It may be of course that savages put food on a dead man because they think that a dead man can eat, or weapons with a dead man because they think a dead man can fight. But personally I do not believe that they think anything of the kind. I believe they put food or weapons on the dead for the same reason that we put flowers, because it is an exceedingly natural and obvious thing to do. We do not understand, it is true, the emotion that makes us think it is obvious and natural; but that is because, like all the important emotions of human existence it is essentially irrational.
Chesterton doesn’t understand the emotion because he doesn’t know enough about psychology, not because emotions are deep sacred mysteries we must worship.
G. K. Chesterton
Chesterton doesn’t understand the emotion because he doesn’t know enough about psychology, not because emotions are deep sacred mysteries we must worship.
I read “irrational” as a genuflection in the direction of the is-ought problem more than anything else.
My beef isn’t with “irrational”, he meant “arational” anyway. It’s with the idea that this property of emotions make our ignorance about them okay.
Ah—I missed that implication. Agreed.
Or better, arational.
That is an incredible term. Going to use it all the time.