It is interesting how we - humans - Judge, Reason and Justify; pretty funny though. Usually, it's perceived as a simple and linear process however, it is a complex process that involves more influences than expected.
Let's settle couple of points to set up the basis of few arguments.
- Judgment and Reasoning are two different mental processes that occur in different areas of the brain...
- Judgment always precedes Reasoning but, Judgment is not necessarily followed by Reasoning...
From the previous two statements we can infer that at least the spontaneous and superficial judgments are irrational most of the time. People make moral judgments immediately according to their emotions. Reasoning is merely the servant of the Passions. And when
the servant failed to find any good arguments, the
master didn't change his mind. People
make moral judgments quickly and
emotionally while their moral reasoning is
mostly a post-hoax search for
reasons to justify the judgments they already made.
Apparently, we do moral reasoning not to reconstruct the reasons why we ourselves came to a certain judgment, but instead, we reason to find the best possible reasons why somebody else ought to join us in our judgment...
As per David Hume, Reason is the slave of Passion. i.e. Reason is not enough to take action or make a decision. Knowing an action is right does not necessary result in proceeding with doing it. Reasoning shall be accompanied with PASSION; like Love, Envy, Anger, Pride, Fear, Desire, etc... . Passion alone could trigger action. It could lead to doing what is known-and-reasoned to be wrong though, going against what reason would advise. Thus, we shall be aware of our driving PASSION(S) according to which we Rationalize our Actions and Judgments.
Constituents of our
thoughts, judgments, impressions and ideas, more often than often, come from experience. Our experience and actions contribute to building our self-constructed beliefs. Here is how it goes... First, we do actions out of a certain underlying passion, then we rationalize our actions according to those passions we have; or at least we shall be found biased by our passions. Then, we believe in the rational we just created behind our actions; we choose to believe what we do. We can conclude that, we can create and acquire beliefs as the result of Urge or Inference as well as by Reason...
Maybe that's why sometimes Common-Sense is not that Common...
Just thoughts....
Inspired by Righteous Mind - Jonathan Haidt
Andy.
