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Why Is It So Hard to Be Rational?

By Joshua Rothman

I met the most rational person I know during my freshman year of college. Greg (not his real name) had a tech-support job in the same computer lab where I worked, and we became friends. I planned to be a creative-writing major; Greg told me that he was deciding between physics and economics. He’d choose physics if he was smart enough, and economics if he wasn’t—he thought he’d know within a few months, based on his grades. He chose economics.

We roomed together, and often had differences of opinion. For some reason, I took a class on health policy, and I was appalled by the idea that hospital administrators should take costs into account when providing care. (Shouldn’t doctors alone decide what’s best for their patients?) I got worked up, and developed many arguments to support my view; I felt that I was right both practically and morally. Greg shook his head. He pointed out that my dad was a doctor, and explained that I was engaging in “motivated reasoning.” My gut was telling me what to think, and my brain was figuring out how to think it. This felt like thinking, but wasn’t.

The next year, a bunch of us bought stereos. The choices were complicated: channels, tweeters, woofers, preamps. Greg performed a thorough analysis before assembling a capable stereo. I bought one that, in my opinion, looked cool and possessed some ineffable, tonal je ne sais quoi. Greg’s approach struck me as unimaginative, utilitarian. Later, when he upgraded to a new sound system, I bought his old equipment and found that it was much better than what I’d chosen.

In my senior year, I began considering graduate school. One of the grad students I knew warned me off—the job prospects for English professors were dismal. Still, I made the questionable decision to embark on a Ph.D. Greg went into finance. We stayed friends, often discussing the state of the world and the meta subject of how to best ascertain it. I felt overwhelmed by how much there was to know—there were too many magazines, too many books—and so, with Greg as my Virgil, I travelled deeper into the realm of rationality. There was, it turned out, a growing rationality movement, with its own ethos, thought style, and body of knowledge, drawn heavily from psychology and economics. Like Greg, I read a collection of rationality blogs—Marginal Revolution, Farnam Street, Interfluidity, Crooked Timber. I haunted the Web sites of the Social Science Research Network and the National Bureau of Economic Research, where I could encounter just-published findings; I internalized academic papers on the cognitive biases that slant our thinking, and learned a simple formula for estimating the “expected value” of my riskier decisions. When I was looking to buy a house, Greg walked me through the trade-offs of renting and owning (just rent); when I was contemplating switching careers, he stress-tested my scenarios (I switched). As an emotional and impulsive person by nature, I found myself working hard at rationality. Even Greg admitted that it was difficult work: he had to constantly inspect his thought processes for faults, like a science-fictional computer that had just become sentient.

Often, I asked myself, How would Greg think? I adopted his habit of tracking what I knew and how well I knew it, so that I could separate my well-founded opinions from my provisional views. Bad investors, Greg told me, often had flat, loosely drawn maps of their own knowledge, but good ones were careful cartographers, distinguishing between settled, surveyed, and unexplored territories. Through all this, our lives unfolded. Around the time I left my grad program to try out journalism, Greg swooned over his girlfriend’s rational mind, married her, and became a director at a hedge fund. His net worth is now several thousand times my own.

Meanwhile, half of Americans won’t get vaccinated; many believe in conspiracy theories or pseudoscience. It’s not that we don’t think—we are constantly reading, opining, debating—but that we seem to do it on the run, while squinting at trolls in our phones. This summer, on my phone, I read a blog post by the economist Arnold Kling, who noted that an unusually large number of books about rationality were being published this year, among them Steven Pinker’s “ Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters ” (Viking) and Julia Galef’s “ The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t ” (Portfolio). It makes sense, Kling suggested, for rationality to be having a breakout moment: “The barbarians sack the city, and the carriers of the dying culture repair to their basements to write.” In a polemical era, rationality can be a kind of opinion hygiene—a way of washing off misjudged views. In a fractious time, it promises to bring the court to order. When the world changes quickly, we need strategies for understanding it. We hope, reasonably, that rational people will be more careful, honest, truthful, fair-minded, curious, and right than irrational ones.

And yet rationality has sharp edges that make it hard to put at the center of one’s life. It’s possible to be so rational that you are cut off from warmer ways of being—like the student Bazarov, in Ivan Turgenev’s “ Fathers and Sons ,” who declares, “I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.” (Greg, too, sometimes worries that he is rational to excess—that he is becoming a heartless boss, a cold fish, a robot.) You might be well-intentioned, rational, and mistaken, simply because so much in our thinking can go wrong. (“ RATIONAL , adj.: Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection,” Ambrose Bierce wrote, in his “Devil’s Dictionary.”) You might be rational and self-deceptive, because telling yourself that you are rational can itself become a source of bias. It’s possible that you are trying to appear rational only because you want to impress people; or that you are more rational about some things (your job) than others (your kids); or that your rationality gives way to rancor as soon as your ideas are challenged. Perhaps you irrationally insist on answering difficult questions yourself when you’d be better off trusting the expert consensus. Possibly, like Mr. Spock, of “ Star Trek ,” your rational calculations fail to account for the irrationality of other people. (Surveying Spock’s predictions, Galef finds that the outcomes Spock has determined to be impossible actually happen about eighty per cent of the time, often because he assumes that other people will be as “logical” as he is.)

Not just individuals but societies can fall prey to false or compromised rationality. In a 2014 book, “ The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium ,” Martin Gurri, a C.I.A. analyst turned libertarian social thinker, argued that the unmasking of allegedly pseudo-rational institutions had become the central drama of our age: people around the world, having concluded that the bigwigs in our colleges, newsrooms, and legislatures were better at appearing rational than at being so, had embraced a nihilist populism that sees all forms of public rationality as suspect. COVID deniers and climate activists are different kinds of people, but they’re united in their frustration with the systems built by experts on our behalf—both groups picture élites shuffling PowerPoint decks in Davos while the world burns. From this perspective, the root cause of mass irrationality is the failure of rationalists. People would believe in the system if it actually made sense.

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And yet modern life would be impossible without those rational systems; we must improve them, not reject them. We have no choice but to wrestle with rationality—an ideal that, the sociologist Max Weber wrote, “contains within itself a world of contradictions.” We want to live in a more rational society, but not in a falsely rationalized one. We want to be more rational as individuals, but not to overdo it. We need to know when to think and when to stop thinking, when to doubt and when to trust. Rationality is one of humanity’s superpowers. How do we keep from misusing it?

Writing about rationality in the early twentieth century, Weber saw himself as coming to grips with a titanic force—an ascendant outlook that was rewriting our values. He talked about rationality in many different ways. We can practice the instrumental rationality of means and ends (how do I get what I want?) and the value rationality of purposes and goals (do I have good reasons for wanting what I want?). We can pursue the rationality of affect (am I cool, calm, and collected?) or develop the rationality of habit (do I live an ordered, or “rationalized,” life?). Rationality was obviously useful, but Weber worried that it was turning each individual into a “cog in the machine,” and life into an “iron cage.” Today, rationality and the words around it are still shadowed with Weberian pessimism and cursed with double meanings. You’re rationalizing the org chart: are you bringing order to chaos, or justifying the illogical?

The Weberian definitions of rationality are by no means canonical. In “ The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking ” (M.I.T.), from 2016, the psychologists Keith E. Stanovich, Richard F. West, and Maggie E. Toplak call rationality “a torturous and tortured term,” in part because philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and economists have all defined it differently. For Aristotle, rationality was what separated human beings from animals. For the authors of “The Rationality Quotient,” it’s a mental faculty, parallel to but distinct from intelligence, which involves a person’s ability to juggle many scenarios in her head at once, without letting any one monopolize her attention or bias her against the rest. It’s because some people are better jugglers than others that the world is full of “smart people doing dumb things”: college kids getting drunk the night before a big exam, or travellers booking flights with impossibly short layovers.

Galef, who hosts a podcast called “ Rationally Speaking ” and co-founded the nonprofit Center for Applied Rationality, in Berkeley, barely uses the word “rationality” in her book on the subject. Instead, she describes a “scout mindset,” which can help you “to recognize when you are wrong, to seek out your blind spots, to test your assumptions and change course.” (The “soldier mindset,” by contrast, encourages you to defend your positions at any cost.) Galef tends to see rationality as a method for acquiring more accurate views. Pinker, a cognitive and evolutionary psychologist, sees it instrumentally, as “the ability to use knowledge to attain goals.” By this definition, to be a rational person you have to know things, you have to want things, and you have to use what you know to get what you want. Intentions matter: a person isn’t rational, Pinker argues, if he solves a problem by stumbling on a strategy “that happens to work.”

Introspection is key to rationality. A rational person must practice what the neuroscientist Stephen Fleming, in “ Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness ” (Basic Books), calls “metacognition,” or “the ability to think about our own thinking”—“a fragile, beautiful, and frankly bizarre feature of the human mind.” Metacognition emerges early in life, when we are still struggling to make our movements match our plans. (“Why did I do that?” my toddler asked me recently, after accidentally knocking his cup off the breakfast table.) Later, it allows a golfer to notice small differences between her first swing and her second, and then to fine-tune her third. It can also help us track our mental actions. A successful student uses metacognition to know when he needs to study more and when he’s studied enough: essentially, parts of his brain are monitoring other parts.

In everyday life, the biggest obstacle to metacognition is what psychologists call the “illusion of fluency.” As we perform increasingly familiar tasks, we monitor our performance less rigorously; this happens when we drive, or fold laundry, and also when we think thoughts we’ve thought many times before. Studying for a test by reviewing your notes, Fleming writes, is a bad idea, because it’s the mental equivalent of driving a familiar route. “Experiments have repeatedly shown that testing ourselves—forcing ourselves to practice exam questions, or writing out what we know—is more effective,” he writes. The trick is to break the illusion of fluency, and to encourage an “awareness of ignorance.”

Fleming notes that metacognition is a skill. Some people are better at it than others. Galef believes that, by “calibrating” our metacognitive minds, we can improve our performance and so become more rational. In a section of her book called “Calibration Practice,” she offers readers a collection of true-or-false statements (“Mammals and dinosaurs coexisted”; “Scurvy is caused by a deficit of Vitamin C”); your job is to weigh in on the veracity of each statement while also indicating whether you are fifty-five, sixty-five, seventy-five, eighty-five, or ninety-five per cent confident in your determination. A perfectly calibrated individual, Galef suggests, will be right seventy-five per cent of the time about the answers in which she is seventy-five per cent confident. With practice, I got fairly close to “perfect calibration”: I still answered some questions wrong, but I was right about how wrong I would be.

There are many calibration methods. In the “equivalent bet” technique, which Galef attributes to the decision-making expert Douglas Hubbard, you imagine that you’ve been offered two ways of winning ten thousand dollars: you can either bet on the truth of some statement (for instance, that self-driving cars will be on the road within a year) or reach blindly into a box full of balls in the hope of retrieving a marked ball. Suppose the box contains four balls. Would you prefer to answer the question, or reach into the box? (I’d prefer the odds of the box.) Now suppose the box contains twenty-four balls—would your preference change? By imagining boxes with different numbers of balls, you can get a sense of how much you really believe in your assertions. For Galef, the box that’s “equivalent” to her belief in the imminence of self-driving cars contains nine balls, suggesting that she has eleven-per-cent confidence in that prediction. Such techniques may reveal that our knowledge is more fine-grained than we realize; we just need to look at it more closely. Of course, we could be making out detail that isn’t there.

Knowing about what you know is Rationality 101. The advanced coursework has to do with changes in your knowledge. Most of us stay informed straightforwardly—by taking in new information. Rationalists do the same, but self-consciously, with an eye to deliberately redrawing their mental maps. The challenge is that news about distant territories drifts in from many sources; fresh facts and opinions aren’t uniformly significant. In recent decades, rationalists confronting this problem have rallied behind the work of Thomas Bayes, an eighteenth-century mathematician and minister. So-called Bayesian reasoning—a particular thinking technique, with its own distinctive jargon—has become de rigueur.

There are many ways to explain Bayesian reasoning—doctors learn it one way and statisticians another—but the basic idea is simple. When new information comes in, you don’t want it to replace old information wholesale. Instead, you want it to modify what you already know to an appropriate degree. The degree of modification depends both on your confidence in your preëxisting knowledge and on the value of the new data. Bayesian reasoners begin with what they call the “prior” probability of something being true, and then find out if they need to adjust it.

Consider the example of a patient who has tested positive for breast cancer—a textbook case used by Pinker and many other rationalists. The stipulated facts are simple. The prevalence of breast cancer in the population of women—the “base rate”—is one per cent. When breast cancer is present, the test detects it ninety per cent of the time. The test also has a false-positive rate of nine per cent: that is, nine per cent of the time it delivers a positive result when it shouldn’t. Now, suppose that a woman tests positive. What are the chances that she has cancer?

When actual doctors answer this question, Pinker reports, many say that the woman has a ninety-per-cent chance of having it. In fact, she has about a nine-per-cent chance. The doctors have the answer wrong because they are putting too much weight on the new information (the test results) and not enough on what they knew before the results came in—the fact that breast cancer is a fairly infrequent occurrence. To see this intuitively, it helps to shuffle the order of your facts, so that the new information doesn’t have pride of place. Start by imagining that we’ve tested a group of a thousand women: ten will have breast cancer, and nine will receive positive test results. Of the nine hundred and ninety women who are cancer-free, eighty-nine will receive false positives. Now you can allow yourself to focus on the one woman who has tested positive. To calculate her chances of getting a true positive, we divide the number of positive tests that actually indicate cancer (nine) by the total number of positive tests (ninety-eight). That gives us about nine per cent.

Bayesian reasoning is an approach to statistics, but you can use it to interpret all sorts of new information. In the early hours of September 26, 1983, the Soviet Union’s early-warning system detected the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles from the United States. Stanislav Petrov, a forty-four-year-old duty officer, saw the warning. He was charged with reporting it to his superiors, who probably would have launched a nuclear counterattack. But Petrov, who in all likelihood had never heard of Bayes, nevertheless employed Bayesian reasoning. He didn’t let the new information determine his reaction all on its own. He reasoned that the probability of an attack on any given night was low—comparable, perhaps, to the probability of an equipment malfunction. Simultaneously, in judging the quality of the alert, he noticed that it was in some ways unconvincing. (Only five missiles had been detected—surely a first strike would be all-out?) He decided not to report the alert, and saved the world.

Bayesian reasoning implies a few “best practices.” Start with the big picture, fixing it firmly in your mind. Be cautious as you integrate new information, and don’t jump to conclusions. Notice when new data points do and do not alter your baseline assumptions (most of the time, they won’t alter them), but keep track of how often those assumptions seem contradicted by what’s new. Beware the power of alarming news, and proceed by putting it in a broader, real-world context.

In a sense, the core principle is mise en place. Keep the cooked information over here and the raw information over there; remember that raw ingredients often reduce over heat. But the real power of the Bayesian approach isn’t procedural; it’s that it replaces the facts in our minds with probabilities. Where others might be completely convinced that G.M.O.s are bad, or that Jack is trustworthy, or that the enemy is Eurasia, a Bayesian assigns probabilities to these propositions. She doesn’t build an immovable world view; instead, by continually updating her probabilities, she inches closer to a more useful account of reality. The cooking is never done.

Applied to specific problems—Should you invest in Tesla? How bad is the Delta variant?—the techniques promoted by rationality writers are clarifying and powerful. But the rationality movement is also a social movement; rationalists today form what is sometimes called the “rationality community,” and, as evangelists, they hope to increase its size. The rationality community has its own lingua franca. If a rationalist wants to pay you a big compliment, she might tell you that you have caused her to “revise her priors”—that is, to alter some of her well-justified prior assumptions. (On her mental map, a mountain range of possibilities has gained or lost probabilistic altitude.) That same rationalist might talk about holding a view “on the margin”—a way of saying that an idea or fact will be taken into account, as a kind of tweak on a prior, the next time new information comes in. (Economists use the concept of “marginal utility” to describe how we value things in series: the first nacho is delightful, but the marginal utility of each additional nacho decreases relative to that of a buffalo wing.) She might speak about “updating” her opinions—a cheerful and forward-looking locution, borrowed from the statistical practice of “Bayesian updating,” which rationalists use to destigmatize the act of admitting a mistake. In use, this language can have a pleasingly deliberate vibe, evoking the feeling of an edifice being built. “Every so often a story comes along that causes me to update my priors,” the economist Tyler Cowen wrote, in 2019, in response to the Jeffrey Epstein case. “I am now, at the margin, more inclined to the view that what keeps many people on good behavior is simply inertia.”

In Silicon Valley, people wear T-shirts that say “Update Your Priors,” but talking like a rationalist doesn’t make you one. A person can drone on about base rates with which he’s only loosely familiar, or say that he’s revising his priors when, in fact, he has only ordinary, settled opinions. Google makes it easy to project faux omniscience. A rationalist can give others and himself the impression of having read and digested a whole academic subspecialty, as though he’d earned a Ph.D. in a week; still, he won’t know which researchers are trusted by their colleagues and which are ignored, or what was said after hours at last year’s conference. There’s a difference between reading about surgery and actually being a surgeon, and the surgeon’s priors are what we really care about. In a recent interview, Cowen—a superhuman reader whose blog, Marginal Revolution, is a daily destination for info-hungry rationalists—told Ezra Klein that the rationality movement has adopted an “extremely culturally specific way of viewing the world.” It’s the culture, more or less, of winning arguments in Web forums. Cowen suggested that to understand reality you must not just read about it but see it firsthand; he has grounded his priors in visits to about a hundred countries, once getting caught in a shoot-out between a Brazilian drug gang and the police.

Clearly, we want people in power to be rational. And yet the sense that rationalists are somehow unmoored from direct experience can make the idea of a rationalist with power unsettling. Would such a leader be adrift in a matrix of data, more concerned with tending his map of reality than with the people contained in that reality? In a sketch by the British comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, a government minister charged with ending a recession asks his analysts if they’ve considered “killing all the poor.” “I’m not saying do it—I’m just saying run it through the computer and see if it would work,” he tells them. (After they say it won’t, he proposes “blue-skying” an even more senseless alternative: “Raise V.A.T. and kill all the poor.”) This caricature echoes a widespread skepticism of rationality as a value system. When the Affordable Care Act was wending its way through Congress, conservatives worried that similar proposals would pop up on “death panels,” where committees of rational experts would suggest lowering health-care costs by killing the aged. This fear, of course, was sharpened by the fact that we really do spend too much money on health care in the last few years of life. It’s up to rationalists to do the uncomfortable work of pointing out uncomfortable truths; sometimes in doing this they seem a little too comfortable.

