Rationalism: the base on reason

Synopsis: By the seventeenth century BC, the mind of man ruled over matter, which otherwise operated by emotions and instincts. Women were viewed as predisposed to this “irrational”, i.e., emotions, instincts, and fancies.


The word 'rational' has been used to describe numerous theories, especially those concerned with truth, reason and knowledge, including those religious and philosophical.

Consistent logic

Rationality refers to a particular way of thinking.

It has been defined as:

The quality of being consistent with or based on logic; the belief or principle that actions and opinions should be based on reason rather than on emotion or religion; the kind of thinking we would all want to do, if we were aware of our own best interests, in order to achieve our goals.

Dominating life

In the fifth and sixth centuries BC, Greek philosophers decided that more than the gods, the mind of man dominated life.

By the seventeenth century, the idea of dualism was adopted, where mind and body were perceived as split horizontally, separate and independent of each other.

Rationality became the key feature separating humans from animals, and the way to go to achieve life goals.

Mind, accounting for thought naturally ruled over matter, which otherwise operated by emotions and instincts.

The irrational

Anything empirically unexplainable, unverifiable, was attributed to luck or blessings of the gods. Instincts or intuition was considered irrational and concerned with mere physical survival progressively alien to man's regulated world.

Deductive reasoning through analyses of accumulated data gradually became the canon of cognitive ability – “rationalism” in the dominant image of man.

Connotations

Hence, man was said to be rational.

But women, concentrated on child-raising and family life and generally kept away from other more "cerebral" activities, were viewed as predisposed to this “irrational”, i.e., emotions, instincts, and fancies, seen as evolutionary vestiges.

The words thus imbibed connotative associations with gender.

Cont’d 2…problems with change