tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post5050597488626757791..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Links 24 January 2020Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-46257436949478995942020-01-24T15:04:26.214-05:002020-01-24T15:04:26.214-05:00"Tardigrades can be killed, and fairly easily..."Tardigrades can be killed, and fairly easily: by hot water."<br /><br />I immediately flashed on "Day of the Triffids"!pootrsoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05975929246429466067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-63816476020301576372020-01-24T08:32:48.777-05:002020-01-24T08:32:48.777-05:00That understanding of "rational" and &qu...That understanding of "rational" and "reasonable" certainly accords with my experience of what people mean, and my own usage of the terms. I would disagree, though, with the authors' contention that the separation represents some sort of mistake that people started making in the Enlightenment. This rational-reasonable distinction has applied ever since Plato, if not before, and is inherent in the Greek-descended philosophical tradition. As in the Allegory of the Cave, "rational" describes the deep truths that most people are too stupid and conventional to see. It says, "we've already figured this out, and you can either agree or be an idiot." "Reasonable" people--the ones being told their ways are just dumb convention--find this to be cold and arrogant, and suspect it's more about egotism than truth. The latter is sometimes the case, and sometimes not.<br /><br />It is often said, and seems to be the case, that our current political troubles are caused in part by ordinary people getting fed up with too much elite rationality (certainly too much of the elite saying, "we've figured this out, and you're going to have to go along with it"). But there's also a real divide between ordinary people over what is "reasonable," with about a third finding certain things reasonable that another third thinks are horrible, and a middle third wishing the whole thing would just go away.<br /><br />Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14456987412710878404noreply@blogger.com