Modernity's rationalization of the world

The Enlightenment optimists believed that Reason would save the modern world from what Kant referred to as man's self-imposed tutelage. Kant's view reflects the spirit of modern philosophy in two ways: insofar as modern philosophers believed rational reflection to be the justifying and integrating activity of mankind through both pure reason and practical reason. The careers of modern philosophy and modern society, however, suggest that the project of rationalizing the world has a problematic record on both counts.

Those who are more skeptical of the possibility of rationalizing culture, at least in the ways typified by the Enlightenment legacy, have abandoned or condemned that legacy in the name of a postmodern perspective. On the other hand, those who are more optimistic about the power of reason – i.e. to foster real progress in cultural development, to create liberating social structures, and to provide grounds for the critique of domination – wish to reconstruct, reinterpret, or reform the Enlightenment ideal of a rational society. Among the defenders of modernity Jurgen Habermas may be the best known, although Habermas' defense of modernity includes his own diagnosis of its errors and its ills.

Modernity: pro and con

On the issue of reason's progress there is the evidence of modern science. Even if only in the most crudely pragmatic terms, the productive power of science has emancipatory significance. Technology has extended human powers for meeting biological needs as well as for disseminating the power of technique through the globalization of communication.