Yale University Library Digital Repository

Collection Name: Henry A. Kissinger papers, part II

Series Title: Series I. Early Career and Harvard University
Box: 292 Folder: 9
Folder Title: Taubes, Jacob, "The Historical Function of Reason"
Persistent URL: http://findit.library.yale.edu/catalog/digcoll:560930
Repository: Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

Contact Information
Phone: (203) 432-1735
Email: mssa.assist@yale.edu
Mail:
Manuscripts and Archives
Sterling Memorial Library
128 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520

Your use of Yale University Library Digital Repository indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use
http://guides.library.yale.edu/about/policies/copyright
Find additional works at: http://findit.library.yale.edu

,zr

Tho Historical Function of Reason

by

Jacob Taubes
Lecturer on Philosophy
at Harvard University

t
*

Tho reflections sat forth in this paper are born of the following question:
how did it como about that a society that had staked its futuro on the progress of
reason had ended up in barbarism and in the rogreso of humanity? Is the progreso
in technological achiovement, both theoretical and practical, necessarily bound up
with the decrease of individual and collective rationality? The noxus betwaaa
progress of technological reason and rogreso of social rationality nay perhaps be
detorminod by an inquiry into the vary concopt of reason that is ruling our scientific
procedures. It seams that (=moo the tochnological progress expands the horizon
of human potentialities and activities, ramals autonany as ma individual, his ability
to resist the apparatus of mass-manirulation, is on the retreat.
Philosophy or rational discourse has fallen into disrepute. Philosophy claims
tho Universality of roason. But reason cannot be truly universal as long as
(violence overtly or covertly rules the relation between man and man. Tho universality
of reason cannot be achieved as long as there is no accord established among the
interests of all individuals. History, however, unfolds before us a human society
that in split into groups with conflicting interests. The contradiction between
_4the claim of philosophy to the univorsality of roan= and the actual split of
society into antagonistic groups is reflocted also in the disccurso of men. Thin
contradiction has rightly brought a philosophical pursuit that doos not tako noto
of the actual situation into disropute

But we do not invite chaos if um approach

a "systematic" prdblan of philosophy like an inquiry into the concept of reason

by analysing reason in its historical context? Aro wo not lost to the opinions of
mortals if we consider the social implications of the concept of mason? Such,
questions carry weight and cannot be dismissod easily. What is the cox= premiso

9.

[11
2

of thoso objoctions7 Those arguments presuppose that no concepts of mortals aro

nimmortaln that they, aro valid without relation to man. In these argumento the
nexus between philosophy and history io savorod. Philosophy comes to analyso the
formal constitutivo elements of scianco, while hiatory deals only with contingont
configurations of human opinions. An historical analysis of roason thereforovi
utuld endanger the purity of the scientific pursuit.
Philosophy long since developed its own mothod, more arithmotico. The analytical
character of mathematics caves the mathematical procedure fron all dangers lurking
in human experience. Nathematical theory abstracto from questions concerning tho
posahlo roality of its objocts and disponses with the consideration of the moaning
of thin abstraction. Philosophical analysis in imitating mathematical procedure
surely gains the security of pure operations. But it gains this securityonly17
eclipsing the foundations on which all operations aro built man. If philosophical
inquiry, however, is a pursuit that studies the moaning of human concepto the%
it coons to mo, it cannot abstract from man as the root of all moaning. Thus it would
seam that the price for a puro fiold of operation io ignorance about the gonosis of
4udgmel4A- It maybe that in mathomatics such a procedure has its advantages. It
bocones, however, grotesque in the formal sciences in the =ant when such formal
structures aro established as a rosin in itself, as a reality in itself. An operation
pu-tri
,t)k
caN14

which is established in a purely oolfsisubsistent realm without recourao to its

genesis inhuman consciousnoss only toatifios to the alienation of man !rim the
products of hin =making, fram. ho products of his cun reasoning. The separato
roalms bogin to act as fetishes that control their oui maim's. There in no basic
difference botwoen fetishes that aro dressed up as motaphysical substantial entities
or that are dressed up as formal logical entitiosp
Tho 'purity of philosophical inquiry, of the logical and epistemological

