the case against rationalism

Sparked by a (largely) half-witted debate this afternoon in which I got frustrated by one of the participant’s unwillingness to listen, the moderator (BPS) got frustrated by my “irrational” arguments, and one that ultimately ended with my refusal to attempt to have a discussion with someone who won’t even try to listen, though not before getting in that rationalism is limited and with BPS’s DH retorting that perhaps but "it’s all we got." I beg to differ. I don’t have the details quite worked out, but if I ever decide to take up philosophy (unlikely), I’ll begin by working on developing a coherent theorem against pure rationalist thought and/or logical deduction in decision making. Sure rationalist thinking is essential, but it’s not everything. The concept of G-d’s existence is hardly rational, love is not rational, neither is beauty, and I would argue that ultimately life is least rational of all. So why should one’s decisions be based on solely rational arguments? If there ever was one, Spinoza was a man who lived and breathed by rational thinking, and do remind me where that got him...

(Something related that I found in my “blog drafting” file that I don’t think I ever ended up posting:

About a month ago, in a discussion with BPS that went from my religious “habits” to the cause and prevention of colds, BPS accused me of living by irrational beliefs and suggested that I turn to philosophy to develop logical principles to live by. My initial reaction was to take the defense and claim that I do too act on reason, but quickly came to the realization that I wouldn’t be able to uphold that claim, since I don’t necessarily employ reason in all facets of my life. In the end, I decided to turn it around and argue that there was nothing wrong with living by intuition: in many ways it makes more sense, if something feels right, like religion, or fresh air to prevent colds, and it seems to work, then why bother with philosophic principles or take to scientific studies (which would probably be disproved the following year) seriously. And anyway, I could never lead my life by purely following philosophic principles: it would go against my intuition.

And this week I read that this debate between rationalism and intuition is an over 200 years old philosophic debate. So haha, I’m not so far off. And to further my defense, psychologist Haigt writes:

“Rather than following the ancient Greeks in worshipping reason, we should instead look for the roots of human intelligence, rationality, and virtue in what the mind does best: perception, intuition, and other mental operations that are quick, effortless, and generally quite accurate (pp. 822)”)