A.C. Graham on Rationalism, Irrationalism, and Anti-Rationalism (“Aware Spontaneity”)

Abstract

This chapter examines the views of the twentieth-century sinologist/philosopher A.C. Graham on the differences between anti-rationalism and irrationalism, and obviously, rationalism as well. Although Graham draws upon the insights of the classic Doaist work Zhuangzi as inspiration, he does not make very much of this comparison explicitly, not wanting (one assumes) to detract from his philosophical argument in Reason and Spontaneity (1985), his major philosophic work. Although this work draws comparisons and contrasts far and wide to make a case for what Graham calls “aware spontaneity” as the most appropriate human mixture of reason and unreflective impulse, this short chapter will focus on the differences between what Graham calls the “Reason as Guide” approach (e.g., Zhuangzi and Graham) and the “Reason as Master” approach (e.g., Kant, Descartes, Plato) to action, with both distinguished from the romantic irrationalist approach cultivating spontaneous impulse for its sheer intensity (e.g., de Sade, Nietzsche). This would seem a most fitting subject for this series of studies in Enlightenment criticism, and, in conclusion, will very briefly note similarities between Graham’s and Oakeshott’s critiques of rationalism (the latter of whose views I examined in the first volume of this edited work).