tom_boy wrote:tycho wrote:Reasoning is so difficult, yet it is the single thing that makes us human and divine.
Most people are hardly human. Maybe the living dead.
EVery person reasons. One reasons that the other has no reasoning. There is no arbitrator in reasoning.
I define reason as the conscious and deliberate control of the basic elements of life with the aim of sustaining the self.
From this definition we realize that in order for one to reason he/she needs:
1. To know the self
2. To know the basic elements
3. To have have a technique for controlling the basic elements
4. To continuously apply the technique
These are hidden things. Most people don't have the requirements. Therefore not everyone reasons.
I think it another matter about how ideas come to mind,and how we tend to weigh them. In fact, a person often gets an idea and spends the rest of the time either justifying or repressing it.
Even for me, reasoning is a very difficult task.