Be rational!

It is rationality that leads to wisdom

Rationality is the term used in cognitive science for our capacity to use our intelligence more effectively. The more rational we are the more we see through self-deception and into reality, that is, the wiser we become.

Measures of general intelligence (g) only have a 0.3 correlation with measures of rationality (gr).  We need intelligence to be rational, but it is not sufficient.

Over the last two weeks (here and here) we looked at how we can improve our capacity for insight, a key component of rationality allowing us to reframe how we see things to get closer to the underlying reality.

The other two components of rationality are reasoning (or logic) and caring (i.e., feeling or showing care for others).

To reason well, we need to consider all facts and points of view with equanimity, not being biased or prejudiced towards any one perspective.  ‘Active Open Mindedness’ (AOM) is the practice of systematically overcoming bias by recognising what biases exist and then working to counteract them (for example, looking for counter arguments to a preferred point of view).  This is a cognitive style developed through curiosity and wonder.

Edvard Munch - The Geniuses - Ibsen, Nietzsche and Socrates - 1909

To care well, we need to be free of any ‘triggering’, meaning we can pay full attention to anyone and everyone without limiting internal reactions (negative emotions, narrowing focus). Mindfulness provides a powerful means for extinguishing triggers (see my book Red Brain Blue Brain for a fuller development of this). When we are free of triggering, we can practice agape/encounter – ‘the love that creates a person’.

Developing our rationality – reasoning, caring, insight – and then applying it on an ongoing basis is the pathway towards wisdom.  Wisdom being the “systematic seeing through illusion and into reality”, something that we are desperately in need of today and, maybe, even more so as the various existential crises we face just get worse.

To have students working towards becoming wiser, we need educators doing the same thing.  Meditation, mindfulness practices, insight, active open mindedness are all practices that belong in an educator’s professional practice.

This will be the last posting until 12th January 2021. In the meantime I would like to wish my readers a well-deserved break and a successful start to the new year.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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