Is “reason” helping?

Authors Avatar
Philosophy Adrian Edwards

Is "reason" helping? 3/9/02

Enlightenment thinkers thought that almost all of the world's problems were in direct result of the lack of reason. With the development of reason they thought many problems were solved. But that was only a theory, an idea that has not helped anything. It is constant, everyone in the world wants to make a model society, and make things better, a natural inclination, which has nothing to do with reason.

The question of deciding whether or not "reason" is helping people and nations today is a hard one. Which country does on need to look at to decide? Looking at America, some could decide that, yes, reason is helping, where others could say no. If we were to look at, say , the Congo in Africa, and all the massacres, then some would say where was reason then? Now what is "reason"? Reason is the be00nlief and idea that more educates people will make better decisions. Now has "reason" helped the United States? Yes for the most part, intelligent people have created a free-based country, made a constitution meant for change, and overall that believes in the good of the world. Now the United States is not all good, our country is based off of slavery for a long time and women couldn't vote for a long time, only about 40 years ago did they get the vote. At the same time though, look at Enron. All the executives of the company were college educated, considered intelligent, but they basically robbed hundreds of people of their money by not informing them that the company was about to crash and to sell out. Look at Gary Winnick, who was a competent man who helps create a hoax of a company that folded in over night. So for the most part one can conclude that "reason" does not help at all, its just another idea like God, which cant be proven or disputed, I mean what's the point of arguing over something unable to be proven? Is change part of the "reason" theory? No because the "reason" theory? NO because with time comes more issues. All of which have to be dealt with in time.
Join now!


For a second country, look at Russia. With a huge population of 148 million, and the average income of two thousand dollars a year, some would say that its not a successful country. Russia, in its day was one of the worlds super powers, and actually for a time was basically the top country in the 1900's. Today the new president there is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. HE is a ex-KGB member and the chosen successor of Boris Yeltsin, the previous and deemed corrupt president. The USA has given Russia "bail-out" packages, which were in effect huge sums of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay