The Restlessness of Reason

“Simply to acquiesce in skepticism can never suffice to overcome the restlessness of reason.” —Immanuel Kant

Reason is the capacity to apply logic consciously by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. Today, we are living in the age of misinformation. It is estimated that AI will only make it even more difficult to decrypt the truth in the future. Misinformation could become the norm.

The anomaly of misinformation is that when it fits a preconceived notion, new or existing information is not sought. The misinformation is not questioned because it fits into the doubting nature of skepticism. There may even be a motivation to maintain the absence of truth. Reason is put on pause.

It appears that humans are relying more and more on being skeptical as a reaction to uncertainty. In a time of endless information resources, we are choosing to doubt and be suspicious rather than search for the truth. This explains, in part, our need for simplistic answers to complex issues like climate change, AI, strong-arm leaders, and conspiracies beyond belief.

What can we do as a species to journey back toward truth? Our very survival may depend on our finding a better way to make reasonable decisions. Climate change and the emergence of AI require a reasoned response. Scientists are reporting that the so-called sixth extinction is already in progress. To survive and thrive, we are in dire need of truth and a return to reason.

The Cartesian Problem

As Kant saw it, the Cartesian problem is about how to move from knowledge of our own minds to an understanding of the world apart from our minds. In psychology, we often talk about motivated reasoning as being the reasons we find because we are motivated to find them.

We see something we like, and we imprint that on our minds. We then see that object or issue again and again because we are looking for it. This mindset may also predetermine whether we seek the truth or fiction. One’s preconceived beliefs, unchallenged by accurate information, are a potential impediment to the truth.

Superstitious beliefs are an example. The mind has already decided what is good and what is bad. Black-and-white thinking is another example. The mind has no room for any middle ground or debate over the issues. Black-and-white thinking has also been called no-growth thinking. We become closed off, to a degree, to anything outside that tunnel vision, which is part of our predetermined mindset.

“Operating outside of our conscious awareness, implicit biases are pervasive, and can challenge even the most well-intentioned and egalitarian-minded individuals, resulting in actions and outcomes that do not necessarily align with explicit intentions” (Staats, 2016).

The term “outside our conscious awareness” illustrates the seriousness of the issue. When we blindly follow our implicit bias, the potential of our decision-making is limited to less than full capacity.

The availability of truth or accuracy may be compromised due to this biased view. Currently, we have numerous examples of this phenomenon happening politically around the world.

The Cartesian Solution

How do we move from the knowledge of our own minds to the understanding of the world apart from our minds? Why did Kant believe this to be the answer to skepticism? Kant believed in the restlessness of reason. What does that look like?

Kant wrote: “Skepticism is a resting—place for human reason... but it is not a dwelling—place for permanent residence.” He believed that the restlessness of reason would eventually win out.

Even if Kant is right, how do we arrive at good reasoning? What would seeking the truth look like? Is there a way out of implicit bias and motivated reasoning?

“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason." —Immanuel Kant

Value-Based Reasoning

“In value-based reasoning, the central claim is that to be a reason for an option is to be a fact about that option’s promoting some state of affairs, on the condition that that state of affairs is valuable.” That reason must have some value to self or others.

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A contribution to a needy cause would have value based on helping someone who is in need of that help. Conversely, a decision to jump out of a moving car, causing severe injury to one’s body, would seem to lack a good reason due to its lack of value to that person’s health and well-being.

Obviously, some of these reasons will be spontaneous. However, befitting our earlier definition of reason, many a decision will require the capacity to apply logic consciously by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth.

Value-based reasoning might also fit Kant’s restlessness of reason criteria. The hope that reason may win out over skepticism of climate change would be an example of humans coming to terms with survival over greed. Perhaps this would happen when deciding the value of evidence-based fact over emotionally derived opinion.

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” —Oscar Wilde

Recognition of scientific knowledge and reasoning outside our internal reasoning fits with Kant’s idea of the Cartesian solution. When the ocean is creeping more into our living space, we may come to a realization of truth and resort to value-based reasoning and Cartesian solutions.

When fires and floods are lapping at our doorstep, we may, out of necessity, react with more value-based reasoning. Our skepticism, our preconceived notions, our motivated reasoning, our black-and-white thinking, and our tunnel views may all give way to real, outside-our-own-mind evidence.

Willingly taking in new information that has value while reconsidering preconceptions that are not viable would pave the way to better reasoning and a better opportunity to discover the truth. The obtainable end result would be that the restlessness of reason would win out, and skepticism would have to relocate somewhere else, which it will.