Anyone who does not know logical axioms cannot know anything else, for everything else hinges on axioms because they alone are inherently true. The only alternative to true rationalism is to believe in assumptions, and if something is assumed, it is not known, for even if it is logically verifiable for any willing person to discover, the believer has only presumed it to be true either actively or passively. Many people are confused the moment you bring up logical axioms and misperceive the subject, that of the very heart of all things and the only intrinsic set of truths, to be a matter of pure speculation (when axioms are what allows for absolute certainty to begin with), a secondary thing (when axioms have an inherent, self-necessary ultimate primacy), or utterly "incomprehensible" (when axioms are true in themselves and thus the only things that can be understood in themselves without relying on something even more foundational).
Axioms are self-evident because they are self-necessarily true, as even them being false could only be the case if they were still true—for instance, contradictions are possible only if what is sometimes called the law of non-contradiction is false, but this would mean it is still true since the alternative still contradicts and excludes it. Far more likely than not to be neglected entirely or denied outright by a stranger in conversation if one brings them up, these logical truths are forsaken for the sake of whatever educational trend of outward skills someone can demonstrate. Educational background is much more familiar for non-rationalists, though they have no knowledge of the nature of education and its distinction from rationality and reason (rationality itself being distinct from reason since it is mental alignment with reason) since they do not know axioms, so they look to a supposed outward indicator of intelligence instead.
To focus on a very particular aspect of this societal trend, it is on the basis of education and alleged experience, among other things, that people are hired for many jobs, though they might not know their left hand from their right hand and would have to rely on rationality, which in turn depends on the objective necessities of logic, to even understand the real nature of education. They just do not realize this. Again, a non-rationalist cannot know anything, no matter what they believe or feel, whereas at least an inconsistent rationalist knows logical axioms and possibly some other things that follow from them. It is just that non-rationalists can still remember, assume, and complete tasks, and so they might be prone to assume that the person who can regurgitate assumed educational information or perform a workplace role successfully does not have merely the capacity for intelligence, but intelligence itself. Though this does not follow and indeed is false, since only a rationalist could possibly be intelligent, it is easier for non-rationalists to suppose that education and competence must be markers of rationality because they aspire to nothing more than subjective persuasion based upon these things.
They might have memorized information and even believe some things that are demonstrably correct, but they have only assumed that these things are true, never pondered them tightly with the rationalistic goal of discovering that which is self-evident and pinpointing other truths that necessarily follow or do not follow. Whoever has not done this, no matter their wealth or reputation or career or education, is a goddamn fool, an insect who might believe they are intelligent because of other people's affirmative words or because of their grades or career successes or some other such red herring and would be wrong. Ignoring or trivializing axioms while basing one's worldview and priorities on that which depends on axioms and in many cases cannot even be proven or disproven, from things as foundational as whether or not other minds exist to less crucial things like the future of the social constructs of the stock market or the college system, is idiotic. Fools are more likely than not to arbitrarily welcome and encourage others fools, because it takes effort to break away from assumptions to find genuinely demonstrable truths, and very few if any workplaces or educational organizations really foster anything other than this philosophical delusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment