Enlightenment reason is a multi-dimensional issue of modernity. As a theme in intellectual history，it upheld the power of reason and reshaped its authority，but it was also a historical force that drove changes in ways of life，institutional structures，and cultural forms in modern society. It provided a completely new cosmology，theory of existence，and theory of values for the early modern world and created a completely new world order in the form of the world capitalist system. What it founded and opened up was a total plan for modernity，one in which the combination of reason and capital played a decisive role. Since the 20th century，however，with the heightening of the divisive factors inherent in Enlightenment reason itself plus the impetus provided by the logic of capital，the reason-dominated Enlightenment project for modernity has been riddled with contradictions，leading to disastrous social crises. Rethinking and criticizing Enlightenment reason has therefore become an important force in the modern balancing of modernity. Nevertheless，as a complex issue of modernity，the critique of Enlightenment reason cannot be left within the confines of its own domain. We cannot possibly solve the problems of modernity by wholesale repudiation of Enlightenment reason；we need to understand and examine it from a perspective that combines social and historical demands with the logic of intellectual history. The critique of Enlightenment reason implies criticizing capital and modernity as well as a critique of extreme anti-Enlightenment；it is the starting point for finding a way forward for Enlightenment reason. However，the furious anti-Enlightenment stance of postmodernism does not fundamentally challenge or change today’s capitalist system，and is therefore essentially unable to transcend the vision of Enlightenment reason. Marx took a different approach，turning the critique of Enlightenment reason and modernity into a critical reconstruction of the logic of capital and the capitalist mode of production，and turning the conquest of the evils they presented into the transcendence of capitalist private ownership. He was therefore able to overcome the shortcomings of modernity while giving it due credit and to show modern society the way to a more advanced stage.