II.2. Réponse à un acte d’accusation contre la raison
Heidegger’s Letter on Humanism maintains that by defining man as an animal rationale, the humanist tradition in philosophy reduces man to an animal and that this is the origin of biologism. Yet it is not true that the rationalist tradition associated with Descartes and the Enlightenment, which was...
Enregistré dans:
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Français |
| Publié: |
2017
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | Heidegger’s Letter on Humanism maintains that by defining man as an animal rationale, the humanist tradition in philosophy reduces man to an animal and that this is the origin of biologism. Yet it is not true that the rationalist tradition associated with Descartes and the Enlightenment, which was targeted by Heidegger, is at the origin of racism and the Shoah. Sufficient proof of this may be found in the observation that this definition of man does not appear in the works of any of the most representative philosophers of the philosophical tradition (Aristotle, Descartes, Kant). This condemnation of reason, which is held responsible for the technical destruction of the planet and of humankind itself, is based on a misinterpretation of the meaning of rationality. For example, Descartes never dreamt of becoming the master of nature and Plato never used mathematics as tool of world conquest. Their shared aim was simply to understand. In Germany beginning at the end of the 18th century, an ideological movement led to a hatred of reason. This was a political form of misology first and foremost. Nazism did not arise from too much reason. It arose from this misology. Who could possibly believe that the origin of anti-Semitism is reason ? |
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