It is interesting to track connotations of word 'reason' over history & doing so is probably one of the most revealing things abt a society.
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Even Thomas Aquinas who attempted to prove God using only reason was clear that this was secondary to faith as an epistemology.
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Luther was confusing on it, arguing that it was antithetical to faith but also that it was God-given & good & used correctly supports faith.
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But the applicability of the words 'reason' & 'reasonable' expanded hugely & became unequivocally good following the Enlightenment.
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To call someone or something 'reasonable' is never a criticism & as well as intellectual qualities, it has taken on moral ones.
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If we say someone is being unreasonable, we might not just be pointing out error but also indicating that they are behaving badly.
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'There is no reasoning with some people' is an unambiguous criticism. Reason is not seen as one of a variety of equally valid approaches.
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But that is precisely what is under threat right now. Antimodernists do see reason as just one approach & this is starting to affect society
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From faith & common sense on one side and culturally constructed subjectivity on the other, a return to folk wisdom is threatened.
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To say 'I advocate for reason' can feel naive & dogmatic and some people who say this are naive & dogmatic but reason itself isn't.
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A belief that reasoning is easy &the process unaffected by personal & cultural bias is naive & indicates a need for measures to reduce these
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A belief that reason can work on an intellectual abstract level which ignores local knowledge & is closed to people of faith is also nuts.
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But good criticisms of reason are seldom criticising reason itself but attitudes around it which are limiting its effectiveness.
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Because reason works & the only alternative is irrationalism and that doesn't.
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This is not true. The human faculty of reason was seen as injured, not dubious, since the Fall. Its role was to faithfully seek out truth./1
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But it also led men to heresy. Not women so much. See Augustine on this.
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You should clarify what you mean by 'reason.' Augustine was no fideist. He wouldn't have written
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No, honestly, it's OK. I cannot define & explain the ambivalent relationship medieval Christianity had with reason in tweets.
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But I might write something about this at some point in the future.Comparing male sins of the tongue & associated sin of forbidden knowledge
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is probably one of the richest sources of anxiety tho.
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And re: Augustine, one of best sources of his ambivalence are seen in his relationship with his mother Monica in the dialogues at Cassiacum
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I wrote about it a bit here, particularly in Chapter Two.https://www.academia.edu/30784957/_Challendge_to_Your_Selves_no_Sovraigntie_Aemilia_Lanyer_Saint_Monica_Christian_Feminine_Virtue_and_its_Challenge_to_the_Patriarchal_Symbolic_Order …
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