The Meaning of the Concept in This Book
Instrumental reason, in Mohammed Arkoun’s thought, represents an epistemic mode focused on effectiveness and accomplishment, yet one that is incapable of containing spiritual and metaphysical questions. He therefore criticizes it as one of the manifestations of the modern crisis that leads to the fragmentation of rationality into isolated specializations.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
The concept appears within Arkoun’s critique of the limits of modern reason when it is reduced to technical performance or immediate utility. It is linked to his central argument that material transformation alone is not enough for human beings, and that there is a need for epistemological critique that reexamines the foundations of knowledge itself. Thus, instrumental reason appears not merely as a technical problem, but as a sign of the need for contemporary reason to undergo epistemological critique.
How It Works Within the Atlas
This concept helps connect Arkoun’s critique of modern reason with his broader critique of technological and scientific reason when it becomes an instrument detached from the horizon of the whole human being. Through it, the meaning of technological-scientific televisual reason becomes clear, as does the reason for the call to critique technological and scientific reason rather than glorify it. In this way, instrumental reason functions within the atlas as a link that explains the narrowing of knowledge when effectiveness is separated from questioning, and rationality is reduced to specialization.