We Aren’t Rational, We Become Rational

<p>Most of us don’t think of ourselves as irrational. We don’t think we’re reactive creatures. We presume that we’re in control of our emotions, not the other way around. Other people are irrational of course, but what <em>we </em>feel is what reality <em>is. </em></p><p><br/></p><p>Robert Greene’s latest book <a href='http://geni.us/jaNSnRe'><em>The Laws Of Human Nature</em></a><em> </em>begins from the premise that humans, by the way we’re wired, are irrational beings. The part of our brain that processes reason, cognition, and thought is separate from the part that processes emotion. He says that while we think we’re naturally rational, we’re not. We become rational. It’s an effort.</p><p><br/></p><p>As Robert <a href='https://dailystoic.com/robert-greene/'>said in his interview with us about the book</a>,</p><p><br/></p><p>We descended from chimpanzees. It’s the fact that we tend to react to what’s immediately in front of our face, like a cow or a dog or anything. We bark and that’s who we are. And we tend to always want things to be easier to take the path of least resistance. We all have that lower part of our nature and it’s a lot stronger, but at the same time, there’s a higher self that we’re straining to become. And maybe I’m being optimistic, but I’m saying that everybody has that desire to reach the higher self.</p><p>  </p><p>There is a strong element of Stoicism in this. Although <a href='https://dailystoic.com/meditations-marcus-aurelius/#'>Marcus</a> and <a href='https://dailystoic.com/epictetus-discourses-summary-quotes/'>Epictetus</a> and <a href='https://dailystoic.com/letters-from-a-stoic/'>Seneca</a> spoke of living in accordance with nature, they knew how unnaturally this came to most people. They knew how much <em>work</em> it was to get to that higher self, to transcend our baser instincts and emotions. <a href='https://dailystoic.com/epictetus-quotes/'>Epictetus</a> said we must put every impression to the test, to say to it, “hold on a moment, let me see who you are and what you represen