%
4

k
pursuit in usually argued in view of the fallacy of psychologisEi
of a logical statement or of an epistemological anali canno

ey

ty

made dependent

on the state of an individual. It must, no the argument runs, be valid in a &main

by itself, irrespective of man. But such a conclusion in warranted only because
the subject of logical validity is tested on an abstract and isolated individual
removed from the concrete socio-hiatorical context. The reduction of man to an
isolated individual on the one hand and the positing of universal rules of validity
into an abstract realm vitiates the dialectic between indivicbm, certainty and
tranoindividual validity. no individual starts as a tabula rasa - he in integrated
into a social system of language and signs.
The polemic against a genetic interpretation of rationality succeeds no easily,
since it limits the idea of genesis to the psychological nexus which, indeed, is
unable to face the question of universal validity. But reason is a social category:

,41

it presupposes that men are speaking. The logical rules are incarnated in language.

Language, however, mediates between the isolated individual and the ccramunity; between
044/
fr--e.
man and society.
TAAAA-.A.c.w1.1.0-6;AL
If philosophical analysis operates with the human consciousness only in toms
of an individual monad, it is driven to hypostasis() a realm of validity since indeed
the validity

of universal rules cannot

be limited to an individual monad. By

hypostasiaing a realm of validity in the no-where, philosophy loses insight into

the source of all meaning, into man in his historical existence.
Logical operations are, indeed, valid for all possible judgments, but thin rulo
does not yet give a green light to hypostasis() a realm of validity In itself. For
both, the logical operations and all possible judgments are mediated by man's historic
existence. Even the most abstract sentence is still a verdict, a spoken word. Even

formal logic is nfunctional" and not an a W2s1 ideal realm, It is the radical
jmont that drives philosophy to
division between gonosis and validity of judi,
hypootasiso a priorirroalms, Ile ohould indeed guard against confounding the
justification of a judgzent with its genesis. But does it follow from this that
in the explication of the=mina of validity VJO should abstract from, all gonetic
sociohistoric olomonts? All philosophy that isolatos the subjoctivo polo of
=formica, be it in a logical cp. in an existential =nor, leads into the antimonies
of psychologloms but all philosophy that abErtracts ccmplotoly from aLl subjoctivo
. te realm of val idity
elemonta in the analysio of reason and postulatos a separa
)
'
seems no loss to bo entangled in difficulties. (3
Ito motamorphosis of tho concept of roason contains the history of the stages
of tleatorn devolormont. The concopt of mason fraa the very beginning included
an olemont of criticiem. Thus gradual stag= of calightersnont produced, an No
Wobor has pointed outs a progrossivo dizonchantmont of the univereo. Nan employal
reason to dispel nobulao, to free himsolf from fear and anxiety co that h* grci4
gradually out

of his stato of doponionco.

MO function of modern =aeon io well oirrn.rtrizod in Francis Bacon's remark

.(2) This concopt of reason can
that limcvledgo and human program; aro synonymous,
only through the domination of naturo. Therefore Bacon adds izmnodiatoly,

be

ifor naturo is only subdusd by submission.. Man daminatos natura by the instrumont

of reason,.

...L._uro Rowan
Critt
Kant in his prof= to the second odition of his.

( a work that carries in the second edition a motto from Francis Bacon )has
olaborated moro fully the moats of the modern scientific procedure:
atlhen Galilei lot balls of a particular weight which ho had dotorminod
himsolf, roll dawn an inclined piano, or Torricelli nado the air carry a
weight, which ho had prorious3,7 determined to be oqual to that of a dofinito

14.

