META-THINKING

ARE WE RATIONAL? MUST WE BE?

Sometimes, with luck, we come close to Reason, but this is a very subjective concept depending on our intuition regarding meanings. This is an epistemological inquiry, “how do we know what we know?”. Do we “know”?

From the beginning, let us remember the great difference between irrational and nonrational.

Let us look to our words with which we explore and communicate our findings. Words shape our concepts, opinions, judgements, and relationships. Kind of important, I think.

I realize this sounds like a dry, boring subject. Please stay with me. I find this to be an interesting inquiry that goes to the heart of our thinking defining who we are. Therefore, it is exciting. We learn from exploring this subject. The learning is humbling. Most of us can use a little of that, so long as we do not allow humility to overwhelm our sense of personal value.

Let us look at some examples to aid our exploration. When we search for the definitions of meaningful but subjective concepts expressed in words, we soon find that many of our most meaningful, subjective words pose a feedback loop. We immediately experience the lack of reason in our thinking.

We start with the definitions of “reason” itself. What is it? Look it up and see what you find.

Webster on “reason”: “the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic”.