Linked Data Explorerhttp://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/946057702
From rationalism to irrationality : the decline of the Western mind from the Renaissance to the present
That the Western mind is sick unto death and that Western culture and the civilization to which it gave birth are in serious danger of collapse are facts that have become so evident that few observers are prepared to dispute this conclusion and argue for their vitality. Many historians and students of Western culture have taken note of this decline and have attempted to offer various explanations of this phenomenon. - p. vii. Irrationalism and anti-intellectualism are not the peculiar properties and attributes of modern thought. Neither did they suddenly emerge in the Western mind during the Renaissance, even though at first glance this might seem to be the case, for it is certainly true that the philosophers of that era were much bolder in the formulation of their conviction in the autonomy of human reason than were the scholars of the Middle Ages. At the same time it must be admitted that the irrationalism which lurked beneath the mighty endeavors of Thomas Aquinas and his fellow scholastic thinkers was not supported with either the same purpose or boldness which became characteristic of the thinking of so many Renaissance humanists. However much we may disagree with Scholasticism and its endeavors to find a synthesis with Greek thought, particularly with that of Aristotle, it cannot be denied that with very few exceptions, if any, these medieval scholars all held to the unique authority of Scriptures and to many basic Christian doctrines. - p. 1.
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- "That the Western mind is sick unto death and that Western culture and the civilization to which it gave birth are in serious danger of collapse are facts that have become so evident that few observers are prepared to dispute this conclusion and argue for their vitality. Many historians and students of Western culture have taken note of this decline and have attempted to offer various explanations of this phenomenon. - p. vii. Irrationalism and anti-intellectualism are not the peculiar properties and attributes of modern thought. Neither did they suddenly emerge in the Western mind during the Renaissance, even though at first glance this might seem to be the case, for it is certainly true that the philosophers of that era were much bolder in the formulation of their conviction in the autonomy of human reason than were the scholars of the Middle Ages. At the same time it must be admitted that the irrationalism which lurked beneath the mighty endeavors of Thomas Aquinas and his fellow scholastic thinkers was not supported with either the same purpose or boldness which became characteristic of the thinking of so many Renaissance humanists. However much we may disagree with Scholasticism and its endeavors to find a synthesis with Greek thought, particularly with that of Aristotle, it cannot be denied that with very few exceptions, if any, these medieval scholars all held to the unique authority of Scriptures and to many basic Christian doctrines. - p. 1."@en
- "The basic premise of this study is that this flight from a rational interpretation of all reality is the logical and necessary consequence of the importation of classical philosophy into the mainstream of European thought during the Renaissance. The thesis of this work, then, is that the rationalism adopted by the humanists of the Renaissance from classical culture brought with it the irraitonalism inherent in Greek and Roman thought and that this classical world and life view has gained the mastery of the modern mind."
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- "History"@en
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- "From rationalism to irrationality : the decline of the Western mind from the Renaissance to the present"
- "From rationalism to irrationality : the decline of the Western mind from the Renaissance to the present"@en