Abstract
One of the central themes, perhaps indeed the central obsession, of Cartesian rationalism is the aspiration for autonomy. There is the overwhelming desire for a kind of self-creation, for bringing forth a self and a world not simply taken over from an unexamined, accidental, contingent inheritance. Rationalism is the philosophy of the New Broom. Man makes himself, and he does so rationally. Cultural accumulation is irrational: it is a blind process. If our thought and valuation are its fruits, they are unworthy of our trust in our identification.
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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Gellner, E. (1995). Prometheus Perplexed. In: Jarvie, I.C., Laor, N. (eds) Critical Rationalism, the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 162. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0441-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0441-0_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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