How do you know you're a person open to reason?

[wufwugy]

I don't see why this is confusing.

It's easy to find reasons which reaffirm prejudices.

An important distinction is between "reasons" and "reason." "Reasons" exist for all beliefs, regardless of the level of reason behind them. "Reason" is the thoughtful and substantive intellectual consideration for beliefs.

[MadMojoMonkey]

An important distinction is between "reasons" and "reason." "Reasons" exist for all beliefs, regardless of the level of reason behind them. "Reason" is the thoughtful and substantive intellectual consideration for beliefs.

How can "thoughtful" be divorced from "having reasons?"

"substantive intellectual consideration" sounds perfectly subjective, and easy for them to claim that they have it and you don't.

***
JKDS's point (If I may) is that this subjectivity is woven into your question.

Do you feel that you are a reasonable person, wuf? 'Cause you say things like, "taxation is theft," and you refuse to say otherwise, even though many people have explained the nuanced differences between the 2 ideas.

Do you feel that I'm a reasonable person, wuf? 'Cause I say things like "taxation is not theft," and I refuse to say otherwise, even though you've tried to explain that when the nuance is stripped away from these ideas, they are the same.

[wufwugy]

How can "thoughtful" be divorced from "having reasons?"

"substantive intellectual consideration" sounds perfectly subjective, and easy for them to claim that they have it and you don't.

I was trying to distinguish reason and reasons the way it is in philosophy and stuff. Other than that, I'm not going to be that good at dissecting it. Maybe view it through the lens of scientific research. In that, reason and logic regardless of emotion is paramount, and folly is when reason and logic are set aside for emotion.

Do you feel that you are a reasonable person, wuf?

At least in some ways, I do. That's also part of why I made this thread. It's easy to think you come to beliefs based on reason instead of emotion more often than others, but since most everybody thinks that (and it not being true), I'm looking for actual signs so that you could actually know if you're a reasonable person or if you're just deluded.



So here's the one sign I thought may work:

If you're a person who doesn't believe a large quantity of things you believed a few years ago, you're likely a person who comes to beliefs through reason. I say "large quantity" because everybody has some measure of belief changes, so it would have to be higher than average. The change in beliefs is important since it's pretty much standard that everything people believe isn't strictly true, so if somebody is dedicated to reason, they would find that they find many instances of believing wrong things.

[a500lbgorilla]

An important distinction is between "reasons" and "reason." "Reasons" exist for all beliefs, regardless of the level of reason behind them. "Reason" is the thoughtful and substantive intellectual consideration for beliefs.

I dunno. Have you seen that video of the decapitated snake that bites its squirming body, or the gutted fish that swims in the water? Seems like some things just happen in direct reaction to the environment and reasons and reason are things that the forwardly minded find to stitch it all into a meaningful story.