Books in Brief: The Ambiguous Legacy of the Enlightenment

The Ambiguous Legacy of the Enlightenment, edited by William A. Rusher. (University Press of America, 223 pp. $28.50)

A DISTINGUISHED group of scholars, brought together by the Claremont Institute, discuss the limits of the scientific method and the intellectual tensions of the “age of reason.” An age that rejected metaphysics in favor of clear and distinct ideas, argues Charles Kesler, thus undercut its own quest for self-knowledge and freedom. Only irrationalism and determinism could follow. Which lead, explain Gerhart Niemeyer and Ernest van den Haag, to the cult of self-assertion, and ideology. John Adams thought America had escaped the worst of it with a “common sense” not found among the philosophies. Yet, the Cartesian mathematize-tion of nature still nips at all our humanity, as our lives are reduced to meaningless samiels of electromagnetic dust. Stanley Jaki offers hopeful words, but Kesler reminds us that despite their attacks on the Enlightenment, neither the Right nor the Left has been able to transcend it. A disturbing notion, among many in this fine collection.

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Matthew Carolan

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The Ambiguous Legacy of the Enlightenment, edited by William A. Rusher. (University Press of America, 223 pp. $28.50)

A DISTINGUISHED group of scholars, brought together by the Claremont Institute, discuss the limits of the scientific method and the intellectual tensions of the “age of reason.” An age that rejected metaphysics in favor of clear and distinct ideas, argues Charles Kesler, thus undercut its own quest for self-knowledge and freedom. Only irrationalism and determinism could follow. Which lead, explain Gerhart Niemeyer and Ernest van den Haag, to the cult of self-assertion, and ideology. John Adams thought America had escaped the worst of it with a “common sense” not found among the philosophies. Yet, the Cartesian mathematize-tion of nature still nips at all our humanity, as our lives are reduced to meaningless samiels of electromagnetic dust. Stanley Jaki offers hopeful words, but Kesler reminds us that despite their attacks on the Enlightenment, neither the Right nor the Left has been able to transcend it. A disturbing notion, among many in this fine collection.