An interesting quote, I wonder what people here will make of it...
True rationalists are as rare in life as actual deconstructionists are in university English departments, or true bisexuals in gay bars. In a lifetime spent in hotbeds of secularism, I have known perhaps two thoroughgoing rationalists—people who actually tried to eliminate intuition and navigate life by reasoning about it—and countless humanists, in Comte’s sense, people who don’t go in for God but are enthusiasts for transcendent meaning, for sacred pantheons and private chapels. They have some syncretic mixture of rituals: they polish menorahs or decorate Christmas trees, meditate upon the great beyond, say a silent prayer, light candles to the darkness.
I can’t tell if the author means “rationalists” in the technical sense (i.e. as opposed to empiricists) but if he doesn’t then I think it’s unfair of him to require that rationalists “eliminate intuition and navigate life by reasoning about it”, since this is so clearly irrational (because intuition is so indispensably powerful).
An interesting quote, I wonder what people here will make of it...
source
I can’t tell if the author means “rationalists” in the technical sense (i.e. as opposed to empiricists) but if he doesn’t then I think it’s unfair of him to require that rationalists “eliminate intuition and navigate life by reasoning about it”, since this is so clearly irrational (because intuition is so indispensably powerful).
I loved this quote. I think it’s a characterization of UU-style humanism that is fair but that they would probably agree with.