The adventure of being reasonable today

Abstract

As Husserl announced with emphasis on the final words of his famous Vienna conference on (May 10, 1935), “the crisis of European existence has only two exits: the decadence of Europe, alienated from its own rational sense of life, [and thus] the fall into the hatred of spirit and barbarism, or the rebirth of Europe from the spirit of philosophy through a heroism of reason that will definitely outgrow naturalism” (Husserl 1991: 358). There are many elements that lead us to think that the advanced postmodern Europe -and with it also the Spanish society- continues today in that dangerous situation, characterized by a radical distrust in reason that can in the mid-term return us to barbarism. In my words I would like, 1) to first briefly describe this situation; 2) second, to outline a more open notion of rationality in terms of reasonableness; (3) thirdly, to give account of certain objections to the uniformity of reason and pluralism; and 4) to end with some practical recommendations to be more reasonable today.