Reason, survival, progress in eighteenth century thought 1

Abstract

This article aims at an exposition of the coherence among the concepts of reason, survival and progress in eighteenth century thought (assuming that present-day, critical analyses of rationality, unlimited economic growth and the competition-generated pressures of life refer to concepts rooted in the eighteenth century). Eightienth century thought is exemplarized in the economic thought of Adam Smith and the social/political thought of Kant (with a few references to Hume’s ideas on art) in an attempt to show that the coherence among those concepts ought to be understood from the angle of the (then) important motive of conflict/competition. Conflict and competition were seen as mechanisms of progress and survival in competitive circumstances as a standard or sign of progress; rationality was directly connected with survival