"According to Strauss‟s account, the many problems associated with the Enlightenment or “first wave of modernity” helped to pave the way for the second and third waves of modernity, which were initiated by Rousseau and Nietzsche, respectively.94
"Rousseau saw that the attempt to conquer nature in order to relieve humanity‟s estate would do little more than alienate humanity from nature and turn life into a “joyless quest for joy,”95 and Nietzsche showed that modern rationalism ultimately destroys itself, culminating in nihilism – the death of God and hence of all truth and morality. Thus, the Enlightenment bears the ultimate responsibility for what Strauss frequently calls “the crisis of the West” or “the crisis of modernity,” which consists above all in the fact that people can no longer credibly distinguish between good and bad or right and wrong, and thus no longer believe wholeheartedly in themselves or their purpose.96
"Michael Oakeshott, another leading conservative thinker of the mid-twentieth century, diverged from Strauss in his belief that modernity was fundamentally problematic or in crisis, but joined him in condemning the Enlightenment for its dogmatic faith in reason. In one of his earliest essays he claimed that Jeremy Bentham, despite having done much of his work in...."
Mike B) *********************************************************************** Wobbly Times http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/