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Wednesday, February 9, 2022

The Quixote Quest for Reason

“There are two excesses: to exclude reason, and to admit reason only.” ~ Blaise Pascal

Pascal is right. To exclude reason and to admit reason only are equally harmful for mankind. If you exclude reason, you are trapped in a cycle of mysticism, traditionalism, and rationalism; if you depend on only reason, then you are trapped in a cycle of nihilism, rationalism, and utopianism.

It is natural for people to look for self-esteem. For the modern man, the simplest way of having self-esteem is to develop the notion that he represents the side of reason or science. But his belief in the capabilities of reason makes him dogmatic, delusional, and even tyrannical. 

The world is not going to be saved by the men of reason—being a man of reason is just a vain and delusional Quixote quest.

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