The Reason as a Way of Knowing - Assignment Example

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of reason as a way of knowing. “Two extravagances: to exclude reason, to admit only reason Blaise Pascal 1632-62 Reason is a way of knowing that is common to any human being living on this planet. It is, in fact, a logical way of thinking that is natural and hereditary from the very beginning of humankind. Reason is one of the strongest ways of knowing, taking into account some other ways of knowing depend on it for guidance. It would be fair to say that the evolution of the human way of thinking is an outcome of reasoning. Present day reasoning could be said to be far more processed and factual than reasoning centuries ago. Thinking logically is not taught which makes it (such as the way the world processes) something that has always been present. However, it has almost never been justified coherently. For example: everyone knows that when something is dropped down to the open air such as a ball, it falls to the ground, or if a chair is thrown up to the air it will fall back down. This is not something that is learned. It is basic reasoning and instincts we are born with, common to all humankind. However, why it happened had not been discovered until the law of gravitation was proposed by Isaac Newton in the late 17th century (this however has to do with knowledge). Knowledge may sometimes be intertwined with reason as a way of knowing as the above example. Reason, however, has a great advantage in some other ways of knowing since it is entirely rational. Nevertheless, reason does have some weaknesses which cause a way of knowing come out as inadequate for gaining proper and complete knowledge. This is why one should not rely entirely on reason as a way of knowing. “You are not thinking you are merely being logical.2” This quote can be viewed both positively and negatively at first read. It was originally said by Neils Bohr to Albert Einstein. The intention referring to this quote is to show how being logical can often lead to astounding discoveries that are, most of the time, mistaken to be resultants of another way of knowing. Another way of looking at the quote is linking it to a different way of knowing such as emotion. All ways of knowing happen to be complementing each other. They, in fact, need to be so. But when it comes to reason and emotion as ways of knowing the two do not seem to be quite interdependent or complementary to each other. Deductive reasoning can sometimes prevent this from happening by using false premises in a syllogism, which means that the reasoning might be wrong but the conclusion is right which allows the arguments to be considered as valid. Some examples will elaborate this thesis. All murderers are criminals and since John is a criminal, John is a murderer. Or, all abortions are unethical, and since Mary had an abortion, Mary is unethical. If we allow reason to judge this argument, it will obviously be a valid one because of the premises and the conclusion which are logical. However, if we were to view this on an emotional point of view, the obvious will be pointed out. It may have been that Mary was a young victim of rape who is still dependant on her parents and has her whole high school life ahead of her and the rape was trauma enough. In these cases reason fails to adjust and emotion succeeds. However this is one major weakness of reason that shows that reason is unable to cope with other ways of knowing especially emotion. Taking for granted the fact that the different ways of knowing must be complementing each other, reason seems to have another weakness since it, in most of the times, becomes contradictory to intuition that is also considered to be one of the important ways of knowing. Since intuition is regarded as ‘emotional wisdom’ it becomes very obvious that reason flouts the wisdom of human emotions. Yet, the most interesting thing is that what just now seemed to be a weakness for reason as one of the ways of knowing turns out to be a strong point for it. Intuitions can often be quite vulnerable to personal delusions and misconceptions which again vary from individual to individual. Since reason is comparatively far more rigid, it serves as a guard to such personal misconceptions and delusions. In its formal practice, reason happens to be a way of knowing that depends much on what is often referred to as ‘common sense’. Moreover, it hardly depends on the sensory observations. Since sensory observations are often confined within a particular limit, there might have been a chance of reason getting stuck within a particular boundary had it been dependent on the sensory observations. Therefore, reason’s independence in respect of not being dependent upon the sensory observations of the human beings is one of its greatest strengths. The limits of the sensory observations may result in the human mind being mislead in gaining knowledge on a particular subject. It is the objectivity one of the elements that characterize reason that prevents the human beings from acquiring the incorrect knowledge due to the subjectivity of sensory perceptions or observations. Reason is typically characterized by logic as well as analysis, resulting in the delivery of solid results. In Man is the Measure, Reuben Abel says, “Good Reasons Epistemology is largely concerned with the third requirement of proportional knowledge, that is, with appraising the kinds of evidence”3. It means that reason attempts to discover the truth on the basis of the evidences. Though these characteristics of reason make it stronger as a way of knowing, things become quite troublesome when it comes to the matter of human life and its powerful emotional elements. Reason is so much based on facts and logic that it cannot help ignoring the human emotions. Though there have been numerous attempts to interpret the emotions in terms of the working process of the conscious, subconscious and the unconscious levels of the human minds, all must be unanimous over the fact that all the interpretations seem to be lacking the completeness or the feature of being foolproof so that they become absolutely convincing. Therefore, when it comes to the matter of gaining knowledge of the human emotions, reason turns out to be a big failure as a way of knowing. Reason as a way of knowing is again quite an insufficient one when it comes to the matter of explaining or knowing human nature and behavior. Each of the human minds is so idiosyncratic that all human minds are characterized by different working process in various situations. While reason depends rigidly on some rules of logic and internal consistency, the human nature has its own logic that has always been inexplicable as well as unpredictable. “Though this be madness yet there is method in it”4 – this quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603) is quite relevant in this regard. The irony is that the ‘method’ that Shakespeare refers to in this line is not the method or logic that reason takes into account. Reason as a way of knowing has another weakness when it comes to the matter of gaining knowledge about religion or religious culture and viewpoints. The cultural and religious beliefs are not always based on logic or reason. Sometimes the religious rituals or cultural beliefs are based on such logic that reason cannot explain. Again, all the religious habits or cultural rituals cannot be ruled out only because they are not valid when an attempt is made to explain them in terms of reason as a way of knowing. Even if an attempt is made to explain some of the religious belief so that the truth is discovered, the logic that would be used may turn out to be subjected to social or cultural conventions. Reason remains too poor a way of knowing if some particular art forms are taken into account. For instance, reason is not always a good way of knowing in case of music. What is closely related to music is emotion that is also a way of knowing but is often quite contrary to reason. In this case the definition of knowledge provided by Richard van de Lagemaat in his Theory of knowledge for the IB Diploma seems to be of great relevance. According to him, knowledge is “what might be described as a thick concept in that it is not exhausted by a short definition and can only be understood through experience and reflection”5. If reason be the way of knowing in case of music, it may result in utter failure. It is the feeling within the human heart that serves as the prior way of knowing in case of music. The human feeling or emotions turn into a realization after they reach a certain dimension. Reason here can be an obstacle that might hinder the process of the human feeling or emotion reaching the dimension where it becomes a realization. Moreover, the joy of music is something that is evoked within the hearts of both the singer or the composer and the listener. If reason is applied, the link that is built between the emotions might be destroyed resulting in the joy and charm of music being unrealized, and thereby, unknown. References 1. Abel, Reuben, Man is the measure, Free Press, 1997 2. Mumford, Alan, Action Learning at Work, Gower Publishing, Ltd., 1997 3. “Niels Bohr Quotes” , Brainy Quotes, 2009, retrieved on February 2, 2009 from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/niels_bohr.html 4. Shakespeare, William, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, retrieved on February 2, 2009 from: http://www.bartleby.com/46/2/ 5. Van de Lagemaat, Richard, Theory of knowledge for the IB diploma, Cambridge University, 2005 Read More