Thread: Is reason enough?

Originally Posted by DeeryTheDeer

Intuition and empathy (especially intuition) are just fancy mythical words that mean "subconscious evolutionary hard-wirings of reason". Usually, if something feels right, logic and reason will eventually prove it to BE right anyway. That's WHY it feels good with intuition, because you know deep down, immediately how the most basic facts about the situation add up.

You can't take 'reasoning' out of mental discussion like some sort of separate ingredient. ALL decision making is some form of reasoning. There is no "ghost in the machine".

I would put it the opposite way. There is no 'hidden reason' in intuition; when we investigate our intuitions after the fact, we do not "prove" them, we rationalize them, a process that would not be necessary if they were rational in the first place.

Your last paragraph is semantic and I'll try to avoid getting bogged down there, but it certainly sounds to me like you view methodical, analytical thinking as eclipsing the other two, which I suppose would be option #3. Personally, I opt for #2, thinking and feeling that Reason, Intuition and Empathy operate best when each is well informed by the other two. I find the three terms symbolically balanced, holding equal symbolic weight when we discuss the form that consciousness takes in making a decision. As I said in the OP, the terms were chosen intuitively; I can invent reasons why I opted for them, but the experience of choosing them was not rational.