Abstract

This research addresses the ongoing philosophical problem of reason (al-ʿaql) by analysing the contributions of two prominent contemporary Moroccan thinkers, Mohamed Abed al-Jabri and Taha Abdurrahman. The study’s focus on these two figures is not arbitrary, but rather due to their almost simultaneous and often conflicting engagement with the topic, which created a significant intellectual dialogue, with their projects seen as standing in stark opposition. The paper employs a fourfold methodology—descriptive, analytical, comparative, and critical—to examine several key questions: the importance of critiquing reason for any project of renewal, the relationship between the problem of reason** and the necessity of renewing tradition, and the points of convergence and divergence between their two projects. The research is structured into two main parts, the first on al-Jabri’s tripartite classification and critique of Arab reason, and the second on Taha Abdurrahman’s pragmatic-ethical critique of the concept of reason, culminating in an examination of the key criticisms leveled against both projects.