that we use reason to gain universal and necessary judgements
about the universe… like Kant…
I don’t think we need to attempt to discover universal truths/judgements
when I am not sure that there are universal truths/judgments…
but that doesn’t dismiss reason as a another tool in the toolbox…
we simply have to become aware of the uses and abuses of reason…
we cannot say, it is either reason or faith we must follow…
reason has its place just as hope/faith has its place…
we just can’t depend upon reason to work out universal truths
and judgments like Kant’s moral/categorical imperative…
but I can use reason to work out what is my best course of action
in understanding what it means to be human… I can use reason
as a tool to create understanding…just as I use hope/faith as a tool
to get up in the morning to work my crappy job… I hope it is a better day
at work today… I know rationally that it is going to suck at work, but
with hope/faith, I can muster enough hope/faith to think, perhaps,
maybe, today will be different. It will be better today…
and I am forever disappointed… but perhaps, perhaps tomorrow
will be better, I hope/have faith…
reason tells me that work will suck, yesterday, today and tomorrow…
I cannot escape the nightmare that is work, at least not until
I retire, which at this point, is the same day I die…….
I can use reason on a small scale way or means of understanding my
role or place in the universe… I may not be able to make such
large scale pronouncements that Kant or Hegel or Spinoza made, but
I can use reason to make small scale understanding of what it means to
be human……and what it takes to go from animal to animal/human to
human… fully human…and reason is the tool I use to make
that judgement……
so, reason isn’t oppose to faith, reason is simply another tool, just
as faith is a tool…
Kropotkin