Reason

:For alternate uses see Reason (disambiguation)

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The adjective for reason or "rationality" can be either "rational" or "reasonable", each giving a slightly different meaning. Both terms must also be considered as frequently equivalent to the word "logical". In philosophy, they describe a type of thought or aspect of thought, especially abstract thought, which is felt to be especially human. The concept goes back at least as far as Greek philosophy, where the word logos was used, later to be translated by Latin "ratio" and then French "raison", from which the English word.

Related Topics:
Rationality - Rational - Reasonable - Logical - Philosophy - Thought - Abstract - Logos

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Reason is sometimes narrowly defined as the faculty or process of drawing logical inferences. Such types of reasoning have traditionally been classified as either deductive reasoning, meaning "from the general to the particular", or inductive reasoning, meaning "from the particular to the general". In the 19th century, Charles Peirce, an American philosopher, named a third classification related to the second, abductive reasoning, by which he meant to include guessing or hypothesising. (In modern usage, "inductive reasoning" sometimes includes almost all non-deductive reasoning, including what Peirce would call "abductive". (See also logic, term logic.))

Related Topics:
Logic - Inferences - Deductive reasoning - Inductive reasoning - 19th century - Charles Peirce - American - Abductive reasoning - Guessing - Hypothesising - Term logic

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Particularly important is that while deductive reasoning can logically result in a definite conclusion, it requires as a starting point for human investigation, that there are generalizations which can not be questioned. Real science, like all everyday life, must rely more upon less precise logic. See below.

Related Topics:
Conclusion - Investigation - Generalizations - Science

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But in the sense that animals, and humans, can unconsciously, associate different perceptions as causes and effects and then make decisions or even plans, (if these words may be used for the sake of this discussion), it is felt by many people that reason is more than just the ability to draw inferences. Consciousness is also a key aspect of rational/ reasonable/ logical thinking. So reason has also been conceived more broadly. In Peirce's terms, humans have "thirdness" while abductive reasoning is only "firstness".

Related Topics:
Unconsciously - Perceptions - Causes and effects - Decisions - Consciousness - Rational - Reasonable - Logical

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The neurologist Terrence Deacon, following the tradition of Peirce, has recently distinguished the type of thinking which is most essential to human rational thinking as a type of associative thinking. Reason by his account therefore requires associating perceptions in a way which may be arbitrary (or nominal, conventional or "formal") - not just associating the image or "icon" of smoke and the image of fire, but, for example, the image of smoke and the English word "smoke", or indeed any made-up "index" or "symbol" (not necessarily a spoken word). What is essential is however not the arbitrariness of symbols, but how they used.

Related Topics:
Terrence Deacon - Associative thinking - Perceptions - Arbitrary - Nominal - Conventional - Formal - Image - Icon - Index - Symbol

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This fits into an older tradition which makes reason connected to language (a fact which has been accepted since the beginning of philosophy, as reflected in the meanings of the Greek word "logos") but more specifically the ability to create language deliberately. Deacon and Peirce continue the English philosophical tradition: Thomas Hobbes describes the creation of ?Markes, or Notes of remembrance? (Leviathan Ch.4) as ?speech? (allowing by his definition that it is not necessarily a means of communication or speech in the normal sense; he was presumably thinking of "speech" as an English version of "logos" in this description). In the context of a language, these marks or notes are called "Signes" by Hobbes. David Hume, following John Locke (and Berkeley), who followed Hobbes, emphasized the importance of associations in thinking. But this type of "theory of mind" was alredy known to Plato and the other philosophers whose works survive from clasical Greek times.

Related Topics:
Language - Philosophy - Logos - Deliberately - Leviathan - Speech - Signes - David Hume - John Locke - Berkeley - Theory of mind - Plato

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To put it another way, by these accounts (Greek: logoi), human reason (Greek: logos) requires the ability to model the world in thought. This internal "world" is essential to human consciousness (by which we mean more than just being awake). The cognitive scientist Merlin Donald invokes the old Greek word mimesis to discuss this fantasy or imaginary aspect to human thinking. Aristotle also wrote on such subjects in his works, and it is worth considering whether recent writers are returning to lost insights. See Michael Davis' commentary on the Poetics, as well as his introduction to the translation which he did with Seth Benardette: "It is the distinctive feature of human action, that whenever we choose what we do, we imagine an action for ourselves as though we were inspecting it from the outside." This in turn reminds us strongly of Tolkien?s terms ?fantasy? and ?enchantment? in ?On Fairy Stories?.