In our personal lives, the dynamics are different. Our friends don’t have power over us; the best they can do is nudge us in better directions. Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of “ Pride and Prejudice ,” is intelligent, imaginative, and thoughtful, but it’s Charlotte Lucas, her best friend, who is rational. Charlotte uses Bayesian reasoning. When their new acquaintance, Mr. Darcy, is haughty and dismissive at a party, she gently urges Lizzy to remember the big picture: Darcy is “so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour”; in meeting him, therefore, one’s prior should be that rich, good-looking people often preen at parties; such behavior is not, in itself, revelatory. When Charlotte marries Mr. Collins, an irritating clergyman with a secure income, Lizzy is appalled at the match—but Charlotte points out that the success of a marriage depends on many factors, including financial ones, and suggests that her own chances of happiness are “as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.” (In modern times, the base rates would back her up: although almost fifty per cent of marriages end in divorce, the proportion is lower among higher-income people.) It’s partly because of Charlotte’s example that Lizzy looks more closely at Mr. Darcy, and discovers that he is flawed in predictable ways but good in unusual ones. Rom-com characters often have passionate friends who tell them to follow their hearts, but Jane Austen knew that really it’s rational friends we need.

In fact, as Charlotte shows, the manner of a kind rationalist can verge on courtliness, which hints at deeper qualities. Galef describes a typically well-mannered exchange on the now defunct Web site ChangeAView. A male blogger, having been told that one of his posts was sexist, strenuously defended himself at first. Then, in a follow-up post titled “Why It’s Plausible I’m Wrong,” he carefully summarized the best arguments made against him; eventually, he announced that he’d been convinced of the error of his ways, apologizing not just to those he’d offended but to those who had sided with him for reasons that he now believed to be mistaken. Impressed by his sincere and open-minded approach, Galef writes, she sent the blogger a private message. Reader, they got engaged.

The rationality community could make a fine setting for an Austen novel written in 2021. Still, we might ask, How much credit should rationality get for drawing Galef and her husband together? It played a role, but rationality isn’t the only way to understand the traits she perceived. I’ve long admired my friend Greg for his rationality, but I’ve since updated my views. I think it’s not rationality, as such, that makes him curious, truthful, honest, careful, perceptive, and fair, but the reverse.

In “Rationality,” “The Scout Mindset,” and other similar books, irrationality is often presented as a form of misbehavior, which might be rectified through education or socialization. This is surely right in some cases, but not in all. One spring, when I was in high school, a cardinal took to flying at our living-room window, and my mother—who was perceptive, funny, and intelligent, but not particularly rational—became convinced that it was a portent. She’d sometimes sit in an armchair, waiting for it, watchful and unnerved. Similar events—a torn dollar bill found on the ground, a flat tire on the left side of the car rather than the right—could cast shadows over her mood for days, sometimes weeks. As a voter, a parent, a worker, and a friend, she was driven by emotion. She had a stormy, poetic, and troubled personality. I don’t think she would have been helped much by a book about rationality. In a sense, such books are written for the already rational.

My father, by contrast, is a doctor and a scientist by profession and disposition. When I was a kid, he told me that Santa Claus wasn’t real long before I figured it out; we talked about physics, computers, biology, and “Star Trek,” agreeing that we were Spocks, not Kirks. My parents divorced decades ago. But recently, when my mother had to be discharged from a hospital into a rehab center, and I was nearly paralyzed with confusion about what I could or should do to shape where she’d end up, he patiently, methodically, and judiciously walked me through the scenarios on the phone, exploring each forking path, sorting the inevitabilities from the possibilities, holding it all in his head and communicating it dispassionately. All this was in keeping with his character.

I’ve spent decades trying to be rational. So why did I feel paralyzed while trying to direct my mother’s care? Greg tells me that, in his business, it’s not enough to have rational thoughts. Someone who’s used to pondering questions at leisure might struggle to learn and reason when the clock is ticking; someone who is good at reaching rational conclusions might not be willing to sign on the dotted line when the time comes. Greg’s hedge-fund colleagues describe as “commercial”—a compliment—someone who is not only rational but timely and decisive. An effective rationalist must be able to short the mortgage market today, or commit to a particular rehab center now, even though we live in a world of Bayesian probabilities. I know, rationally, that the coronavirus poses no significant risk to my small son, and yet I still hesitated before enrolling him in daycare for this fall, where he could make friends. You can know what’s right but still struggle to do it.

Following through on your own conclusions is one challenge. But a rationalist must also be “metarational,” willing to hand over the thinking keys when someone else is better informed or better trained. This, too, is harder than it sounds. Intellectually, we understand that our complex society requires the division of both practical and cognitive labor. We accept that our knowledge maps are limited not just by our smarts but by our time and interests. Still, like Gurri’s populists, rationalists may stage their own contrarian revolts, repeatedly finding that no one’s opinions but their own are defensible. In letting go, as in following through, one’s whole personality gets involved. I found it possible to be metarational with my dad not just because I respected his mind but because I knew that he was a good and cautious person who had my and my mother’s best interests at heart. I trusted that, unlike the minister in the Mitchell and Webb sketch, he would care enough to think deeply about my problem. Caring is not enough, of course. But, between the two of us, we had the right ingredients—mutual trust, mutual concern, and a shared commitment to reason and to act.

The realities of rationality are humbling. Know things; want things; use what you know to get what you want. It sounds like a simple formula. But, in truth, it maps out a series of escalating challenges. In search of facts, we must make do with probabilities. Unable to know it all for ourselves, we must rely on others who care enough to know. We must act while we are still uncertain, and we must act in time—sometimes individually, but often together. For all this to happen, rationality is necessary, but not sufficient. Thinking straight is just part of the work. ♦

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By Casey Cep

By Manvir Singh

• Clearer Thinking Team
• 21 min read

What is Rationality? How (and why) you should strive to be more Rational

Updated: Mar 7

An important part of clearer thinking is rationality. But what is rationality, exactly? While you’ve probably heard this term, its precise meaning is often vague.

In this comprehensive guide about rationality, we answer many common questions, such as:

    What is rationality?

    Why is rationality important?

    Where does rationality come from (and how can you become more rational)?

    Does rationality really exist?

    What is bounded rationality?

    What is the difference between rationality, reason and intelligence?

In this first part of the guide, we’ll tackle the first question: What is rationality?  To find out when we launch the second part, subscribe to our newsletter . 

What is rationality?

Rationality can be divided into two aspects: epistemic rationality  and instrumental rationality . 

Epistemic rationality is the capacity and propensity to form accurate beliefs that map onto reality. People with greater epistemic rationality tend to form more accurate conclusions based on the information and evidence they encounter, and seek out evidence in such a way as to accurately arrive at the truth on topics that are important to them.

Instrumental rationality, on the other hand, is the capacity and propensity to choose our actions so as to effectively pursue our goals and values. People with greater instrumental rationality tend to make decisions in such a way that they achieve what they are aiming to achieve.

Epistemic rationality and instrumental rationality are related. It’s hard to pursue your goals if you’re mistaken about reality, and misconceptions about reality on important topics will often cause people to take unhelpful actions that move them away from (rather than toward) their goals. 

Understanding and using epistemic rationality

Epistemic rationality helps you know what’s true about the world — even when the truth is painful or confusing. An epistemically rational person is good at assessing evidence, responding to new information, and proactively seeking out the truth.

What does this mean exactly? Let’s consider an example: in July 2023, David Grusch, a former US intelligence officer, made the surprising claim that the federal government was hiding evidence that aliens had visited earth . A person who prizes (epistemic) rationality will respond to new information like this in certain ways. They might ask themself questions like the following: 

How should I respond to new information?

Let’s say that before hearing this report, you didn’t believe that aliens had visited earth. Is this evidence strong enough to change your mind? Or, if you were inclined to believe that aliens have  visited earth, but you were unsure, does this evidence make you more certain?

Many people find it useful to think about beliefs on important and complex topics using probabilities . Rather than saying either ‘I think aliens have visited earth’ or ‘I think aliens haven’t visited earth’, they assign a probability (a credence) to the claim: for example, ‘I think there’s a 5% probability that aliens have visited the earth’.

If you assign probabilities to your beliefs, when you hear new evidence — for example, that a government official claims to know about a secret program to reverse-engineer UFOs — you can use this evidence to update your credence in the claim – for example, from 5% to 10%. In that case, you’d still believe, on balance, that no extraterrestrials have visited earth – but you’d now think that alien visits are slightly less  unlikely than you did before.For more on updating your beliefs in response to new evidence, check out our free interactive tool on The Question of Evidence .

How can I keep an open mind (but without being gullible)?

We tend to have a bias towards interpreting information in a way that conforms to what we already believe; this is known as confirmation bias . A person who already suspects that aliens have visited earth is primed to believe Grusch’s allegations, whereas someone who is extremely skeptical about aliens is likely to assume he’s lying or confused. It’s ok to have strong opinions, particularly if you’ve thought about a topic a lot, but the heart of epistemic rationality is being open to the possibility that you’re wrong and adjusting your beliefs as you encounter new evidence. 

Where can I find reliable information?

Not all sources of information are equally useful. If you’re trying to understand the world, which should you pay more attention to: academic research? The news? Self-proclaimed experts on TV? Friends? Personal blogs? Advertisements? Your opinionated uncle? 

People who are more epistemically rational think hard about where their information comes from, and put more weight on information from more reliable sources. In this case, they might primarily be concerned with whether Grusch and his sources are reliable authorities. 

Epistemic rationality isn’t the same as a good education. Someone who goes to a good school and college may well end up with lots of correct beliefs about their topic area of study, even if they just believe everything they are taught. However, sometimes teachers may present false information, or students may struggle to autonomously incorporate new evidence and prevent self-deception and bias outside the classroom, unless they also cultivate epistemic rationality.

Understanding and using instrumental rationality

Epistemic rationality helps you create a better map of the world; instrumental rationality, on the other hand, helps you use that map to get where you want to go. Instrumental rationality is about strategically pursuing what you deeply value . How can you choose actions that will help you achieve your goals? And more broadly, how do you select goals that genuinely reflect your values?

Let’s imagine a young person who is trying to decide what to do after high school. Should they go to college — and if so, where? Should they get a job —and if so, what? Or should they take some time off — and if so, what should they do?

If they wanted to approach this in an instrumentally rational way, they might ask themselves questions like:

How will the choices available to me impact whether I achieve my goals?

If this young person wants to become a doctor, it probably makes sense for them to go to college, or to take time off to volunteer doing something related to medicine. If their goal is to become an entrepreneur or business owner, college might still be a good option, but they might instead seek work in a field they’re interested in. If they want to become an artist, they might want to go to art school, or just work at their own art for a while. On the other hand, if they’re very tired after high school exams, a little time off might help them regain their energy, which will help them achieve other goals down the line.

How can I get the things I value?

On a larger scale, they will want to think about what their goals should  even be, based on what they care about. If one of their intrinsic values is freedom, and a certain amount of money is needed to achieve that freedom, they may want to pursue a job or degree program that will eventually enable them to earn enough. If they deeply value tranquility, they might choose a less demanding school or a job that lets them spend a lot of time in nature. 

Sometimes people confuse the idea of being instrumentally rational with being self-interested. Economics researchers develop models based on hypothetical agents who are both  rational and  self-interested, causing these two ideas to be conflated. But, in fact, you can be rational and highly altruistic . In that case, you’ll use your instrumental rationality to help you achieve your altruistic goals, as well as your selfish ones. For example, rationality can help an animal rights advocate to evaluate which strategies help animals the most; or a parent who wants to help their severely sick child can use rationality to decide what to do when doctors give conflicting advice.

Cognitive biases and rationality

An important aspect of rationality is the avoidance (or reduction) of cognitive biases . A cognitive bias is an irrational pattern in human judgment, thinking, decision-making or behavior.  

Experimental psychology has discovered various ways in which our thinking is systematically skewed and distorted. These cognitive biases are very common in human behavior. You can probably observe many of them in your own life. Biases can interfere with both epistemic rationality (preventing you from believing what's true) and instrumental rationality (causing your decisions to be less effective at getting you what you value). While it is impossible to fully eliminate cognitive biases, we can reduce them to increase our rationality. 

Social science has undergone a "replication crisis", and there are some cognitive biases that have had replication challenges. There are also substantial debates around how to interpret some experimental findings on cognitive bias, and how irrational or rational human behavior really is. However, the cognitive bias literature has mostly stood the test of time. 

Some examples of cognitive biases are:

Confirmation bias : we’re more willing to take on board information that confirms what we already believe, while ignoring or dismissing contradictory evidence. We tend to interpret evidence in such a way that it seems to support our pre-existing beliefs

Availability bias : we tend to believe things happen more often when we can more easily think of examples of them happening, even though our ability to recall examples doesn't necessarily reflect the true frequency of events

Planning fallacy : we tend to underestimate how long large projects will take to finish and how much they will cost

Anchoring bias : we are sometimes influenced by irrelevant numbers; for instance, when we negotiate prices, the price we accept may be influenced by an initial figure made up by the person we’re negotiating, even though that number may have come from thin air

The fundamental attribution error : we tend to attribute our successes to our traits and character, but our failures to external factors (such as other people's behavior, or bad luck); but when assessing others, we are more likely to do the opposite. (However, some psychologists have found it a challenge to replicate the fundamental attribution error in experiments).

The endowment effect : we tend to overvalue things we own (relative to equivalent items that we don't own).

Typical minding : we tend to assume that others are like us and share our opinions, psychology, and behaviors when in reality, people vary widely

IKEA effect : we overvalue things we have made ourselves (for example, we may be especially attached to IKEA furniture that we assembled ourselves!)

For more, see our List of common cognitive biases .

Because these cognitive biases are ubiquitous, rationality is sometimes defined in terms of avoiding these biases, and many rationality techniques aim to combat these common human tendencies.

Why does rationality matter?

Epistemic rationality is about systematically improving our ability to form accurate beliefs, while instrumental rationality is about strategically achieving goals. If you aspire to have a tangible effect on the world — whether for your own benefit, or that of your loved ones, community, or society at large — you’ll need effective strategies. Without a sufficient degree of epistemic rationality, your actions may not respond to the world as it actually is; without enough instrumental rationality, your actions might not actually help you achieve what you want.

Rationality alone won’t make you successful — if your goals are hard to achieve, things like determination, grit, intelligence, skill, wealth, social skills, social networks, and creativity might also be important. However, rationality can help you make the best of these resources, and too little of it may be an impediment. 

On the individual level, rationality can help you have the life you want. Let’s imagine someone who is trying to decide whether to move to a new city to take a new job, or stay where they are and keep their current job. How can they make a good decision? Well, they need to be able to form accurate beliefs about the world. They also need to avoid status quo bias – the tendency to stick to the default option. This might involve asking complex questions such as: what can they expect in their current job? What will their new job be like? What will it be like in the new city? They may want to reflect about how the change would fit into their life: would it help them better achieve their own values, whether that’s a more engaging work life, money, social impact, or a combination? Rationality is a set of skills that can help you navigate thorny questions like these.

In our daily lives, rationality can help us make better decisions. Consider a situation where you are seriously ill with a condition for which no standard medications exist, such as "chronic fatigue syndrome". Should you turn to alternative treatments like crystal healing, explore off-label experimental drugs, or try an intense exercise regimen? Many patients need to draw on their own rationality skills when, for example, different doctors offer them conflicting opinions, or when they encounter alternative sources of medical information, and they have to navigate a complex landscape of contradictory information and evidence.

On a broader, societal scale, rationality is perhaps even more important. You only have to read the news to know that our world is beset with incredibly serious and complex problems. Millions live in poverty, or suffer abuse and exploitation. Many die of preventable diseases, and other diseases don’t have a cure. Wars and violence are widespread. We only stand a chance of addressing these problems if we can think clearly about their causes and solutions.

This is particularly clear when problems come from a lack of knowledge. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic first arose, there was no standard precedent we could follow about how to act, and there were many uncertainties about the disease. Many people felt they had no choice but to reason for themselves about what actions made the most sense. Scientists had to work out how to develop an effective vaccine. Politicians had to decide which social policies to implement: for example, how to balance the possible health benefits of stay-at-home mandates against damage to the economy and disruption to people’s lives. And individuals had to decide whether and when they should isolate, wear masks, and get vaccinated. In situations such as this, an ability to approach problems rationally is a great advantage.

You might think that our biggest societal problems spring not from a lack of knowledge, but from people acting in selfish or destructive ways without concern for others, particularly powerful people such as politicians or the wealthy. However, even from this perspective, rationality can help us devise effective strategies to oppose these bad actors. For example, if you are worried that a certain ideology is causing harm, rationality can help you think through the complexities of  how best to oppose it — for example, should you lobby politicians, lead a protest, engage in civil disobedience, or write articles denouncing the group?

Rationality is also very important in the realm of research: both scientific and journalistic. Scientists try to answer complex and highly ambiguous questions. To do this, they need to assess evidence, formulate hypotheses, design experiments to test those hypotheses, and interpret the results without bias — even if those results disprove their favorite hypotheses that they have spent years developing. To do this well requires working to avoid cognitive bias and to think rigorously. As famed physicist Richard Feynman once put it:

“Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

Rationality is also important in journalism. Journalists often address questions that are fuzzy and subjective yet vitally important, such as “is nuclear power beneficial for society?”, or questions that are harder to test, such as “did such-and-such really commit the crime they’ve been accused of?” Rational thinking can help journalists present a balanced perspective: this might involve evaluating how reliable their sources are, recognising contradictions, and synthesizing evidence from various perspectives.

What makes people rational?

Where does rationality come from? Is it innate or learnt?