fr

[1]
5

volume' of water; or when, in later times, Stahl changed metal into lirao,
and limo again into metals by withdrawing and restoring eomething, a now
light flanhed on all otudents of nature. Shay comprehended that reason
hao insight into that only, which oho hersolf producos on her own plan,
and that oho must mow forward with the principleo of her judgment,
according to fixed law, and compel nature to answer her quostionn, but
not let heaboelf be led by nature, as it wore, in loading stringo, Imam
otherwise, accidenta]. oboervationo, riodo on no pravioualy fixed plan, will
novor convergo towards a necossary- law, which is the only thing that
reason seeks and requiroo. Rowan, holding in ono hand it principles,
according to 'ditch concordant phonomona alone can be rteritted ea laws of
nature, and in the other hand the =pert:onto which it has devised according
to time principlos, must approach nature in order to be taught by it; but
not in the character of a pupil who ogre= to ovor7thing the maoter likes,
but as an appointed judge, wiko.compols tho witness to annwor the questions
which ho himsolf proposessti L3)
The age of enlightenment han indeed fulfillod its program. The precem of
enlightenment was achieved by a progroonive olimination of all mythical residua
in the human mind. Nano of the categorico of tho old philosophy like mind, will
or final cause have survived the critical purge of skopticiem. The notion of
causo was perhape the laut residuum of old motaphysicn which remainod in the
/Lenora consciouonoao of the ago of enlightenmont until Humo dispolled and
exorcised this pock. Since Humo, however, the slcoptical motor has gained
momentum until at the ond of the proceso of rationaliza4on the concept of
reason itself is abandoned an a mythical residuum. Skopticiem has purged the
idea of reason of so much of ito contant that at the end the very idea of reason
appears like a ghoot that has anorgod from cloudy linguistic wage. Mat philosophy
had originally dona to tho ancient mythologioa boomoranged as a rovengo upon
philosophy itoelf. The categories of clansic philosophy were =asked as being
tainted by =Dorico of ancient mythology. In the preSocratic coemologie we can
till discern openly the mcmont of transition from mythical figures to ontological
clement. But the rationalist critiqua has in the couror3 of the centurion urriagled
oven the platonic chain of being. The hierarchy of the Olympian pantheon mergers

[I]
6
as the nodo]. for Plato's theory of idczi. The nominalistic critique suspocts all
univoroals as spooks. Ockhamys razor, indeed, succeeded, as Ur. Quino romarkod,
to chavo Plato's beard.
In modern timos the structure

of the

universo was studied without illusions,

without imputing occult poworoo and be it even innocent ontological catogorioa

into naturo. Whatever did not fit into the quantifying measure, into

thnotico

bccomos suspect to modern mason. There is a liberating function in the mathomatization

of the cos which started in the seventeenth century and formal logic has workod as
a great catalyst towards coordinating and unifying the scientific operation.
Ignoring the various qualities man can dominate the world, rule nature and society.
The birth of the Ego in the modern period is bound up with the rocognition of
power, the principio of poor es the ultima ratio in all relations between man axil
man and batmen man and natura. Is not the rulo, Si
=in orant ,incoualia an axiom as well of justice as of the mathematics? . And in
there not a true coincidence bottle= coomutative and distributivo justice, axil
arithmetical ani geometrical proportion?()
Bacon and Kant havo spoLlod out reason in tormo of the principio of power..
Knowledge is power which knows no limit and will not halt at on arbitrary point.
But man pAlro a price for this.knowledge in the horizon of power. In oxo'reizing
power over nature and society, man is alienated fran the olt=ts ho dominates. Ho
knows only what ho can manipulate. Ho knows only insofar as ho can plan and construct.
The clemente of dis-qualified nature and die-qualified society become substitutable
and oxchangaaba.o.
It in important to inquire into the archaic beginnings of the attitude that
shapes out modern scientific operation in order to be able to understand the moaning
of our "oaf-evident" procedures. Already in the mythical otage of human consciousness
the basic olomonts of the logic of substitution are presents the sacrifico of an

7
animal is a oubstituto for the sacrifice of the first born son. In tho substitution
at the act of sacrifico, houovor, the sacrificial Anima still roprosonto the son
in a singular and uniquo wayi

