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What is the attraction of rationalism--the claim that you can know things that are true in all times and places simply by thinking carefully about them? It must be the God-like sense that your own mind is so wonderfully equipped.
I don't enjoy talking to people who are this certain of the product of their own thoughts. But the most unpleasant part is the accusation that if you don't yourself believe that your mind is capable of this kind of reason, then you must not believe in truth.
We empiricists do believe in truth. But it isn't the kind of truth that you can find by thinking hard about something. An empiricist's truth derives from experience, which means that more experience can change it. If we are open to experience, we learn throughout our lives.
So maybe that it part of the secret of the rationalist's hold over the minds of men and women: He promises them that they will know things--big things--once and for all, and that after that they will be free to stop learning.
It's also the key to understanding the rationalist's anger. He loves it when everyone agrees with him, because this proves to him that his reason is super-powerful, which is what he thought anyway. But when people start learning from experience, they don't agree with him anymore.
An empiricist is less likely to be angered by disagreement, for one simple reason: He thinks everyone's reason is weak, and so doesn't expect everyone to agree with him. I don't mean empiricists are saints. Just that they have lower expectations that people will all agree.
* Meant to say: "So maybe that's part of the secret of the rationalist's hold over the minds of men and women."
