Reasoning and logic are to each other as health to medicine, or - better - as conduct is to morality. Reasoning refers to a gamut of natural thought processes in the everyday world. Logic is how we ought to think if objective truth is our goal - and the everyday world is very little concerned with objective truth. Logic is the science of the justification of conclusions we have reached by natural reasoning. My point here is that, for such natural reasoning to occur, consciousness is not necessary. The very reason we need logic at all is because most reasoning is not conscious at all.

Ræsonnement er til logik som sundhed til medicin, eller - bedre - som adfærd til moral. Ræsonnement er en række naturlige tankeprocesser i hverdagens verden. Logik er hvordan vi burde tænke hvis objektiv sandhed er målet - og hverdagens verden er meget lidt interesseret i objektiv sandhed. Logik er videnskaben om retfærdiggørelse af de konklusioner vi har nået ved naturligt ræsonnement. Min pointe her er, at bevidsthed ikke er nødvendig for at den slags naturligt ræsonnement kan finde sted. Grunden til at vi overhovedet har brug for logik er, at de fleste ræsonnementer slet ikke er bevidste.

Julian Jaynes, in "The origin of consciousness in the break down of the bicameral mind" (1976)

Julian Jaynes, i "The origin of consciousness in the break down of the bicameral mind" (1976)