It’s a bit of both. Some personality and psychological traits probably help people be more rational, and most psychological traits come about through a mix of nature and nurture. For example, some people may be born with greater aptitude at logical reasoning, but we can also improve our logical reasoning through learning and practice. Though logical reasoning is far from the whole of rationality, it’s one element of it.

Another important part of rationality is b eing in touch with your emotions and intuitions , since our emotions and intuitions often contain useful information. If you can sense and name your own feelings, you can have a clearer sense of what you actually want and where your uncertainties lie. Additionally, when we have consistent feedback, our intuitions develop over time : for example, a chess player will hone their intuitions about good gameplay by playing many games. Being able to tap into those useful intuitions can improve our decision-making.

People also vary in terms of how much their emotions align with reality. Our emotions can tell us things about the world and motivate us to take useful actions: for example, sadness can tell us that we’ve lost something valuable, or fear can warn us that a situation is dangerous. It’s a common misconception that rational people are not emotional: if you’re really in a dangerous situation, it’s rational and useful to be very afraid! But in practice, sometimes our emotions can bias us, and get in the way of assessing situations objectively. Proportionate anger can be a helpful sign that our boundaries have been crossed; but you probably know someone who gets angry at the slightest provocation, and someone else who never  gets angry, even when they’re treated appallingly. Strong emotional tendencies like this can pull against rationality. 

Media representations of emotionless, flat, "rational" characters like Spock from Star Trek can make emotionlessness seem rational, whereas actual rationality involves using your emotions as useful sources of information without letting them take control in situations where they aren't useful or are counterproductive. 

Whatever your personality, the good news is you can train yourself to be more rational. 

For example:

You can improve your ability to update your beliefs in response to new information .

You can learn how to make better plans  by more reliably estimating how long things will take. 

You can learn to become more in touch with your emotions (e.g., some people find techniques like Focusing  helpful for this)

You can learn about cognitive biases , and practice identifying and avoiding them

You can practice calibrating your judgment  and perceiving how sure you are about something, so you make fewer mistakes through over- or underconfidence.

You can learn common rhetorical fallacies , so you are less likely to be swayed by bad but persuasive arguments.

You can achieve your goals better by challenging self-limiting beliefs  and learning healthier coping strategies . 

See the section ‘Bounded rationality’ for more ways you can incorporate rationality into your life, and our website for more learning tools .

Does rationality really exist?

Rationality may sound like a rather vague idea. As certain online comment sections will show you, people often strongly disagree about what’s rational and what’s completely irrational! Most people think they are the rational ones, and those who say things they strongly disagree with are being irrational. And of course, definitions of abstract concepts such as rationality are often tricky to get right. We perhaps shouldn’t expect that rationality as a concept will be perfectly well-defined.

Nonetheless, it does make sense to think about being more rational , learning rationality techniques , and avoiding irrationality . Let’s consider how we defined rationality earlier: epistemic rationality is about improving our capacity to form accurate beliefs that map onto reality, and instrumental rationality helps us to strategically and effectively pursue our goals and values. Are some people better or worse at these things? Is it possible to be more or less in touch with reality, or more or less effective at achieving your goals? It seems clear that this is possible.

Consider two entrepreneurs who both have the goal of running a successful, profitable business,  but who are working in a field they know little about. The first one gathers evidence about what customers want, then carefully thinks through that evidence, letting it inform their decisions. The second entrepreneur just makes their best guess about what customers will want, despite having no knowledge of the industry, and doesn't seek out evidence from the customers themselves. The first entrepreneur is applying some of the fundamental skills of rationality: seeking out evidence and carefully interpreting that evidence. The second entrepreneur is not. Which would you think is more likely to succeed, all else equal?    

Bounded rationality: rationality within limits

There is one sense in which rationality doesn’t ‘really’ exist: it’s impossible for any human to be perfectly rational. Most (perhaps all!) of our actions are irrational to some extent, in the sense that they are not what we would do if we were perfectly  rational; the aim of learning rationality techniques should be to reduce  irrationality, not eliminate it.

Why isn’t anyone perfectly rational? Well, to start with, studies and everyday experience show that people often behave highly irrationally. But even beyond that, to be perfectly  rational, a person would need to be a perfect thinker, and have unlimited time for thinking. Instrumental rationality is about choosing actions that are likely to help you achieve your goals. But the possible actions you could take at any given time are vast, and the possible ramifications of each action are broad and complex. The perfectly rational being would need to have unlimited thinking capacity: they’d need to be able to think as much they wanted instantly, and never make mistakes. They would then, when making a decision, consider  all  possible actions and all the possible ramifications of every action, and assess how probable each outcome was, and decide how each of those outcomes would advance their values if they happened; then, they’d choose the single action that was most likely to produce the most value (on average).

This is clearly beyond the capacity of even the smartest human. Let’s imagine you’re in a store, contemplating whether to buy a can of beans. If you were perfectly rational, and had unlimited thinking capacity, you would consider all the possible consequences of buying the beans and not buying them, and how likely and beneficial each was. You’d exhaustively survey all other possible things that you could buy instead and whether they would generate more value for you than the beans, and all the other ways you could spend your time if you walked out of the store and abandoned the beans. To be perfectly thorough, you may need to consider outlandish possibilities too, like ‘strip naked, throw the beans at the cashier, and run screaming from the store' — even though that’s very unlikely to be the best action, it has a tiny  chance of being best. 

Of course, with our limited thinking capacity, it makes sense not to worry about options like that, but with unlimited thinking capacity there would be no cost to considering even outlandish possibilities, just in case they turned out to be a good idea.   

But for limited, real humans, instead of considering every possibility, it might be more rational to ask themself just one question depending on their goals. For example, if their goal is to eat healthily, they might ask ‘are beans healthy?’ If their goal is pleasure, they might ask ‘are beans tasty?’ Or if their goal is to save money, they might ask ‘does this can of beans fit within my budget?’

However, since we’re so limited, it might actually be irrational for a person to spend much time thinking about the beans at all; maybe they should just buy them if it feels right, and spend their brain cells considering more important questions. 

‘Bounded rationality’ refers to the practice of trying to be as rational as possible  given our constraints in time and brain power. Chidi from the sitcom The Good Place  is a good example of a character who neglects bounded rationality: though he tries to make rational, ethical decisions, he spends too much time worrying about trivial things like whether he should use almond milk in his coffee, and ends up in a constant agony of indecision.

In the case of computers (real computers, not unboundedly powerful ones), we often use algorithms that apply heuristics. These involve considering only the most promising options, and ruling out others. A chess computer, for example, isn’t powerful enough to simulate every possible game continuation. But they can simulate a few steps ahead and choose the move that’s most promising based on patterns. This makes chess computers powerful enough to beat the top human chess players.

But what about humans? How can you practice good bounded rationality? Since we have severe limits to our time, and are far from perfect thinkers, we should take that into account when trying to behave rationally.

Some techniques we can use are:

Bounded Rationality Technique #1 : Prioritization

Avoid spending too much time thinking about inconsequential decisions, or questions that don’t really matter. You probably don’t want to spend an hour deciding what movie to watch or whether to get Chinese or Mexican food tonight. If you’re making a decision — let’s say, what hobby to take up — it’s good practice to start by brainstorming and generating a lot of options. But you should quickly winnow these options back down: if you think you’re unlikely to really enjoy laughter yoga or roller derby, don’t spend hours googling clubs for those things in your area.

Bounded Rationality Technique #2 : Opportunity cost

Things you do can cost money, but they can also cost time  and opportunities . If you spend three hours at a concert, you can’t spend the same time seeing a movie, working, sleeping, visiting friends, or doing anything else you might want to do. So when considering whether to do something, consider not just whether it will be fun and useful, but also what alternatives  you’re missing out on. However, we can't consider all of the opportunities you miss out on by doing another one, so it's worth focussing on just one or two of the most relevant opportunities. 

Bounded Rationality Technique #3 : Time-boxing

It’s good to think carefully about important decisions, but it can also be paralyzing. Additionally, for any given decision, there is a limit to how much time it is worth spending on it. A way to get around both of these issues is to time-box the thinking and research. For example, if a decision is somewhat important, but not that  important, you could say ‘I'll give myself an hour to research and consider, and at the end of that, I’ll go with my best guess’.

Bounded Rationality Technique #4 : Principles, policies and heuristics

One way to save time is to use decision systems and heuristics to make decisions. You can form principles  or policies  which tell you how to act in certain situations. For example, if you’re worried about the ethical impact of your diet, you might follow a principle such as sticking to a vegetarian diet, eating local, or abstaining from beef or palm oil (depending on your particular ethics and views): this takes less time than assessing the ethical impact of each meal on its own merits.

Bounded Rationality Technique #5 : Habits

We all have many habits, good and bad. You might have a habit of morning coffee, an evening walk, or checking your email before bed. Since performing a habitual behavior is usually automatic —you don’t think hard about whether to do it each time — developing good habits and avoiding bad ones can be a good way of pursuing your goals while freeing up time and energy for other things. For example, if you like meditation and want to do it regularly, rather than deciding ‘should I meditate now, or do something else?’, you could try to build the habit of meditating at a certain time every day. Trigger-action planning  is a method some find helpful for building habits. It involves practicing or rehearsing performing actions in response to a trigger (e.g. ‘every time I put my toothbrush back in its holder, I will pick up the jar of vitamins’).

Rationality, reason, intelligence and education

Rationality has some overlaps with reason, intelligence, and education, but it is distinct.

Rationality vs reason

When we talk about ‘using reason’ to make decisions, is that the same as rationality?

Just like ‘rationality’, the term ‘reason’ is used in many ways. However, when people talk about reason, they usually mean deduction or explicit thinking. For example, if you are working on a logic puzzle or trying to assess the rigor of a philosophical argument, you are probably relying heavily on reasoning.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman popularized the idea of two thinking ‘systems’: one thinks quickly and instinctively (‘System 1’), the other considers things slowly and more explicitly (‘System 2’).  When we answer a simple math problem (like 2+2=4), or react to catch a ball tossed to us, we're using the fast System 1, whereas when we’re trying to work out a much harder math problem (like 27 * 22) or figure out how a clock works, we're using our System 2. When we talk about ‘reason’, we usually mean System 2-driven, considered thinking. But rationality crucially involves being in touch with our System 1 as well as System 2, and training them to work together to our advantage. 

To see why, consider that one of the benefits of rationality is that you’re better able to achieve your goals and values. You can’t do this if you’re not even sure what your values are, but understanding one's values involves both System 1 feelings and System 2 processing of those feelings. Often we feel internally divided: our ‘head’ might want one thing, our ‘heart’ another. Rationality involves not ignoring the heart, but incorporating both head and heart, both feelings and reason, into our decisions.

Another important aspect of rationality is being well-calibrated : knowing how certain you are, and having those feelings of certainty accurately reflect how often you actually are correct. If you can feel a gut sense of uncertainty that's in alignment with how likely things really are, you are less likely to act in an overconfident or underconfident way.

Rationality vs intelligence

Is rationality just about being smart? Rationality and intelligence are certainly related; intelligence makes it easier to learn rationality techniques and apply them creatively, all else equal. Intelligence can also help with logical thinking and reasoning, which are parts of rationality. Research by Keith Stanovich has found rationality and intelligence (as measured by IQ scores) to be substantially (but far from perfectly) correlated.

But it’s also possible to be smart and highly irrational. You might be good at solving mathematical puzzles or learning languages, but terrible at making good decisions, or very prone to cognitive biases. Some people have intelligence, but don’t apply it effectively to make their lives go better.

Intelligent people are more likely to believe and do things that are out of the ordinary, and are unusually good at justifying and arguing for their behavior – to themselves and others. This cuts both ways: it means that geniuses can be trailblazers and end up much more rational than their peers, but they can also go off the rails by being overconfident in outlandish ideas. 

An intelligent person who really wants to figure out the truth might do better than a less intelligent person, but an intelligent person who wants to concoct an elaborate justification for a conspiracy theory will also be good at that. If your beliefs are really irrational, intelligence may only make them more entrenched.

Rationality vs education

If rationality is about forming true beliefs, isn’t that just good education? Good education is helpful for rationality; obviously, it’s more helpful to start out with a set of true beliefs than a set of lies. And the more accurate knowledge you have (for instance, from a good education), the easier time you will have understanding the world around you. 

But good education can’t substitute for rationality. First, since rationality is about achieving one’s own values, no educational program is going to tell you exactly what to do: you have to work out how to apply general facts and principles you’ve been taught to your own life. Second, no education can teach you everything about the world. New events are constantly happening, and though a good education can give you a solid background and context, it can’t help you make sense of changes, or form good beliefs about what’s true today. 

But most importantly, rationality skills are often not taught, or only taught to a limited degree, within formal education. For instance, students may be asked to solve math problems, but they are unlikely to be asked to (for instance) evaluate the evidence for and against a proposition, or to practice working with their emotions so that their emotions provide valuable insights without overwhelming them. Much of what it means to be rational is about developing, possessing and applying skills, and many of these skills are absent from standard education curricula. 

We hope this post helps you understand what rationality is and why it matters! If you’re intrigued to learn more, we invite you to test your overall level of rationality, and what you can do now to improve your rationality skills, by completing our quiz " How Rational Are You, Really? ".

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It seems to me that small children below the age of about 3 years are extremely logical in their behavior. As they grow older and are more influenced by teachers and other adults, they tend to find that decision-making is also based on emotional aspects of others and also that being bad or difficult has certain advantages too. They find that they sometimes can get their way, even if they also know that it is not what their parents or teachers expect from them. So unlike what is written in this article about rationality, a degree of irrationality will develop in their minds with increasing experience, and not the opposite.

How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay: Examples & Outline

Critical thinking is the process of evaluating and analyzing information. People who use it in everyday life are open to different opinions. They rely on reason and logic when making conclusions about certain issues.

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A critical thinking essay shows how your thoughts change as you research your topic. This type of assignment encourages you to learn rather than prove what you already know. In this article, our custom writing team will:

• explain how to write an excellent critical essay;
• introduce 30 great essay topics;
• provide a critical thinking essay example in MLA format.
• 🤔 Critical Thinking Essay Definition
• 💡 Topics & Questions
• ✅ Step-by-Step Guide
• 📑 Essay Example & Formatting Tips
• ✍️ Bonus Tips

🔍 References

🤔 what is a critical thinking essay.

A critical thinking essay is a paper that analyses an issue and reflects on it in order to develop an action plan. Unlike other essay types, it starts with a question instead of a thesis. It helps you develop a broader perspective on a specific issue. Critical writing aims at improving your analytical skills and encourages asking questions.

Critical Thinking in Writing: Importance

When we talk about critical thinking and writing, the word “critical” doesn’t have any negative connotation. It simply implies thorough investigation, evaluation, and analysis of information. Critical thinking allows students to make objective conclusions and present their ideas logically. It also helps them avoid errors in reasoning.

The Basics: 8 Steps of Critical Thinking Psychology

Did you know that the critical thinking process consists of 8 steps? We’ve listed them below. You can try to implement them in your everyday life:

It’s possible that fallacies will occur during the process of critical thinking. Fallacies are errors in reasoning that fail to provide a reasonable conclusion. Here are some common types of fallacies:

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• Generalization . It happens when you apply generally factual statements to a specific case.
• Ambiguity . It occurs when the arguments are not clear and are not supported by evidence.
• Appeal to authority . This mistake happens when you claim the statement is valid only because a respected person made it.
• Appeal to emotion . It occurs when you use highly emotive language to convince the audience. Try to stay sensible and rely on the evidence.
• Bifurcation . This mistake occurs when you choose only between two alternatives when more than two exist.
• False analogy . It happens when the examples are poorly connected.

If you want to avoid these mistakes, do the following:

• try not to draw conclusions too quickly,
• be attentive,
• carefully read through all the sources,
• avoid generalizations.

How to Demonstrate Your Critical Thinking in Writing

Critical thinking encourages you to go beyond what you know and study new perspectives. When it comes to demonstrating your critical thinking skills in writing, you can try these strategies:

• Read . Before you start writing an essay, read everything you can find on the subject you are about to cover. Focus on the critical points of your assignment.
• Research . Look up several scholarly sources and study the information in-depth.
• Evaluate . Analyze the sources and the information you’ve gathered. See whether you can disagree with the authors.
• Prove . Explain why you agree or disagree with the authors’ conclusions. Back it up with evidence.

According to Purdue University, logical essay writing is essential when you deal with academic essays. It helps you demonstrate and prove the arguments. Make sure that your paper reaches a logical conclusion.

There are several main concepts related to logic:

If you want your essay to be logical, it’s better to avoid syllogistic fallacies, which happen with certain invalid deductions. If syllogisms are used carelessly, they can lead to false statements and ruin the credibility of your paper.

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💡 Critical Thinking Topics & Questions

An excellent critical thinking essay starts with a question. But how do you formulate it properly? Keep reading to find out.

How to Write Critical Thinking Questions: Examples with Answers

Asking the right questions is at the core of critical thinking. They challenge our beliefs and encourage our interest to learn more.

Here are some examples of model questions that prompt critical thinking:

• What does… mean?
• What would happen if…?
• What are the principles of…?
• Why is… important?
• How does… affect…?
• What do you think causes…?
• How are… and… similar/different?
• How do you explain….?
• What are the implications of…?
• What do we already know about…?

Now, let’s look at some critical thinking questions with the answers. You can use these as a model for your own questions:

Question: What would happen if people with higher income paid more taxes?

• Answer: It would help society to prosper and function better. It would also help people out of poverty. This way, everyone can contribute to the economy.

Question: How does eating healthy benefit you?

• Answer: Healthy eating affects people’s lives in many positive ways. It reduces cancer risk, improves your mood and memory, helps with weight loss and diabetes management, and improves your night sleep.

