In this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump, Justin Smith argues that irrationality makes up the greater part of human life and history. Ranging across philosophy, politics, and current events, he shows that, throughout history, every triumph of reason has been temporary and reversible, and that rational schemes often result in their polar opposite. Illuminating unreason at a moment when the world appears to have gone mad again, Irrationality is timely, provocative, and fascinating.
Justin E. H. Smith is professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris 7–Denis Diderot. His books include The Philosopher: A History in Six Types (Princeton).
鈥淪tippled with fascinating meditations and vignettes.鈥濃擪wame Anthony Appiah, New York Review of Books
鈥Irrationality is unique among recent paeans to Enlightenment and liberalism in marrying a resolute defence of reason with a recognition of how futile such defences tend to be.鈥濃擶illiam Davies, London Review of Books
"No philosopher alive today writes with as much wit, voice, and erudition as Justin Smith. Irrationality is a masterpiece: an urgent warning that no grand design of perfect rationality can provide the solution to the depravity of this political moment."鈥擸ascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy
"A learned, ludic, and often profound meditation on how the perverse dialectic of reason and unreason has played out over history."鈥擩im Holt, author of Why Does the World Exist?