Allan Bloom - Reason Quotes

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Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.

Allan Bloom

The most important function of the university in an age of reason is to protect reason from itself.

Allan Bloom

The essence of philosophy is the abandonment of all authority in favor of individual human reason.

Allan Bloom

There are two threats to reason, the opinion that one knows the truth about the most important things and the opinion that there is no truth about them. Both of these opinions are fatal to philosophy; the first asserts that the quest for truth is unnecessary, while the second asserts that it is impossible. The Socratic knowledge of ignorance, which I take to be the beginning point of all philosophy, defines the sensible middle ground between two extremes.

Allan Bloom

Reason cannot establish values, and its belief that it can is the stupidiest and most pernicious illusion.

Allan Bloom