One reason why some people are so eager to throw themselves in with popular ideologies and groups is a desire to be a part of something larger than their own lives. They think that social connection with others, no matter the philosophies they have, will fulfill them and make them feel immersed in something significant. Acceptance and fitting in are appealing to the point that deviation from socially favored ideas might be perceived as shallow and non-rationalistic peace is perceived as a thing of depth. The group's satisfaction seems that special to such an inane thinker. After all, the group is larger than them in that they are but one of many people, and a sense of belonging and connection to something larger are all they want most.
Turning to group approval instead of truth is a betrayal of reality itself, as it involves turning one's back on reason. Self-verifying truths are of greater philosophical importance than any group of mere people could ever be. A desire to be affiliated with something grand and large can find in logic its ultimate relief. Reason is not seen with the sense of sight or validated by collective belief; it is grasped with the intellect and used to evaluate sensory information, which, along with its inherent self-affirming nature [1], makes it more foundational than anything perceived with the five senses (not that there are only five senses!), including the words and appearances of other people.
Reason is bigger than everything else because it governs all things in a way that renders it impossible for anything at all to deviate from what must logically follow from certain truths or concepts. If someone wishes to belong to something larger than they are, the only thing that they can give their focus and allegiance to without there being something philosophically greater is the truths of reason. People can only exist in the first place and have correct ideas if it is logically possible for them to exist and for their ideas to be correct (although logical possibility alone does not make something true!), while logic is true, accessible, and universal. Social agreement is none of these things by default.
A sense of extraordinarily vast scale and metaphysical significance--which is not the same as significance in the sense of objective values--is merely a happenstance, subjective byproduct of various thoughts and experiences, whether spurred by social interaction or not, so it is more of a potential blessing than a philosophical necessity. All the same, no one who intentionally seeks it out needs to look to the pathetic nature of social agreement and cooperation to find that kind of awe and fulfillment. Looking to reason and recognizing its central primacy in all matters of truth, from matters of abstract epistemology to grand metaphysics to personal practicality, can provide the ultimate sense of alignment with something larger than oneself.
Indeed, it is by reason that reason itself and all other knowable things can be known, and rationalism and the laws of logic are true whether or not other people exalt them to their rightful place. No one escapes or nullifies reason by identifying with popular beliefs and preferences simply because they are popular or preferred, but everyone who consistently aligns with reason can escape every single error they and their societies would otherwise succumb to. They can ensure they are living for the one thing that must be true in order for anything else to be true and can consequently reason certain things out alone before helping others of a more sluggish pace understand those truths as well, for rationalism does not isolate people from social connections.
No comments:
Post a Comment