Reasoning about reason

To turn the gaze of reason upon itself, to investigate its origins and its proper use, is, far from being a form of irrationalism, a necessary part of the rational life.

Those who make the mistake of assuming that the origin of reason must be found in something rational (St. Thomas, for example) are led to another mistake, belief in a rational Creator. Nature is capricious and far from rational, and yet man and reason have arisen out of her. The origin of reason can only be properly investigated through the use of reason, without appeals to sentiment.

To one who says that it is always good to be rational, we must say, “What about sleep?” Surely he is exaggerating. Perhaps not only sleep but other ways of resting the rational faculty will be beneficial to its overall functioning. This question can only be settled by a rational investigation.

Advice to a young student contemplating business school

“He who busies himself with mean occupations produces in the very pains he takes about insignificant things evidence of his negligence and indisposition to what is really great.”—Plutarch

The commercial aspect of the human experience, particularly when viewed from the point of view of the commercial man himself, is arguably among the least sublime aspects of that experience. To adopt the role of a commercial man is to guarantee that the central character of one’s experience in life will henceforth be a calculating, cunning, and, ultimately, bland and insipid sort of experience.

To spend years of one’s life, only to prepare for a role that subsequently guarantees an inferior sort of experience in the remaining years, seems to me among the most foolhardy of decisions. Yet this is the very path that most would consider “wise” and “practical.”

Specialized training interposes a role between us and our experiences. We experience things as a lawyer would, as an accountant would, but rarely ever as a man or woman would. This is a mistake. We should seek to attune our senses to the aspects of human experience that are most sublime, not those that are most lucrative.