Habit Is Stronger Than Reason Essay

â€Å"Habit is stronger than reason.† To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge? Human beings have naturally found a way of wanting to discover, analyze and find out things. In more modern times humans have been taught to think in certain ways due to what they want to do in life or through their ancestors that passed down traditions that is carried on through them i.e. culture and religion. The two areas of knowledge I chose were mathematics and history. There is always an explanation in each area of knowledge; in mathematics we can say that there is always reasoning behind everything. But in an everyday life we use mathematics habitually, for instance if you woke up in the morning you had to take two vitamins, every human (unless given a diagnosed problem and or no education) can tell the difference of two, and knowing that you have to take two. Only because mathematics is in bedded within our lives from a very young age and in this case habit is stronger than reason. This all changes once you get to a higher and more difficult level of mathematics because there is no way that the quadratic equation is used on a daily basis as a habit (unless you’re some sort of super genius). So, in the case that mathematics at a beginner level, habit is much stronger than reason. Depending on how the individual grew up and was raised, the knowledge could be affected. It could be tradition to carry on the knowledge of their ancestors. In history there are many sides to the historical even which took place for example World War two, Hitler himself would have had different views and experiences throughout the war and he or someone else may have documented it different to a American journalist who was seeing the opposing side of the Germans, he could be writing his own views according to his country and not only the entire war itself. History is in bedded in the learner, and even the teacher could be accounted for, due to the fact that most of the knowledge i s learned in school at a young age so say if the example of world war two was given again; a German teacher could have a different view point than a American teacher. A good personal example is during the first year of secondary school, I was in history and slavery was being taught; note that I was the only white person in the class. We were learning about the transport and the enslavement off of West Africa and the teacher was so good at explaining how the white masters treated the slaves and was so enthusiastic in his descriptions. At the end of the class no one uttered a word to me just because I was white. This example can also relate to the race of the learner. Every race has its own history behind it, the reason why racism is currently still around is because of peoples history and how their opinions were changed through group knowledge. Reasoning could be stronger than habit through the beliefs and experiences of that individual. However the believes could have been forced against them through family, but looking at a different point of view, it could be because that the family was set certain rules and wanted to continues the family tradition. This could relate to history because it was what their ancestors taught them into believing, and if one of the family members spoke out they could be frowned upon. Religion could be used as this family tradition, for instance if a family who were Christians their entire life, had a family member who was an Atheist, spoke out and gave their opinion would not only be frowned upon by his family, but in the families eye let down by whom they believe in. Without the area of knowledge, answering that question could go both ways â€Å"is reasoning stronger than habit.† It all depends on which cases are matched to the reasoning and habit, because mostly people act differently, people have different views. There are ways though that habit is stronger than reason, due to the fact that people are altered in becoming addicted to something, whether it may be cigarettes and or drugs. The abusers minds are altered from the substance which makes the cigarette and or drug addictive, this means that whatever the substance may be, it has convinced the human mind and body that it needs it. Often the human body and mind changes if it hasn’t got that substance in awhile, for example in crack cocaine abusers, there body tends to crave and need the substance again after it has been taken. It makes the body and person depressed, anxious, irritable, and exhausted even angry of the drug isn’t consumed. This proves that habit is stronger than reason, only due to the fact that the mind has been altered in to believing that it wants that certain substance even though they know it’s completely bad for the body. The question is habit stronger that reasoning is a yes, but also a no due to the fact that the question can be altered depending on what the back ground of person is and what they’ve learnt and experienced, plus the influence of addictive substances. The question could be asked vis versa is reasoning stronger than habit? It could be answered as a yes and no as well because yet again most people are different.