Critical Thinking Essay Topics

Have you already decided what your essay will be about? If not, feel free to use these essay topic examples as titles for your paper or as inspiration. Make sure to choose a theme that interests you personally:

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• What are the reasons for racism in healthcare? 
• Why is accepting your appearance important? 
• Concepts of critical thinking and logical reasoning .
• Nature and spirit in Ralf Waldo Emerson ’s poetry.
• How does technological development affect communication in the modern world?
• Social media effect on adolescents.
• Is the representation of children in popular fiction accurate?
• Domestic violence and its consequences. 
• Why is mutual aid important in society?
• How do stereotypes affect the way people think? 
• The concept of happiness in different cultures.
• The purpose of environmental art. 
• Why do people have the need to be praised ?
• How did antibiotics change medicine and its development? 
• Is there a way to combat inequality in sports ?
• Is gun control an effective way of crime prevention?
• How our understanding of love changes through time.
• The use of social media by the older generation.
• Graffiti as a form of modern art .
• Negative health effects of high sugar consumption.
• Why are reality TV shows so popular?
• Why should we eat healthily ?
• How effective and fair is the US judicial system? 
• Reasons of Cirque du Soleil phenomenon.
• How can police brutality be stopped? 
• Freedom of speech : does it exist?
• The effects of vaccination misconceptions. 
• How to eliminate New Brunswick’s demographic deficit: action plan. 
• What makes a good movie ?
• Critical analysis of your favorite book.
• The connection between fashion and identity .
• Taboo topics and how they are discussed in gothic literature .
• Critical thinking essay on the problem of overpopulation .
• Does our lifestyle affect our mental health ?
• The role of self-esteem in preventing eating disorders in children .
• Drug abuse among teenagers.
• Rhetoric on assisted suicide .
• Effects of violent video games on children’s mental health. 
• Analyze the effect stress has on the productivity of a team member.  
• Discuss the importance of the environmental studies .
• Critical thinking and ethics of happy life.
• The effects of human dignity on the promotion of justice.
• Examine the ethics of advertising the tobacco industry.
• Reasons and possible solutions of research misconduct.
• Implication of parental deployment for children.
• Cultural impact of superheroes on the US culture.
• Examine the positive and negative impact of technology on modern society.
• Critical thinking in literature: examples.
• Analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on economic transformation. 
• Benefits and drawbacks of mandatory vaccination .

Haven’t found a suitable essay idea? Try using our topic generator !

✅ How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay Step by Step

Now, let’s focus on planning and writing your critical thinking essay. In this section, you will find an essay outline, examples of thesis statements, and a brief overview of each essay part.

Critical Thinking Essay Outline

In a critical thinking essay, there are two main things to consider: a premise and a conclusion :

• A premise is a statement in the argument that explains the reason or supports a conclusion.
• A conclusion indicates what the argument is trying to prove. Each argument can have only one conclusion.

When it comes to structuring, a critical thinking essay is very similar to any other type of essay. Before you start writing it, make sure you know what to include in it. An outline is very helpful when it comes to structuring a paper.

How to Start a Critical Essay Introduction

An introduction gives readers a general idea of an essay’s contents. When you work on the introduction, imagine that you are drawing a map for the reader. It not only marks the final destination but also explains the route.

An introduction usually has 4 functions:

• It catches the reader’s attention;
• It states the essay’s main argument;
• It provides some general information about the topic;
• It shows the importance of the issue in question.

Here are some strategies that can make the introduction writing easier:

• Give an overview of the essay’s topic.
• Express the main idea.
• Define the main terms.
• Outline the issues that you are going to explore or argue about.
• Explain the methodology and why you used it.
• Write a hook to attract the reader’s attention.

Critical Analysis Thesis Statement & Examples

A thesis statement is an integral part of every essay. It keeps the paper organized and guides both the reader and the writer. A good thesis:

• expresses the conclusion or position on a topic;
• justifies your position or opinion with reasoning;
• conveys one idea;
• serves as the essay’s map.

To have a clearer understanding of what a good thesis is, let’s have a look at these examples.

The statement on the left is too general and doesn’t provide any reasoning. The one on the right narrows down the group of people to office workers and specifies the benefits of exercising.

Critical Thinking Essay Body Paragraphs: How to Write

Body paragraphs are the part of the essay where you discuss all the ideas and arguments. In a critical thinking essay, arguments are especially important. When you develop them, make sure that they:

• reflect the key theme;
• are supported by the sources/citations/examples.

Using counter-arguments is also effective. It shows that you acknowledge different points of view and are not easily persuaded.

In addition to your arguments, it’s essential to present the evidence . Demonstrate your critical thinking skills by analyzing each source and stating whether the author’s position is valid.

To make your essay logically flow, you may use transitions such as:

• Accordingly,
• For instance,
• On the contrary,
• In conclusion,
• Not only… but also,
• Undoubtedly.

How to Write a Critical Thinking Conclusion

In a critical thinking essay, the notion of “conclusion” is tightly connected to the one used in logic. A logical conclusion is a statement that specifies the author’s point of view or what the essay argues about. Each argument can have only one logical conclusion.

Sometimes they can be confused with premises. Remember that premises serve as a support for the conclusion. Unlike the conclusion, there can be several premises in a single argument. You can learn more about these concepts from the article on a logical consequence by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Keeping this in mind, have a look at these tips for finishing your essay:

• Briefly sum up the main points.
• Provide a final thought on the issue.
• Suggest some results or consequences.
• Finish up with a call for action.

📑 Critical Thinking Essays Examples & Formatting Tips

Formatting is another crucial aspect of every formal paper. MLA and APA are two popular formats when it comes to academic writing. They share some similarities but overall are still two different styles. Here are critical essay format guidelines that you can use as a reference:

Finally, you’re welcome to check out a full critical essay sample in MLA format. Download the PDF file below:

Currently, the importance of critical thinking has grown rapidly because technological progress has led to expanded access to various content-making platforms: websites, online news agencies, and podcasts with, often, low-quality information. Fake news is used to achieve political and financial aims, targeting people with low news literacy. However, individuals can stop spreading fallacies by detecting false agendas with the help of a skeptical attitude.

✍️ Bonus Tips: Critical Thinking and Writing Exercises

Critical thinking is a process different from our regular thinking. When we think in everyday life, we do it automatically. However, when we’re thinking critically, we do it deliberately.

So how do we get better at this type of thinking and make it a habit? These useful tips will help you do it:

• Ask basic questions. Sometimes, while we are doing research, the explanation becomes too complicated. To avoid it, always go back to your topic.
• Question basic assumptions. When thinking through a problem, ask yourself whether your beliefs can be wrong. Keep an open mind while researching your question.
• Think for yourself. Avoid getting carried away in the research and buying into other people’s opinions.
• Reverse things. Sometimes it seems obvious that one thing causes another, but what if it’s the other way around?
• Evaluate existing evidence. If you work with sources, it’s crucial to evaluate and question them.

Another way to improve your reasoning skills is to do critical thinking exercises. Here are some of them:

Thanks for reading through our article! We hope that you found it helpful and learned some new information. If you liked it, feel free to share it with your friends.

Further reading:

• Critical Writing: Examples & Brilliant Tips [2024]
• How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis Essay: Outline, Steps, & Examples
• How to Write an Analysis Essay: Examples + Writing Guide
• How to Write a Critique Paper: Tips + Critique Essay Examples
• How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay Step by Step
• Critical Thinking and Writing: University of Kent
• Steps to Critical Thinking: Rasmussen University
• 3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking: Harvard Business Review
• In-Class Writing Exercises: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Demonstrating Critical Thinking in Writing: University of South Australia
• 15 Questions that Teachers and Parents Can Ask Kids to Encourage Critical Thinking: The Hun School
• Questions to Provoke Critical Thinking: Brown University
• How to Write a College Critical Thinking Essay: Seattle PI
• Introductions: What They Do: Royal Literary Fund
• Thesis Statements: Arizona State University
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Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World

What is the value of rationality, and why does it matter?

The Value of Rationality

• By Ralph Wedgwood
• December 16 th 2017

Rationality is a widely discussed term. Economists and other social scientists routinely talk about rational agents making rational choices in light of their rational expectations. It’s also common in philosophy, especially in those areas that are concerned with understanding and evaluating human thinking, actions, and institutions. But what exactly is rationality? In the past, most philosophers assumed that the central notion of rationality is a normative or evaluative concept: to think rationally is to think ‘properly’ or ‘well’—in other words, to think as one ‘should’ think. Rational thinking is in a sense good thinking, while irrational thinking is bad. Recently, however, philosophers have raised several objections to that assumption.

First of all, how can it be true that you should never think irrationally, if you sometimes can’t help it?

Secondly, picture a scenario where you would be punished for thinking rationally—wouldn’t it be good to think irrationally in this case and bad to keep on thinking rationally?

And finally, rationality requires that our mental states (in other words, our beliefs, choices, and attitudes in general) are consistent and coherent. But why is that important, and what is so good about it?

Having considered these three arguments, we can now debate which side is right. Does thinking ‘rationally’ mean thinking ‘well ‘ and ‘properly’, or not? However, looking at both sides of the issue, it becomes evident that we still need considerable philosophical arguments and analysis before we can arrive at any conclusion. The reason why is because the problem itself is not clearly defined, since we don’t know the meaning of some of the key terms. Therefore, as a next step in the analysis, we will review some recent work in linguistics, specifically semantics.

Rationality, in the end, is the feature of your mind that guides you—ideally (if you’re lucky) towards the goal of getting things right.

Most linguists accept that every concept expressed by ‘should’ implies some concept that can be expressed by ‘can.’ But there are many different shades of ‘can.’ So, even if there is a strong sense of ‘can’ that makes it true that you ‘can’t help’ thinking as irrationally as you do, there could still be a weaker sense of ‘can’ that makes it true that you ‘can’ think more rationally than you do. In this way, we may be able to answer the first objection: the sense in which it is true that we ‘should think rationally’ implies one of these weaker senses of ‘can’, which make it true that we ‘can’ think more rationally than we do.

The same sort of differentiation may help with the second and third objections. The meaning of terms like ‘good’, ‘well’, and ‘properly’ changes in different circumstances. Think about the scenario in which you would be punished for thinking rationally, and rewarded for doing the opposite. In one sense of good, it is good in this case to think irrationally, but in another sense, it remains good for you to think rationally, because rational thinking in itself is always good.

Instead of answering our questions, however, this line of argument raises more, because what we need to do now is define this sense of ‘good’, in which rational thinking is always ‘good.’ But here is a proposal about how to answer these further questions. When you have a belief, or when you choose a course of action, you have a goal—the goal of getting things right. After all, it would be absurd and nonsensical to say, “I know that this is the right thing to believe, but why should I believe it?” To get things right, your beliefs and choices must fit with the external world.

However, your beliefs and choices cannot be directly guided by what is happening in the external world. They can only be directly guided by what is going in your mind. Rationality, in the end, is the feature of your mind that guides you—ideally (if you’re lucky) towards the goal of getting things right.

Suppose that your belief does get things right in this way. The fact that you succeeded in getting things right is explained in part by the fact that you were thinking rationally. In other words, rationality matters because rationality is the means by which we pursue the goal of getting things right.

Featured image credit: Photograph of a boy in front of a chess landscape by Positive Images. Public domain via Pixabay .

Ralph Wedgwood is a Professor of Philosophy at University of Southern California. He is the author of The Value of Rationality , The Nature of Normativity , and around fifty articles in various volumes and philosophy journals.

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Recent Comments

Perhaps we should also view `rationality’ from a `reasonable’ perspective.

For instance, one could reasonably argue that, both qualitatively and quantitatively, any belief (i.e., the perceived content of a well-defined declarative sentence) is necessarily associated with a suitably-defined truth assignation that must fall into one or more of the following three categories:

(i) beliefs that we hold to be `true’ in an absolute, Platonic, sense, and have in common with others holding beliefs similarly;

(ii) beliefs that we hold to be `true’—short of Platonic belief—since they can be treated as self-evident, and have in common with others who also hold them as similarly self-evident;

(iii) beliefs that we agree to define as `true’ on the basis of a convention, and have in common with others who accept the same convention for assigning truth values to such assertions.

Clearly the three categories of beliefs have associated truth assignations with increasing degrees of objective accountability (i.e., accountability based on evidence-based reasoning) which must, in turn, influence the psyche of whoever is exposed to a particular category at a particular moment of time.

Thus, zealots might be categorised as irrational agents since they accept all three as definitive; prophets as reasonable agents since they hold only (ii) and (iii) as definitive; and scientists as rational agents since they hold only (iii) as definitive.

If rational thinking is “good” or “proper” thinking, it has to be better than something else. The article suggests “irrational” thinking, but I don’t find that much help. I suspect most of us would contrast “rational” thinking with “emotional” thinking, which suggests a difference, not just in outcomes, but two fundamentally different kinds of thinking, each rising from very different activities in the brain and body.

I also suspect most of us would consider “rational” thinking to be a later, and more refined evolutionary development – a specifically human kind of thinking – an historical development that came into its own during the time of classical Greek culture.

To evaluate the value and importance of “rational” thinking it should help to know how we came to have it. I suggest “rational” thinking developed as a way to reduce uncertainty in our increasingly complex, culturally driven species.

Most creatures live “in the moment”. They don’t know about tomorrow afternoon, much less a week from Friday and so they have not developed, and could not use a kind of thinking that considered all the possible events between now and then. We live in the moment, the hour, the day, the week, the year, the generation, our cultural age, in history. For us, necessity has been the mother of invention. It has brought us stories, history, writing, counting, money, the Rosetta stone, books, libraries, newspapers, radio, television, computers, and artificial intelligence. None of this could come from the kind of thinking that came packaged in the box when our species was new.

We need to plan for layer upon layer of overlapping slices of time and so our level of uncertainty and our need for information is not only vastly greater than any other species, it is continually increasing. “Rational” thinking has been our answer to that need. It has worked pretty well, but at some level we don’t like it. Compared to “emotional” thinking, to going with our “gut” it seems contrived, slightly unnatural.

The author asks, “What is the value of rationality and why does it matter?” I have drifted pretty far from his analysis, but this where the question led me. I ask the author’s indulgence and thank him for making me think.

Comments are closed.

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1: Introduction to Critical Thinking, Reasoning, and Logic

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• Page ID 29580

• Golden West College via NGE Far Press

What is thinking? It may seem strange to begin a logic textbook with this question. ‘Thinking’ is perhaps the most intimate and personal thing that people do. Yet the more you ‘think’ about thinking, the more mysterious it can appear. It is the sort of thing that one intuitively or naturally understands, and yet cannot describe to others without great difficulty. Many people believe that logic is very abstract, dispassionate, complicated, and even cold. But in fact the study of logic is nothing more intimidating or obscure than this: the study of good thinking.

• 1.1: Prelude to Chapter
• 1.2: Introduction and Thought Experiments- The Trolley Problem
• 1.3: Truth and Its Role in Argumentation - Certainty, Probability, and Monty Hall Only certain sorts of sentences can be used in arguments. We call these sentences propositions, statements or claims.
• 1.4: Distinction of Proof from Verification; Our Biases and the Forer Effect
• 1.5: The Scientific Method The procedure that scientists use is also a standard form of argument. Its conclusions only give you the likelihood or the probability that something is true (if your theory or hypothesis is confirmed), and not the certainty that it’s true. But when it is done correctly, the conclusions it reaches are very well-grounded in experimental evidence.
• 1.6: Diagramming Thoughts and Arguments - Analyzing News Media
• 1.7: Creating a Philosophical Outline

Rational Thinking

• Reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2020
• pp 4286–4288
• Cite this reference work entry

• Nikki Blacksmith 3 , 4  

93 Accesses

Analytical thinking ; Rational thinking style ; Reflective thinking

Rational thinking refers to differences across individuals in their tendency and need to process information in an effortful, analytical manner while using a rule-based system of logic.

Introduction

Rational thinking (or more formally, information processing) refers to differences across individuals in their tendency and need to process information in an effortful, analytical manner using a rule-based system of logic (Epstein et al. 1996 ; Scott and Bruce 1995 ; Stanovich and West 1998 ; Phillips et al. 2016 ). In other words, rational thinking is one’s preferred manner or style in which information from the environment is cognitively processed for sense-making. Although rational thinking deals with cognitive functioning, it is not a cognitive ability; it is a conative disposition – a natural tendency, impulse, or directed effort. Cognitive ability (a component of intelligence) refers to the capacity to...

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Epstein, S., Pacini, R., Denes-Raj, V., & Heier, H. (1996). Individual differences in intuitive-experiential and analytical-rational thinking styles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71 , 390–405.

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Phillips, W. J., Fletcher, J. M., Marks, A. D. G., & Hine, D. W. (2016). Thinking styles and decision making: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 142 , 260–290.

Reeve, C. L., & Bonaccio, S. (2011). The nature and structure of “intelligence.”. In T. Chamorro-Premuzic, A. Furnham, & S. von Stumm (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences (pp. 187–216). Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell.

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Blacksmith, N. (2020). Rational Thinking. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1897

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6 (page 82) p. 82 Are we rational?

• Published: September 2017
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Human thinking and reasoning can be compared with a ‘normative’ standard—a formal theory of right and wrong answers. The normative theories mostly applied are decision theory, probability theory, and logic. People frequently make errors by these standards and have been shown to have many cognitive biases. Does this mean that human beings must be intrinsically irrational? ‘Are we rational?’ considers different definitions of rationality: instrumental, epistemic, bounded, normative, ecological, and evolutionary rationality. It also asks how important is general intelligence in rationality? More recent psychological research suggests that both instrumental and epistemic rationality, defined by conventional means, are aided by a combination of general intelligence and rational thinking disposition.

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What Is It To Be Rational?

By v.b. shneider.

What is it to be rational? An individual appears to be rational, rational being his actions. But what does it mean to act in a rational way? Let us turn to the notion of rationality as a characteristic of human activity and those phenomena the notion in question describes.

The wide-ranging understanding of rationality may cause a danger of inaccurate conveyance of a chosen meaning in various contexts and thus calls for being fixed in a definite meaning. This “fixation” presupposes formulation of an exact definition. To choose the basis for the definition of the kind is of no problem. The names of notions bearing, as a rule, no indication of being associated with this or that meaning, what arguments should be offered in defence of such a choice? There are two main ways to choose the basis for a definition.

The first one is to turn to language, to the established tradition of using notions in various contexts. The main danger on the way is that the conservation of an initial meaning may put an end to unconventional trends of uncommon interpretations of the notion used, narrowing thus the sphere of its creative usage. Any notion depends on context, on the system of its consideration. That is why although philosophical categories have definite meanings they are mostly relative and liable to change their content even within the scope of one and the same philosophical tradition, allowing for historical tradition, context and aspect of the problem. This is the situation as far as the notion of rationality is concerned.

