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e2df397
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Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal... In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately. Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh--not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.
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dogs
man
religion
doves
squirrels
geese
foxes
reasoning
cats
monkeys
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Mark Twain |
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6a91cf6
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Human reason can excuse any evil.
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humanity
reasoning
evil
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Veronica Roth |
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96e6321
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when man determined to destroy himself he picked the was of shall and finding only why smashed it into because
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reasoning
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E.E. Cummings |
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224670f
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The faculty to think objectively is ; the emotional attitude behind reason is that of . To be objective, to use one's reason, is possible only if one has achieved an attitude of humility, if one has emerged from the dreams of omniscience and omnipotence which one has as a child. Love, being dependent on the relative absence of narcissism, requires the developement of humility, objectivity and reason. I must try to see the difference between picture of a person and his behavior, as it is narcissistically distorted, and the person's reality as it exists regardless of my interests, needs and fears.
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understanding
empathy
reason
love
subjective
the-art-of-loving
erich-fromm
objective
objectivity
narcissism
reasoning
conflict
humility
selfishness
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Erich Fromm |
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a86fc24
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As I have said, you have no reason to trust me, and an excellent reason not to.
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beauty
trust
love
beauty-and-the-beast
reasoning
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Robin McKinley |
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7a73e7e
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How much truth is contained in something can be best determined by making it thoroughly laughable and then watching to see how much joking around it can take. For truth is a matter that can withstand mockery, that is freshened by any ironic gesture directed at it. Whatever cannot withstand satire is false.
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reasoning
parody
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Peter Sloterdijk |
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62ba8e1
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Of course all such conclusions about appropriate actions against the rich and powerful are based on a fundamental flaw: This is us, and that is them. This crucial principle, deeply embedded in Western culture, suffices to undermine even the most precise analogy and the most impeccable reasoning.
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2006-lebanon-war
2009
thomas-friedman
the-new-york-times
western-world
lebanon
other
reasoning
hypocrisy
israel
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Noam Chomsky |
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8b7b2d7
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"A true suicide is a paced, disciplined certainty. People pontificate, "Suicide is selfishness." Career churchmen like Pater go a step further and call it a cowardly assault on the living. Oafs argue this specious line for varying reasons: to evade fingers of blame, to impress one's audience with one's mental fiber, to vent anger, or just because one lacks the necessary suffering to sympathize. Cowardice is nothing to do with it--suicide takes considerable courage. Japanese have the right idea. No, what's selfish is to demand another to endure an intolerable existence, just to spare families, friends, and enemies a bit of soul-searching. The only selfishness lies in ruining strangers' days by forcing 'em to witness a grotesqueness. So I'll make a thick turban from several towels to muffle the shot and soak up the blood, and do it in the bathtub, so it shouldn't stain any carpets. Last night I left a letter under the manager's day-office door--he'll find it at eight A.M. tomorrow--informing him of the change in my existential status, so with luck an innocent chambermaid will be spared an unpleasant surprise. See, I do think of the little people"
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life-experiences
little-people
sucide
reasoning
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David Mitchell |
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3c73742
|
You may be to call up the entire encyclopedia, but a brain with no heart and no reasoning .. well, nothing is more meaningless.
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reality
life
reasoning
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Melissa de la Cruz |
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0d5f83a
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Thus, you see, he arrived at the same end, via supposed duty, that he was previously pledged to via interest. I fancy a good number of us, when any line of action will promote our own interest, can make ourselves believe that reasons exist which compel us to it as a duty.
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ends
interest
sardonic
duty
reasoning
purpose
self-deception
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Elizabeth Gaskell |
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6a4b7fc
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Oh, how hard it is to understand the hearts of girls and women. When they are not the most timid of creatures, they are the bravest. Reason has no part in their lives.
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women
love
strength-of-females
reasoning
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Jules Verne |
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bb62e46
|
Logic is the science of the justification of conclusions we have reached by natural reasoning. My point is that, for such natural reasoning to occur, consciousness is not necessary. The very reason we need logic at all is because most reasoning is not conscious at all.
