesis that the contrary of reason is not extrinsic to reason itself. From the first chapter it sets out Jaspers's critique of Marxism and psychoanalysis: both would exceed the methodological limits of modern science by presenting themselves as total sciences, refusing criticism and being embraced as faith. From the second, it records the examination of reason, understood as something more than intelligence and formulated as encompassing reason, which moves towards the one and the eternal, even though these show themselves only historically. The third chapter describes the struggles of reason against the anti-philosophical spirit, magical thinking and totalitarianisms, with the warning that renouncing reason entails renouncing freedom. The review closes by placing the book among the author's other writings and notes the continuity of Jaspers's reflection on scientific superstition.