Reason, Truth and the Spider’s Web

 ”Reason is to humans what the web is to a spider,” remarked Hutter, that endearing Plato-phile. (BTW, Hutter, you have stolen my heart.) He managed to coalesce all the things that had been itching my neurons ceaselessly for the last couple of weeks. Reason and logic are indispensable to the systems that govern human society. Without reason and logic, no transaction, agreement nor understanding could be reached. But what happens when reason and logic break down?

Reason and logic are touted to be universal. Case in point: common sense. Most Hollywood movies offer up some protagonist or another that the majority of plebs can relate to and identify with. We watch with bated breath as they make the decisions most reasonable, the ones we could not dispute, cannot deny- the ones we believe we, ourselves, would make. We cry out against injustice together (re: Myanmar), but ONLY when the injustice becomes obvious enough. It must glaringly defy ethical reason in order to elicit a choral dissonance.

 Is it all just faith? Any political system, just like organized religion, is self-referential. It’s own justifications are found within itself. Reason would falter if the system were deconstructed and blown apart. Just like Descartes’ ‘proof’ of the existence of god hinges on the religious concept of the almighty, benevolent being itself. Descartes questioned god, and posed the question: what if god is just some trickster demon, that has placed us in a world of illusion, and maliciously left us to our own devices? Of course, Descartes quickly assuaged the doubt he had conjured, (lest he get written into the Inquisitors’ black books) and answered (roughly, in a Cole’s Notes sort of rundown) thus: Humans cannot conceive of things that do not exist.  A unicorn is simply a horn placed on a horse. Our conception of god must be based on the existence of god. Our concept of god clearly states that god is the most benevolent being, so much so that we cannot even imagine the extent of his goodness. Therefore, god must exist, and god must be good. In other words:

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Descartes’ argument is clearly self-referential. So are most of our ideas and beliefs. Yet we continue to seek out this thing called truth, and become outraged when it is denied!

“Truth is the kind of error without which a certain species of life could not live.” says Nietzsche. He may be right, but how can we full-heartily agree with him? Without truth, reason and logic are useless. Without reason and logic, all human contracts (social, economic, and political) break down.  My sixteen-year-old self has just whined in my ear “then what’s the point?”, as if I were arguing with my mother over the efficiency of making the bed in the morning when I’m just going to be unmaking it at night.

It just scares me that what I consider to be obvious unreasonableness is becoming more and more common (or perhaps more apparent) among the number of people I’ve met. Including those cops down below, my roommate who refuses to do her dishes for weeks, and then says it’s ‘retarded’ that someone has done them for her (since she was JUST about to do them herself), cell phone company employees that don’t see a problem with continuing to charge you after you’ve cut off your line, and a myriad of other daily annoyances. (and let’s not even mention matters of the heart here.)

Then again, maybe I’m confusing reasonableness with reason itself. What do I know? My socks smell like cat pee, how do you like them apples?