Modern reason must embrace value pluralism to shed its absolutist medieval heritage

Evidence

Following Blumenberg’s lead allows us to grasp that rationalism, far from being essential to the idea of self~rtion, is in fact a residue from the absolutist medieval problematic. The illusions of providing itself with its own foundations which accompanied the labour of liberation from theology should now be abandoned and modem reason needs to acknowledge its limits. It is only by coming to terms with the radical implications of the pluralism of values (in its strong Nieaschean or Weberian version) and with the impossibility of a total harmony that modern reason frees itself from its pre-modern heritage. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 579

Categorization

• QUESTION: Relevant to reader’s test: does embracing value pluralism necessarily import the excluded-enemy premise, or can Weberian/Nietzschean pluralism be non-exclusionary?
• XREF: connects to: Ethical approaches to pluralism omit the limits and hegemonic violence consensus requires — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 581; Pluralism should shift to a state of multiple contending minorities; Enlightenment must critique itself rather than merely defend cultural values — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 24

Broader Connections

• Ethical approaches to pluralism omit the limits and hegemonic violence consensus requires #complicates (0.80) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 581
• Pluralism should shift to a state of multiple contending minorities #expands (0.78)
• Enlightenment must critique itself rather than merely defend cultural values #expands (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 24