Abstract

The purpose of this paper is not to theorize but to examine the primordial perceptions of “the rational” and “the irrational” on which our theoretical judgments are based. We do not question the importance of such judgments. But, unless they build on a clear experiential foundation—even if by inverting it—their results remain arbitrary. Whether we wish to deal with the real and the derivative, the true and the false, the good and the evil, or, as in our case, the rational and the irrational, we need to begin with a clear apperception of the eidos each term articulates as lived experience.