(December 13, 2011 at 3:49 pm)Perhaps Wrote: I think the basic argument of the statement is that it is intued, which would mean that you need to refute that aspect and not the fact that you can personally justify reasons why reason is the best way to gain knowledge.
Your opinions on the axioms of truth are very interesting, and probably true. Like I said before, I don't know the answer, I'm just playing devil's advocate.
The justification is the refutation.
The basic argument, as far as I can see, is that the statement "Reason is the best tool to gain knowledge" is intuitive. That means, this statement cannot be justified by reason but is known to us automatically. In effect, the author is saying "I can't explain why reason is the best way to gain knowledge, I just know it to be true".
This statement falls apart if a reason is provided or if it is shown to be non-intuitive otherwise, such as true by tautology.
For example, is the knowledge "All bachelors are unmarried" intuitive? That is, would you say that this knowledge is without reason or you know of no reason but you know it to be true anyway? This statement is tautologically true, i.e. true by definition. It doesn't need to be intued.
Similarly, consider "Reason is the way to gain knowledge about reality". Process of identification of facts about reality and making conclusions on them is what reason is. Knowledge is familiarity with those facts. They are two parts of the same process.
