Brainstorm

[emjay]

I have plenty of delusions - it's a side effect of how the emotional brain works - some of which I'm more mindful of than others, and some of which I use rational thinking to challenge and overcome and some of which I don't. But I only challenge them when I'm ready to, and that readiness comes from within. So I don't identify as a rationalist like Spock... I wouldn't want to be that because the emotional brain is just as beautiful in my eyes as the logical brain... and the two parts complement each other perfectly. So rationality is a means to correct delusions and without it we'd be confined to living them unchanged, as is presumably the case in the animal kingdom. But I don't see rationality alone as the be all and end all of human existence.

Here's the definition I was using:

rationalist - someone who believes that ideas and actions should be based on practical reasons and knowledge, rather than on emotions or religious beliefs

Do you still not consider yourself a rationalist, even by that definition? Do you perhaps think some ideas and actions should be based on emotions or religious beliefs? Could you give me any examples of such?

I don't know. Do you think I am? I guess I'd have to say I'm a half-rationalist. Not on religious beliefs, no, but on emotion yes. Intuition is one... that's relying on the 'fuzzy logic' of the brain... the ability to be informed that something doesn't quite fit the stored pattern. Stereotyping is an amazing ability of the brain and without it you wouldn't be able to infer that a lion could attack you if all you'd seen was a tiger. Bias, again allows for quick decisions and points you in the right direction... constraining the 'search space'. Emotions summarise activity over a wide area, and act as instant but non-specific indicators that there's something to be concerned about. Obviously these things can be put to good or bad use, but as features of the brain's working they are incredible, and we wouldn't be where we are and what we are without them. The important thing, I think, is understanding these mechanisms and being mindful of them and knowing whether they're being put to good or bad use, and using rationality to correct them if it's the latter case.