Rationality: The Origins and Evolution

Abstract

In the basis of human interaction with the outside world, there are such specific forms of reacting to the external impacts as feelings. These emotional states always played (and still do) the important role in organizing of collective behavior. But feeling is connected with direct response to the situation occurring in the certain time interval, therefore feeling cannot provide success of human action in the context of ‘probable future’. Growing complication of life of society demanded the invention of means that can provide feelings about imaginary situations. It determined the development of rational thinking that gradually replaced the emotional reactions of people to the direct impact of the outside world. The uprising of scientific cognition seemed to determine final domination of logical reasoning in intellectual sphere. However, some tendencies in the modern culture indicate that role of feelings in the life of common people is growing.