NEW TITLE FROM VERSO
THE THREAT TO REASON
How the Enlightenment was hijacked and how we can reclaim it
Dan Hind
PUBLISHED 2nd JULY
Hardback
$26.95 / £14.99 / $33.50CAN
ISBN: 978 1 84467 152 6
· In the wake of September 11th 2001, the incidence of the phrase ‘Enlightenment values’ in the British press has quadrupled, often appearing in articles discussing the challenge posed to Western societies by religious fundamentalism. An exciting new voice, Dan Hind reveals the use and abuse of the Enlightenment by hawks, militant atheists, scientific evangelists and philosophical conservatives.
· Dan Hind argues that the real threats to reason aren’t wacky or foreign or stupid; they reside in our state and corporate bureaucracies - and, one way or another, they probably pay your salary.
· He shows how commentators from Christopher Hitchens to Martin Amis have used a false version of the Enlightenment to oppose a modern civilised ‘us’ to a reactionary barbaric ‘them’, so justifying the War on Terror.
· He demolishes the claim of fundamentalist atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, that faith is incompatible with reason.
· Science is hailed as the great achievement of the Enlightenment and science evangelists attack the spread of “pseudo” science such as alternative medicine. Hind argues that mainstream medicine cannot be separated from the market and can indeed be far more duplicitous than alternative medicine - with murderous results.
· He makes a passionate plea to return to Kant’s vision of an Enlightened public realm – for public debate beyond the constraints of the market and state interests.
Dan will be 'blogger in residence' on influential literary website readysteadybook all this week (www.readysteadybook.com). He has an editorial in today’s Guardian ‘comment is free’ site: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dan_hind/2007/07/war_and_enlightenment.html.
See Dan’s own blog here: http://thethreattoreason.blogspot.com/
'The Threat to Reason' is available in all good bookshops or on our site:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/ghij/h-titles/hind_d_threat_reason.shtml
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