Following up on my post about rational abstraction.
That mode of thinking is an acquired skill, taught mainly at universities. It is a technical ability needed for certain types of work; its the equivalent of the knowledge of accounting rules for accountants. Because of the self-involvement of the elites educated in such environments and employed in such jobs, it has been generalized into a skill thought to be a base requirement for functioning humanity. To lack it—or to be less skilled in it—is to be regarded as ignorant or even inferior.
“The unexamined life is not worth living” could only be said by a self-involved elite.
There are other ways of knowing. In fact, for much of life, other ways of knowing are far more important than the academic mode. How happy do you expect a person competent in rational abstraction but unskilled in emotional intelligence to be? How important is intuition in navigating life safely?
Rational abstraction is an excellent servant but a terrible master. It’s a skill most suitable to computers and AI. For all of the folks bemoaning the irrationality of humanity, you may be about to experience a world run entirely according to your rules and you may not like the result.