Literary notes about rationality (AI summary)
In literature, "rationality" is cast in varied, multifaceted roles that illuminate both the capacity for clear thought and its broader cultural and moral consequences. Writers often use it to denote an inherent human quality—a defining attribute of man that encompasses logical reasoning, critical thinking, and even aesthetic judgment ([1], [2]). At the same time, rationality appears in discussions of political and philosophical systems, serving as the foundation for theories in education, statecraft, and even science, as when mathematical axioms are derived through pure reason ([3], [4], [5]). Some texts highlight its interplay with other human traits by contrasting rationality with passion or even madness, thereby exposing the limits of unbridled logic in the face of human emotion ([6], [7]). There is also an emphasis on rationality’s role in the evolution of art and morality, suggesting that while it anchors thought and creativity it can also be challenged or subverted in the practical world ([8], [9]). This rich and complex employment of the term underscores both its indispensability and its sometimes elusive nature within human life and literature.
- Rationality, in short, is involved in the meaning of the word man: is one of the attributes connoted by the name.
— from A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I by John Stuart Mill - I could do with less caressing and more rationality.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - An individual becomes rational only as he absorbs into himself the content of rationality in nature and in social institutions.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - In order to establish the a priori character (the pure rationality) of mathematical axioms, space must be conceived as a form of pure reason.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche - The theory of rationality is the one at present accepted in political science.
— from The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl - Not only the rationality of millenniums—also their madness, breaketh out in us.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - The obvious irrationality of nature as a whole, too painfully brought home to a musing mind, may make it forget or abdicate its own rationality.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - The man who would emancipate art from discipline and reason is trying to elude rationality, not merely in art, but in all existence.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - We can see this, for instance, in that strange and innocent rationality with which Christ addressed any motley crowd that happened to stand about Him.
— from Heretics by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
