(RATIONALITY)[6th April 1987]

[Redbook3:132-133][19870406:1710b](RATIONALITY)[6th April 1987]

19870406.1710

[continued]

The exercise of rationality and logic is still immensely important. First, it is important to discuss these matters in a manner which is, basically, rational: I say 'basically' because I have the impression that not everyone* would be able to agree precisely on what rationality meant or involved.

But secondly, rational and logical argument applied rigorously in a reductionist manner produces a curious result: at the end of it all, when remorseless paring has reduced the possibility of the Objective Unseen to a useless pile of scattered phrases – there it still stands, the Objective Unseen itself, a shining mountain [sic] beyond the wreckage. I suppose one moral of this is that if you are going to attempt to determine the existence or non-existence of objective phenomena by mental logic, it is not entirely logical to exclude other 'mental' phenomena such as inner experience, and the conclusions to which it gives rise, from a role in that argument.

*claiming to exercise rationality

**Is this rather like those scientists who from time to time refuse to accept the existence of phenomena which other people have observed but which the scientists cannot explain? <890930>

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