Monday, January 20, 2014

misology

misology \mi-SOL-uh-jee, mahy-\, noun:

distrust or hatred of reason or reasoning.

The ultimate consequence of misology is a kind of self-destruction in which what is destroyed is that aspect of the self represented by active reason.
-- David A. White, Myth and Metaphysics in Plato's Phaedo, 1989
In this way misology, the hatred of reason, arises. Socrates now confronts misology "because there's no greater evil that could befall anyone" (89d2-3).
-- Paul Stern, Socratic Rationalism and Political Philosophy, 1993

Misology comes from the German word Misologie, coined by the philosopher Immanuel Kant in the 1780s from the Greek word meaning "hating argument." It entered English in the 1820s.

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