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reason • Reason is something that we use whenever we make a decision, and most of the time, our reasoning occurs instinctively, as we decide on the best path to take almost unconsciously, depending on previous experiences involving similar situations. It is possible to train ourselves to reason consciously, though, and the more one thinks about the decisions one is making, the more one is able to have active control over them. Some people have termed this intellectual enlightenment, the point where we are consciously aware of every choice we ever make. The extent to which this is achieved determines how rational we are.Questions that need to be considered include how we reason, its relationship with emotion, to what extent we can trust decisions that have been made using reasons, and what are the fallacies that can arise when reason is not used properly. • Theoryofknowledge.net
definition “Positions we can arrive at that we can call knowledge, and we can arrive at them through establishing facts, by using scientific methods.” Stephen Trombley, film maker and author. Note: 17 minute talk to the RSA ‘The fate of reason in an age of belief’. You can see it from the ‘Reason’ tab on our website.
history • One ‘westernized’ socio economic political perspective of history…a concept line could look like this….. • Pre history – Greeks - Romans – Dark Ages- Renaissance – Reformation – Industrial Revolution – Age of Reason – Imperialism - Total war - Cold war - Détente - Digital age….
Age of reason = enlightenment…why? • European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented during the course of the "long 18th century" (1685-1815) as part of a movement referred to by its participants as the Age of Reason, or simply the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. The Enlightenment produced numerous books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. The Enlightenment ultimately gave way to 19th-century Romanticism.
