In this essay, Derek Bigg demonstrates that "human reason, when it has the final say, ultimately leads to irrationality. Modern thinkers have ignored the lesson implicit in Hume's philosophy, who already showed in the 18th century that rationalist argument can only produce absurd results. Nor have they properly analyzed the implications of romanticism, which protested against the rationalism of the Enlightenment, but dangerously approached the opposite extreme, that is, irrationality."
Today we are paying the price for this failure to learn from history. Contemporary humanism continues to exalt reason, and existentialism has made explicit the irrationalism that was implicit in the romantic movement. But neither of these philosophies brings satisfaction nor solves the great problems of life, so that modern man constantly lives in a state of frustration. Is there an alternative to humanism and existentialism? Is there a way of living that gives reason its proper place without leading us to irrationality?
