LS Reconciling rational with non-rational


Andrew_Russell/FS/KSG@ksg.harvard.edu
Wed, 25 Mar 1998 05:48:20 +0100


Struan, I think we misunderstand each other at a deeper, simpler level than
I first thought.

The world is not exclusively rational. The world is not exclusively
non-rational.
Do you agree?

The search for an ethical system is a search to create a rational form of
judging the ethical value of all phenomena. Yet all phenomena do not fit
into rational or non-rational categories. So we are left with a dilemma of
epic proportions, which is how to judge spontaneous actions (which are not
always rational) bynon-rational criterai.
Do you agree?

Therefore in the attempt to create this system, we can see how both
rational and non-rational factors can be useful.
Do you agree?

The conflict we are living, and discussing, has been framed elsewhere as
the conflict between science and religion.

Do you believe in the phenomena that Christians call "God"? I realize this
      is a difficult question, but do you believe the entire universe can
      be explained in rational terms?

Do you believe that everyhting is rational and reducible to a system of
      thought that we, at the end of the 20th century, can understand? Or
      do you believe that there are some things which escape our intellect
      and escape rationality and we cannot explain away simply and clearly?

As for your rhetoric: I am from America, I went to school here and also for
      six months at the University of Sussex, in Brighton. I studied 20th
      century social and economic British history. If you are stating what
      YOU believe is correct, then use the appropriate pronoun: I, not WE.
      For the MoQ very much concerns my ethical search, and therefore your
      assertion in your first email is incorrect.

I welcome your intellectual challenge to the Lila Squad. Discussion of
      these issues is good. To reduce all of these issues to

rational human language is inaccurate. If this is the purpose of the
      discussion you initiated, I will no longer participate. I am looking
      for a more inclusive answer.

I hope I haven't created any feelings of personal animosity. That was most
      certainly not my intention. But I will continue to resist that which
      I perceive to not be true.

Your brother in the search for truth,

Andy Russell

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