Reason, Passion, and the Law
Posted on May 12, 2008
Filed Under Intelligent Design, Reason, Religion, Science | Leave a Comment
This blog is based on the notion that reason, free from passion, is dead. In other words, reason has no longevity in the search for truth without the motivating force of passion. It’s passion that drives, reason that guides. Contrary to Aristotle’s assertion that the law is “reason free from passion,” reason and passion are the two halves of one great whole, equally yoked in the labor of discovering and obeying the law.
I do understand the intent of Aristotle’s assertion, however: simply that law is not prejudiced, or at least is not intended to be, and should not be subject to the erratic mood swings of unbridled passion. In that sense, he is correct, though he did not go far enough in his commitment to his own idea. Law is beyond passion, and by that same notion is also beyond reason. Law is truth, and truth is constant and universal and exists regardless of any human reasoning however passionate or dispassionate. Instead, our reasoning, driven by our passion for truth, should lead us to understand, accept and ultimately obey truth as it is–law–and not to try to shape law to fit our present passions. Given sufficient time and honest pursuit, with passion that burns ever hotter on a course constantly corrected by reason, we eventually learn to live in harmony with all truth, thereby becoming one with truth. In essence, we become truth. We become the law. The law does not bend to us, but rather we take on its characteristics and nature.
So where Aristotle claimed that law is “reason free from passion,” the truth is that law is reason eternally joined with passion in perfect balance and harmony.
Obviously such a state of existence does not occur in the span of mortality. Thankfully, there is a perfectly designed, perfectly reasonable path that arrives at just such a state.
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