Abstract

The final volume in Blanshard’s trilogy in defense of reason. While the two earlier volumes, Reason and Analysis and Reason and Goodness, are devoted to the roles of reason in knowledge and morality, respectively, Reason and Belief focuses on reason in regard to religion, confined, however, to Christianity. Blanshard’s method is primarily critical; the bulk of his writings consists of the critique and demolition of views on reason, reality, and values which differ from his own. On the constructive side, Blanshard’s philosophy is a neatly argued and clearly stated variant of British absolute idealism, perhaps the best formulation this formidable philosophy has received or is ever likely to receive in regard to logic and style.