Where has reason gone?
At the beginning of the 19th century, Thomas Paine wrote and published a series of papers titled "The Age of Reason." Paine's theme was primarily a polemic against organized religion's influence on early American society. Although at that time Paine's postulations were considered heretical and radical, they would be considered mild in this our age of the abolition of reason.
Today, our culture's epistemological construct is based on subjectivity and emotions rather than objectivity, logic and reason. The abolition of reason is easily demonstrated in most conversations when the term "I feel" prefaces a response to social, political, environmental, moral, ethical and familial issues. Feelings (emotions) are an intricate part of our human nature, but they are a poor substitute for logic and objective reasoning.
Currently our culture wrestles with such "Hot Button" issues as abortion, war, politics, gay rights, same-sex marriage and racism to which our culture applies subjective thinking to and promotes these and other ideologies based on feelings. A simple application of logic, objectivity and reason would demonstrate the absurdity of this subjective approach. In as much as this subjective, emotional approach is applied, it will always result in the abolition of reason.
The United States Constitution is supposed to provide equal protection under the law for all of our citizens. A logical absurdity occurs when our constitutional rights are not enforced equally for all Americans. Many times our leaders and legislators would rather do what is politically correct - which is an euphemism for pandering to special interests - if it is politically, socially, or financially advantageous to them or their political organizations. If constitutional rights were enforced equally, there would be no need for legislation granting special protections for specific people or groups. The negative consequences of this type of convoluted thinking is demonstrated by laws where the rights of the majority of the American people are denied in favor of specific individuals or special interest groups. The logical absurdity of this should be obvious to any objective thinking person, but sadly, it is rarely considered in our American culture which suffers from the abolition of reason.
One of the primary causes for the abolition of reason is the way our educational epistemological paradigm has shifted. Our current educational system, for the most part, teaches based of subjectiveness and emotion rather that critical thinking and objectiveness. This is demonstrated by such logically ridiculous concepts as relativism. The idea that all philosophies, religions and opinions are of equal value stretches credulity way beyond its logical breaking point. Something is true or it is not. The logical law of non-contradiction applies in all situations. "A thing can and cannot be in the same relationship at the same time." A thing is either true or it isn't. Truth defined is conformity to the facts or evidence which validates a concept or proposition. To say that something may be true for me and not true for you, while the two ideas are totally antithetical to one another, is to throw away logic and reason and embrace irrationality, yet this is what is being taught in our public schools and colleges. Reason and logical thinking would render such teachings and philosophies absurd, but as long as subjectivity rules the day in our education system, the abolition of reason will continue.
How might we stop the abolition of reason? We can start by asking four questions when encountering any proposition:
1. Do I really believe this or is it someone else's idea?
2. Is it logical and reasonable to believe this?
3. Is there verifiable information or evidence to support this?
4. If this is not true, what will the consequences be?
Ron Catlin is a Coeur d'Alene resident.