The Last Supper of the West? An Essay on Reason, Subreption, and the Invalidating Rationality
The Last Supper of the West? An Essay on Reason, Subreption, and the Invalidating Rationality

Summary/Abstract: What makes the power of our world in the 21st century noticeably weaken after the collapse of modernism? Why are Cassandran prophecies of geopoliticians as well as pessimistic visions in art multiplying? Is the Last Supper of the West imminent, as one Chinese satirist expects? What role does subreption, especially present in Western philosophy, law, economy, customs, and finally in art, play in this process? Subreption – i.e. the use of certain peculiar assumptions and reasoning without proper grounding – would first consist in stealing rationality from reason and making it independent by emphasizing defeasible reasoning proper for rationality, the main act of which is the act of invalidating. This would be the most serious act of subreption that Western thought has ever committed. Tamed subreption is responsible for the progressive misperception that paralyzes our Western civilization’s decision-making and is the main cause of its present weakness

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