Hayot challenges scholars and students in the humanities to rethink and reconsider the work
they do. Examining the origins of the humanist ethos in nineteenth-century Germany and tracing
its philosophical roots back to Immanuel Kant Hayot returns to the history of justifications
for the humanities in order to build the groundwork for their future development. He develops
the concept of humanist reason to understand the nature of humanist intellectual work and lays
out a series of principles that undergird this core idea. Together they constitute a
provocative intellectual and practical program for a new way of thinking about the humanities
humanist thought and their role in the university and beyond. Rather than appealing to
familiar ethical or moral rationales for the importance of the humanities Humanist Reason lays
out a new vision that moves beyond traditional disciplines to demonstrate what the humanities
can tell us about our world.
