Reason Is Fallible

The preface at the beginning of Charlotte Mason's volumes sets the stage for her educational philosophy by outlining twenty principles that summarize her ideas. Today we're going to unpack her sixteenth principle, The Way of Reason. This principle is closely tied to her fifteenth principle, The Way of the Will.

Charlotte Mason's Sixteenth Principle

"The Way of the Reason.—We should teach children, too, not to 'lean' (too confidently) 'unto their own understanding,' because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth; and (b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case reason is, perhaps, an infallible guide, but in the second it is not always a safe one, for whether that initial idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs."

In the first sentence, Mason is referring to Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

Why This Principle Matters

Why would Charlotte Mason feel this particular verse was important enough to reference in her twenty principles?

One thing to consider is the time period in which Charlotte Mason lived. She came of age during the Industrial Revolution, and inventions such as the steam engine, typewriters, telegraphs, and countless other advances no doubt influenced her thinking. These developments likely reinforced her desire to remind parents and educators that no matter how much we invent, advance, and understand the world around us, human reasoning remains imperfect.

Proverbs 3:5 calls us to trust the Lord with all our heart. If we lean too heavily on our own understanding, our own reasoning abilities, we fail to trust Him fully.

Where Reason Is Reliable

Mason goes on to explain that the function of reasoning, or logic, is to prove one of two things: first, a mathematical truth, or second, an initial idea. She readily admits that reason is most reliable in the realm of mathematics.

In Volume IV, Ourselves, she writes:

"Never are the operations of Reason more delightful and more perfect than in mathematics. Here men do not begin to reason with a notion which causes them to lean to this side or to that. By degrees, absolute truth unfolds itself. We are so made that truth, absolute and certain truth, is a perfect joy to us; and that is the joy that mathematics afford."

The Danger of Reasoning from Initial Ideas

However, Mason cautions us not to rely unquestioningly on our reasoning when it comes to proving initial ideas. This is because reason is not necessarily impartial. It will often attempt to prove an idea true simply because it has already been accepted, whether that idea is right or wrong.

She explains:

"The reasoning power, acting in a more or less mechanical and involuntary manner, does not necessarily work towards the morally right conclusion. All that reason does for us is to prove, logically, any idea we choose to entertain.

We all know that if we entertain a notion that a servant is dishonest, that a friend is false, or that a dress is unbecoming, some power within us, unconsciously to us, sets to work to collect evidence and bring irrefragable proof of the position we have chosen to take up. This is the history of wars and persecutions and family feuds all over the world. How necessary, then, that a child should be instructed to understand the limitations of his own reason, so that he will not confound logical demonstration with eternal truth, and will know that the important thing to him is the ideas he permits himself to entertain."

Good People Can Reach Opposite Conclusions

Our ability to reason is one of the qualities that distinguishes human beings from other creatures. Culturally, we tend to treat human reasoning as infallible. But Mason challenges this assumption.

She illustrates the limits of reason by pointing out that two intelligent and morally upright people can arrive at opposite conclusions through reasoning alone:

"But you see at once that if two equally intelligent and equally good persons are intensely convinced by their Reason of two things exactly opposite to one another—as, for example, on the one side that a certain war is the duty of a nation, and, on the other, that this same war is a crime—Reason in both these good men cannot be infallible: one or the other, if not both, must be mistaken."

The Dethronement of Authority

Mason goes even further, arguing that overreliance on reason has contributed to the dethronement of authority in progressive education. She traces this tendency to philosophers such as John Locke and Herbert Spencer, whose ideas elevated individual reasoning to the highest authority.

Mason believed that this exaltation of human reason ultimately displaced divine authority:

"The enthronement of the human reason is the dethronement of Almighty God… From the dethronement of the divine follows the dethronement of all human authority, whether it be of kings and their deputies over nations, or of parents over families."

The Will Bears Responsibility

Reason, however, does not act alone. Mason explains that it is the Will that bears responsibility for accepting or rejecting initial ideas. This brings us to her nineteenth principle:

"Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need."

The chief responsibility—primary and foundational—is the acceptance or rejection of ideas, and this task belongs to the Will. In this way, the conclusions reached by reason often begin with the will.

Mason describes the process this way:

"The beginning, that which sets Reason in motion, is almost always a notion admitted by the Prime Minister, Will. Once admitted, Reason seizes on the notion and runs it through his mill, and it comes out at the end of his processes a finished product. This shifts the responsibility of our conclusions from Reason, who works them out, all the way back to Will, who takes in the first notion."

Using Reason Wisely

Understanding The Way of the Will and The Way of Reason is not straightforward. It is complex because we are complex beings, created by an infinitely creative God. At the very least, Mason's ideas on reason and will invite deep reflection, especially when we consider the aims and priorities of our children's education.

So what do we do? How do we steward our God-given ability to reason wisely? Mason offers this counsel:

"Perhaps we shall best use this wonderful power of reasoning, commonly called our Reason, by giving it plenty of work to do, by asking ourselves what is the cause of this and that; why do people and animals do certain things. Reason which is not worked grows sluggish; and there are persons who never wonder nor ask themselves questions about anything they see."