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: : I'll just make an observation on one of the examples you used. If people were purely rational whenever they built a house then every house in your town would look exactly the same.: : Responses?
: You're out to lunch.
Now you've gone and hurt my feelings.
: The family with no children will 'reasonably' want a house that is quite different from the family with two children... etc., etc.
You obviously don't understand what I'm saying. It goes without saying that a certain rationality is used when building a house, otherwise it would fall on your head or you wouldn't have enough rooms for your family. What I'm saying is that very few human decisions are made on a purely rational basis because we all have different beliefs and desires on both an individual and group level. Why does one person paint their house blue while their next door neighbour paints theirs red? Why does one person want brick cladding while the other wants timber?
Various groups and individuals within society have completely different needs and desires.
Saying that Marxism or Free Market Capitalism, purely by merit of its rationalism, will make for a perfect society is utterly ridiculous.
: Although reason has been used to defend all manner of evil upon people, going so far as to argue FOR irrationality is simply sticking your head in the sand.
: Let's talk when you come up for air.
There you go. I dare to question the present system (I believe that communism and economic rationalism can be put into the same basket), and you stop trying to understand my arguments and start attacking me instead. (Hey, this martyr thing feels good!) I'm not arguing for the replacement of the cult of reason with "irrationality" (whatever that means) but for an understanding that it may not bre possible to 'know' the solution to every problem and that by simply attaching the label of Reason to every thing you come up with does not make it right. Reason has its place, it should not be the be all and end all. Especially not when we're dealing with the lives of human beings.
None.