The animal bocomos a nacrod boing which is not inter-

changoable. This olcmont of ningularity, this roprescntational function of the

oacrifico/moro and moro oclipsod in the operation of substitutional logic. Representation is turned into univamo]. exchange. An atan is not split in roprosontation of
another atom, but merely as a npocimon, moray an a subsitutional oloment. Novertheloos the nubstitution in the act of sacrifico is a step toward discursive logic. It
is thoroforo illusory to imagine that wo can roturn to moro archaic otagoo of human
consciousness in which wo would be freed from the yoke of logic, as oomo romantico
or hierophanto like C. G. Jung, Martin Hoidoggor or Ludwig Mayo would suggest.
The mythic experienco of an iminont dostiny ruling over all beingo human or
divino livos on in a veiled fora in the modern notion of imminent necosaity. Not
by return to earlier stagoo of human Coasciousnoss doos =brook the yoke of logic.
An inquiry into the genealogy of logic ohould not be conducted for a return to
primitivo stays, but to bring on tho ruling principle in its nakedness and overcomo
the principio that rulos both primitivo and dovoloped forms.
has offered a portinont tut), of
..
.otazocdNaturo
Hans Kolnen in hie study on ...1
the origin and dovolopment of modern ncientific concepts and ohown how fraa the
principio of retribution the ideas of causality, and thorowith the modern concopt of
nature, halm dovolopod. This study of Rano Kolson comma to mo a pertinent historic
commentary on the control theme of tho last groat continental philosopher, Friedrich
Niotzscho: "The spirit of rovengo, Rrfriondo, han no far boon the sUbjoct of mania
boot reflection; and whoro there wan nufforing, ono always fantod puniront too".
(Zarathustra II, on Redemption.) Niotzocho toars the webs of human catogorien no
that the motif of rovengo may leap from, behind our words like justice and roaoon.

[1]
"For that man, be delivered from revenge, that is for na the bridge to the highest
hope and a rainbow after long storms.

(Zarathustra II on the Tarantulas.) Nietzscho

does not deal in the theme on the rodomption fron revengo uith a specific prebLem of
ethical theory or moral education, The quest boyond the nexus of retribution concerns,
according to Niotzsdho, logic, opistocaolcw, as woll as ethics,
Tho oporation of subsitution which wo have oh= to be control to the technological
concept of reason boars, however, the mark of the structure of domination botwoon man
and man: he is the moot pomrful among mon who can manage to have his work dono by
substitutes. Hegel, in the fourth chapter of the Phonomonology of the Spirit, in his
analysis of the genesis of human coifconsciousnoss, has fully developed the dialectic
between the master and the slavo, emphasizing hot: crucial the relation botwoon master
and slavo in for tho constitution of the human conaciomanossi According to Hegel,
power and work break asunder in the davoloping division of labor. Power io on the one
oido and obedience on the other.
Durkhoim has based the entire logical structure of primitivo classification on
the forms of the social division of labor and hao shama haw the basic categorioo of
reasoning reflect the particular form of tribal organization and its power over the
individual. I d'o not think, howover that Due:helm was justifiod irtassuming that
the forcis of thought reflect the structure of solidarity in the tribal =Immunity.
It is rather the command of the ruling group that io incarnatod in the basic forms of
thought.
It might be that oven the ontological groat chain of being is marked by the
hierarchical structure of the Athenian oociatyl but the metaphyoical apology of the
status quo betrayed at least the injustice inherent in ouch a *cocioty through the
glaring incongruity beta= the conceptual univorsal from of roferonco and the
dividcd social structure. In the impartiality of modern scientific Unguago
however, the supprosocd, the unprivilogod and the persecuted can find no expression

Efl
9

at all. Such neutrality of language right beccce more apologetic for the status quo
than aal traditional metaphysica
The neutrality of modern technological reason, far from signifying an increasing
consciousness of universal solidarity, expressos the skeptical separation of reason
from the human realm. Even in the organization of the curriculum at our universities
wo perpetuate the division of truth into science and humanities, thus admitting that
the sciences aro following a procedure that is r=iptiod of human content and that
the humanities preserve perhaps some human content, but only as an idoology at the
expellee of truth.
In the technological concept of reason the universality of reason among in
is traveated into a neutrality toward the human concern with justice or freedom.
They are neglected to an irrolevaa domain, to an irrelevant realm of tavaluo3"0
It muet then be regarded as a matter of subjective preference whether ono chooses
liberty or slavery justice or injustice.
In the perspective of the technological concept of reason, man as a person
boccoos a medieval atavism that han to bo moro and moro obliterated. The ego of
the individual subject is a luxury in the realm of technological reasoning. It is
a residuum of a theological period. God, justice, man, become meaningless concepto
in the grammar of a technological language. The "philosophy!: of tocimologeal
reason is occupied in wooing the bankruptcy. of all ideas that go beyond the; brute
and naked realm of facts. In the realm of technological reason, the basic Cartesian
distinction between res polatans, and roll =tat= io obliterated and superceded by a
net of 1.ntorrelations botwoon man and nature. Tho technical apparatus becamos a
part of manes "nature". It belongs to him like the sinaileholl to the snail.
Wilhelm WU:aid yot tried to formulate an "energetic imperative" to substitute
for Kantto "categorical imperativo". In his grotesque endeavor we can measure best
the difference of niveau between the juridical and technological ream of reason. Bo

