One narrative of the Enlightenment is that by the discovery of reason humanity was liberated from the bondages of tradition. However, things are more complicated and subtle. Reason and rationality must start from somewhere. There is no clean slate.
These issues are explored in great depth by the philosopher Alasdair Macintyre in his book Whose Justice? Which Rationality?
In a Précis he presents a helpful summary of the main theses of his book through exploring the narrative histories of two rival philosophical traditions, that of Aristotle and of Hume.
that no way of conducting rational enquiry from a standpoint independent of the particularities of any tradition has been discovered. There is good reason to believe that there is no such way.
that the problems of understanding and representing faithfully the concepts and beliefs of some tradition alien to one's own in a way that makes those concepts and beliefs intelligible within one's own tradition confront difficulties which can in certain contingent circumstances be overcome.
that rival traditions have rival conceptions of rationality and of progress in understanding, but this does not entail relativism or perspectivism.
that although these theses are themselves advanced from the standpoint of a particular tradition, that of a Thomist Aristotelianism, they involve a substantive and nonrelativizable conception of truth, and that in this respect as in others there is no inconsistency in making universal claims from the standpoint of a tradition.
Hence, traditions are not something to be easily and summarily dismissed. They cannot be escaped. Traditions can be used, critiqued, and modified. An intellectual tradition is the fruit of a long conversation. Tradition forms an important element of any intellectual endevour.
