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With a vast sweep and elegant, lucid writing, this is a remarkable, erudite, and stylish book on an important and timely subject: the persistent tendency toward irrationalism in human history. Irrationality is fresh, perceptive, and enjoyable. --Kieran Setiya, author of Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

A learned, ludic, and often profound meditation on how the perverse dialectic of reason and unreason has played out over history, from the era of Pythagoras to that of Zizek and Trump. Smith writes with the limpidity of an anglophone philosopher and the cool encyclopedic assurance of a Parisian intello. --Jim Holt, author of Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story With a vast sweep and elegant writing, this is a remarkable, erudite, and stylish book on an important and timely subject: the persistent tendency toward irrationalism in human history. Irrationality is fresh, perceptive, and enjoyable. --Kieran Setiya, author of Midlife: A Philosophical Guide Justin Smith's book could not have come at a better moment. In an era in which many have taken leave of their senses, he draws a map of what led us here, offering a convincing account of the Enlightenment and its discontents. The passages on Trumpism are particularly edifying. --Christy Wampole, author of The Other Serious: Essays for the New American Generation No philosopher alive today writes with as much wit, voice, and erudition as Justin Smith. Irrationality is a masterpiece: an urgent warning that no grand design of perfect rationality can provide the solution to the depravity of this political moment. --Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It

A learned, ludic, and often profound meditation on how the perverse dialectic of reason and unreason has played out over history, from the era of Pythagoras to that of Zizek and Trump. Smith writes with the limpidity of an anglophone philosopher and the cool encyclopedic assurance of a Parisian intello. -Jim Holt, author of Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story With a vast sweep and elegant writing, this is a remarkable, erudite, and stylish book on an important and timely subject: the persistent tendency toward irrationalism in human history. Irrationality is fresh, perceptive, and enjoyable. -Kieran Setiya, author of Midlife: A Philosophical Guide Justin Smith's book could not have come at a better moment. In an era in which many have taken leave of their senses, he draws a map of what led us here, offering a convincing account of the Enlightenment and its discontents. The passages on Trumpism are particularly edifying. -Christy Wampole, author of The Other Serious: Essays for the New American Generation No philosopher alive today writes with as much wit, voice, and erudition as Justin Smith. Irrationality is a masterpiece: an urgent warning that no grand design of perfect rationality can provide the solution to the depravity of this political moment. -Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It Irrationality is . . . stippled with fascinating meditations and vignettes. ---Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Review of Books

Author Information

Justin E. H. Smith is professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris 7Denis Diderot. His books include The Philosopher: A History in Six Types (Princeton). An editor at large of Cabinet Magazine, he also writes frequently for the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, and other publications.

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