Rationality And Sanity

A rational person can seem almost wholly insane to those who have not familiarized themselves with reason, and an irrational person can seem perfectly sane to someone unwilling to look to reason as the sole way to dispel whatever myths or assumptions otherwise permeate their thoughts.  Common perceptions of what constitutes sanity and insanity have little to do with someone's actual psychological status, which is far more intimately tied to their worldviews and personal grasp of philosophy at their own initiative than many people verbally acknowledge.  For those who are not rationalists dedicated to constructing a worldview without assumptions, a sincere rationalist might seem "crazy" and clueless--a deeply ironic thing, given that only rationalists have reality on their side in any thoroughly ultimate sense.

Indeed, actual rationality--a consistent, thorough grasp of reason and an awareness of at least some of the explicitly philosophical ramifications reason has for epistemology and objectivity--can seem downright irrational to those so accustomed to fallacies and assumptions that the very thought of systematically rejecting them appears strange.  No one can rescue a person from such a distorted worldview and set of priorities other than the person himself or herself.  No matter how carefully and potently miscellaneous truths are explained to them, they will dismiss whatever truths they do not subjectively appreciate or prefer, tossing aside even basic, vital logical truths that everyone can access completely on their own.

This stands in blatant contrast to the worldview of the rationalist who reasons out logical proofs instead of settling for assumptions based on random inclinations, personal preferences, or irrelevant sensory data.  Even though a thorough rationalist will realize at some point that their sensory perceptions might largely not correspond to an outside physical reality, one of many epistemological facts that could easily strike non-rationalists as "insane," they are the only type of person equipped to call a behavior, belief, or claim insane.  Reason is not the only source of knowledge, but it is the only thing which is involved in all knowledge, leaving everyone who does not consistently seek reason divorced from a clear understanding of reality.

Only a mind that has avoided assumptions and looked to reason for what it is rather than what some erroneous philosophy treats it as can objectively distinguish between sanity and insanity, for sanity is nothing other than rationality.  Someone does not become sane or insane based on how they perceive things when there is not necessarily a way to control their perceptions; someone becomes sane or insane to the extent that they align with or disregard reason itself.  Not a single other factor places someone in one category or another, even if other factors sometimes affect how they are perceived by others who have not realized the true nature of sanity.  Even how a person feels about their own intellectual grasp of the laws of logic is irrelevant.

Every person can see directly into their own thoughts, motivations, priorities, and beliefs, meaning that everyone has the ability to immediately assess their alignment with reason, or sanity, at any time.  In fact, non-telepathic beings have no way to see the true thoughts of others (or even if other minds exist), a fact from which it follows that one's own rationality is first and foremost obvious to them even if others ignore, deny, or misunderstand it.  Rationalists can take comfort in knowing that sanity is not only attainable and knowable, but that it is also within their grasp and that consistent sanity is only found in adherents of rationalism.  It is people who shrug at or oppose rationalism in which true insanity lurks.