Questions tagged [rationality]
Rationality is the use of reason to find the truth based on facts and to decide how to act to achieve desired goals. Also use this tag for questions regarding any view or intellectual movement which holds rationality in high regard and accepts it as the only legitimate way to get to the truth.
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How do ethicists tackle the question "Is it immoral to have sex in public places?" Is it possible to use rational and empirical ideas to answer?
Is it immoral to have sex in public places? If so, what are the rational and empirical reasons?
Most people believe it’s immoral to have sex in public places. Have ethicists come up with any good ...
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Does philosophy shed any light on how parties can fruitfully debate without an agreed source of truth?
A hallmark of recent political developments is extreme partisanship, where each side has near total distrust of the other. To exacerbate this situation there has been a breakdown in agreement over ...
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Can "why-is" close the "is-ought" gap? [closed]
[UPDATE: Clarified that choosing what-ought-to-be from what-can-be is based on our knowledge of ourselves, not on our knowledge of good and evil]
“I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of ...
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Philosophical framework for avoiding short-term strategies
In business and politics, often decision-makers make decisions that cause short-term gain, but long-term loss. So economically, this might be an unreasonable (lossy) and thus irrational process.
Is ...
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What arguments support the idea that rational thinking requires language use?
The idea that rationality has language as a necessary condition might be called, per Brandom, lingualism.
What are the most popular arguments for this position?
Why should we think that the way we ...
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Is it a fallacy to say that a sane person cannot apply rational thought to the motivations of the insane?
A common argument in today's news is that:
Someone commits a heinous crime by shooting a bunch of people.
Anyone who commits a heinous crime must be insane.
Sane people cannot apply rational thought ...
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When and why do we say that two things are the same?
In a preceeding question I have asked about the foundations of rational reasonning. It seems the concept of identity plays a key role. However "identity" is not observed in the real world: our mind ...
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Is atheism or agnosticism more rational?
While there is still widespread disagreement regarding the existing definition of atheism, it is normally considered as the "Rejection of belief in the existence of deities".
One accepted definition ...
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Can reason defend itself without resort to reason?
I recently read, "Reason can't defend itself without resort to reason." Is this universally true?
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Why should we treat others as *always* rational when they are not?
In Kantian system, murdering is nonrational because it cannot become a universal law. Yet Kant insists that it's immoral to lie to murderers. This is the same with saying they are rational being, ...
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Is immorality just irrationality?
If someone acts immorally - assuming some sort of free will - then they are doing so despite it being demonstrably wrong, i.e. it is a mistake as surely as 1+1=3 is a mistake. Doesn't this then give ...
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What arguments have there been on the relative merits of praxeology vs rationality?
Suppose you know what someone's goals are, and how much they value each of their goals. Then if you observe their behavior in a given situation, how can you understand why they acted the way they did?...
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What would Kant say about an irrational person?
I've been reading about Kant and everything I've read so far assumes that as we make ethical decisions we are dealing with a rational person. For example, Kant argued that rational beings can never be ...
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Are there philosophers who have considered free will for agents who are not considered rational?
The tag for "free-will" currently has the following with my emphasis in bold:
for questions concerning the freedom of choice of rational agents
Are there philosophers who have considered freedom ...
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Is induction as a means to reach a conclusion rational?
According to Humes's argument, induction by its nature assumes a uniformity that is not justified. This is a very deep and interesting observation, and a point often used by the religious to justify ...
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How can we decide which view to accept concerning our ultimate justification of our knowledge (Münchhausen trilemma)?
I recently came across the Münchhausen trilemma, which I think helps to explain my question. Basically, according to the trilemma, we have three options for explaining the ultimate justification of ...
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Are aesthetic judgments rational?
I was reading this article: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetic-judgment/#1.4
I was thinking that aesthetic judgments are responses that derive from our emotions. So they can be considered ...
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What rationalizations exist for motivation?
We're all just atoms interacting, there is no supernatural, free will is either invalid or an illusion, depending on how it's defined. There is no purpose to our lives, it really makes no difference ...
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Has anyone claimed that no decision is inherently better or more rational than any other decision?
The is-ought problem, for those who believe it is an actual problem, is the problem that you can not deduce an ought statement from any number of is statements.
It seems natural for this to lead to a ...
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Is it possible to prove the invalidity of logic without using logic?
Is it possible to validly invalidate logic without using logic?
Mere assertion gives rise to the question, "How do you know?".
At that point, you end up having to use logic to justify the thesis ...
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Are we that different from (irrational) animals? [closed]
Well, up to now I'm pretty sure I didn't find anyone who can ignore feelings. I do try my best since I do think that they are the irrational thing we have, but of course, I still have them. Fear, ...
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