| Reason is a slave of the passions, as David Hume recognised ages ago.
Practical reasoning has its uses. It is the tool which allows us to fulfill our desires.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on where you stand, I'm not really sure), people have differing desires, and even unconscious desires, some would argue, that even they themselves are unaware of.
Within the framework of attaining a shared desire, reason is a good tool for achieving that desire.
Trying to use reason to argue about what is the most important desire, or whose desire trumps whose, is more difficult. Politics and ethics are the most important branches of study in my opinion. |