C
3.0

' ") can moan

roanonablo (trannlatod into the language of an "enorgetic imporative
only: try to avoid any collinion with the mochanical apparatus, try to accomodate
yourself to the bureaucracy and rinmlgemont of the nociety.
The "disonchantod world" of technological roason can norm as roligion for
manna in the came way as the world of miracles. For tho masses tochnological
progress becomes a substituto for human progroso. Tochnological roason can attain
for the groat masses the evidence of a magical ritual. And as a ritual of a more
powarful God it io breaking the taboon of an. other civilizations. Ito language in
ampio and univornal. Its massage is the tabula rasa of a univorsal machina in an
iron ago.
The enthusie.= of the massos for the technological progress is only equallod by
the denpair of individuals who are not yet used to consider the quostion of moaning
an an "cmotivon problem, but who aro aware of the ciocia]. impotonco of an roligioun
and cultural valuon in a universal socioeconomic bureaucracy. Tho quantion that
haunted Halt ober through all his herculean work

how in it possiblo to caw same

=manta of sane Individuality while the tondoncy to a univorsal bureaucracy in

becoming tho inoncapablo destiny of a technological society? in today ovan moro
pressing than in 1917. What was for tic= Weber otill a question within the limits of
Wostorn cocioty has today acquirod un.tvorsal rolovanco, cinco West= tochnological
rearm= in on ito tray to conquer the globe. Whoro the imparialina of Wontorn
theological =anon failed, au in China and Japan, the imporial conquact of Wostern
technological %maven coano likely to cuc000d. Tho Asiatic and African nations woro
not convorted to Wastorn religion, but they aro corrrinccd by the mothodo of trostern
tochnological roasaaing. The nairacloacaf Wanton, industrial production aro moro
improasing than the rairaclan" of Western religion. The "convertcduunations aro
embracing the new faith in tochnolorg with the neoph,ytic fanaticioa which tondo to
propel the connequancon to the utmost,

B.)
It io only natural that these who live on the residue of the past aro shocked
by the courage of the neophytes who aro not ainhibited" by auch momories to draw
the last consequoncos. It is also uniorstandable that such a period abounds in
efforts of restoration to save tho ramants of the human= in a univoraal technological
society. I doubt if timid and tired restorations can counteract such a universal
dovelopmentm

The disease has reached the marrow of our spiritual and social

existence. The dovelopmont frai the theological concept of mason to the technological
interpretation

a reason io not accidental; it revoalo the inner structuro of the

Um:stern concept of reason: in all its forme this basic concept 'weals ono structure
the structure) a dominion and the principle of power. The technological manipulation
of reason reveals the went of its theological. origins. Already the creator coeli
et torrae is interpreted in the entire. Ilostorn tradition in technological terms. Such
a concept of reason must comploto its cycle according to the principle of its origin.
Therefore it in illusory to cook a balance between tradition and revolution by
regressing to earlier otages of the samo concept of reason. Such a regression, which
lurks behind all romantic =diem of our goneratihn would not break the basic equation
between reason and power that rules the tiestorn concept of reason in all its ages,
but would rather porpotuato moro archaic forms of domination. Tochnology cannot be
brought under control by a magical formula. Tho technical rationaltzation that is on
tho way to becoming the miveroal ritual of mankind can only be challenged by an idea
of reason that has overocco the element of domination itself.
In the davolopment of technology, man has reached the stage where tho barrier of
nature is pushed back to auch a dogroo that man stands for the first timo only over
and against himself. There is no other object to conquor any longer but man himsolf.
Thorofore, the supra= quoation which confronts our generation is not the tochnolo,Tical
problem, but the placo of roasaa in the relation botwcon man and man.
In the technological frame of reference the universality of reason has boo=

