Reason and Life begins with a critical historical examination of past forms of reason (Ancient and Modern) as well as more recent contenders (Existentialism, Phenomenology, the "New Marxism"). All of these are critiqued as not capable of adequately interpreting life, that is, the interaction of living beings and their environment, because of their fixation upon the role of the being-in-itself, the knower, the individual consciousness. The author suggest as an alternative approach replacing Modern reason with a razon vital or an "organismic" approach, initially present in the writings of Jose Ortega y Gasset and Kurt Goldstein, but also to some degree in the works of a few later philosophers and psychologists of the twentieth century. To adopt the interactions of living beings and their environments as one's starting point is what the author calls, following the usage of J.J. Gibson, an ecological approach.
- ISBN10 076182541X
- ISBN13 9780761825418
- Publish Date 14 September 2003
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University Press of America
- Format Paperback
- Pages 266
- Language English