Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

246 MARTIN MCKEEVER
deavour. It is worth reconstructing this “brief history of reason”
which underlies the main argument of the encyclical.
Stimulated by a native sense of wonder (§ 4) at the marvels of
the created world, the human being, from earliest times, has posed
himself (herself) questions about the ultimate meaning of his own
existence and that of the world (§§1, 64). Human beings, in fact, are
naturally philosophical in that they have an innate and profound
desire for meaning. Faced with the perennial and lacerating questions
of suffering, death and moral evil, they have searched relentlessly
all through history for an overarching explanation of human
life in which they can have confidence and trust (§ 26).
At different times and in diverse cultures this natural tendency
to reflect has taken on more rigorous and systematic
forms which have issued in formal philosophical reflection (§ 7).
Such reflection has been possible because of the remarkable capacity
of the human individual not only to know, but also to
know that he knows. A rigorous use of this capacity has allowed
human beings progressively to establish laws of coherence and
criteria of truth for their rational reflection. A practical demonstration
of this universal capacity of reason to be critically selfreflective
is seen in the convergence of various cultures in the establishment
of certain commonly shared standards and moral
norms (§§ 2, 4)
Fides et ratio proceeds to recount some of the influences of
contemporary cultural trends on this perennial quest for meaning.
In so far as contemporary culture is thought of as modern, a number
of alarming tendencies are noted: a disproportionate focus on
the limitations and conditions of human subjectivity at the expense
of the more ultimate questions (§ 5), the reduction of the
role of reason to an instrumental and technical level (§ 47), the
separation of philosophy and theology (§ 45 ), the excessive claims
of autonomy on the part of individual reason (§ 80). While these
negative aspects are preponderant, some positive developments
are noted in terms of a deeper understanding of human beings and
an improved respect for their dignity (§§ 38, 76).
In more recent times, the encyclical continues, the culture in
which we live has taken on many of the characteristics of “postmodernity”(§
91). The alarming influences of this tendency are
even more destructive: a loss of faith in the capacity of reason
(§§ 5, 6), the fragmentary and sectorial nature of knowledge