Rationalism and Moral Values

Don Juans Rationalism in the play Don Juan can be described as “[t]he freethinking rationalist is in the uncomfortable position of trying to find a rational explanation for the rationally inexplicable, or at least of trying to ignore what he cannot rationally understand” stands both true and false because we can all agree that Don Juan was a rationalist because by definition a rationalist is a “ person who bases their opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response”.

In philosophy rationality gives someone the ability to conform their beliefs within oneself which is what the writer of the play is trying to demonstrate in the We all have our beliefs on what we think a higher power is or if one even exists.

Happiness is something we always think about and what it takes in us to be able to achieve the ultimate level of happiness in our lives. We all have our way of interpreting what makes us happy and in what ways, some people see happiness as being on the countryside watching the sun set, on a porch in a rocking chair watching the cows graze drinking a sweet tea, while others see happiness as being in a bustling city, having to catch a taxi, walking down the sidewalk surrounded by thousands of people with the smell of gas and all the food shops and stands you pass by.

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The point is, is that we all have our own version of happiness and different things make people happy which is why all of the stores we come to have known have a variety of many different things.

play Don Juan.

From the introduction it was made it clear that Don Juan is “ a believer who revolts against God” and later goes on to say that the play writer “proactively made him a rationalist” this further goes on to prove that yes indeed Don Juan is a rationalist (92). Don Juan has proven himself throughout the play to be free thinking as Ball and Ellis have stated, from Don Juans many escapades with many women and leading them on and choosing not to take their hand in marriage we can see that Don Juan tends to want to lead a free spirited lifestyle, he wants to live his life under no restraints and free from fear of any one or any higher power; just as any other free thinking rationalist would.

The truth of Don Juans rationalism,“ is an uncomfortable position of trying to find a rational explanation for the rationally inexplicable, or at least of trying to ignore what he cannot rationally understand”? This leads to false belief because Don Juan was never uncomfortable about his lifestyle, he felt as if his life was just the way he wanted it to lead out, and he did not care to think or even care to take heed of his actions. I find it that a person who is known as a “seducer” who “exhibits a heartless libertinism” and also has a rejection of “spiritual and moral values” can not care about the impact that he as on this world or even care as to why things are going the way they are in his life (92). We as human beings base our feelings and actions on moral beliefs and what we fear would happen to us later on if we do not do the right thing in life. We do not lie because we do not want to deal with the consequences in life such as the possibility of going to jail if the truth is revealed, and we then later on at the end of our human life we have to deal with the consequences from God for lying, and for those same reasons we avoid all the other sins as written in the bible to avoid having to deal with these consequences and that is all simply because we believe that bad things can happen to us.

On the other hand, Moliere states that Don Juan is an “atheist” so therefore how can it be said that he is uncomfortable and that he is trying to find a rational explanation for why he is the way he is if Don Juan does not care. If Don Juan believed that the way he was going on about his life was wrong then maybe he did believe in something, and maybe he was not an atheist. A person who cares about things tends to have morals, but Don Juan lacked morality overall and that was shown by the way he chose to live his life. He “made clear in his attitude about marriage” that he “refused to be bound” any man who would rather sleep with and date many women as he chooses with no fear of committing adultery and fornication especially in Don Juans time period is not “trying to find a rational explanation for the rationally inexplicable” they are just simply living in ignorance because of the characteristics and personality traits in which were bestowed upon them.

How do we describe the morals of an atheist? When we hear the word atheist we know that it means a non believer of a higher power, atheist lack morals because they lack belief in a higher power to give them these morals to go by to help them decipher what is right and what is wrong. Atheists live their life in ignorance because they don’t believe that what they do in life is wrong, they don’t believe in consequences. Exactly like Don Juan, Don Juan dated many women and had sexual relations with them as well but not with the intent to marry, Don Juan lived his life as he thought it should be lived, care free, full of lust, not a fear or thought of what would of could happen to him if he were to keep living this way. Don Juan believed that the evil that he was doing was actually no evil at all.

We as human beings base our feelings and actions on moral beliefs and what we fear would happen to us later on if we do not do the right thing in life. We do not lie because we do not want to deal with the consequences in life such as the possibility of going to jail if the truth is revealed, and we then later on at the end of our human life we have to deal with the consequences from God for lying, and for those same reasons we avoid all the other sins as written in the bible to avoid having to deal with these consequences and that is all simply because we believe that bad things can happen to us.