In the XX-th century the problem of rationality has become one of the central problems of philosophical investigations. The wide-ranging manifestations of “rationality phenomena” and the variety of methodological approaches in continental and Anglo-Saxon social philosophy and in the philosophy of science define the great compass of meanings of the notion of rationality.

The second way is to turn to reality, to those phenomena for which there are no generally recognised terms, so that it is up to researcher to choose any name to denote them. Thus, an astronomer discovering a new comet is justified in calling it any name, however extravagant it may sound. But in a scientific investigation such a freedom is to a great extent restricted by the fact that a word of an actual language entails a train of meanings likely to distort considerably the understanding of those phenomena to denote which is used. That is why the second way necessarily involves the elements of the first one to provide the happiest notation for a given phenomenon.

Dictionaries of modern European languages, English, French, German being the basic ones, testify to the fact that “norm”, “reason” and “expediency” are registered among the most fundamental meanings of the word “rationality”. Hence, let us define rationality as reasonably based normativity which guarantees an expedient process of activity. Then the question “What is it to be rational?“ might be provided with the following answer, no matter how general it may seem. A man is rational in his actions if they are performed in accordance with some sensible reasons which make the aim he pursues possible of attainment. Let us clarify our meaning.

Any activity possesses a universal structure: aim – means – result. Being an ideal image of a final result, a reverberation of demands objectively existent, aim as an element of activity characterises its predictable result in the consciousness of an individual. It is a fundamental element of its structure, a mode of constructing activity, an integral principle of reducing various actions to a system which possesses a quality of an absolute value within the universal structure of activity and has an outward valuative basing, that is a valuative basing of activity itself. Means of activity in the broadest sense of the word include the whole complex of conditions, acts and things, methods and ways which make the attainment of the aim, its predictable result possible. Thus, result as an element of activity appears to be an incarnation of its ideal image and project.

According to the definition, human activity is expedient and since the phenomenon of rationality pertains exclusively to the sphere of human activity, hence everything rational is expedient. Expediency means an absolute submission of all the elements of activity to its aim, such a set of elements which necessarily result in the attainment of the aim. Let us turn to one of the aspects of rationality, i.e. normativity, which will make our study of the former phenomenon still more thorough.

There are two principal types of norms in cultural reality. The first type is a traditional norm which has spontaneously arisen in the process of social development which, as a rule, is anonymous and handed down by means of customs, imitation and so on. This type includes customs and informal norms of different groups. But side by side with such norms there are some other norms which have arisen as a result of reasonable activity of consciousness or traditional norms critically reflected by reason. Norms of this type do not appear spontaneously and have an author. These norms are textually formed and based on certain logical argumentation. For instance, different juridical laws, administrative rules, technological standards, “Code of Napoleon” etc. To this class we also include norms of moral and etiquette, although these norms possess traditional character in greater degree than legal or technological norms and have neither unambiguous and strict wording nor unit codificational origin.

We assume that such norms, socially reflected, textually expressed and based on logical argumentation underlie a rational activity of people. Hence, not every kind of normatively regulated activity may be characterised as rational one.

So a theoretic model of rationality is a model of human behaviour and thinking, human activity on the whole, realised in accordance with norms which find their substantiation in the procedure of analytical activity of human reason.

By reasonably based norm we mean such a norm the adoption of which follows from a certain reasoning. In an ultimate case a logical form of such a basing is a simple syllogism.

As a matter of fact there are two modes of a reasonable basing of norms: valual and normative. The first one addresses to the sphere of values and relation between norms and values. This way of reasonable basing of norms may be used in case of possible reduction of norms to values. For instance:

A good action is obligatory. An observance of technological process is a good act. Consequently, an observance of technological process is obligatory.

But it is possible to construct a procedure of basing of norms within the scope of normative sphere. This basis presupposes an introduction of normative postulates (or so called presumptions). For example:

An action in accordance with rules (law) is obligatory. An observance of technological process is action in accordance with rules (law). Consequently, an observance of technological process is obligatory.

It should be noted that the examples given above illustrate only the principal modes of basing of norms on the most primitive level.

With the term “rationality” we would like to embrace such aspects of human activity which refer to analytical ability of reason, methodological planning, pragmatic calculation and expediency. Such an activity is performed, to our mind, by using normative means of its utilisation.

There is no denying the fact that reason (in the most common sense) gives rise to “rational”. Reason as a human ability naturally spreads into the sphere of human activity and the latter acquires reasonable character. But rationality, in our opinion, largely characterises formal aspects of activity, its technological side. Rationality is connected with the analytical, systematising and calculating functions of human reason, with an idea of method and algorithm.

Thus, rational activity is a normatively realised activity, that is generally accepted as a due activity but only such an activity which is realised in accordance with reasonably based normativity, which with necessity guarantees the achievement of the aim of the activity. That is why this activity is expedient. Now we shall consider expediency as a character of rational activity which is normatively realised.

Let there be an aim of activity and a class of activity means providing the attainment of the aim. Then an expediency is a characteristic of activity which describes inevitable achievement of the aim due to socially normalised means of activity. In accordance with normative interpretation of expediency, means of activity in form of necessary conditions of activity, certain subjects, methodological rules and different prescriptions – are consistent with the aim because of their normative status. It is obvious that normative interpretation of expediency narrows it as a characteristics of activity by the sphere of influence of social normativity. Considering this, none of the normative activity is rational. Thus, expediency as a characteristic of rational activity presents a necessary achievement of the aim of certain activity which is based on normativity based in its turn on the processes of analytical activity of human reason. Reflected by reason and reasonably based normativity presupposes a calculation of procedure of realisation of rational activity, presence of expedient standards and rules of realisation, presence of actual algorithm.

Hence, expediency as a characteristic of rational activity means the achievement of the aim by means of normative programme, algorithm which necessarily implies this achievement. An algorithm is a strict, easy and unambiguously interpreted description of a consistently realised decision (by means of separate steps) of any task from a certain class of tasks. For example, procedures of addition, subtraction, algorithm of Euclid etc. Observance of the procedure with necessity guarantees a correct result from the point of view of rules providing thus utilisation. Reasonably based normativity underlies the base of production and utilisation of any algorithm. Characteristic traits of any algorithm are as follows: determinativity, expediency and popularity. Speaking about normativity of algorithms, we would like to underline that owing to a prescriptive-descriptive character of norms which underlie algorithms, the latter are not only descriptions but prescriptions, rules, recommendations etc.

Such a prescriptive determination of based norms guarantees expediency of algorithmic activity as a necessary achievement of the aim and, moreover, in the shortest way possible. These properties of algorithms determine algorithms as attributive means and characteristics of rational activity.

Thus, rational activity is an such activity which is substantiated by norms (which are reasonably based) and is realised corresponding to algorithmic programme of its accomplishment.

In conclusion we would like to call our reader’s attention to the problem of correlation between different normative systems as bases of rational actions in social reality. There are several main different normative systems in culture: moral, law, science etc. Every normative system is constructed, as a rule, without any contradictions between the norms. But norms of different normative systems may be contradictory (for example: certain norms of moral and law). There is no problem if an action is controlled by norms of one normative system or by norms which are not contradictory. But there are cases where an action may be interpreted (and really controlled) from different normative systems by contradictory norms. In such situations bases of rationality are relative and propose a choice of normative interpretation to act.

Let us clarify our meaning with an example. What should a man do if he gets to know that his best friend whom he owes his life has committed a serious crime? Should he inform against his friend to the police or should he conceal the criminal? Let us assume that he is well aware of the fact that this action of his can be proved. The Criminal Code of a number of the countries includes an article (norm) prosecuting for concealment, penalty however are different. In the USSR the article in question ceased to exist in 1990. In situation like that there is no point in appealing for such a characteristics of activity as rationality until an individual makes his choice of the basis of action.

In real life an individual participates both actually and potentially in various spheres of human existence and hence, using the terminology of the theory of games, he plays several plays at once, functions of his gains being different and regulated by various normative systems. In real life all is interlinked: means turn into aims and aims become its means. Let us assume that an individual is aiming primarily to get to his work on time. Let us assume that in order to do this he should cross the road but in this site one is allowed to cross the street by the underground passage only. In case he goes down to the passage he will surely be late for his work. Let us assume that this alternative is not his fault but objectively conditioned. What should he do? If getting for his work on time is his ultimate value we are justified in concluding that he will break the traffic rules and will cut the street across to get to his work in the shortest way possible. Let us assume a policeman on his guard in this same part of the road. Then we can imagine a situation when the individual, rational as far as his ultimate aim is concerned, should wipe out “the limb of the law” – an undertaking worthy of a madman in a fit of rage. We should better suppose that the individual will correct his aim turning thus to crossing the street in accordance with the traffic rules into an aim of its own. We might just as well assume that to be late for a work entails a severe reprimand whereas crossing the street in a wrong way (place) threatens him with a long term of imprisonment. It is quite possible that in a situation like this the individual – like a gambler who throws his cards on the table since stakes are monstrously increasing – will probably prefer to come late for his job than to take a risk even if there is no policeman in sight.

Thus, in a number of cases basings of rationality turn out to be relative. What normative system should be preferable? How to be rational? In a case like this the question about rationality is incorrect. A question of the choice of a basing and aspect of normative interpretation of any action appears to be outside the scope of rationality. In order to choose a normative basing for an action a hierarchy of social and individual preferences becomes of utmost importance. It should be noted that there are significant basings of the kind in the cultural context, that is judicial and moral sanctions secured by state and traditions. Yet there may be a world of difference between socially regulated and individual preferences. That is why the choice of a basing in a situation like this from the point of view of an individual is a matter of his preferences of vital importance. That is an existential choice of Yours!

© V.B. Shneider 1991

Vladimir Shneider teaches philosophy at the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute, Sverdlovsk, U.S.S.R.

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However, if you really want to excel academically, you need to be able to think rationally and develop your own opinions (and, of course, articulate them clearly). Such skills are essential for good essay-writing, and will allow you to impress admissions tutors in your personal statement – and, even more so, in university interviews. Examiners and admissions tutors will be able to tell immediately whether you’re spouting an opinion that’s actually someone else’s or if you’ve thought about it carefully enough to come up with your own take on an issue. But figuring out what your own opinion is can be challenging when you’re deeply immersed in the opinions of other people. In this article, we look at how you can approach whatever you’re studying with an objective mind, and how you can work out what you really think about something.

1. Read lots

The first and most crucial point about forming your own opinions is that it’s vital to read widely – and consider what you read critically, looking for holes in arguments. If you only read one academic’s work about a particular issue, you only have one point of view – and you’ll end up regurgitating that view as if it was the only possible approach to the argument. In fact, it’s almost certainly only one of a range of opinions, and it might not even be the most compelling argument. How many other scholars agree with this opinion? Is this writer the only one who thinks this? Even in instances in which there is one widely accepted viewpoint, there will be others seeking to challenge this view with opinions that may be surprisingly persuasive. And no matter how widely accepted an opinion is, it’s still worth reading what the ‘challengers’ have to say, because if nothing else, it at least provides a fresh perspective and may point to weaknesses in the mainstream argument. Academia by its very nature seeks to challenge accepted opinions, and this is a mindset you need to start developing if you want to be academically successful yourself.

2. Understanding writers’ motivations

The key to thinking logically about what you read – and ultimately forming your own opinion – is to remember that writing is rarely impartial. People write with their own motivations and agendas, which have been shaped by their upbringing and experiences, and in turn shape the text and attempt to persuade the reader that the writer’s opinion is right. Seen in isolation, with no counter-arguments, it’s easy to be lulled into thinking that this is the only possible viewpoint on a particular issue. This is, of course, not the case, and that’s why it’s important to read widely. Writing of any kind – whether it’s academic scholarship or an original source – should always be assessed in the context of the writer themselves. Ask yourself what the writer’s motivation is in writing this piece. Whether it’s obvious or not, there may be an agenda. Has it been influenced by their political opinions, for example? What is their background – what has led them to believe this particular opinion? Did a writer giving their opinion about the UK care system come from a troubled background themselves? Is this a scholar seeking to discredit the work of a fellow academic because of some personal animosity? You wouldn’t have thought that these kinds of things would shape an academic’s opinion, but they do – they’re people too, and prone to the same weaknesses and biases as you or I. So, whenever you read something, ask yourself: “why does this writer want me to think this? And what is this argument really about?”

3. Be honest with yourself about your own biases

Just as writers have their biases, so do you – even if you don’t realise it. Your own background and views shape how you view the world, and may influence your response to what you read. If you see yourself as a socialist, for example, you may take an automatic dislike to literature written from a conservative viewpoint – whether or not the evidence supports that conservative argument. What’s more, we often read into things what we expect or want to see; new opinions and challenges to our existing points of view are difficult for us to handle because they force us to change how we think about things, and that’s hard sometimes. A key to finding your true opinions is to overcome this bias. If you find yourself jumping to a particular conclusion or strongly agreeing or disagreeing with something you read, you should be questioning both the writer and yourself particularly rigorously. Going back to the evidence behind an opinion – assessing the bare facts – is a good way to force yourself to look objectively at it.

4. Assessing the evidence

The other important question to ask yourself when reading a scholarly work is: “what are they basing their opinion on?” All academic opinions should be based on adequate evidence, though there are plenty of scholars who aren’t above basing an entire grand theory on a few shreds of very tenuous evidence. This is why it’s important to approach academic works with a critical mind. What evidence is there, really, for this opinion? And is there any compelling evidence to the contrary? If it helps, jot down a big list of what the evidence is on a particular issue; for each thing you read on that topic, keep adding points to the list. You will end up with a list of actual evidence and you can use it to decide what you think is the most compelling argument based on the facts. You may even end up forming your own unique hypothesis by doing this. Thinking about what you read in this way will help you make up your own mind and stop you from becoming swayed by whatever opinion you happen to be reading at the time.

5. Pay attention to the language

When I was at university, my tutor told me that I must never use the word “surely” in an essay, because it made me sound as though I was trying – unsuccessfully – to convince myself of what I was writing: “This is surely evidence that…” This is just one of many examples of subtly persuasive language that can reveal how confident (or not) a writer is in their own opinion. Phrases such as “as far as I know” or “it seems likely that” should sound alarm bells in your head. Identifying such language can also tell you whether or not you are being ‘led down the garden path’; though academic writing should be as objective as possible, the writer will often use subtly persuasive language to try to convince you that their own opinion is right.

6. Don’t get lost in the details

When you’re reading academic literature – which is often painstakingly detailed – it’s all too easy to get bogged down in the minutiae and lose sight of the bigger picture. Clearly, sweeping generalisations are bad, and should naturally be questioned; there is a reason why academic works are so detailed. But there’s a danger in becoming too focused on the fine details, which should be viewed in the context of how they fit into this ‘bigger picture’. For example, let’s say you’re looking at an Ancient Greek vase. The details of its decoration can come to feel incredibly important when you’re reading about them – how this particular squiggle in this mythical scene represents a development from an earlier kind of squiggle and this must represent an important advance in the development of art at the time. However, these details can lead you to lose sight of a more important point, which is what the vase was used for: this was a krater, for example, and it was used to mix wine and water, as drinking undiluted wine was something that Ancient Greeks considered to be quite ‘barbarian’; it was therefore something that facilitated an action that the Greeks considered made them civilised (an important cultural distinction). Such vases were present at Ancient Greek ‘symposia’, intellectual drinking parties that were an important feature of aristocratic Greek society. That squiggle in the decoration may be an interesting development in artistic techniques, but such vases in general are important too. When forming your own opinions, taking the context into consideration is vital. If you don’t, your argument is incomplete and may miss the point.

7. Annotate your books

One method I’ve found quite useful in forming my own opinions about what I’m reading is keeping a pencil beside me ready to make comments and questions in the margins and underline key sentences. You don’t have to write long comments (there isn’t room for that); sometimes just a “No!” is enough! Obviously you should only do this with your own books – not library books. I find that just having the pencil at the ready forces me to interact more with what I’m reading, making me look more critically at the text and think about whether or not I agree with something. Underlining sentences that you feel to be important doesn’t just help you find them again – it helps you remember them, and it’s a way for you to engage with the text more as you would in an academic discussion. Imagine you’re having a discussion with the author – what would you say to them or ask them?

Writing things down forces you to articulate your thoughts clearly, so keeping a notebook beside you while you’re reading is good practice. Whenever something occurs to you about what you’re reading – an independent thought or question suddenly springing to mind – write it down. You may end up finding something that contradicts your thought, but this is all part of the process of reaching your own conclusions. As you prepare to write an essay, note down a quick bullet point summary of what each scholar’s opinion on the topic is, with a sub-bullet point or two detailing what evidence supports each opinion. Logically, which makes most sense? Which do you find yourself agreeing most with? Or does your opinion lie somewhere in between the viewpoints laid out in front of you? Another good way of writing to form your own opinions is to start a blog. This would allow you to share your responses to what you’ve been reading, and its more informal setting may make it easier for you to express your own views than the more formal context of an essay. An added bonus is that blogging about what you’ve read will really impress university admissions tutors!

9. Engage in debate

Academia doesn’t – or shouldn’t – take place in isolation, with just you and some books. Scholarship is about debate, and although you’ll probably see debate going on between scholars in books and journals, it’s probably not going to be enough to stimulate you to explore what you think. This is why academic discussion is so important. Engaging in debate with fellow students and tutors will challenge your opinions and offer alternative viewpoints to your own; it may be that they are more persuaded by different bits of evidence to you, or that they’ve read something that you haven’t. The act of explaining and defending your own opinion also gives you a chance to articulate it and consolidate the reasons why you believe something. Don’t be stubborn, though – you won’t gain any brownie points for sticking to an opinion for which the evidence doesn’t add up, so if you are found to be wrong, accept it! If this all sounds like way too much to think about when you’re already struggling to get to grips with scholarly literature, don’t worry! The more you practise this critical approach, the easier it will become. Make it a challenge to yourself to find something in an academic work to disagree with – and find evidence to back up your disagreement. This will help you become brilliant at debating, a skill that will prove invaluable in essays, the classroom and university interviews. This critical thinking will also stand you in good stead for life: from our friends to the news to television adverts, everyone is trying to convince you of something, so adopting a healthy degree of skepticism can only be a good thing!

