ABSTRACT
There is a traditional belief to the effect that man is a rational animal. Rationality or the ability to reason has often been held to be not merely an essential part of human nature, but also the quality which serves best of all to distinguish man from the rest of the animal creation, and a fortiori from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, the quality which raises him above the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and gives him such dignity and worth as he possesses. The concept of reason has therefore often been taken as the key, not merely to man’s thinking in a narrow sense, i.e. to what are sometimes called his cognitive capacities, but also to his actions and, though less frequently, to his ability to create and appreciate beautiful things. Descartes distilled the quintessence of abstract reason.
