The Enlightenment- Or what I thought about at the gym

I was startled one morning, not very long ago, to wake up and discover that middle age is rapidly encroaching on my everyday life. It isn't that I think I will die tomorrow, or that I dread looking in the mirror for fear of more grey hairs, or even that the aches and pains of everyday activities seem to linger. Actually I like the feeling of growing old for the most part. I am seldom self-conscious, I don't feel so ignorant of the world all the time, and I enjoy being on my own. In short, I find the gifts of self reliance that accompany middle age extremely satisfying.

What is so strange then about middle age? For one I recently noticed that I am more comfortable relying on my intuition, that I don't need to investigate every facet of this or that thing in order to come to some decision. Not that I was particularly fastidious about research, but that I am simply more comfortable making decisions "from the gut"

What is the opposite of intuition? Reason I suppose. At least that is what I was always taught in college, studying western philosophy. Reason is fixed and certain and with that, there is no truth that is undiscoverable when held before the light of reason. It reminds me of a discussion I lead in class the other night on the Age of Enlightenment, an 18th century movement fueled in part by the Reformation, the philosophy of classic Antiquity, and optimistic Humanist thought that recognized the sad state of the human condition under authoritarian rule of church and state.

During the Age of Enlightenment, Reason, in the guise of modern philosophy and scientific method, was used to overturn superstitious, dogmatic or irrational beliefs. It is important for me to remember that reason was a very different faculty in the 17th and 18th century than it is today, for it was only in this time that people began to imagine reason as a faculty with the unaided ability (unaided by god or diving inspiration) to form concepts. At the same time it was a reason that was used to discern the inalienable rights of mankind, namely liberty, justice, and equality as the natural rights of man. Reason, as it was, was combined with humanist thought, and gave rise to a revolution in thinking that would reshape the world.

As time went by I suppose we forgot that there was once a time when there was no place in the world in which these things existed. Science became the unquestioned master of progress and industry created the unending supply that fed our unwhetted appetites. Superstition became the stuff of fancy and myth and in time, intuition became a bad thing; the stuff of Hysterical, feminine thinking that had no place in the halls of science. Alas the poor goddess Athena herself must have rolled in her grave.

What is the extreme of Reason? Well, if science fiction has taught me anything it is that reason at its extreme seems to be cold, even ruthless in its single-mindedness. While emotion, intuition, seems vague, even uncertain at times in its methods, it can be learned, but seldom taught. I suppose both reason and intuition can have their faults, while those in reason's camp will argue that reason, when properly applied is faultless, there are few that are always faultless, and intuition might argue that emotion is more human, there are few that can say they are always altruistic in their motives.
Nowadays it seems that whenever humanism encroaches on reason it is always isolated, that it seldom takes root and is often dismissed. The green movement might be an example of this, or amnesty international. The most horrific thing about Guantanamo is the suspension of Habeas Corpus, the instrument safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary actions of the state. Habeas Corpus, a sacred instrument of our constitution, itself a product of The Age of Enlightenment, suspended for individuals held against their will. It is not my place to argue their innocence, only my place to argue their right to have a chance to voice it.

Does intuition fare any better? We seem to be on a slippery scale here, one that I cannot quantify, because I have come to rely on intuition, and have not my research. It seems like we as a people have moved away from trusting our intuition, we have become more dispassionate, though we long for the days when once we were. Individually, I think people are more diverse in their day to day actions, sometimes trusting in intuition, other times in reason. Relieving stress has become a mantra of every day living, one that reason, medicine and scientific thought cannot cure, mostly because it is likely so much the cause. So I found myself at the gym today, running my ass off and wondering about the way in which middle age has encroached itself onto my everyday living and what that really means...