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The myth of rational thinking

Why our pursuit of rationality leads to explosions of irrationality.

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Are human beings uniquely irrational creatures? And if we are, what are the consequences of basing our society on the opposite assumption?

These are questions Justin E.H. Smith, a philosopher at the University of Paris, takes up in his new book, Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason . He pokes holes in the story humans in the Western world have been telling themselves for centuries: that we were once blinkered by myth and superstition, but then the ancient Greeks discovered reason and, later, the Enlightenment cemented rationality as the highest value in human life.

Smith argues that this is a flattering but false story. Humans, he says, are hardly rational, and in fact, irrationality has defined much of human life and history. And the point is not merely academic. “The desire to impose rationality, to make people or society more rational,” he writes, “mutates ... into spectacular outbursts of irrationality.”

If Smith is right, that leaves us in a precarious position. If we can’t impose order on society, what are we supposed to do? Should we not strive to incentivize rationality as much as possible? Should we rethink the role of reason in human life?

I put these and other questions to Smith in a recent interview. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing

It’s hard to sum up the thesis of a book like this. How would you characterize it?

Justin E.H. Smith

The thesis is that the 20th-century philosophers T.W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer were basically correct when they argued that the Enlightenment world has an innate tendency to degenerate into myth, reason into unreason. And that this tendency of reason toward unreason is exacerbated by overly ambitious efforts to suppress or eliminate unreason. I think this is true both at the level of individual reason, or “psychology,” as well as at the level of society as a whole.

Some examples of this will help clarify what you mean, but first let’s back up a little. We have this idea, which goes all the way back to Aristotle, that human beings are distinguished from other animals by their capacity for reason. Is this a misleading picture? Should we not think of humans as uniquely rational creatures?

This is the traditional view. There is a counter-tradition, however, which says that human beings are the uniquely irrational animal. On this view, animals are rational to the extent that they do not get mired in deliberation and hesitation, but always just cut right to the chase and execute those actions that are perfectly suited to the sort of creatures they are, while we human beings stand there paralyzed by doubt and worry.

I am sympathetic to this view, though it can be carried too far. Obviously, we have been able to choose the correct course of action enough of the time to survive long enough to reproduce. We are a successful species, but not exceptionally so, and as far as I can tell not in virtue of being exceptionally well-endowed with reason.

That’s certainly one way to think of rationality. By that standard, you might say that human beings are cursed with too much consciousness, that our obsession with thinking creates more problems than it solves.

You might say that. But it’s not as if we think just because we are obsessed with thinking. Presumably, we human beings, as well as our hominid and pre-hominid ancestors, thought for a very long time before we began thinking about how this is possible and how it can go wrong.

Well, let’s talk about how it can go wrong. You write: “The desire to impose rationality, to make people or society more rational, mutates ... into spectacular outbursts of irrationality.” Can you give me an example of what you mean here?

The clearest instance in the book, which I set up as a sort of foundational myth, is the Pythagorean cult in the fifth century BC, which becomes so devoted to the perfect rationality of mathematics that it has trouble dealing with the discovery of the existence of irrational numbers . And so when one of its own, Hippasus of Metapontum, starts telling people outside the group that the world can’t be explained by mathematics alone, legend has it that the leader of the group had him drowned in a fit of anger.

The 18th-century French playwright and activist Olympe de Gouges is another example. In the spirit of reason, she famously argued that whatever the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man — the civil rights document produced by the French Revolution in 1789 — said about men must also apply to women. And for that, the Jacobins cut her head off. So the response to her perfect rationality was extreme, murderous irrationality.

Something similar has followed countless revolutions since 1789, and many of these revolutions, notably the Marxist ones, have been at least nominally committed to the rational restructuring of society. I gather some Marxists are perfectly fine with seeing heads roll, and assume that it will only be the right heads that roll next time around and all present-day descendants of Olympe de Gouges will be spared. Or maybe they think it will never actually come to that.

I think it’s obvious enough why humans are irrational, but where does this mania for rationality come from? Why are we so desperate to impose order on the world and society in the first place?

I think we just got a bit carried away. In the modern period, anyway, rationality became a value first in science and technology, where it plainly had its place. Making the correct inferences and following the correct method meant more scientific breakthroughs, which meant faster and more powerful machines.

But then the idea caught on that society itself is a big machine, and that the human being is a small sub-machine within the big machine of society, and that these two kinds of machine can be perfected in the same way that we have managed to perfect the steam engine, the telegraph, and so on.

But this has always been a misguided approach to psychology and politics, based on a weak metaphor drawn from a narrow domain of human life — mechanical engineering — in which we actually do have a pretty good understanding of how things work and of how problems are fixed.

I wonder where all this leaves us. There are obviously limits to reason, and we can only do so much to curb our worst impulses. At the same time, we want a world that is more intelligent, more wise, more compassionate. But we also have to base our social and political systems on a realistic model of human nature.

I don’t really have any formulas to offer here. Caution, pragmatism, case-by-case consideration of questions of justice, all seem advisable to me. I am not a political theorist, let alone a policymaker, and I think I manage to get to the end of the book without pretending to be either of these.

In spite of everything I’ve said, I believe in some amount of redistributive justice, including taking away about 99.9 percent of the fortunes of Bezos, Zuckerberg, and others, and turning the big tech companies into public utilities. I just think this should be done with good laws and broad public support, in such a way as to make it inevitable and ultimately painless for everyone (after all, these men would still be multimillionaires after the great confiscation).

The big error of so many schemes to rationally improve the human condition has been to spread the belief that there must be some great event in order for the new order of things to take hold, that rationality must be stoked by irrationality in order to work. That’s Leninism in a nutshell. But if society is ever going to be organized rationally, getting there is going to be very boring.

I’m curious how you think about progress in a big-picture sense. Reading your book, I thought about the story people like Steven Pinker tell, which is essentially that human history is a bumpy but nonetheless steady march of reason and progress. What’s wrong with this narrative?

Some of the data are pretty compelling about overall improvements in human life. If you look at India just in the past few years, the number of people with access to plumbing has skyrocketed, and disease has correspondingly gone down significantly. This is part of the legacy of Narendra Modi, and it is likely that the new era of authoritarian capitalism, perfected by China with runners-up like Modi, Erdogan, Bolsonaro, and Trump trying to get in on the game, will likely involve some improvements in the standard of living, at least for members of favored groups.

But I’m not sure this counts as overall improvement. For one thing, it is proving to be, in the regimes I’ve cited, at the expense of someone else that the improvements are carried out. What’s more, it will all be for nothing if any of the apocalyptic scenarios of the near future, which all serious people take seriously, comes to pass.

I take Pinker’s point about how quality of life has improved, and yet I look at our civilization’s incapacity to curtail its own destruction. I look at the fact that we’ve built a civilization predicated on the destruction of our own environment, and we’re unable to change course because we’re too blinkered by short-term interests. That doesn’t feel like progress to me.

Pinker probably sincerely believes he’s got an answer to this question, but honestly, when I consider his argument about the steady improvement of things, I just want to say: Well, let’s check back in 50 years. Is the Amazon [River] still there? Have the nuclear weapons been used?

And as for the Enlightenment and the purported achievement of perpetual peace in Western Europe in the 20th century, is it not plain that these two great victories had to do, first of all, with the pillaging of the rest of the world, and, second of all, with the fact that since the end of World War II, Western Europe has been surrounded by two superpowers ready to blow up the world if anyone makes a false move? Of course Europeans have been behaving themselves!

Do you see the global resurgence of nativism and right-wing populism as a rejection of Enlightenment principles?

It’s an old dialectic. The populist right is articulating most of its opinions and aims in terms derived from the Enlightenment — distorted terms, but still the same terms. The clearest example of this is the invocation of “freedom of speech” as a bludgeon for pushing extreme-right ideology into the center of public discourse.

Is that to say that the rational and technocratic world built on Enlightenment principles will always produce these sorts of reactionary crises? And what exactly are these populist movements rejecting?

I think it’s a question of managing these tendencies so that they don’t rise to crisis level: managing them without heavy-handedly suppressing them, and at the same time without nurturing them. That’s a delicate balance, as we’ve been seeing in the past few years.

When I was a kid, I assumed it was good to allow Nazi parades in Skokie or wherever, in part because I believed this was an effective form of containment. I see now that I took for granted that these parades would never build to anything truly threatening, and I think it’s impossible to think that anymore. The parades have moved online, but with that minor difference accounted for, they are much, much larger than they were a few decades ago.

I’ll ask what might seem like a strange question: What’s the utility of irrationality in human life? How do our irrational instincts actually serve us?

I place a lot of good things under the heading “irrationality” — not just dreams but also drunkenness, stonedness, artistic creation, listening to stories by the campfire, enjoyment of music and dancing, all sorts of orgiastic revelry, mass events like concerts and sports matches, and so on. I think most people would agree that these things make life worth living. And I think it’s impossible to account for the value of these things in purely utilitarian terms.

I could make a utilitarian case for some of those things, but I know what you mean. Maybe the point here is that the choice isn’t between a rational or irrational society, but rather a question about how best to manage the tensions between these two forces.

That’s right. It’s all about managing it rather than suppressing it or, the opposite approach, letting it run loose. An analogy: Scientists who study addiction have noted the problems biochemically for some people with eating disorders are scarcely distinguishable from drug addictions. You can advise a person to quit heroin cold turkey, but what do you tell them if they’re addicted to food? Irrationality is more like food in this regard than like illicit drugs. You can’t eliminate it, but obviously if you’re bingeing, you’ve got a problem and should get some help.

If you’re right that we can’t contain our own stupidity, how should we think about the role of reason in human life?

I think the value of reason is exaggerated by some and downplayed by others. It’s also very often invoked disingenuously, as a bludgeon to assert one’s will. This is what Nietzsche understood so well about the history of rationalist philosophy, and it’s what we see vividly illustrated countless times each day by Twitter’s “reply guys,” who are always ready to jump in with a “Well, actually” to pretty much anything anyone says, and particularly if that person is a woman or someone they think they can easily upstage.

Now, what they are saying might be true and reasonable, but it’s just obvious that the reason they’re saying it has to do with self-glorification, venal ambition, and other base motives. From a certain point of view, the history of philosophy is a history of reply guys who just happen to be very good at masking the true nature of their project. I don’t necessarily think that, but that thought nevertheless comes to me whenever I hear someone exalting too fervently the importance and the power of reason.

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Developing as Rational Persons: Viewing Our Development in Stages

Stage Six We Reach the Sixth Stage When We Intuitively Think Critically at a  Habitually High Level Across all the Significant Domains of Our Lives

The sixth stage of development, the Master Thinker Stage, is best described in the third person, since it is not clear that any humans living in this age of irrationality qualify as "master" thinkers. It may be that the degree of deep social conditioning that all of us experience renders it unlikely that any of us living today are "master" thinkers. Nevertheless, the concept is a useful one, for it sets out what we are striving for and is, in principle, a stage that some humans might reach.

To some extent, the emergence of "master" thinkers may require the emergence of a "critical" society, a society that so values critical thinking that it systematically rewards those who develop it, a society in which parenting, schooling, social groups, and the mass media cultivate and honor it. When persons must develop their rationality in the face of large-scale irrationality in virtually every domain of their lives, it is much less plausible that any one will achieve the highest possible stage of development.

With these qualifications in the background, we will characterize the master thinker in three ways. The first in terms of "defining feature," "principal challenge," knowledge of thinking," "skill in thinking," and "intellectual traits." The second in terms of most significant "qualities" of mind. The third in terms of inner logic.

Defining Feature : Master thinkers not only have a successful plan for taking charge of their thinking, but are also continually monitoring, revising, and re-thinking strategies for effective thinking. The basic skills of critical thinking have been deeply internalized so that critical thinking is highly intuitive at this level. Through extensive experience and practice in engaging in self-assessment, master thinkers are not only actively analyzing their thinking in all the significant domains of their lives, but are also continually developing new insights into problems at deeper levels of thought. Master thinkers are deeply committed to fair-minded thinking, and have a high level of control over their egocentric nature.

Principal Challenge : To make the highest levels of critical thinking intuitive in every domain of one’s life. To model highly effective critical thinking in an interdisciplinary and practical way.

Knowledge of Thinking : Master thinkers are not only actively and successfully engaged in systematically monitoring the role in their thinking of concepts, assumptions, inferences, implications, points of view, etc., but are also regularly improving that practice. Master thinkers have not only a high degree of knowledge of thinking, but a high degree of practical insight as well. Master thinkers intuitively assess their thinking for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logicalness, etc. Master thinkers have deep insights into the systematic internalization of critical thinking into their habits. Master thinkers deeply understand the role that egocentric and sociocentric thinking plays in the lives of human beings, as well as the complex relationship between thoughts, emotions, drives and behavior.

Skill in Thinking : Master thinkers regularly, effectively, and insightfully critique their own plan for systematic practice, and improve it thereby. Master thinkers consistently monitor their own thoughts. They effectively and insightfully articulate the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their thinking. Their knowledge of the qualities of their thinking is outstanding. Although, as humans they know they will always be fallible (because they must always battle their egocentrism, to some extent), they consistently perform effectively in every domain of their lives.

Intellectual Traits : Naturally inherent in master thinkers are all the essential intellectual characteristics, deeply integrated. Master thinkers have a high degree of intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual responsibility and fair-mindedness. Egocentric and sociocentric thought is quite uncommon in the master thinker, especially with respect to matters of importance. There is a high degree of integration of basic values, beliefs, desires, emotions, and actions.

The Qualities of Mind of a "Master" Thinker

The most significant qualities of mind of a master thinker are as follows. Master thinkers are 1) conscious of the "workings" of their minds, 2) highly integrated, 3) powerful, 4) logical, 5) far-sighted, 6) deep, 7) self-correcting, and 8) emancipated. Let us spell out each in more detail now:

• Master thinkers are conscious of the workings of their minds. -  aware of their own patterns of thought and action -  deliberate in the intellectual moves they make -  give explicit assent to their inner logic

• Master thinkers minds are highly integrated. -  transfer knowledge between different categories of experience -  use insight into foundational concepts and principles to organize large   bodies of information.

• Master thinkers minds are powerful. -  able to generalize knowledge -  in command of the logic of language -  function well with the logic of concepts and questions -  able to reason multi-logically -  using the mind so as to "multiply" comprehension and insight

• Master thinkers minds are logical. -  routinely analyze the logic of things -  committed to comprehensive principles of reason and evidence -  a keen sense of the need for deep consistency

• Master thinkers minds are far-sighted. -  take the long view -  plan their own development -  focus on ultimate values

• Master thinkers think deeply. -  have insight into their own foundational beliefs and values -  grasp the roots of their own thought & emotion -  make sure beliefs are rationally grounded -  consider the deep motives that guide thought, feeling, and action

• Master thinkers minds are self-correcting. -  apply intellectual criteria to their own thoughts, feelings, and behavior -  recognize and critique their own egocentrism & sociocentrism -  sensitive to their own contradictions

• Master thinkers minds are free. -  are energized by rational passions -  have a passion for clarity, accuracy, and other intellectual standards and   for getting at root causes -  are able to make fundamental changes in own life patterns, habits, and    behavior

The Inner Logic of a Master Thinker

Since master thinkers achieve a high level of success in bringing their thoughts, emotions, and actions in line with their espoused ideals, it follows that they would function with a high level of fulfillment and sense of well being. Having formed their identities in terms of reasonability, not in terms of any particular belief or belief system, they are able to shift beliefs without trauma or self-doubt. Seeing through the strategies used by those who would intimidate them by status and external authority, they are able to quietly dissent where others shy away in fear. Being keenly aware of the brevity of human life, they are able to prize and savor ordinary pleasures of daily life. Being committed to growth and deep honesty, they are able to form intimate relationships without mutual self-deception, hidden agendas, or bad faith discontent. Being aware of their place in a much larger world, they act with a realistic sense of what one person can and cannot achieve. They can plan without being possessed by their plans, believe without being trapped in those beliefs, and act without being blind to mistakes implicit in those acts.

The Ideal Thinker

Whether there are or shall ever be master thinkers, and however successful they may come to be, they can never be "ideal" thinkers, for it is not possible for the human mind to function in an "ideal" way. All actual human development is in the context of an innate tendency toward imperfection. However much we develop our potential for rationality, our native egocentricity and conditioned sociocentricity will sometimes become activated. However much we develop our integrity, some contradictions and inconsistencies will escape our notice. However much we develop our insights, there will be other insights we will not develop.

However many points of view we internalize, there will be others that we have no time to enter, master, or profit from. However rich our experience, there will be experiences we shall never have the benefit of. Our minds, however well developed, will always be the minds of finite, fallible, potentially egocentric, potentially sociocentric, potentially prejudiced, potentially irrational creatures. Master thinkers would, as such, be keenly aware of these limitations in themselves and therefore of how far they were from becoming the "ideal" thinker. They would therefore never cease to appreciate the need to grow and learn, never cease to make mistakes but never cease to learn from those mistakes, never cease to discover dimensions of their minds in need of critique and re-thinking and never cease to develop those critiques and perform that re-thinking.

{Elder, L. with Paul, R. (1996). At website  www.criticalthinking.org }

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Rationalism vs. Empiricism

In its most general terms, the dispute between rationalism and empiricism has been taken to concern the extent to which we are dependent upon experience in our effort to gain knowledge of the external world. It is common to think of experience itself as being of two kinds: sense experience, involving our five world-oriented senses, and reflective experience, including conscious awareness of our mental operations. The distinction between the two is drawn primarily by reference to their objects: sense experience allows us to acquire knowledge of external objects, whereas our awareness of our mental operations is responsible for the acquisition of knowledge of our minds. In the dispute between rationalism and empiricism, this distinction is often neglected; rationalist critiques of empiricism usually contend that the latter claims that all our ideas originate with sense experience.

