After reading the article about neglected conservative Michael Oakeshott over at Quillette, I wondered if rationalism and especially skepticism can ever build or create anything, or only tear them down. I have been much in favor of rationality, and a healthy dose of skepticism as long as I can remember. Yet I wonder if they ever provide more than "That's not proven...not worth it...no basis for it...don't get taken in..."
More subtly, I think that when we try to eliminate all the irrationals, we are not left with the rational, but with other irrationalities in better disguise. Logic and reason are not our neutral states which automatically kick in when we eliminate illogic. Gardens do not grow by weeding alone. It pains me to say this, because weeding is one of the things I do. Perhaps I misperceive myself in this.
3 comments:
To be honest, I don't think humans are *capable* of being fully rational. Nor would we want them to.
Time for me to retail another favorite quote, this time from Burke (I think):
"Politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings but to human nature, of which reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part."
I think you're giving yourself to little credit. To a non-professional engineer (me), what you're describing appears to be the process of turning a Science into Engineering. Eliminate the things unproven, add a margin of safety to the guesses, and you have a discipline that can actually create something.
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