Morality Vs Rationality

 Morality vs Rationality

The importance of the debate between morality and rationality is immense in each of our individual lives as it concerns every crucial as well as to some extent trivial action or decision we take. Some of us, the more learned, literate and knowledgeable people would know that in taking certain decisions in life, they are being torn on the opposing sides by morality and rationality as they are well aware of the distinction between the two. On the other hand, someone who is not that literate would hardly be aware of the concepts of morality or rationality but he would most certainly know that there is a right and wrong associated with each decision and thus he has to act considering the benefits and harms of his actions. This paper would shed light on the relative merits of decision-making based on rationality or morality or both and the consequences of each of these decisions.

The one thing, which I would like to emphasize on in this paper, is the importance of intuition during our decision making whether it happens to be as small an action as picking up trash from a pavement or as crucial a decision as saving someone else’s life. I personally feel that the nature of one’s intuition is the most important trait or characteristic of a person as it affects the mentality, mindset of a person and therefore directly affects the action that the person takes. My argument might sound vague because one might argue that people do not always go with their intuition but rather they deliberate and think and then come up with a reasoned or rational conclusion but what is missing is the importance of the instinctive reaction of that person towards a scenario and how his mind instantly reacts to that situation. “The only real valuable thing is intuition”- Einstein. As Einstein put it “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift”. One’s impulsive/spontaneous reaction in my opinion is the most genuine response of a person, which truly defines who he is.  The deliberation or reasoning which results after a person’s intuitive response is the intervention of other people’s opinions as well as the society’s norms, customs and traditions and therefore the combination of all these factors is bound to alter that person’s initial instinctive response which was the result of his genuine and unaltered conscience.  This intuition then allows us to analyze or judge a person as to whether he is inclined towards the moral side or the rational perspective. I intentionally used the word “inclined” because life is not black and white when it comes to discussing morality and rationality but the distinction between moral etiquettes and rational actions is an interesting area of overlapping as well as contradictory perspectives. If a person’s intuition is to do A but the society makes him do B, then that action is not representative of that person’s conscience as his opinion has been altered. If he does B, then his initial conscience has been subdued and been replaced by what other people think is the right thing to do so even if B is a very good action( both rational and moral) it does not mean that the person who did it is a very good human being. Although a person might argue that this person considers other people’s opinions and arrives at decisions which are better for the society but this was because others helped him come to that decision. If he was left to make a decision on his own he would have chose to do A, because that was what his intuition and conscience instructed him to do at that time, as he was free of any external intervention. Here I should also say that an intuitive response can be termed as an impulsive or spontaneous action but not an involuntary action but it has a touch of rationality to it whereas an involuntary action is something which is done without any bit of reasoning. Another important factor which is vital to this discussion is the concept of virtues and how virtues are related to morality and rationality. We quite often associate people with specific virtues such as being brave, trustworthy, liberal, honest and vice versa but how do are these virtues formed and consequently affect a person’s approach to decision making.