I.

purely formal: ono clement can be sbustituted by another element. Evenmonbecomo

interchangeable parts. Individuals are ntrippod of their individualitynct by

external compulsion but by the very rationality under which they livo and act. The
point io that today the apparatus to which individuals aro to adjust and to adapt
themselvos in so rational that individual prctost and liberation appear not only as
hopeless, tut an utterly irrational.C4)
Against such a, fol.wmal neutrality of reason philosophy can protest way by
emphasizing the concreto cmnditionn for the universality of reason. So long as
ntructures of dominion hinder the mutual recognition batmen man and man, so long
reason remains enchained to rationalizations of interests and conflicto. The claim
of philoaphy to the universality of roason contains a promise that rolations between
man and man, botwoon man and nature, are possible that are not tainted by the
structure of master and slave, by the structure of subject and object. Tho clatm of
philosophy to the universality of reason is not exhausted in the technical subotitution
of one olemont by another, but it contains a premiso, a program to redo= man in his
historic axistonce. If this promise is eclipsed in the philosophic pursuit, then
philosophy has forfeited its birthright and justly should abdicate its claim to an
organization for the unification of the technical sciences.
Tho placo of science in established in our social organization. Science has
to assemblo facts and to organize thorn according to principles of rationalization,
Its features can be summarizad as the optimum adaptation of moans to onde. Thus
reason bocomos an onergyconsorving operation. Philosophy today seems easily to
accept the scientific standards as a yardstick and functions as obTa7lcr
system of tho spirit, rationalizing the assembled knowledge hindering =to of
energy and effortphilonophybecomon a science like chomiatry and phyoicn. Surely
thora are nomo historical residua in the teaching of philosophy left, but they are
kept alive for ornamentation.

e
13

Tot it sec= to mo that philsophy has a function boymx1 the Tayloring

operation among sciences, in that philosophy does not capitulate before the social
division of labor, accepting it as if it were a destiny of man. It io the power
of matters of fact that they coerce man not only by overt violence and pressure,
but also by cavort persuasion. Philosophy is not a synthesis of all sciences that
state matters of fact, but with Nietzsche I would agree .against positivism "which
stops boforo phonomena saying there are only facto. No, it is precisoky facts
aiiitip_wIsapis.
that do not exist only si
Technological reason has succeeded to disenchant nature and society. Philosophy,
however, will have to withstand the charm and persuasion of the disonchantment and
romembor that the social division of labor, the spacialization of science is in
tho servico of man, and not man in the servitude of the division of labor.

%.
t.
I

LI]
NOTES

1)

Theodor U. Adorno: "Kritik dos Luginchen Absolutisms" in

Volumo 2 (1954), pa. 130 fli

2)

sim_nur_a Suaimary of tho II part: On the Interpretation

0
Francis Bacon: Novum.
of Nan, XIV, 31 (ed. Basil Montague, Lonion, 1825).
Epiro
the
of Nature and

3)

Kent: Criti o
p. 368.

4)

Max Horkhelmor: Eclipso of Ronson, Now York, Oxford University Props, 1947,
p. 162 if.

5)

Francis Bacon: Advancement at Leai

Reanon tranalated by F. Max Nullor, 1881, Volumo

II, 126 (ed. Basil licsataguo, Lcolcen

1825).
6)
7)

Max Horkheimor: Ecliipfje,cxa NOW York, Oxford Univormity Press, 19470

po 228 fr.

aturo Chicago University Prose, 1943, p. tic).

Hans Keinen:ioty

8)

Thil Durkheim: "De quelquos forms primitives de clansificaticn", LI Annoo

Sociolo
IV, (1903), p. 66
Eclipso of Roanon, pa 166.
cf

9)

Herbert Marcum): Soma Socia1. Implications of Node= Tochnology: Studies in

Philosophy and Social. Scioncoo, Volumo IX, (3.941), p. 421.