by Ryan Robert Hallett

Created on: April 20, 2009

Okay, we've established that nothing is a given, there is no black and white, etc. We know the drill. But in reality, where we live, work for a living, and have to get things done, we need tools to make the day go more smoothly and perhaps even to create and innovate. Rationalism is one of these tools.

Rationalism, in a nutshell, refers to any manner of breaking things down; matter into particles, energy into waves, phenomena into patterns, people into types. To the rational, it is the law of cause and effect. There has been a lot said and written about the limits put on knowledge by structures and tools such as these that we use to accumulate and interpret information. David Bohm's Wholeness and the Implicate Order (Routledge, 1980) explores this in depth, and is a lesser-known stroke of genius, perhaps because it is hard to read and even harder to wrap the mind around.

The idea is that all ways of knowing involve assumptions. We assume that the universe will conform to certain tried and true rules, such as time, inertia, entropy and others, which provide a platform from which to observe. The problem is that assumptions put ideas in our heads about what something will look like before we've even seen it, and Bohm and others believe that these assumptions guarantee that our view of the world will be less correct. If we are looking for lines, we'll find lines. If we're trying to find spaces, we'll see spaces. Our destination limits our journey and our expectations limit how we experience the trip. In addition, we cut a thing out of reality in order to look at it, and in so doing lose information about how it behaves in its regular context. It almost seems that we cannot see things accurately if we look at them. Our platform limits our perspective.

Nonetheless, we can't very well give up seeing. Although critics of rationalism make an important point, the acceptance of which will benefit our pursuit of knowledge, the value of rational thought cannot be ignored. We have to see where we are going if we are to get anywhere. Although the fullness of the holistic approach is no doubt invaluable, if we say a certain thing "feels like a wind" (as David Lynch might), there is no guarantee that another person truly understands what we mean, even if they think they do. The abstraction may come closer to the heart of how we are really experiencing a situation, but it is not always enough. When we discuss it in rational terms, although they may be limited and carry a payload of assumptions, it enables us to find a common language to discuss a phenomenon, allowing for collaboration towards progress on the matter. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one.

Naturally, the best way to know the world probably involves some combination of the two, rationalism and for lack of a better word, feeling. After all, you can't build a house with just a hammer. Paradoxically but perhaps fittingly, the idea that the law of cause and effect may not be the only way the universe works may be the ultimate rational argument. It describes a cause, the constraining forces of rationalism, and its effect, the limit on our ability to understand. In the end, we will need a hammer as well as nails to build our halls of knowledge and innovation.

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