[Lloyd Gillespie]

Hello WithourMe, I had to make a few comments after reading this; "Reason proceeds from logic whereas belief proceeds from faith. But what is the reason in being reasonable? One may answer it by saying: “The reason of being reasonable is that being reasonable is itself reasonable”. But this won’t be an answer, let alone an explanation, because what it does is presuppose the very idea before explaining it, that is, it is at best, an assumption that over time became a definition. But whichever way I use to prove, either way I only use reason to do so & thus am contradicting myself."

I have seen many people and writers through the years confuse logic and reason, and yet I've only come across one person to sort this out. The author and philosopher was Charles Sanders Peirce. Without quoting him directly I will state what I learned from him. Reason and logic are two distinct entities or attributes of our essences. To treat them both as more closely related than they are is a grave mistake. Reason is used to find the cause and affects of things and logic is used to observe reason, reasonings and reasons and find the greater truths. We can only understand our reasoning with logic and a few of our other essence agents, i.e., judgement, intent etc. When we view our essence agents as individual agents we understand their purposes much clearer.

I happen to think the too close a link between logic and reason, without realizing the power they truly possess apart, is one of the world's greatest mistakes. If you view reason as used on parts to wholes, and logic as used on wholes to parts, and further realize that reason is the subjective essence agent, and logic is the objective essence agent, life is much easier to understand. I think this simple knowledge can benefit the world greatly.

Only logic, used separately, can prove reason. Hope this clears up a few things.

regards

"Logic, the god of our minds; reason it's handmaiden." me