The Rationality conundrum

[Jon]

Since we are riddled with cognitive biases, when we try to be rational, we are not necessarily being rational. So is it not rational to be aware that we are not rational? Or is that irrational?

 

[Miguelinileugim]

It is rational to try to be rational, it is rational to be aware of anything up to the fact that we are not always rational. Go back home Jon you're drunk.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

"I think, therefore I am" said nothing about "rational." Don't think it's a requirement.

 

[Jon]

it is rational to be aware of anything up to the fact that we are not always rational.

Then how do we know if we are being rational about trying to be rational? That is like this statement: This sentence is false.

Within your claim is a kind of loop. A bit like saying, it is red, up until the fact that it is not always red.

Perhaps it is better to say: It is irrational to claim to be rational when we know we have inbuilt propensity to irrationality!

Go back home Jon you're drunk.

Ad hominems don't cut it at The Mind Tavern.

Oh, and welcome to the forums. We need rational agents here.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

It is irrational to claim to be rational when we know we have inbuilt propensity to irrationality!

Ah, but this gives me the chance to pull out one of those infamous Star Trek quotes: From the TV episode, "A Taste of Armageddon" - Kirk addresses Anon 7 who has just called him a barbarian, to which Kirk READILY agrees. But he then says (paraphrasing) that one difference between "civilized" and "barbaric" is that the civilized man can say, "Today I will not kill." And mean it.

I claim sufficient control over my irrationality to say that sometimes I am consciously rational.

Then, of course, when I DO go off on a tangent, you can compare me to an irrational number because those go on forever...

 

[Jon]

Nice perspective Doc. As always, I am creating an argument out of nothing.