I heard a pilot on the hotel shuttle use this common phrase the other day, and it flashed into my mind that this commonplace phrase actually points the way for us.
It communicates to the listener that a proposal offered must be within reason to be considered, accepted and acted upon. If a proposal is immoral, illegal, poorly conceived, outrageous, repugnant or patently over the top, or a disproportionate response to what the agent has encountered, then the proposal is unreasonable, without reasonableness, and must be discarded as a proposal for action.
For a proposal to be attractive and adopted by a reasonable agent of sound mind, good will and deep common sense, the proposal must stay within the bounds of reason, such that a calm, temperate, prudent person could act upon.
Embedded deep with custom, the English language and the human culture is the healthy, strong linkage established between the ethical standard of moderate choice and behavior and the premise that a valid proposal is with reason.
What is reasonable is proper, admirable, desirable behavior and the proposal that feeds that behavior thereby is to be adopted.
What is outlandish, violent, out of proportion and extreme is without reasonableness, and thereby is an illegitimate proposal not be be chosen.
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