[MD] The difference between a Monet and a finger painting

[John Carl]

Well Platt,

Ant's continuance of this thread  caused some further reflection on my part,
and I realized there is an ambiguity in the simple phrase:  "I can't tell
the difference." that reveals a lot about your ideas of "reason".

literally it means "I can't speak the difference" but we use it to imply
that "I can't discern the difference."

If you contrast Reason with intution, then I agree that reason is
incomplete.  But let's give a nod to Grandfather Kant, and put that
mentation in its own category - Pure Reason - and admit that as a practical
matter our reason is the interpretative capacity to weigh our emotional
reactions, our aesthetic sense, our educated knowledge and come up with a
conclusion and a way of communicating it to our listener (another
interpretation). And in this sense, we don't need anything but Reason, Sweet
Reason, to  do the whole job.

John, being reasonable