For Reason to be absolutely true all the time, wouldn't it need to exist outside of our heads to be objective?

Question

If reason existed inside of our heads, then it wouldn't be true all the time so it wouldn't have any justification for using it over something else. Ideas?

I'm talking about pure reason without perception. Like 1 + 1 = 2

Answer 1

I am having trouble reading the question. Gee I need to work on my grammar.

Answer 2

Are you entirely sure 1 plus 1 is 2 apart from perception? Are you convinced numbers are real? How about sound? Attach the musical frequency of a note to one of those values as has already been done. Would the identity statement of c=c or a certain numerical value in pitch still apply without perception? Even with computers to determine this, they're still ultimately a measure of human thought.

When you add the word "justification" to your sentence as "reason" for using this, you've already identified another problem- the inherent dissimilarities in language and our inability to remove them completely from our discussions even about symbolic logic. Justification, in addition, is a process arrived at, not by pure reasoning, but by a feeling.

Answer 3

The three basic laws of reason are very simple:

1. X is X.
2. Nothing is both X and non-X.
3. Everything is either X or non-X.

The most important question about these laws (and I think this is what your question amounts to) is whether they apply to human reason only or whether they are also the basic laws of the whole of reality.

Aristotle, who pretty much invented logic, thought the laws applied to the whole of reality.

Although this is an important question, the answer to it, ultimately, might not matter. We can only understand the world from the human point of view - we have no access to any other viewpoint - so we can only ever apply human reason to the world, no matter what human reason is or becomes, and no matter what the world is 'really' like.

Answer 4

Reason is a function of the intellect. It sounds to me like your asking if an absolute truth in order to be true, need to be outside of our head. The objective reality of an absolute truth is its unconditional state. Or its universal nature. It is not dependent on our perception of its truth to be true. 1+1=2, is true whether we are presently cognitive of it or not. Reason is the faculty in your intellect that affirms a truth upon direct cognitive consciousness by the senses in the mind. Reason being an operative functioning of the intellect it cannot but be in your mind. It is to the mind as smell is to the nose, or sight to the eye.

Answer 5

Reasoning is only a fraction of what's going on in your 'head.' What makes it unstable and inaccurate is due primarily to the dictate of your conflicting experience from within and without. Reasoning has its own egocentric notion that it dominates your thought processes or being. Try to question your own reasoning..then other thought processes re-surface into consciousness which your reasoning may tend to identify as it's own but it does not matter...examine and question it. That's critical thinking. That's being objective. However, it may not result in absolute truth..because that very idea of absolutism is likely to be a product of your reasoning glitch.

Answer 6

reason changes with each individual. for example: person a and person b both decide to build a house. a is building the house to sell and b i building the house to live in. if u asked both of them "why r u building a house?" their answers would be given in accordance to their individual reasons, and each answer is a "truism". if u r talking about "an absolute truth" than i personally don't believe there is one, unless u r talking about something or someone in "hindsight". example:"the sun rose yesterday morning". this is true. but u can't make the same statement for tomorrow morning. "history is a tale 2 scholars agree on". maybe, what is "true" is only something someone perceives to be true and we make our own justifications for it.

Answer 7

All reasoning is within your head. You are only using it upon those concepts that you conceive in your head. Once we posit the truth of something----that you in fact exist for example---- a logical proof can be built justifying the objectivity of our reasoning

Answer 8

Yes, it would, but sometimes truth is a matter of perception. So i think..it kind of depends....Its a really interestin question though, i must say.

Answer 9

Not at all, all reason is subjective to perception. And all perception is subject to a persons perspective. So what is reasonable to one may seem absurd to another due to their perspective.