Reason, Assent and Doubt

It is apparent through my posts in this "blog" of mine that i'm a big fan of reason and i put great store by it. i do, and for the longest time it has been my rod and guide and it has served well, too most times. but i have also observed the arrogance of reason and have been guilty of it too.not too mention the traps of reason that i've fallen for time and again. and most times this was due to a simple thing: i have ignored assent. I turned a blind eye to the assent that resonates through my being.. because reason was oh so much more logical and conclusive. and there was the fact that my reason can run ring s around my assent >;p kinda like Sophistry, my reason was so much more better at arguing/"reasoning out that my assent didn't stand a chance. and instead of finding out why assent and reason were at odds, i just ignored assent .. para mas madali. it was oh so much harder going down that road vs. just swallowing reason hook line and sinker. of course it always turns out that i was just fooling myself and going for the easier solution(trust in the difficult remember?^_^)

so what is this "assent" i'm talking about? in this case what i mean by assent can be compared to "gut feel" only deeper because this comes from the core of your being, rather than you r gut *heh* >;p also assent is not divorced from reason itself because reason is part of your being, this is shall we say a "knowing" or we come to the last ingredient a "doubting" within you that may fly in the face of your reason, at first glance. but whenever resolved, it is more reasonable. go figure. lolz. this "assent or this "doubt" that comes from inside your being can be a very powerful tool for one to rein in reason when it goes wild or give it discipline/direction it sorely needs from time to time... you see,reason has a propensity for the complicated(a need for explanations rather than a need for knowing) and thus more vulnerable to deception/self-deception(wat is better explained may not necessarily be truer) while assent is inherently geared to the simple(a knowing more than an explaining), it is shall we say faith-like and a natural counterweight to reason

(again, rainier maria rilke had a fine thing to say about this in his"letters to a young poet",here it is,what rainier labels doubt i label assent, and they can be interchanged too ^_^:

And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perhaps bewildered and embarrassed, perhaps also protesting. But don't give in, insist on arguments, and act in this way, attentive and persistent, every single time, and the day will come when instead of being a destroyer, it will become one of your best workers - perhaps the most intelligent of all the ones that are building your life.

and so you see Rainier and i seem to be in an agreement on this... reason, and assent/doubt working hand in hand will serve you well in the enterprise of building your life(read: journey of being)

andstill percolating... ^_^