The Real is Rational and the Rational is Real: Unmasking the Logic of Existence

Rene Descartes was the pioneer of modern day metaphysical rationalist thought. The idea of rationality and reality is not far from its metaphysical discussions. When descartes was looking for an axiom which can serve as the fundamental reality, whose existence is certain and indubitable, he was in fact searching for the real backed by a rationalist process. And when he discovered the axiom "Cogito Ergo Sum" which translates to "I think therefore I am", the concept of rationality came alive. The statement, real is rational and rational is real perfectly encapsulates the relation between rationality and reality. Reality exists on its own and is discovered through a rational process. This forms the great inter-connected bridge between two facets of existence - the real and rational.

Hegel originally captured this realisation in his work of dialectics. Reality unfolds gradually and is accomplished through a process over a period of time. A lot of German philosophers have tried to argue that true knowledge and reality is difficult to obtain and we can only rationally unfold what is perceivable to us, as evident in Immanuel Kant's concept of Noumenon. However the ancient Greece Methodology has a different saying. The platonic ideas of reality and true forms asserts that reality is knowable and attainable through a rationalist process. This was re-iterated in Hegel's quote the real is rational and the rational is real. Though Hegel's ideas were based on Platonic idealism, they were much different in its application. Rationality exists because reality exists. If nothing is real then everything being rational or irrational won't make any sense.

In the context of ancient Indian Spiritual and Philosophical heritage, the real has always been at the center of all rational debates. For example, in the Advaitic tradition, a lot of emphasis is directly on the nature of real existence. It goes as far as to reject the ordinary as unreal. The ordinary existence of everyday things such as the plains, the rivers, the sky and even the human body. Rejecting this ordinary existence leads to a devastating impact on our conception of rationality. The mind believes what it sees and observes. However the Advaitics argue that our assumption of reality and rationality can be illusionary. The popular example given by non-dualists all over the world is that of the rope and the snake. If you mistake the rope for a snake, it will feel as real as the ordinary existence feels, yet it is an illusion, it is not really out there. In such a scenario it is really difficult to separate the real from the false. The ancient wisdom suggests ways to unfold true reality, and that is rational for them. Thereby, we can conclude that the objective definition of reality is totally dependent on it's true existence and the objective definition of rationality is dependent on it's reality. Reality can help define rationality and what is rational is already real.

Apart from the Philosophical descriptions of reality and rationality, there lies a world which encounters these distinctions intensively. As discussed earlier, the real and rational in our empirical world is not far from its metaphysical discussions. In the era of social media, and the rise of active discussion platforms such as reddit and quora, we are exposed to multiple opinions claiming to be rational. In this case the real opinion can either be one or many. The significant part is not to distinguish between the reality and falsity, or to focus on the event's corresponding to the opinion. The significant part is to identify the rational process through which one reaches the reality. For example, if there are three people saying three different things and claiming it to be real, one cannot reach what's rational here because even when the real is rational you cannot really identify which saying is the real. So in such a situation, reverse engineering is effective. One can reach reality through a rational process as the rational is real. Another situation from the empirical world which reiterates this approach is the presence of sensationalised news media. The multitudinal conflicting news shown by compels one to knock the doors of rationality in order to reach a conclusion which is real.

These two truly form an interconnected bridge. We discussed both the ordinary physical existence and the metaphysical philosophical approaches to understand this quote. The one big difference is that in philosophy, one needs to find what's real first and the whole emphasis is on finding the reality. Then at a later stage, whatever aided in finding that reality becomes rational. However, on the empirical side when there are multiple often conflicting truths, then it is important to pinpoint the rational process first which further leads to finding or pinpointing the real. The bridge between the real and rational works in mysterious ways, and it is impossible to separate the two.