Q&A: Is It Rational to Be Rational
Is It Rational to Be Rational
Question
Has the Rabbi ever dealt with the question of whether it is rational to be rational? Let me explain. Rationalism, as I understand it, means relying on the logical process when the assumption is reasonable and convincing. Is that reliance itself reasonable and rational? I know that you cannot ask for the validity of something before we have agreed on it, and therefore the conclusion is clearly that it is not rational. But I only want to show that rationalism is not the primary thing, nor the primary knowledge a person has. Therefore, if I were to argue logically that human beings believe in God by virtue of their very existence—for example, the principle of causality—that would mean that human beings know, in a pre-logical way, that God exists, just as human beings know, in a pre-logical way, to rely on logic.
Answer
I didn’t understand a thing.
Rationalism is an empty word in itself. There are assumptions that a person adopts based on his understanding, and with regard to that I do not see a way to define rationality. Logic merely derives conclusions from them. Here there is certainly rationality, but the disputes are not about logic; they are about the assumptions.