narration of book 1, chapter 8
Reason is a wondrous things, isn’t it? The ability to work through a logical thought pattern and come to a conclusion, invent a new product, solve an issue. There is no part of our world that doesn’t include reason.
Reason is involuntary. Whether we realize it is occurring in our minds or not, every decision that we make is backed up by a set of pros and cons. Our reason is always at work.
But is reason always right? Can following the course of reason lead us away from what is good, and into what is wrong?
Reason is often idolized, French thinkers raised “the goddess of reason” to the level of divinity. Yet, like all things that work in the mind of a man, reason is fallible.
The story of Macbeth provides an interesting look at the tragic influence reason can have on the choices of a man. At the outset of the story, Macbeth is a noble general in good favor with his king and beloved by his people. On the heels of his success in war, his ambition is enflamed by a desire for more than he has. His will shifts — he no longer wishes to be a good servant to his king, but he longs to be king himself. As his will wanders, voluntarily, in this direction, his involuntary reason supports it. Before many minutes have passed, his desire to be king is firm and his reason has provided him with a logical –seemingly infallible– argument supporting that it would be right for him to be king, that he must be king. Throughout the course of the tragedy, we watch as Macbeth destroys his life following the course that his reason makes manifest to him
The play is a desperate and vivid representation of a simple truth: man’s reason follows his will. Whether right or wrong, any desire presented by a man’s heart may be supported by his reason.
What is reasonable is not a synonym for what is right.
Reason is a simple thought process. It is our mind’s way of ordering our thoughts, directing us to a conclusion. Reason always follows the will and desire of a man. It must be kept in its proper place as the servant of man, not his master.
We must respect the fallibility of our own reason. We must be guided by immovable truths, those presented in Scriptures, as opposed to the fallacy-filled arguments presented by society. How dark must be the minds of those who have not these truths to rest upon. How confusing it must be, to have only one’s own weak reason at work to organize all the chaotic stimuli in the world.
Reading this chapter reminds me again of how thankful I am for my own fallibility, and for God’s infallibility. For the weakness of my reason, and the perfection of His. That there is a Father who has given us the Word of Truth, and that it is this Word that may guide my life not my own sense of logic. I need only the faith to trust Him more.
quotes
“We cannot give a better training in right reasoning than by letting children work out arguments in favor of this or that conclusion.”
“That which is logically proved is not necessarily right.”
“But not if we have grown up cognizant of the beauty and wonder of the act of reasoning, and also, of the limitations which attend it.”
“Children should be brought up to perceive that a miracle is not less a miracle because it occurs so constantly and regularly that we call it a law.”
“Children must know that we cannot prove any of the great things of life, not even that we ourselves live; but we must rely upon that which we know without demonstration.”