janw@inmet.UUCP (01/02/86)
[Laura Creighton l5!laura@lll-crg.arpa] >So I value reason as a tool, but I value reason as myself as well. I value >compassion and creativity the same way -- I am not saying that I am nothing >but my ability to reason. I cannot make a strogn distinction between my >ability to reason and me, however. An excellent formulation, long overdue - and Frank deserves credit for prompting it. It is equally important to draw proper distinctions (so as not to argue over words) - and to *refuse* to draw distinctions that only cut a live whole into dead parts. You yourself make one such false distinction, however, and that is between *reason* and *creativity*. I am firmly convinced that the two cannot be separated. This is why *reason is not predictable* (stupidity is). And a sad corollary to that is that rational people can disagree. However, through a process involving a lot of creativity, they can converge again. Jan Wasilewsky