Robert Misik vs. Emilia Roig
​Das Ende der Vernunft? (The End of Reason?)

Is the age of reason finally over? And if so, should we celebrate that or mourn it? What really is the problem with twith Enlightenment values—the autonomy of thought, progress through science, universal human rights, a secular public sphere? If they served to bless the weapons of colonial conquest in the name of a "civilizing mission,” does that mean they are toxic today? Or maybe the baby is being thrown out with the bathwater, leaving only cults of ancestry, communitarian strife, and endless intuitivism? Will reason ever return, and if so, from where?

Robert Misik is a journalist and political writer. He is a regular contributor to taz, Die Zeit, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and Falter. He has received numerous awards and most recently published Die Kunst des Widerstands: Von Marx bis Kafka, von Orwell bis Butler (Picus, 2026).

Emilia Roig is a nonfiction writer and political scientist. Her most recent publications include Lieber Sohn oder So rettest du die Welt (Kjona, 2025), Lieben (Hanser, 2024), Das Ende der Ehe: Für eine Revolution der Liebe (Ullstein, 2023), and Why We Matter: Das Ende der Unterdrückung (Aufbau, 2021).