For those who've studied philosophy, esp. in university...?

[^ striim]

Were you more encouraged to be critical of Reason than to value it?

And if so, do you really think this is how Reason should be presented?

[sinistermoon]

Reason is the ability of the human mind to form and operate on concepts in abstraction! But what the hell does that mean?
It simply means that Reason is the ability to make a premise and then to create a arguement to define the premise. Even if it is something you already know about, when you try and figure something out in philosophical terms a logical flow of premises and conclusions are used in definition.

I value reason I cannot however say if I was encouraged to value it, in a sense I value the power i gain through reason, the power to solve things for myself and to make my own premise that fits my life in the best way. I am also critical of reason because it is so easy to be swept away from the topic at hand.

According to Kant pure reason only confuses a person, because it is drawn so far out of its sphere. There is also the arguement that if you use only reason to solve something you can only use current knowledge (knowledge you have available to you) so yes i would say to an extent i am critical of reason but in all honesty without it i would be helpless