Related Topics:
Model - Thought - Consciousness - Merlin Donald - Mimesis - Fantasy - Imaginary - Aristotle - Poetics - Seth Benardette - Tolkien - Enchantment - On Fairy Stories

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The above reflections also allow us to consider what humans have which allow us to become rational, if we are not simply born with a connection to the supernatural. For Aristotle, what makes human thinking possible is the possibility to consider images artificially stripped of, or abstracting from, any connection to a particular time and place (On Memory and Recollection; see also Eva Brann's "The World of the Imagination" 1 I.B on this). This is what makes it possible to manipulate images before the mind?s eye as artificial symbols. Or to put it again in Merlin Donald's modern way:

Related Topics:
Images - Abstracting - On Memory and Recollection - Eva Brann

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"A dog might perceive the ?meaning? of a fight that was realistically play-acted by humans, but it could not reconstruct the message or distinguish the representation from its referent (a real fight). Trained apes are able to make this distinction; young children make this distinction early ? hence, their effortless distinction between play-acting an event and the event itself (Origins of the Modern Mind p.172)."

Related Topics:
Play - Representation - Referent

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Going back to Aristotle's teacher, Plato, the commentator Jacob Klein understood the key to what distinguishes human thinking to be "eikasia" (in Greek), which seems to be close to what Donald calls "reference". In Plato this is the ability to perceive whether a perception is an image of something else, and which therefore allows us to perceive that a dream or memory or a reflection in a mirror is not reality as such. But what Klein refers to as dianoetic eikasia ? the eikasia concerned with thinking and mental images ? is specifically most important to us here. Klein's main source for this is Plato's Republic, but his discussion appears in Ch 4 of his commentary on the Meno.

Related Topics:
Plato - Jacob Klein - Eikasia - Greek - Reference - Perception - Image - Dream - Memory - Reality - Dianoetic - Mental - Republic - Meno

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George Lakoff and Mark Johnson explicate reason and its scope in this manner:

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George Lakoff - Mark Johnson

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:Reason includes not only our capacity for logical inference, but also our ability to conduct inquiry, to solve problems, to evaluate, to criticize, to deliberate about how we should act, and to reach an understanding of ourselves, other people, and the world. (Lakoff and Johnson 1999, pp. 3-4)

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In literature, reason is often opposed to emotions or feelings, and desires, drives or passions. Others see reason as the servant or tool of these things -- the means of getting what one wants. Some would say however that many of the key philosophers of history (e.g. Plato, Rousseau, Hume, Nietzsche) have combined both views - making rational thinking not only a tool of desires, but also something which is itself desired, not only because of its usefulness in satisfying other desires.

Related Topics:
Emotions - Feelings - Desires - Drives - Passions - Plato - Rousseau - Hume - Nietzsche - Usefulness

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We are driven towards mimesis, and therefore on towards reasoning. These things please us. In his book "The Tangled Wing", the biologist Melvin Konner argues that ?wonder? is ?the hallmark of our species and the central feature of the human spirit?. Wonder, Joy, Curiosity and Admiration were words used by Hobbes to carefully describe the urges involved. See for example Leviathan I Chapter 6. The Greek for "to wonder" was thaumazein and Aristotle wrote in the Poetics that we even ?enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us?.

Related Topics:
Please - Melvin Konner - Wonder - Spirit - Joy - Curiosity - Admiration - Hobbes - Leviathan - Thaumazein - Poetics - Contemplating - Precise - Images - Things

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At the same time, reason sometimes clearly comes into conflict with some desires (even while not being in conflict with others) giving us the impression that reason is separate from emotion. Only in humans, choices are sometimes made on the basis of an association of ideas which is an artificially constructed model, rather than an un-inspected association based on raw experience, and this ?feels? different that than when one is won over by a passion supported by raw ?feeling?. The opposite is also unique ? we sometimes feel that a passion has won over our decision-making ?unjustly?, despite having lost its argument, or perhaps (in the case, for example, of a reflex action, not even having been a subject of argument before the action took place).

Related Topics:
Choices - Experience - Unjustly - Argument - Reflex action - Action

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The question of whether reason is driven by emotions is important for philosophers because reason is seen by us all as being the way that we come to know the truth, and we see the truth as something which exists outside of own consciousness. If reason is driven by emotions, then how can we ever know that we are not deceiving ourselves about what is true? Nietzsche was particularly moved by this question. In other words, trying to describe a "mechanism" of cause and effect by which reason works within humans, raises the question of the limits of reason. How can a part of nature always be right about nature?

