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A friend sent me this a few days ago and I have trouble understanding this sentence. What does the second "it" refer to in this sentence?

It's only once we have reduced reason to one input among many in our decision procedures that we can begin the process of eliminating it.

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    The first It's or the second it?
    – Werrf
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 16:01
  • the second "it".
    – S4JJ4D
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 16:11
  • Don't feel too bad about not being able to parse this sentence. It's poorly constructed :) I've tried to construct a better version for you, but it's unclear what the sentence is even trying to say.
    – cydonian
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 22:48

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The second it, then, refers to reason. It's a little tricky to parse since there's a lot of waffle in the latter part of the sentence, but we could shorten it thus:

It's only once we have reduced reason to one input [...] that we can [...] eliminate it.

The sentence is saying that you need to devalue the idea of reason, and turn it into just one thing to be considered among lots of others, before you can stop considering reason at all.

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I believe it refers to "reason" if your sentence is rewritten like this:

"Once we have reduced reason to one input among many (inputs) in our decision procedures, we can begin the process of eliminating it."

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