The Dictatorship of Reason in the West
E247775
The Dictatorship of Reason in the West is the subtitle of John Ralston Saul’s book "Voltaire’s Bastards," which critiques how Western societies have elevated rationalism and technocratic thinking above ethics, common sense, and democratic values.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Dictatorship of Reason in the West canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2241456 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West Context triple: [Voltaire’s Bastards, subtitle, The Dictatorship of Reason in the West]
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A.
Reason and Revolution
Reason and Revolution is a seminal 1941 philosophical work by Herbert Marcuse that critically interprets Hegel and traces the development of critical theory and modern social thought.
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B.
The Myth of the State
The Myth of the State is a posthumously published philosophical work by Ernst Cassirer that analyzes the role of myth and symbolic thought in the rise of modern political ideologies and totalitarianism.
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C.
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
The Crooked Timber of Humanity is a collection of essays by philosopher Isaiah Berlin exploring pluralism, the limits of human perfectibility, and the complexities of political and moral life.
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D.
Dialectic of Enlightenment
Dialectic of Enlightenment is a seminal 1947 philosophical work by Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer that critiques how Enlightenment rationality can lead to new forms of domination and barbarism in modern society.
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E.
The Great Political Superstition
"The Great Political Superstition" is an essay by Herbert Spencer that critiques blind faith in governmental authority and challenges the belief that the state is inherently a force for good.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West Target entity description: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West is the subtitle of John Ralston Saul’s book "Voltaire’s Bastards," which critiques how Western societies have elevated rationalism and technocratic thinking above ethics, common sense, and democratic values.
-
A.
Reason and Revolution
Reason and Revolution is a seminal 1941 philosophical work by Herbert Marcuse that critically interprets Hegel and traces the development of critical theory and modern social thought.
-
B.
The Myth of the State
The Myth of the State is a posthumously published philosophical work by Ernst Cassirer that analyzes the role of myth and symbolic thought in the rise of modern political ideologies and totalitarianism.
-
C.
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
The Crooked Timber of Humanity is a collection of essays by philosopher Isaiah Berlin exploring pluralism, the limits of human perfectibility, and the complexities of political and moral life.
-
D.
Dialectic of Enlightenment
Dialectic of Enlightenment is a seminal 1947 philosophical work by Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer that critiques how Enlightenment rationality can lead to new forms of domination and barbarism in modern society.
-
E.
The Great Political Superstition
"The Great Political Superstition" is an essay by Herbert Spencer that critiques blind faith in governmental authority and challenges the belief that the state is inherently a force for good.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (15)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | book subtitle ⓘ |
| associatedWith | John Ralston Saul ⓘ |
| associatedWorkType | non-fiction political philosophy book ⓘ |
| describes | critique of Western rationalism ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
elevation of rationalism above ethics
ⓘ
technocratic thinking in Western societies ⓘ tension between rationalism and democratic values ⓘ |
| isSubtitleOf | Voltaire’s Bastards ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| partOfWork |
Voltaire’s Bastards
ⓘ
surface form:
Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West
|
| theme |
conflict between expertise and common sense
ⓘ
critique of technocracy ⓘ impact of rationalism on democracy ⓘ limits of rationalism ⓘ relationship between reason and power ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West Description of subject: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West is the subtitle of John Ralston Saul’s book "Voltaire’s Bastards," which critiques how Western societies have elevated rationalism and technocratic thinking above ethics, common sense, and democratic values.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.