Related Topics:
Truth - Consciousness - Nietzsche - Mechanism - Cause and effect - Humans - Nature

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Another more logical version of this ancient question about the limits of reason is how people can ever come to any solid conclusions, any real knowledge at all, given that only deductive reasoning can do this, and deductive reasoning requires that you already have knowledge in the form of generalizations to start with. Do we have anything to work with apart from experience? In 20th century philosophy handbooks, Rationalists believe reason has an ability to intuitively apprehend fundamental a priori truths. These fundamental truths are the causes or "reasons" that things exist or happen. Empiricists deny the existence of such a faculty and emphasise the importance of experience in building up a mental picture of what is true.

Related Topics:
Knowledge - 20th century philosophy - Rationalists - Intuitively - Fundamental - A priori - Empiricists

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While what we refer to above as the English tradition is strongly empiricist, an influential example of the opposite is Immanuel Kant. For him, reason (Vernunft in Kant's German language) is the power of synthesizing into unity, by means of comprehensive principles, the concepts provided by the intellect (Verstand). The reason which gives a priori principles Kant calls "Pure Reason" (as in his A Critique of Pure Reason), as distinguished from the "Practical Reason" which is specially concerned with the performance of particular actions.

Related Topics:
Immanuel Kant - German language - Intellect - A priori - A Critique of Pure Reason

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Modern proponents of a priori reasoning, at least with regards to language, are Noam Chomsky and Stephen Pinker, to whom Merlin Donald and Terrence Deacon can be very usefully contrasted.

Related Topics:
A priori - Noam Chomsky - Stephen Pinker - Merlin Donald - Terrence Deacon

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In theology, reason, as distinguished from faith, is the human intelligence exercised upon religious truth whether by way of discovery or by way of explanation. Some people have claimed that Western civilization can be almost defined by its serious testing of the limits of tension between reason and faith - Jerusalem and Athens. One of them, Leo Strauss, spoke of a "Greater West" which included all areas under the influence of the tension between Greek and Abrahamic thinking, including the Moslem lands. He was particularly influenced by the great moslem philosopher Al-Farabi. In order to consider to what extent Oriental philosophy might have partaken of these important tensions, it is perhaps best to consider whether dharma or tao can ever equate to Nature (by which we mean physis (Greek)).

Related Topics:
Theology - Faith - Western civilization - Jerusalem - Athens - Leo Strauss - West - Abrahamic - Moslem - Moslem philosopher - Farabi - Oriental philosophy - Dharma - Tao - Nature - Physis

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The limits within which reason may be used have been laid down differently in different churches and periods of thought: on the whole, modern Christianity, especially in the Protestant churches, tends to allow to reason a wide field, reserving, however, as the sphere of faith the ultimate (supernatural) truths of theology.

Related Topics:
Christianity - Protestant - Supernatural

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As discussed then, reason (or rationality or logos) has been controversial since the beginning of philosophy, and this has certainly not changed. But in modern times, criticism has been especially aggresive against anything seeming to be metaphysical and/or traditional (and therefore uninspected). Recent criticism, for example, has been especially harsh concerning concepts like Kant's "a priori" and any over-statement of the opposition between reason and emotions.

Related Topics:
Philosophy - Modern times - Metaphysical - Traditional - Uninspected

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Such tendencies often have the effect of increasing people's doubt in the importance of what seems to be important to humans. To put it another way, postmodern scepticism is an extreme result of the victory of British empiricism. The effect of modern philosophical debate upon the morality of the greater public has been a source of concern for some conservative commentators, who have blamed it in some cases for such diverse phenomena as Nazism and modern terrorism. However, modern empiricism, while it may aim to avoid metaphysics, does at least require a belief in laws of nature "behind" nature. This is, so to speak, the minimum metaphysics required for modern science.

Related Topics:
Postmodern - Scepticism - Conservative - Nazism - Terrorism - Belief - Laws of nature - Nature - Science

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Another more peculiarly recent debate is whether reason is unique to humanity. Consider, for example, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's theories about the "embodied mind". (See the Lakoff article for more information.)

Related Topics:
George Lakoff - Mark Johnson

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For a critique of reason's preeminent position within western culture since the Renaissance, see Voltaire's Bastards by John Ralston Saul.

Related Topics:
Western culture - Renaissance - Voltaire's Bastards - John Ralston Saul

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