• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

What is the nature of man?

R3quiem

Senior Veteran
Jun 25, 2007
5,862
216
In your head.
✟29,623.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Private
Rational or irrational?

Explain.
Somewhere in the middle, and people have varying levels of rationality.

It also depends on what you define as rationality. Would you define rationality as what you believe to be rational? If so, it would be circular logic.
 
Upvote 0

DailyBlessings

O Christianos Cryptos; Amor Vincit Omnia!
Oct 21, 2004
17,775
983
39
Berkeley, CA
Visit site
✟37,754.00
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
I think he is put together very rationally indeed, each organ and system functioning perfectly with one another, driving a magnificent living machine with many varied and independent yet symbiotic functions. Woman is, too, I note, and good-looking to boot. Perhaps you meant the mind of man, but I would argue that this too is a magnificent a miraculous product of an intrinsically rational universe.

Usually the things that people slander as irrational, are not, at least not on the relative scale of things. More rational processes go on in the mind of the most disabled mental patient every minute than you'll ever see in, say, the mind of a rock. If our brains are able to keep even the machinery of our vegetative functions going for a short time, that's quite an achievement if you are looking at the big picture.
 
Upvote 0

Eudaimonist

I believe in life before death!
Jan 1, 2003
27,482
2,738
58
American resident of Sweden
Visit site
✟126,756.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Private
Politics
US-Libertarian
Rational or irrational?

Explain.

If you are asking about nature, and not about how a particular individual acts in a particular situation, then human nature is rational. The reason is that we have the faculty for conceptual awareness, i.e. the rational faculty.

Of course, some people don't use this faculty much, and such people are irrational -- by choice or ignorance, not by nature.


eudaimonia,

Mark
 
Upvote 0
N

NavyGuy7

Guest
Agreed, Eudaimonist. Though I can't agree with Isambard. We are more than just "chimps with pants". We have shirts, shoes, ties, and, oh let me think....... many many technological, artistic, and architectual (is that the right word? Whatever...) achievements to be more than just chimps. I'd say something very rational can be going on in the mind, if we don't kill ourselves with political correctness and other such foolish and irrational, though sometimes nice, notions. And by kill ourselves, I don't mean in the body. I mean our logic and reason. Which can be AS important as these emotions that some people seem to think of as the solution to all problems. Poor, unfortunate souls.
Notice how I did not name any specific group of individuals, political or otherwise. All have the ability to be irrational to the point of utter foolishness and, quite possibly, death.
 
Upvote 0

The Nihilist

Contributor
Sep 14, 2006
6,074
490
✟31,289.00
Faith
Atheist

Mark, supposed I rephrased what you said this way: a human has the capacity to be either rational or not, and so human nature includes the capacity for acting both rationally and irrationally.
Do you feel that this differs from what you said?
 
Upvote 0

quatona

"God"? What do you mean??
May 15, 2005
37,512
4,302
✟182,802.00
Faith
Seeker
Rational or irrational?

Explain.
I wouldn´t know why to determine the "nature" of man as one of the ends of a dualism both ends of which are permanently observable in humans.
Actually, I don´t see any point in determining anything as the nature of men, anyways. For what purpose? It just doesn´t make any sense, except when for whatever reason we want to compare man to something else:
Compared to rocks or birds man is pretty rational. Compared to actually pretty much everything man is pretty rational.
Then again, man is pretty emotional, too, compared to all these things and beings.

What´s the nature of man - to sleep or to work?
 
Upvote 0
N

NavyGuy7

Guest
Both, of course. Without sleep, the man has no energy to work. Without the work, the man has no place to sleep safely (as in like, an apartment, buying a bed, etcetera...) and also he isn't as tired, lol. I think I kinda lost what I was going to say.. but it is both. You really can't do anything in this world without someone working, and you can't NOT sleep (though Einstein went 40 days solid without it, or so I hear). Hehe.
*mumble**mumble**MUMBLE*
Aha! An example of rationality and irrationality!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Upvote 0

Eudaimonist

I believe in life before death!
Jan 1, 2003
27,482
2,738
58
American resident of Sweden
Visit site
✟126,756.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Private
Politics
US-Libertarian
Mark, supposed I rephrased what you said this way: a human has the capacity to be either rational or not, and so human nature includes the capacity for acting both rationally and irrationally.
Do you feel that this differs from what you said?

How can irrationality be a faculty, as opposed to the failure to use a faculty?


eudaimonia,

Mark
 
Upvote 0

Eudaimonist

I believe in life before death!
Jan 1, 2003
27,482
2,738
58
American resident of Sweden
Visit site
✟126,756.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Private
Politics
US-Libertarian
I wrote a great response to you... and before I could post it my computer crashed. I'll try to recreate it for you soon.

Thanks for your polite and thoughtful questions, btw. They are good questions to ask.


eudaimonia,

Mark


 
Upvote 0

OldWiseGuy

Wake me when it's soup.
Site Supporter
Feb 4, 2006
46,773
10,977
Wisconsin
Visit site
✟1,005,242.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Protestant
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Others
Man is either acting in a rational way, or rationalizing. This old saying is revealing:

"A boy is a boy.

Two boys are half a boy;

and three boys are no boy at all."

owg
 
Upvote 0

The Nihilist

Contributor
Sep 14, 2006
6,074
490
✟31,289.00
Faith
Atheist
I believe the saying is implying that as individuals we can be rational, but as a group we become less and less human. Which I agree with.

I live in Atlanta, so I know lots of people who can't even be rational on their own.
But I'm a little confused by what owg is saying about people either being rational or rationalizing.
 
Upvote 0

ExistencePrecedesEssence

Fools seem to ruin even the worst of things!
Mar 23, 2007
4,314
103
Northern Kentucky
✟27,612.00
Faith
Humanist
Marital Status
Private
I live in Atlanta, so I know lots of people who can't even be rational on their own.
But I'm a little confused by what owg is saying about people either being rational or rationalizing.
But would you say irrationality is a fundamentality that is unavoidable? Sometimes philosophizing does not have to pertain to the context of the rationalists, take the foundation of religion(s) for example. Maybe sometimes the illogical is just as important as the rational.
 
Upvote 0

The Nihilist

Contributor
Sep 14, 2006
6,074
490
✟31,289.00
Faith
Atheist

Could you flesh that out a little? I'm not certain I know what you're saying.
 
Upvote 0