The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier
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The First Rule of Rationality: There are No Rules of Rationality

Reason is one of those terms, like time or God, which seems obvious until it’s taken seriously. It then dissipates into a semantic haze with no solid meaning whatsoever. No one can find it outside the language which postulates and defines it. Reason, that is, is a purely linguistic phenomenon. And even within language its content is elusive.

Think about it. Reason cannot be logical deduction because deduction requires premises that are postulated without reference to logic. Reason cannot be induction from empirical data because there is no limit to the amount of opposing data which might be supplied.

Scientific method, however that is conceived, can’t be reason. What is deemed acceptable by scientists, however they are identified historically, is subject to continuously changing criteria of evidence and technique.

Philosophy can’t be reason since it always starts with a presumption of what is important in life. Or for that matter after life. And the choice of what is important for many philosophers seems arbitrary if not downright unreasonable.

Yet despite our inability to define what we mean by reason, we tend to treat it as a kind of species-specific superpower. Isn’t reason what distinguishes us from brute animals? Doesn’t reason allow us to transcend the limitations of physical force in resolving our conflicts? Isn’t it reason which allows us to achieve such heights of achievement as space travel and the internet?

There are good reasons to answer all these questions negatively. And in an admirably self-referential way, this is exactly what the authors do: “Reason, we will argue, is a mechanism for intuitive inferences about one kind of representations, namely, reasons.” Reason is about giving and comparing the worth of reasons, often in a most unreasonable manner.

Reason is an interactive process which cannot be reduced to a method or a formula: “We produce reasons in order to justify our thoughts and actions to others and to produce arguments to convince others to think and act as we suggest. We also use reason to evaluate not so much our own thought as the reasons others produce to justify themselves or to convince us.” Anyone who doubts this proposition has never been married, or certainly not been married for long.

In other words, reason is the way human beings communicate. Reason is uniquely human to the extent that human language is unique. Reason is an inherent element of language not something that is applied to language. Reason is how language is employed - to influence others.

The implications of this insight are profoundly important. Reason is not scientific, or rational, or objective; it is political; it is meant to justify and convince. Those who try to fix the meaning of reason are merely employing reason unreasonably for their own ends.

Reason is the profound strength and the equally profound flaw of language. It is the strength of an immeasurably strong linguistic technology that allows complex communal efforts; and it is the flaw of that technology that we are unable to escape from it. Language becomes an imperative which must be used.

Argument is superior to violence, we say. But only for the winners of the argument. Every political system, which is of course defined in language, has a means of keeping the losers of arguments from violence - the potential for even greater violence. Language’s claim to superiority is therefore fatuous. As the authors say, the purpose of reason is always the same - to justify and convince. And failing that, to compel.

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