Irrationality: A History Of The Dark Side Of Reason

➤ ➤ IRR T ION LI T Y Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Engenders Monsters (1799). ➤ ➤ IRR TION LITY A HISTORY OF THE DA RK SIDE OF RE A SON JUSTIN E. H. SMITH PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright © 2019 by Justin E. H. Smith Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to [email protected] Published by Princeton University Press 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953426 ISBN 978-0-691-17867-7 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Editorial: Rob Tempio, Matt Rohal Production Editorial: Lauren Lepow Text Design: Leslie Flis Jacket Design: Amanda Weiss Production: Jacqueline Poirier Publicity: Julia Haav, Katie Lewis This book has been composed in Arno with DIN Pro and DIN 1451 Engschrift display Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is dedicated to the memory of Kenneth Von Smith (1940–2016) For to every philosophy there are certain rear parts, very important parts, and these, like the rear of one’s head, are best seen by reflection. — Herman Melville, The Confidence- Man (1857) C ON T E N T S ➤➤➤➤➤ Preamble. A Mathematician’s Murder 1 Introduction Reason’s Twin Enlightenment into Myth The Present Moment Irrationality: A Road Map 5 19 C H A P T E R O N E . The Self-Devouring Octopus; or, Logic 27 The Operation of Falsity Explosions Kaspar Hauser and the Limits of Rational Choice  Carrying On about the Ineffable C H A P T E R T WO . “No-Brainers”; or, Reason in Nature An Ordered Whole Brute Beasts An Imperfect Superpow