Conversation

Reason After Its Eclipse: A Conversation with Martin Jay

Tue, Nov 15, 2016

6:00 PM–8:00 PM

The Skylight Room (9100)

In recent decades, few concepts have proven more fraught or more contentious than the concept of reason. To wit: in an interview during the late 70s, Michel Foucault provocatively asserted: “Reason is torture” (La torture, c’est la raison). In his thoughtful and challenging new book, Reason after Its Eclipse, (University of California, Berkeley) intellectual historian Martin Jay tackles a series of conundrums related to the recent debates over the fate of reason, utilizing the rich legacy of Frankfurt School thinkers such as Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and Jürgen Habermas as a prism. In our discussion in honor of Martin Jay’s new book, we will address these questions with an eye toward the way they have impacted the self-understanding of the humanities in recent years. Richard Wolin (The Graduate Center, CUNY) will be in conversation with Martin Jay.

A list of suggested reading materials is available here.

Cosponsored by the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, the Dankwart Rustow Memorial Fund, European Union Studies Center, CUNY Academy, the PhD Program in History, and the PhD Program in Political Science at the Graduate Center, CUNY.