[Dodeca]

Why do so many people disagree on what is and is not rational?

Is there a psychological/neurobiological basis for rationality?

What is the standard and who sets it?

[SirJamesIII]

I'm stumped on this one. I have always assumed that rationality is something that shouldn't be questioned. It is stagnant and it is something that i can't control. Rational choices, ideas etc. appeared logical to me because they "make the most sense" so to speak. So I have always thought that rationality isn't something you choose, it is something that is accepted. But now that I think about, I don't think that rigid form of thinking is the most logical. So to answer your question, I set my own standard for rationality. But I have blindly accepted it without questioning the fact whether my rational thoughts are in fact rational. My own personal bias has warped the perception of what is rational. I should be skeptical yet also open and understanding to different perceptions of what it rational.

[CycleBreaker]

There are many perspectives. What's rational or logical to one may not seem so to another unless the perspectives are integrated.

[Hydro]

It’s a psychological issue about how we sense the world around us. We all have our personal filters through which we see the world and only what’s going through those filters can be used by us to create the map of the world in which we have to navigate.

Now everything in such a map is absolutely rational for the maps owner/creator because that’s how they have experienced the world so far.
Think of somebody who’s looking through red glasses and then imagine what he might think when you start talking about green grass or even start to convince him that grass is green… impossible!

So if you want to convince somebody who seems to be irrational you have to try to figure out through what filters you and him/her are looking at a certain subject and then try to alter the filters.

[JeffersonFawkes]

	Originally Posted by Dodeca To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Why do so many people disagree on what is and is not rational? Is there a psychological/neurobiological basis for rationality? What is the standard and who sets it?

As a culture the modern world has made many of its political arguments and marketing techniques about propaganda, (the purposeful attempt to bypass the reasoning mind) The people who do this do so because it works on 70% of the population, this also teaches that same 70% that these ideas they buy into are reasonable.

In addition not everyone has the same value set and coming from a completely different value set can effect what is rational to you. E.g. you don't see a reason to cherish human life above any other life, so you decide that meat eaters are murderers. Its not an idea that I would consider rational or in the bounds of their authority but the holder of that value would see my argument against that as irrational and cruel.

[Tocsin]

This shouldn't be an issue, as long as you understand the meaning of words.

From Dictionary .com

Rational...

–adjective 1. agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible: a rational plan for economic development. 2. having or exercising reason, sound judgment, or good sense: a calm and rational negotiator. 3. being in or characterized by full possession of one's reason; sane; lucid: The patient appeared perfectly rational. 4. endowed with the faculty of reason: rational beings. 5. of, pertaining to, or constituting reasoning powers: the rational faculty. 7. proceeding or derived from reason or based on reasoning: a rational explanation.

So what is rational is essentially what is reasonable, that is to say, that which is based on reason.

So what is reason?

–noun 1. a basis or cause, as for some belief, action, fact, event, etc.: the reason for declaring war. 2. a statement presented in justification or explanation of a belief or action. 3. the mental powers concerned with forming conclusions, judgments, or inferences. 4. sound judgment; good sense. 5. normal or sound powers of mind; sanity. 6. Logic . a premise of an argument. 7. Philosophy . a. the faculty or power of acquiring intellectual knowledge, either by direct understanding of first principles or by argument. b. the power of intelligent and dispassionate thought, or of conduct influenced by such thought. c. Kantianism . the faculty by which the ideas of pure reason are created. –verb (used without object) 8. to think or argue in a logical manner. 9. to form conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises. 10. to urge reasons which should determine belief or action.

To put it together, reason, which is to say, being rational, means considering premises, arguments, and conclusions in a logical manner, dispassionately, which is to say, without emotion.

Reason/rationality has to do with the application of intelligent logical thought, to weigh the validity or arguments and their foundational premises, to determine whether or not an argument is sound or unsound, correct or incorrect.

Reason is not within the realm of the emotions, just as mathematics is not. Like mathematics, formal logic is dependant upon a system of rules. Like mathematics, its results are not influenced by feelings (when was the last time you heard someone say "I don't feel like 2+2=4 today.")

People may say they have "reasons" for how they feel. All emotions are based on reactions to some sort of event or stimulus, or upon a misinterpretation of such events, so in that sense, emotions have foundations, or premises, on which they are based, and the emotons are themselves the "conclusion" resulting from the interpretations of those foundations. But when emotions affect the actual process of forming arguments and positions, that is being unreasonable, or irrational.