People Are Always Rational

In the last installment, I talked about some of my rules. And I realized today that I forgot one. A very important one. People are always rational.

I did not say that you can always understand them. Or that they are even right. Just that they are rational.

Proper Logical Form

A logical argument has two parts - a list of premises followed by a conclusion. For example, in the book of Romans, Paul uses the word therefore many times. He's making a logical argument. Paul presents his premises then draws a conclusion from them. The word therefore signals the conclusion, like the equals sign in math problems.

My senior year of college, I took an elective philosophy course on logic. One of my most enjoyable classes. We spent the semester learning how arguments (logical statements, not fights) are formed and validated. One point in particular stood out - every argument must have proper form, even if the argument itself is wrong. The conclusion cannot be right if the argument is not properly formed. But having the right form does not

automatically make an argument right.

When I say people are always rational, I mean that they always base their conclusions on a set of premises that support that conclusion. This stuff dates back to ancient Greece. And it's still in use today because it works. At some point, everything you do and everything you believe trace back to a set of premises that led you to that conclusion. Every time.

Jesus used the analogy of fruit trees. Good trees have good fruit. Bad trees grow bad fruit. Same idea. Good premises make good arguments. Faulty premises may make a sound (correctly formed) but ultimately wrong conclusion. You can trace every action back to the underlying premises. And every action makes sense in light of those premises.

Crazy People

At this point, you can probably identify several people and/or incidents that make absolutely no sense. Time when people behaved irrationally. I disagree. They behaved perfectly rational, we just don't have all of the premises. 

Walk a mile in their shoes. Look at it from their point of view. These are simpler, less nerdy ways of saying the same thing. People are always rational if you know their premises.

Two things stand out to me. Call them corollaries to the rule. First, being rational and being right are completely separate things. And second, logic doesn't change minds.

The doctor recently put me on diabetes medication. I'm what she called "pre-diabetic". And this was a preventative measure. Anyway, the medicine messed with my blood sugar. Which I feel more than know. Those feelings became premises that led to conclusions such being grumpy when the blood sugar dropped too low. Realizing that didn't change how I felt. It did allow me to change the premise. Raise the blood sugar, grumpy goes away.

Persuasion occurs when you convince the other person to change their premises. When I draw wrong conclusions, that means an underlying premise has to change. The deeper this premise lies, that harder it is to change. Why? Because it affects every conclusion that ever followed.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Okay, so you start looking at all of the assumptions, feelings, and past experiences that shape your conclusions today. If you laid out every single one as a logical argument with premises and conclusions. Then you would have to go back and do the same for each premise. And for each of those premises. And so on. At some point, you reach a premise that you cannot prove.

Faith is the ultimate premise. Let this sink in for a second. Underneath all of your beliefs, all of your actions, everything you think and do, lies one or more assumptions based on nothing but your faith that it's true. We often associate the word faith with church. That's wrong. Every single person can trace back everything they believe to some element of faith - a premise that cannot be proven.

Therefore, right and wrong exist outside of logic. That also means right and wrong are bigger than logic. They can be described. But they can't be defined. Let me clarify, right and wrong exist. I'm merely saying that right and wrong exist at some level outside of our rational minds. And the real question becomes, who or what do you believe is out there, at that level?