Reason and Life: An Introduction to an Ecological Approach in Philosophy

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.