Rationality is by far the luckiest philosophical concept in so far as its controversial status is concerned. It is also one of the terms most liable to rejection, criticism and analysis. Hence, our paper is an attempt to unscramble the controversy re
lating to tuning the term of rationality into a concept that denotes multiple significations in the era of modern philosophy, and which are considered the real foundation of what today's world has reached in its intellectual, scientific and social aspects.
According to this terminological and conceptual context, we have tried in this paper to shed special light on the genealogy of the concept of rationality, its origins and evolution as a trend in modern European thought, given that it is a signifier that denotes the priority of the mind, and which derives from various meanings that are complementary at times, yet contradictory at others, whereby carrying multiple significations, that vary in accordance with its field of use. With a certain degree of special attention, we have also tried to glean some of the most basic meanings associated with the term of rationality. We hope that this way we may be able to clarify the obscurity that engulfs the term, something which has caused its ambiguity, and thus our confused understanding of the philosophy of modernity.
The modern revolution in Fine Arts started by rationality used for building the new form, and
it started by emotionality and sensuality in style by forming eyeglass image in the physical
reality.
The painting was a tangible declaration from the ab
stract thinking.
The reason could be the motivation to control the sensuality, to decompose the information,
and to explore the results.
It uses comparison of the new information for changing the construction of real form, and
transfiguring it by the senses from imitation, to produce new forms as imagined by the painter.
This reason is influenced by the new schools of Fine Arts, like: Impressionism, Cubism,
Surrealism, and abstraction.
The nature of scientific progress and the rationality of scientific
change lie at the centre of Karl Popper’s and Thomas Kuhn’s thought.
This paper provides an analysis of the Popper - Kuhn debate over those
issues; according to which, Kuhn is por
trayed as subjectivist and
relativist, while Popper emerges as objectivist and realist.
The paper is divided into three parts. Popper’s claims regarding
scientific progress and rationality are examined in Part One. It is argued
that Popper’s philosophy is inherently value-driven, while defending the
objective characteristics of scientific truth. Part Two explores Kuhn’s
conception of science, of the rationality of science and scientific progress.
Kuhn argued that knowledge is relative only to the accepted paradigm.
Part Three is taken up with a comparative discussion of the main issues
related to the Kuhn - Popper debate.
