Rather, we are practically rational agents primarily because we can assess the various impulses to act by appeal to a "certain general principle" or law – this law consisting, in Reid's view, in the rational principles of action.
The rational principles in our law can only be given effect by the federal judiciary by means of objective constitutional interpretation.
A related objection is that since both conscience and self-love are rational principles and in general cannot be in conflict, conscience just dictates whatever self-love dictates and vice-versa.
Or will we blunder on, trying to remodel the world on rational principles that in practice produce chaos?
When Reid talks about our capacity to be governed by law he has in mind our capacity to regulate our behavior by assessing it in terms of the two rational principles of action.
We are autonomous, rational agents, in Reid's estimation, in virtue of the fact that we can regulate or govern our behavior by stepping back from our various impulses, desires, instincts, and assess prospective actions in light of the two rational principles of action.
Rather than dismissing the everyday mind as the source of error, or advocating the realization of a mind that is "no-mind," Neo-Confucians sought to describe the mind as a real, substantial entity in which intelligible ethical and rational principles indwelled, enabling humanity to know both what is, and what is right.
By this means it would be possible to establish rational principles for education in materials science and engineering not only for specialists but also for designers and manufacturing engineers.
The fact that you needn't capitulate to your desire to stay in bed but can step back and critically assess it with reference to these two rational principles of action, in Reid's estimation, is what separates normal, mature human beings from the rest of the natural order.
It is unconstitutional, insofar as it sees judges abdicating their duty to exercise independent judgment and denying litigants due process of law (which entails, among other things, a decision-making process that is impartial, grounded in credible evidence, and governed by rational principles of law).
