Would the world be a Happier place if people did not reason at all?

Question

realized i say happier and not better or more advanced or more civilized...
I mean there will always be the rich and poor, winners and losers, kings and subjects, the have and have-nots, etc etc..
we may live forever in the stone age but there wont be any wars, uprisings, discontentment, backstabbing...
wouldnt you say one of humans folly is that we are able to reason ?

Answer 1

Navel-Staring Oscar candidate.
Reason is the ONLY thing that humans do marginally better than monkeys, yet lookie at the population statistics for sapiens v. simians for your answer.
Reason is our thing, man, our bag, our canolli. It's what got us off the savannah, and across the planet, gave us the Moon and Big Blue and Gummi Bears and Cashmere and Kevlar and (let us not forget) Colonel Colt. Reason made us the big cheese, the head honcho, the master of all we survey on good old Sol III, and to even consider whether that faculty is "folly" is pure folly.
Happy monkeys squatting on the plains fighting with hyenas for a haunch of week-old zebra while keeping an eye peeled for lions and cheetahs all so we can die of old age at 32 of some horrid parasite or virus, freezing in the night and baking in the day and hungry all the time when we're not too afraid to notice ... sounds like paradise to me.
Reason is our gift. What we do with that gift is open to debate, but so far, we've been doing pretty well for a bunch of aggressive baboons with thumbs.

Answer 2

Not unless you changed the underlying social structures. First lots of folks can't stand show tunes. More so people would get hurt dancing and then sue somebody. TV stations would do big long reports on the phenom creating various contests and people would quit singing just to sing but sing and dance like they were auditioning for these shows and contests. Then you would get the harding syndrome where people would break other people's legs to take them out of the competitition. You get the idea.

Answer 3

Reason is an essential part of life... there can not be any living being with zero reasoning power.

Perhaps what you mean is that if there were to be total acceptance of everything happening without a questioning mind..... then the answer is yes, because it is acceptance that defines happiness or contentment, but then total acceptance too defies life.... life is really defined by resistance.... just recall the phrase 'alive and kicking'!!

Answer 4

The point of your question is made on your personal reasoning. If that were gone, you'd be sitting there like a simpleton. A person without reason would be out of everything human. Such people are called by many names; the closest description would be "man in a coma." Perhaps you would prefer that, but I'll take reasoning any day.

Answer 5

There are those philosophers (e.g. Heidegger) that believe we should stop reasoning, that is conceptualizing. They say that when we stop reasoning (not thinking) we return to BEING. They say that when you just BE, you are simply ENGAGED in the would much like a pianist and the music. The pianist doesn't have to THINK about playing, s/he just plays. So what is the downside of this "go-with-the-flow" approach? It looks like most people will NOT let go, they would feel vulnerable and weak if they did. The choose to "take control" by using reason.

Answer 6

Human "reasoning" is truly the downfall of our civilization. Someone had to reason the Irag War. That said without the harm that reason has caused us, we wouldnt know the true joys of our current lives. The little things in life coudnt be appreciated. Its a constant struggle of mankind. A better place..yes, happier place...no.

Answer 7

[I mean there will always be the rich and poor, winners and losers, kings and subjects, the have and have-nots, etc etc..]

I can't imagine happiness being attained in the presence of the abject conditions above.

It sounds like you are saying with the absence of "reason" abject conditions would not be observable, and therefore happiness would be the remainder.

Hogwash, and mamby tambi! ...........lol

There is two sides to everything, so who is to say that the perceptions of rich, winning, and heirarchy are not abject, and in the absence of reason are just as unessential to happiness?

Answer 8

If people did not reason then this whole world would be chaotic and nobody would be happier. Unless your definition of happy is living like crazy monkeys. But personally, I hate bananas.

Answer 9

No, I would say that being born with an inherent bent toward the selfish is apparent in any culture. There's just no getting around it.
But glad you asked.

Answer 10

I tend to be happiest when I don't reason, don't think, don't analyze, don't worry, don't second-guess, don't dread, don't wish. I am happiest when I can just "be" so yes the world would probably be a happier place if we all did the same. If you want to be happy, just BE. It would be very Zen. Of course, nothing would get done though!