Reason and Desire
By reasoning about what we see and hear we can reach the truth and weed out falsehoods. But reasoning doesn't only help us to think well, it also helps us to act well. Some people argue that reason has no influence on our actions: everything we do is caused by strong feelings or driven by desire. This isn't true. We often criticise and control our feelings and reconsider and reform our desires. If feeling and desire caused all our behaviour, we would never be free and so never able to take credit or blame.
When we make a choice it is because we see something as worth having, or getting, or being - we see it as ‘good’. This is a rational judgement. Certainly, we should also desire and feel strongly about what is worthwhile. But we desire it because we judge it to be good: we do not judge it good because we desire it. Reason has the guiding hand here. So reason plays an important part in action: we can reason practically (praxis is the Greek word for action).
By reasoning about what we see and hear we can reach the truth and weed out falsehoods. But reasoning doesn't only help us to think well, it also helps us to act well. Some people argue that reason has no influence on our actions: everything we do is caused by strong feelings or driven by desire. This isn't true. We often criticise and control our feelings and reconsider and reform our desires. If feeling and desire caused all our behaviour, we would never be free and so never able to take credit or blame.
When we make a choice it is because we see something as worth having, or getting, or being - we see it as ‘good’. This is a rational judgement. Certainly, we should also desire and feel strongly about what is worthwhile. But we desire it because we judge it to be good: we do not judge it good because we desire it. Reason has the guiding hand here. So reason plays an important part in action: we can reason practically (praxis is the Greek word for action).
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