5.2 Different paths to knowledge
5.2.1 What is knowing? (continued)

Are you rational or irrational?

Rationality is the essence of what is rational; it is the product of reason.

The root of the word "rationality" (from the Latin ratio) meant calculus.

Reason is not the same as intuition, sensation, spontaneous reaction, emotions or belief. Reason begins with common sense and develops through the ability to count, measure, order, organize, classify, explain and argue.

Rational discourse then is one that is coherent, debated, and built on a kind of logical "calculus," which is quite different from personal opinion. Such a discourse has to be true in a universal way.

Irrationality, however, refuses to submit itself to reason. An irrational individual does not follow logic and acts by cross-purpose. His decisions are often incoherent. The irrational world can also be said to include the world of the unknown, of superstition, mysticism, and the inaccessible, including what runs counter to reason.


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