Reason, Romanticism and Revolution

Indian political philosopher M. N. Roy began work on what would be his final major project, Reason, Romanticism and Revolution, in 1948.[1] Roy's process of research, writing, and revision would continue for nearly half a decade, with the final typescript prepared for the press in April 1952.[1]

In introducing his work, Roy asserted that modern civilization faced a "cultural and moral crisis" that compelled thoughtful people to seek a return to society's "humanist tradition."[2] Roy attributed this crisis to a negative byproduct of the 19th Century victory of skepticism and empiricism over other more immutable and deterministic belief systems — a process which not only "set human spirit free" but which also ushered in new forms of subjugation.[2] "If empiricism deposed reason from the seat of the supreme judge, pragmatism subordinated moral values to practical considerations," Roy declared.[2]

Reason, Romanticism and Revolution was in some ways an extension of an argument begun by Roy in his 1946 book, Beyond Communism to Humanism, in which the centralism and deterministic economic basis of Marxism was rejected as well as the atomized society associated with individualism, in favor of a loosely structured "radical democracy" of self-governing local units which administered society at a local level, coordinating a cooperative economy.[3]

Attempting to move past Marxism, Roy presented his book as a grand "humanist interpretation of cultural history" which also sought to "outline a comprehensive philosophy which links up social and political practice with a scientific metaphysics of rationality and ethics."[4]

Dust jacket of the Indian first edition of Volume Two of Reason, Romanticism and Revolution, published posthumously in 1955.

Roy's book attempted to systematically review the development of Western political philosophy from the birth of modern thought through the Age of Enlightenment, the emergence of 19th Century Romanticism and Liberalism as a reforming ethos, as well as the Marxist response. Roy perceived Marxism at an impasse and posited his own theory of a "New Humanism" as an alternative to what he characterized as the "Crisis of the Twentieth Century."

Volume One (1952)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Human Nature

Chapter 3: The Law-Governed Universe

Chapter 4: The Revolt of Man

Chapter 5: Revolt of the Angels

Chapter 6: The Natural Law

Chapter 7: Birth of Modern Philosophy

Chapter 8: The New Science

Chapter 9: The Enlightenment

Chapter 10: The Great Revolution—I

Chapter 11: The Great Revolution—II

Volume Two (1955)

Chapter 1: Reaction and Romanticism

Chapter 2: History of Romanticism

Chapter 3: Romantic Extravagance

Chapter 4: Liberalism: Origin and Tradition

Chapter 5: Fallacies of Liberalism

Chapter 6: Utilitarianism

Chapter 7: Neo-Classical Rationalism

Chapter 8: Hegel to Marx

Chapter 9: Marxism

Chapter 10: The Twins of Irrationalism

Chapter 11: The Crisis of the Twentieth Century

Chapter 12: The Way Out

Chapter 13: New Humanism

Reason, Romanticism and Revolution proved to be Roy's best-known work, generating critical attention in European intellectual circles during the decade of the 1950s.[5] Roy's work was lauded as "thorough" and "brilliant" by philosopher Erich Fromm in his 1955 book, The Sane Society.[5]