It is generally agreed that most rationalists claim that there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience. To be a rationalist, however, does not require one to claim that our knowledge is acquired independently of any experience: at its core, the Cartesian Cogito depends on our reflective, intuitive awareness of the existence of occurrent thought. Rationalists generally develop their view in two steps. First, they argue that there are cases where the content of our concepts or knowledge outstrips the information that sense experience can provide. Second, they construct accounts of how reason, in some form or other, provides that additional information about the external world.

Most empiricists present complementary lines of thought. First, they develop accounts of how experience alone -- sense experience, reflective experience, or a combination of the two -- provides the information that rationalists cite, insofar as we have it in the first place. Second, while empiricists attack the rationalists’ accounts of how reason is a primary source of concepts or knowledge, they show that reflective understanding can and usually does supply some of the missing links (famously, Locke believed that our idea of substance, in general, is a composite idea, incorporating elements derived from both sensation and reflection, e.g. Essay, 2.23.2).

The distinction between rationalism and empiricism is not without problems. One of the main issues is that almost no author falls neatly into one camp or another: it has been argued that Descartes, for instance, who is commonly regarded as a representative rationalist (at least with regard to metaphysics), had clear empiricist leanings (primarily with regard to natural philosophy, where sense experience plays a crucial role, according to Clarke 1982). Conversely, Locke, who is thought to be a paradigmatic empiricist, argued that reason is on equal footing with experience, when it comes to the knowledge of certain things, most famously of moral truths ( Essay, 4.3.18). In what follows, we clarify what this distinction has traditionally been taken to apply to, as well as point out its (by now) widely-recognized shortcomings.

1.1 Rationalism

1.2 empiricism, 2. the intuition/deduction thesis, 3. the innate knowledge thesis, 4. the innate concept thesis, other internet resources, related entries, 1. introduction.

The dispute between rationalism and empiricism takes place primarily within epistemology, the branch of philosophy devoted to studying the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge. Knowledge itself can be of many different things and is usually divided among three main categories: knowledge of the external world, knowledge of the internal world or self-knowledge, and knowledge of moral and/or aesthetical values. We may find that there are category-specific conditions that must be satisfied for knowledge to occur and that it is easier or more difficult to shape certain questions and answers, depending on whether we focus on the external world or on the values. However, some of the defining questions of general epistemology include the following.

What is the nature of propositional knowledge, knowledge that a particular proposition about the world, ourselves, morality, or beauty is true?

To know a proposition, we must believe it and it must be true, but something more is required, something that distinguishes knowledge from a lucky guess. Let’s call this additional element ‘warrant’. A good deal of philosophical work has been invested in trying to determine the nature of warrant.

How can we gain knowledge?

We can form true beliefs just by making lucky guesses. How to gain warranted beliefs is less clear. Moreover, to know the external world or anything about beauty, for instance, we must be able to think about the external world or about beauty, and it is unclear how we gain the concepts we use in thought or what assurance, if any, we have that the ways in which we divide up the world using our concepts correspond to divisions that actually exist.

What are the limits of our knowledge?

Some aspects of the external world, ourselves, or the moral and aesthetical values may be within the limits of our thought but beyond the limits of our knowledge; faced with competing descriptions of them, we cannot know which description is true. Some aspects of the external world, ourselves, or the moral and aesthetical values may even be beyond the limits of our thought, so that we cannot form intelligible descriptions of them, let alone know that a particular description is true.

The disagreement between rationalism and empiricism primarily concerns the second question, regarding the sources of our concepts and knowledge. In some instances, the disagreement on this topic results in conflicting responses to the other questions as well. The disagreement may extend to incorporate the nature of warrant or where the limits of our thought and knowledge are. Our focus here will be on the competing rationalist and empiricist responses to the second question.

There are three main theses that are usually seen as relevant for drawing the distinction between rationalism and empiricism, with a focus on the second question. While the first thesis has been traditionally seen as distinguishing between rationalism and empiricism, scholars now mostly agree that most rationalists and empiricists abide by the so-called Intuition/Deduction thesis , concerning the ways in which we become warranted in believing propositions in a particular subject area.

The Intuition/Deduction Thesis : Some propositions in a particular subject area, S, are knowable by us by intuition alone; still others are knowable by being deduced from intuited propositions.

Intuition is a form of direct, immediate insight. Intuition has been likened to (a sort of internal) perception by most rationalists and empiricists alike. Intellectually grasping a proposition, we just “see” it to be true in such a way as to form a true, warranted belief in it. (As discussed in Section 2 below, the nature of this intellectual “seeing” needs explanation.) Deduction is a process in which we derive conclusions from intuited premises through valid arguments, ones in which the conclusion must be true if the premises are true. We intuit, for example, that the number three is prime and that it is greater than two. We then deduce from this knowledge that there is a prime number greater than two. Intuition and deduction thus provide us with knowledge that is independent, for its justification, of experience. This type of knowledge, since Kant, is commonly called “ a priori ”.

We can generate different versions of the Intuition/Deduction thesis by substituting different subject areas for the variable ‘S’. Several rationalists and empiricists take mathematics to be knowable by intuition and deduction. Some place ethical truths in this category. Some include metaphysical claims, such as that God exists, we have free will, and our mind and body are distinct substances.

The second thesis that is relevant to the distinction between rationalism and empiricism is the Innate Knowledge thesis .

The Innate Knowledge Thesis : We have knowledge of some truths in a particular subject area, S, as part of our nature.

The Innate Knowledge thesis asserts the existence of knowledge whose source is our own nature: we are born with this knowledge; it doesn’t depend, for its justification, on our accessing it via particular experiences. Our innate knowledge is not learned through either experience or intuition/deduction. It is just part of our nature. Experiences may trigger a process by which we bring this knowledge to consciousness, but these experiences do not provide us with the knowledge itself. It has in some way been with us all along. According to some rationalists, we gained the knowledge in an earlier existence. According to others, God provided us with it at creation. Still others say it is part of our nature through natural selection.

We get different versions of the Innate Knowledge thesis by substituting different subject areas for the variable ‘S’. The more subjects included within the range of the thesis or the more controversial the claim to have knowledge in them, the more radical the form of rationalism. Stronger and weaker understandings of warrant yield stronger and weaker versions of the thesis as well. Empiricists reject this thesis: Locke, for instance, dedicates the whole first book of the Essay to show that such knowledge, even if it existed, would be of little use to us.

The third important thesis that is relevant to the distinction between rationalism and empiricism is the Innate Concept thesis.

The Innate Concept Thesis : We have some of the concepts we employ in a particular subject area, S, as part of our rational nature.

According to the Innate Concept thesis, some of our concepts are not gained from experience. They are part of our rational nature in such a way that, while sense experiences may trigger a process by which they are brought to consciousness, experience does not provide the concepts or determine the information they contain. Some claim that the Innate Concept thesis is entailed by the Innate Knowledge Thesis; a particular instance of knowledge can only be innate if the concepts that are contained in the known proposition are also innate. This is Locke’s position ( Essay , 1.4.1). Others, such as Carruthers, argue against this connection (1992, pp. 53–54). The content and strength of the Innate Concept thesis varies with the concepts claimed to be innate. The more a concept seems removed from experience and the mental operations we can perform on experience the more plausibly it may be claimed to be innate. Since we do not experience perfect triangles but do experience pains, our concept of the former is a more promising candidate for being innate than our concept of the latter.

The Intuition/Deduction thesis, the Innate Knowledge thesis, and the Innate Concept thesis are essential to rationalism. Since the Intuition/Deduction thesis is equally important to empiricism, the focus in what follows will be on the other two theses. To be a rationalist is to adopt at least one of them: either the Innate Knowledge thesis, regarding our presumed propositional innate knowledge, or the Innate Concept thesis, regarding our supposed innate knowledge of concepts.

Rationalists vary the strength of their view by adjusting their understanding of warrant. Some take warranted beliefs to be beyond even the slightest doubt and claim that intuition provide beliefs of this high epistemic status. Others interpret warrant more conservatively, say as belief beyond a reasonable doubt, and claim that intuition provide beliefs of that caliber. Still another dimension of rationalism depends on how its proponents understand the connection between intuition, on the one hand, and truth, on the other. Some take intuition to be infallible, claiming that whatever we intuit must be true. Others allow for the possibility of false intuited propositions.

Two other closely related theses are generally adopted by rationalists, although one can certainly be a rationalist without adopting either of them. The first is that sense experience cannot provide what we gain from reason.

The Indispensability of Reason Thesis : The knowledge we gain in subject area, S, by intuition and deduction, as well as the ideas and instances of knowledge in S that are innate to us, could not have been gained by us through sense experience.

The second is that reason is superior to sense experience as a source of knowledge.

The Superiority of Reason Thesis : The knowledge we gain in subject area S by intuition and deduction or have innately is superior to any knowledge gained by sense experience.

How reason is superior needs explanation, and rationalists have offered different accounts. One view, generally associated with Descartes ( Rules, Rule II and Rule III, pp. 1–4), is that what we know by intuition is certain, beyond even the slightest doubt, while what we believe, or even know, on the basis of sense experience is at least somewhat uncertain. Another view, generally associated with Plato ( Republic 479e-484c), locates the superiority of a priori knowledge in the objects known. What we know by reason alone, a Platonic form, say, is superior in an important metaphysical way, e.g. unchanging, eternal, perfect, a higher degree of being, to what we are aware of through sense experience.

Most forms of rationalism involve notable commitments to other philosophical positions. One is a commitment to the denial of scepticism for at least some area of knowledge. If we claim to know some truths by intuition or deduction or to have some innate knowledge, we obviously reject scepticism with regard to those truths. Rationalism in the form of the Intuition/Deduction thesis is also committed to epistemic foundationalism, the view that we know some truths without basing our belief in them on any others and that we then use this foundational knowledge to know more truths.

Empiricists also endorse the Intuition/Deduction thesis, but in a more restricted sense than the rationalists: this thesis applies only to relations of the contents of our minds, not also about empirical facts, learned from the external world. By contrast, empiricists reject the Innate Knowledge and Innate Concept theses. Insofar as we have knowledge in a subject, our knowledge is gained , not only triggered, by our experiences, be they sensorial or reflective. Experience is, thus, our only source of ideas. Moreover, they reject the corresponding version of the Superiority of Reason thesis. Since reason alone does not give us any knowledge, it certainly does not give us superior knowledge. Empiricists need not reject the Indispensability of Reason thesis, but most of them do.

The main characteristic of empiricism, however, is that it endorses a version of the following claim for some subject area:

The Empiricism Thesis : We have no source of knowledge in S or for the concepts we use in S other than experience.

To be clear, the Empiricism thesis does not entail that we have empirical knowledge. It entails that knowledge can only be gained, if at all , by experience. Empiricists may assert, as some do for some subjects, that the rationalists are correct to claim that experience cannot give us knowledge. The conclusion they draw from this rationalist lesson is that we do not know at all. This is, indeed, Hume's position with regard to causation, which, he argues, is not actually known, but only presupposed to be holding true, in virtue of a particular habit of our minds.

We have stated the basic claims of rationalism and empiricism so that each is relative to a particular subject area. Rationalism and empiricism, so relativized, need not conflict. We can be rationalists in mathematics or a particular area of mathematics and empiricists in all or some of the physical sciences. Rationalism and empiricism only conflict when formulated to cover the same subject. Then the debate, Rationalism vs. Empiricism, is joined. The fact that philosophers can be both rationalists and empiricists has implications for the classification schemes often employed in the history of philosophy, especially the one traditionally used to describe the Early Modern Period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries leading up to Kant. It is standard practice to group the philosophers of this period as either rationalists or empiricists and to suggest that those under one heading share a common agenda in opposition to those under the other. Thus, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are the Continental Rationalists in opposition to Locke, Hume, and Reid, the British Empiricists. Such general classification schemes should only be adopted with great caution. The views of the individual philosophers are a lot more subtle and complex than the simple-minded classification suggests. (See Loeb (1981) and Kenny (1986) for important discussions of this point.) Locke rejects rationalism in the form of any version of the Innate Knowledge or Innate Concept theses, but he nonetheless adopts the Intuition/Deduction thesis with regard to our knowledge of God’s existence, in addition to our knowledge of mathematics and morality. Descartes and Locke have remarkably similar views on the nature of our ideas, even though Descartes takes many to be innate, while Locke ties them all to experience. The rationalist/empiricist classification also encourages us to expect the philosophers on each side of the divide to have common research programs in areas beyond epistemology. Thus, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are mistakenly seen as applying a reason-centered epistemology to a common metaphysical agenda, with each trying to improve on the efforts of the one before, while Locke, Hume, and Reid are mistakenly seen as gradually rejecting those metaphysical claims, with each consciously trying to improve on the efforts of his predecessors. It is also important to note that the rationalist/empiricist distinction is not exhaustive of the possible sources of knowledge. One might claim, for example, that we can gain knowledge in a particular area by a form of Divine revelation or insight that is a product of neither reason nor sense experience. In short, when used carelessly, the labels ‘rationalist’ and ‘empiricist,’ as well as the slogan that is the title of this essay, ‘Rationalism vs. Empiricism,’ can impede rather than advance our understanding.

An important wrinkle for using this classification scheme in the history of philosophy is that it leaves out discussions of philosophical figures who did not focus their efforts on understanding whether innate knowledge is possible or even fruitful to have. Philosophy in the early modern period, in particular, is a lot richer than this artificial, simplifying distinction makes it sound. There is no clear way of grouping Hobbes with either camp, let alone Elizabeth of Bohemia, Anne Conway, George Berkeley, Émilie du Châtelet, or Mary Shepherd. This distinction, initially applied by Kant, is responsible for giving us a very restrictive philosophical canon, which does not take into account developments in the philosophy of emotions, philosophy of education, and even disputes in areas of philosophy considered more mainstream, like ethics and aesthetics.

Unless restricted to debates regarding the possibility of innate knowledge, this distinction is best left unused. The most interesting form of the debate occurs when we take the relevant subject to be truths about the external world, the world beyond our own minds. A full-fledged rationalist with regard to our knowledge of the external world holds that some external world truths are and must be innate and that this knowledge is superior to any that sense experience could ever provide. The full-fledged empiricist about our knowledge of the external world replies that, when it comes to the nature of the world beyond our own minds, experience is our sole source of information. Reason might inform us of the relations among our ideas, but those ideas themselves can only be gained, and any truths about the external reality they represent can only be known, on the basis of experience. This debate concerning our knowledge of the external world will generally be our main focus in what follows.

Historically, the rationalist/empiricist dispute in epistemology has extended into the area of metaphysics, where philosophers are concerned with the basic nature of reality, including the existence of God and such aspects of our nature as free-will and the relation between the mind and body. Several rationalists (e.g., Descartes, Meditations ) have presented metaphysical theories, which they have claimed to know by intuition and/or deduction alone. Empiricists (e.g., Hume, Treatise) have rejected the theories as either speculation, beyond what we can learn from experience, or nonsensical attempts to describe aspects of the world beyond the concepts experience can provide. The debate raises the issue of metaphysics as an area of knowledge. Kant puts the driving assumption clearly:

The very concept of metaphysics ensures that the sources of metaphysics can’t be empirical. If something could be known through the senses, that would automatically show that it doesn’t belong to metaphysics; that’s an upshot of the meaning of the word ‘metaphysics.’ Its basic principles can never be taken from experience, nor can its basic concepts; for it is not to be physical but metaphysical knowledge, so it must be beyond experience. ( Prolegomena , Preamble, I, p. 7)

The possibility then of metaphysics so understood, as an area of human knowledge, hinges on how we resolve the rationalist/empiricist debate. The debate also extends into ethics. Some moral objectivists (e.g., Ross 1930 and Huemer 2005) take us to know some fundamental objective moral truths by intuition, while some moral skeptics, who reject such knowledge (e.g., Mackie 1977), find the appeal to a faculty of moral intuition utterly implausible. More recently, the rationalist/empiricist debate has extended to discussions (e.g., Bealer 1999 and Alexander & Weinberg 2007) of the very nature of philosophical inquiry: to what extent are philosophical questions to be answered by appeals to reason or experience?

The Intuition/Deduction thesis claims that we can know some propositions by intuition and still more by deduction. Since traditionally this thesis was thought to be rejected by empiricists and adopted only by rationalists, it is useful to become more familiar with it. In a very narrow sense, only rationalists seem to adopt it. However, the current consensus is that most empiricists (e.g., Locke, Hume, Reid) have been willing to accept a version of the thesis, namely inasmuch as it is restricted to propositions solely about the relations among our own concepts. We can, they agree, know by intuition that our concept of God includes our concept of omniscience. Just by examining the concepts, we can intellectually grasp that the one includes the other. The debate between rationalists and empiricists is joined when the former assert, and the latter deny, the Intuition/Deduction thesis with regard to propositions that contain substantive information about the external world. Rationalists, such as Descartes, have claimed that we can know by intuition and deduction that God exists and created the world, that our mind and body are distinct substances, and that the angles of a triangle equal two right angles, where all of these claims are truths about an external reality independent of our thought. Such substantive versions of the Intuition/Deduction thesis are our concern in this section.

One defense of the Intuition/Deduction thesis assumes that we know some substantive external world truths, adds an analysis of what knowledge requires, and concludes that our knowledge must result from intuition and deduction. Rationalists and empiricists alike claim that certainty is required for scientia (which is a type of absolute knowledge of the necessary connections that would explain why certain things are a certain way) and that certainty about the external world is beyond what empirical evidence can provide. Empiricists seem happy to then conclude that the type of knowledge of the external world that we can acquire does not have this high degree of certainty and is, thus, not scientia . This is because we can never be sure our sensory impressions are not part of a dream or a massive, demon orchestrated, deception. A rationalist like Descartes of the Meditations , claims that only intuition can provide the certainty needed for such knowledge. This, after his arguing in the Rules that, when we “review all the actions of the intellect by means of which we are able to arrive at a knowledge of things with no fear of being mistaken,” we “recognize only two: intuition and deduction” ( Rules , Rule III, p. 3).

