[general_re]

Both sides agree that rationalism in politics leads quickly to Jacobinism; that universal truths of the sort expressed in the Declaration of Independence (or in twentieth-century liberalism: they tend to see the two as continuous) are ultimately destructive of authentic, historically rooted human communities; that history or experience is therefore a better guide than reason in political affairs.

I've always been a fan of inherently self-contradictory propositions, myself - one is left to wonder how we arrived at the conclusion that history is a better guide in political affairs than reason, if not through the application of reason itself. Divine inspiration? Those damned universal truths... ;)

[quidnunc]

general_re wrote: I've always been a fan of inherently self-contradictory propositions, myself - one is left to wonder how we arrived at the conclusion that history is a better guide in political affairs than reason, if not through the application of reason itself. Divine inspiration? Those damned universal truths... ;)

History has its part to play as it illustrates what in the course of events worked and what didn't work.

Rex Stout's fictional detective Nero Wolfe's guiding principle was that of "intelligence guided by experience."

That doesn't seem to be such a bad prescription to me.

[inquest]

one is left to wonder how we arrived at the conclusion that history is a better guide in political affairs than reason, if not through the application of reason itself.

One is also left to wonder what exactly your point is. Regardless of how that conclusion has been arrived at, it can be (and probably is) nonetheless a valid conclusion. If you can "reason" that there are limits to human reason, does that mean that reason is still king? Or does it mean that it's merely a useful stepping stone along the way?

Put another way, does it not mean that reason itself is an "inherently self-contradictory proposition"?

[Jason Kauppinen]

"I've always been a fan of inherently self-contradictory propositions, myself - one is left to wonder how we arrived at the conclusion that history is a better guide in political affairs than reason, if not through the application of reason itself."

It's all Edmund Burke's fault!!!!