Not by Reason Alone: Religion, History, and Identity in Early Modern Political Thought - Hardcover

Interweaving political, religious, and historical themes, "Not By Reason Alone" reinterprets early modern thought. Rather than assuming that it is founded upon the primacy of reason, Mitchell argues that the thought of Luther, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau is an attempt to locate politics within an authoritative history that cannot be grasped by reason alone. Devoting an extensive chapter to each of these four figures, Mitchell demonstrates that reason's deference to faith (Luther), to revelation (Hobbes and Locke), or to the wisdom of the heart (Rousseau) must be placed at the centre of our effort to understand the early modern project. In this view, early modern thinking is not seen as bending toward either an ephemeral foundationalism or a destructive anti-foundationalism.

Joshua Mitchell is professor of political theory in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. From 2005 to 2008, he taught at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar. From 2008 to 2010, he was the acting chancellor of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. He is the author of several books, including The Fragility of Freedom: Tocqueville on Religion, Democracy, and the American Future, also published by the University of Chicago Press.