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science
metaconsciousness
definition
reasoning
consciousness
logic
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Julian Jaynes |
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694f2d6
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<>, decia Herbert. <>
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god
reasoning
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Mario Vargas Llosa |
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72707a2
|
Like Moliere's M. Jourdain, who spoke prose all his life without knowing it, mathematicians have been reasoning for at least two millennia without being aware of all the principles underlying what they were doing. The real nature of the tools of their craft has become evident only within recent times A renaissance of logical studies in modern times begins with the publication in 1847 of George Boole's 'The Mathematical Analysis of Logic'.
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|
nature
science
study
george-boole
jean-baptiste-poquelin
m-jourdain
molière
reasoning
logic
math
mathematics
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Ernest Nagel |
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7b5d4e1
|
Because reasoning about causes and effects is a very difficult thing, and I believe the only judge of that can be God. We are already hard put to establish a relationship between such an obvious effect as a charred tree and the lightning bolt that set fire to it, so to trace sometimes endless chains of causes and effects seems to me as foolish as trying to build a tower that will touch the sky.
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critical-reasoning
tracing-cause-and-effect
cause-and-effect
reasoning
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Umberto Eco |
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a2d40b1
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Now we've a real intellectual impasse. Our reason, which is supposed to make things more intelligible, seems to be making them less intelligible, and when reason thus defeats its own purpose something has to be changed in the structure of our reason itself.
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reason
intelligence
philosophy
rationale
reasoning
thinking
logic
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Robert M. Pirsig |
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82b8ced
|
There seemed no answer. He wasn't resigned to anything, he hadn't accepted or adjusted to the life he'd been forced into. Yet here he was, eight months after the plague's last victim, nine since he's spoken to another human being, ten since Virginia had died. Here he was with no future and a virtually hopeless present. Still plodding on. Instinct? Or was he just stupid? Too unimaginative to destroy himself? Why hadn't he done it in the beginning when he was in the very depths? What had impelled him to enclose the house, install a freezer, a generator, an electric stove, a water tank, build a hothouse, a workbench, burn down the houses on each side of his, collect records and books and mountains of canned supplies, even - it was fantastic when you thought about it - even put a fancy mural on the wall? Was the life force something more than words, a tangible, mind-controlling potency? Was nature somehow, in him, maintaining its spark against its own encroachments? He closed his eyes. Why think, why reason? There was no answer. His continuance was an accident and an attendant bovinity. He was just too dumb to end it all, and that was about the size of it.
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suicide
nature
life
life-force
meaning-of-life
survive
reasoning
purpose
survival
instinct
thought
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Richard Matheson |
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7380326
|
In thinking about ethics, we should not hesitate to question ethical views that are almost universally accepted if we have reasons for thinking that they may not be as securely grounded as they appear to be.
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reasoning
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Peter Singer |
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8b6097f
|
-Nadajduiesc la o lume viitoare fara religii, o lume cu o religie universala, in care toata lumea isi foloseste ratiunea pentru a-l cunoaste si a-l slavi pe Dumnezeu. -Asta inseamna ca doresti disparitia iudaismului? -Sfarsitul tuturor traditiilor care se opun dreptului omului de a gandi singur. Franco tacu cateva momente. -Bento, esti atat de categoric, ca ma inspaimanti. Aceasta perspectiva imi taie respiratia, ca traditia noastra ar putea sa piara dupa mii de ani de supravietuire. -Ar trebui sa pretuim lucrurile pentru ca sunt adevarate, nu pentru ca sunt vechi. Vechile religii ne intind o cursa, insistand asipra faptului ca, daca abandonam traditia, ii dezonoram pe toti inaintasii nostri credinciosi. Iar daca vreunul dintre stramosii nostri a fost martirizat, atunci suntem prinsi in capcana si mai tare pentru ca onoarea ne obliga sa perpetuam credintele martirilor, chiar daca stim ca sunt pline de erori si superstitii. N-ai spus tu ca ai simtit asta ca urmare a martiriului tatalui tau? -Da... ca mi-as bate joc de viata lui daca as renega lucrurile pentru care a murit. -Dar nu ar fi, de asemenea, lipsit de sens sa-ti dedici singura viata pe care o ai unui sistem fals si plin de superstitii, un sistem care alege un singur popor si exclude toate celelalte fiinte?
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world-without-religion
traditions
reasoning
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Irvin D. Yalom |