Reason and Truth: An Introspective Analysis
Chapter 2: The Truth of Reason
1) What is the question prior to the remaining questions of life?
The question before the other questions of life is, “How do I answer the questions I submit? How do I know what I know?” These questions, although seemingly the simplest, are the hardest to answer. We may never be able to answer them satisfactorily, but at least we know that questions will arise when the information we have about something is insufficient.
2) What do we reason?
We reason in search of arguments which we use to accept or reject answers to our questions. For example, if I see a table of a color whose name I know, and someone tells me that the table is green, in principle, I accept it as valid: that color is called green. But then I see a fruit with the same color and say that the fruit is orange. If the table is the same color as the fruit, then the table is orange, not green.
3) Can you share reason and truth with others, perhaps with everyone?
Yes, because all reason, and the goal of reasoning, is to decide what is truth and what is not. By truth, we mean something that has a greater similarity between what we believe and what occurs in reality. (This opens another debate: What is reality?)
4) What are the arguments of the skeptics, and how can they respond?
For skeptics, every human skill is dubious, if not impossible. Reason cannot realize reality, and we can never get to know her. A skeptic will claim that he knows nothing because nothing can be discovered.
His reasoning can be answered in different ways. The first: if you claim that you know nothing, how did you become completely sure? In this respect, skepticism is self-contradictory. Another contradiction: a skeptic will reasonably argue that reason is useless. Then… “How can you be arguing!?”