This line of argument is one of the least compelling in the rationalist arsenal. First, the assumption that knowledge requires certainty comes at a heavy cost, as it rules out so much of what we commonly take ourselves to know. Second, as many contemporary rationalists accept, intuition is not always a source of certain knowledge. The possibility of a deceiver gives us a reason to doubt our intuitions as well as our empirical beliefs. For all we know, a deceiver might cause us to intuit false propositions, just as one might cause us to have perceptions of nonexistent objects. Descartes’s classic way of meeting this challenge in the Meditations is to argue that we can know with certainty that no such deceiver interferes with our intuitions and deductions. They are infallible, as God guarantees their truth. The problem, known as the Cartesian Circle, is that Descartes’s account of how we gain this knowledge begs the question, by attempting to deduce the conclusion that all our intuitions are true from intuited premises. Moreover, his account does not touch a remaining problem that he himself notes ( Rules , Rule VII, p. 7): Deductions of any appreciable length rely on our fallible memory.

A more plausible argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis again assumes that we know some particular, external world truths, and then appeals to the nature of what we know, rather than to the nature of knowledge itself, to argue that our knowledge must result from intuition and deduction. Leibniz, in New Essays , tells us the following:

The senses, although they are necessary for all our actual knowledge, are not sufficient to give us the whole of it, since the senses never give anything but instances, that is to say particular or individual truths. Now all the instances which confirm a general truth, however numerous they may be, are not sufficient to establish the universal necessity of this same truth, for it does not follow that what happened before will happen in the same way again. … From which it appears that necessary truths, such as we find in pure mathematics, and particularly in arithmetic and geometry, must have principles whose proof does not depend on instances, nor consequently on the testimony of the senses, although without the senses it would never have occurred to us to think of them… ( New Essays , Preface, pp. 150–151)

Leibniz goes on to describe our mathematical knowledge as “innate,” and his argument is more commonly directed to support the Innate Knowledge thesis rather than the Intuition/Deduction thesis. For our purposes here, we can relate it to the latter, however: We have substantive knowledge about the external world in mathematics, and what we know in that area, we know to be necessarily true. Experience cannot warrant beliefs about what is necessarily the case. Hence, experience cannot be the source of our knowledge. The best explanation of our knowledge is that we gain it by intuition and deduction. Leibniz mentions logic, metaphysics, and morals as other areas in which our knowledge similarly outstrips what experience can provide. Judgments in logic and metaphysics involve forms of necessity beyond what experience can support. Judgments in morals involve a form of obligation or value that lies beyond experience, which only informs us about what is the case rather than about what ought to be.

The strength of this argument varies with its examples of purported knowledge. Insofar as we focus on controversial claims in metaphysics, e.g., that God exists, that our mind is a distinct substance from our body, the initial premise that we know the claims is less than compelling. Taken with regard to other areas, however, the argument clearly has legs. We know a great deal of mathematics, and what we know, we know to be necessarily true. None of our experiences warrants a belief in such necessity, and we do not seem to base our knowledge on any experiences. The warrant that provides us with knowledge arises from an intellectual grasp of the propositions which is clearly part of our learning. Similarly, we seem to have such moral knowledge as that, all other things being equal, it is wrong to break a promise and that pleasure is intrinsically good. No empirical lesson about how things are can warrant such knowledge of how they ought to be.

This argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis raises additional questions which rationalists must answer. Insofar as they maintain that our knowledge of necessary truths in mathematics or elsewhere by intuition and deduction is substantive knowledge of the external world, they owe us an account of this form of necessity. Many empiricists stand ready to argue that “necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about” (Quine 1966, p. 174). Similarly, if rationalists claim that our knowledge in morals is knowledge of an objective form of obligation, they owe us an account of how objective values are part of a world of apparently valueless facts.

Perhaps most of all, any defenders of the Intuition/Deduction thesis owe us an account of what intuition is and how it provides warranted true beliefs about the external world. What is it to intuit a proposition and how does that act of intuition support a warranted belief? Their argument presents intuition and deduction as an explanation of assumed knowledge that can’t—they say—be explained by experience, but such an explanation by intuition and deduction requires that we have a clear understanding of intuition and how it supports warranted beliefs. Metaphorical characterizations of intuition as intellectual “grasping” or “seeing” are not enough, and if intuition is some form of intellectual “grasping,” it appears that all that is grasped is relations among our concepts, rather than facts about the external world, as the empiricists defenders of intuition and deduction argue. One current approach to the issue involves an appeal to Phenomenal Conservatism (Huemer 2001), the principle that if it seems to one as if something is the case, then one is prima facie justified in believing that it is so. Intuitions are then taken to be a particular sort of seeming or appearance: “[A]n intuition that p is a state of its seeming to one that p that is not dependent on inference from other beliefs and that results from thinking about p, as opposed to perceiving, remembering, or introspecting” (Huemer 2005, p. 102). Just as it can visually seem or appear to one as if there’s a tree outside the window, it can intellectually seem or appear to one as if nothing can be both entirely red and entirely green. This approach aims to demystify intuitions; they are but one more form of seeming-state along with ones we gain from sense perception, memory, and introspection. It does not, however, tell us all we need to know. Any intellectual faculty, whether it be sense perception, memory, introspection or intuition, provides us with warranted beliefs only if it is generally reliable. The reliability of sense perception stems from the causal connection between how external objects are and how we experience them. What accounts for the reliability of our intuitions regarding the external world? Is our intuition of a particular true proposition the outcome of some causal interaction between ourselves and some aspect of the world? What aspect? What is the nature of this causal interaction? That the number three is prime does not appear to cause anything, let alone our intuition that it is prime. As Michael Huemer (2005, p. 123) points out in mounting his own defense of moral intuitionism, “The challenge for the moral realist, then, is to explain how it would be anything more than chance if my moral beliefs were true, given that I do not interact with moral properties.”

These issues are made all the more pressing by the classic empiricist response to the argument. The reply is generally credited to Hume and begins with a division of all true propositions into two categories.

All the objects of human reason or inquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, “Relations of Ideas,” and “Matters of Fact.” Of the first are the sciences of Geometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic, and, in short, every affirmation which is either intuitively or demonstratively certain. That the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the two sides is a proposition which expresses a relation between these figures. That three times five is equal to half of thirty expresses a relation between these numbers. Propositions of this kind are discoverable by the mere operation of thought, without dependence on what is anywhere existent in the universe. Though there never were a circle or triangle in nature, the truths demonstrated by Euclid would forever retain their certainty and evidence. Matters of fact, which are the second objects of human reason, are not ascertained in the same manner, nor is our evidence of their truth, however great, of a like nature with the foregoing. The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible, because it can never imply a contradiction and is conceived by the mind with the same facility and distinctness as if ever so conformable to reality. ( Enquiry , 4.1, p. 24)

Intuition and deduction can provide us with knowledge of necessary truths such as those found in mathematics and logic, but such knowledge is not substantive knowledge of the external world. It is only knowledge of the relations of our own ideas. If the rationalist shifts the argument so it appeals to knowledge in morals, Hume’s reply is to offer an analysis of our moral concepts by which such knowledge is empirically gained knowledge of matters of fact.

Morals and criticism are not so properly objects of the understanding as of taste and sentiment. Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt more properly than perceived. Or if we reason concerning it and endeavor to fix the standard, we regard a new fact, to wit, the general taste of mankind, or some other fact which may be the object of reasoning and inquiry. ( Enquiry , 12.3, p. 122)

If the rationalist appeals to our knowledge in metaphysics to support the argument, Hume denies that we have such knowledge.

If we take in our hand any volume--of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance--let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames, for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. ( Enquiry , 12.3, p. 123)

An updated version of this general empiricist reply, with an increased emphasis on language and the nature of meaning, is given in the twentieth-century by A. J. Ayer’s version of logical positivism. Adopting positivism’s verification theory of meaning, Ayer assigns every cognitively meaningful sentence to one of two categories: either it is a tautology, and so true solely by virtue of the meaning of its terms and provides no substantive information about the world, or it is open to empirical verification. There is, then, no room for knowledge about the external world by intuition or deduction.

There can be no a priori knowledge of reality. For … the truths of pure reason, the propositions which we know to be valid independently of all experience, are so only in virtue of their lack of factual content … [By contrast] empirical propositions are one and all hypotheses which may be confirmed or discredited in actual sense experience. (Ayer 1952, pp. 86; 93–94)

The rationalists’ argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis goes wrong at the start, according to empiricists, by assuming that we can have substantive knowledge of the external world that outstrips what experience can warrant. We cannot.

This empiricist reply faces challenges of its own. Our knowledge of mathematics seems to be about something more than our own concepts. Our knowledge of moral judgments seems to concern not just how we feel or act but how we ought to behave. The general principles that provide a basis for the empiricist view, e.g. Hume’s overall account of our ideas, the Verification Principle of Meaning, are problematic in their own right.

In all, rationalists have an argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis relative to our substantive knowledge of the external world, but its success rests on how well they can answer questions about the nature and epistemic force of intuition made all the more pressing by the classic empiricist reply.

The Innate Knowledge thesis asserts that we have a priori knowledge, that is knowledge independent, for its justification, of sense experience, as part of our rational nature. Experience may trigger our awareness of this knowledge, but it does not provide us with it. The knowledge is already there.

Plato presents an early version of the Innate Knowledge thesis in the Meno as the doctrine of knowledge by recollection. The doctrine is motivated in part by a paradox that arises when we attempt to explain the nature of inquiry. How do we gain knowledge of a theorem in geometry? We inquire into the matter. Yet, knowledge by inquiry seems impossible ( Meno , 80d-e). We either already know the theorem at the start of our investigation or we do not. If we already have the knowledge, there is no place for inquiry. If we lack the knowledge, we don’t know what we are seeking and cannot recognize it when we find it. Either way we cannot gain knowledge of the theorem by inquiry. Yet, we do know some theorems.

The doctrine of knowledge by recollection offers a solution. When we inquire into the truth of a theorem, we both do and do not already know it. We have knowledge in the form of a memory gained from our soul’s knowledge of the theorem prior to its union with our body. We also lack some knowledge because, in our soul’s unification with the body, it has forgotten the knowledge and now needs to recollect it. Thus, learning the theorem allows us, in effect, to recall what we already know.

Plato famously illustrates the doctrine with an exchange between Socrates and a young slave, in which Socrates guides the slave from ignorance to mathematical knowledge. The slave’s experiences, in the form of Socrates’ questions and illustrations, are the occasion for his recollection of what he learned previously. Plato’s metaphysics provides additional support for the Innate Knowledge Thesis. Since our knowledge is of abstract, eternal Forms, which clearly lie beyond our sensory experience, it is independent, for its justification, of experience.

Contemporary supporters of Plato’s position are scarce. The initial paradox, which Plato describes as a “trick argument” ( Meno , 80e), rings sophistical. The metaphysical assumptions in the solution need justification. The solution does not answer the basic question: Just how did the slave’s soul learn the theorem? The Intuition/Deduction thesis offers an equally, if not more, plausible account of how the slave gains this type of knowledge that is independent of experience. Nonetheless, Plato’s position illustrates the kind of reasoning that has caused many philosophers to adopt some form of the Innate Knowledge thesis. We are confident that we know certain propositions about the external world, but there seems to be no adequate explanation of how we gained this knowledge short of saying that it is innate. Its content is beyond what we directly gain in experience, as well as what we can gain by performing mental operations on what experience provides. It does not seem to be based on an intuition or deduction. That it is innate in us appears to be the best explanation.

Noam Chomsky argues along similar lines in presenting what he describes as a “rationalist conception of the nature of language” (1975, p. 129). Chomsky argues that the experiences available to language learners are far too sparse to account for their knowledge of their language. To explain language acquisition, we must assume that learners have an innate knowledge of a universal grammar capturing the common deep structure of natural languages. It is important to note that Chomsky’s language learners do not know particular propositions describing a universal grammar. They have a set of innate capacities or dispositions which enable and determine their language development. Chomsky gives us a theory of innate learning capacities or structures rather than a theory of innate knowledge. His view does not support the Innate Knowledge thesis as rationalists have traditionally understood it. As one commentator puts it, “Chomsky’s principles … are innate neither in the sense that we are explicitly aware of them, nor in the sense that we have a disposition to recognize their truth as obvious under appropriate circumstances. And hence it is by no means clear that Chomsky is correct in seeing his theory as following the traditional rationalist account of the acquisition of knowledge” (Cottingham 1984, p. 124). Indeed, such a theory, which places nativism at the level of mental capacities or structures enabling us to acquire certain types of knowledge rather than at the level of knowledge we already posses, is akin to an empiricist take on the issue. Locke and Reid, for instance, believe that the human mind is endowed with certain abilities that, when developed in the usual course of nature, will lead us to acquire useful knowledge of the external world. The main idea is that it is part of our biology to have a digestive system that, when fed the right kind of food, allows us to process the required nutrients to enable us to continue to live for a while. Similarly, it is part of our biology to have a mental architecture that, when fed the right kind of information and experiences, allows us to process that information and transform it into knowledge. The knowledge itself is no more innate than the processed nutrients are. On a view like this, no knowledge is innate; however, we are born with certain capabilities and disposition that enable us to acquire knowledge, just as we are equipped with certain organs that allow our bodies to function well while we’re alive.

Peter Carruthers (1992) argues that we have innate knowledge of the principles of folk-psychology. Folk-psychology is a network of common-sense generalizations that hold independently of context or culture and concern the relationships of mental states to one another, to the environment and states of the body and to behavior (1992, p. 115). It includes such beliefs as that pains tend to be caused by injury, that pains tend to prevent us from concentrating on tasks, and that perceptions are generally caused by the appropriate state of the environment. Carruthers notes the complexity of folk-psychology, along with its success in explaining our behavior and the fact that its explanations appeal to such unobservables as beliefs, desires, feelings, and thoughts. He argues that the complexity, universality, and depth of folk-psychological principles outstrips what experience can provide, especially to young children who by their fifth year already know a great many of them. This knowledge is also not the result of intuition or deduction; folk-psychological generalizations are not seen to be true in an act of intellectual insight. Carruthers concludes, “[The problem] concerning the child’s acquisition of psychological generalizations cannot be solved, unless we suppose that much of folk-psychology is already innate, triggered locally by the child’s experience of itself and others, rather than learned” (1992, p. 121).

Empiricists, and some rationalists, attack the Innate Knowledge thesis in two main ways. First, they offer accounts of how sense experience or intuition and deduction provide the knowledge that is claimed to be innate. Second, they directly criticize the Innate Knowledge thesis itself. The classic statement of this second line of attack is presented in Locke’s Essay . Locke raises the issue of just what innate knowledge is. Particular instances of knowledge are supposed to be in our minds as part of our rational make-up, but how are they “in our minds”? If the implication is that we all consciously have this knowledge, it is plainly false. Propositions often given as examples of innate knowledge, even such plausible candidates as the principle that the same thing cannot both be and not be, are not consciously accepted by children and those with severe cognitive limitations. If the point of calling such principles “innate” is not to imply that they are or have been consciously accepted by all rational beings, then it is hard to see what the point is. “No proposition can be said to be in the mind, which it never yet knew, which it never yet was conscious of” ( Essay , 1.2.5). Proponents of innate knowledge might respond that some knowledge is innate in that we have the capacity to have it. That claim, while true, is of little interest, however. “If the capacity of knowing, be the natural impression contended for, all the truths a man ever comes to know, will, by this account, be every one of them, innate; and this great point will amount to no more, but only an improper way of speaking; which whilst it pretends to assert the contrary, says nothing different from those, who deny innate principles. For nobody, I think, ever denied, that the mind was capable of knowing several truths” ( Essay , 1.2.5). Locke thus challenges defenders of the Innate Knowledge thesis to present an account of innate knowledge that allows their position to be both true and interesting. A narrow interpretation of innateness faces counterexamples of rational individuals who do not meet its conditions. A generous interpretation implies that all our knowledge, even that clearly provided by experience, is innate.

Defenders of innate knowledge take up Locke’s challenge. Leibniz responds in New Essays by appealing to an account of innateness in terms of natural potential to avoid Locke’s dilemma. Consider Peter Carruthers’ similar reply.

We have noted that while one form of nativism claims (somewhat implausibly) that knowledge is innate in the sense of being present as such (or at least in propositional form) from birth, it might also be maintained that knowledge is innate in the sense of being innately determined to make its appearance at some stage in childhood. This latter thesis is surely the most plausible version of nativism. (1992, p. 51)

Carruthers claims that our innate knowledge is determined through evolutionary selection (p. 111). Evolution has resulted in our being determined to know certain things (e.g. principles of folk-psychology) at particular stages of our life, as part of our natural development. Experiences provide the occasion for our consciously believing the known propositions but not the basis for our knowledge of them (p. 52). Carruthers thus has a ready reply to Locke’s counterexamples of children and cognitively limited persons who do not believe propositions claimed to be instances of innate knowledge. The former have not yet reached the proper stage of development; the latter are persons in whom natural development has broken down (pp. 49–50).

A serious problem for the Innate Knowledge thesis remains, however. We know a proposition only if it is true, we believe it and our belief is warranted. Rationalists who assert the existence of innate knowledge are not just claiming that, as a matter of human evolution, God’s design or some other factor, at a particular point in our development, certain sorts of experiences trigger our belief in particular propositions in a way that does not involve our learning them from the experiences. Their claim is even bolder: In at least some of these cases, our empirically triggered, but not empirically warranted, belief is nonetheless warranted and so known. How can these beliefs be warranted if they do not gain their warrant from the experiences that cause us to have them or from intuition and deduction?

Some rationalists think that a reliabilist account of warrant provides the answer. According to Reliabilism, beliefs are warranted if they are formed by a process that generally produces true beliefs rather than false ones. The true beliefs that constitute our innate knowledge are warranted, then, because they are formed as the result of a reliable belief-forming process. Carruthers maintains that “Innate beliefs will count as known provided that the process through which they come to be innate is a reliable one (provided, that is, that the process tends to generate beliefs that are true)” (1992, p. 77). He argues that natural selection results in the formation of some beliefs and is a truth-reliable process.

An appeal to Reliabilism, or a similar causal theory of warrant, may well be the best way to develop the Innate Knowledge thesis. Even so, some difficulties remain. First, reliabilist accounts of warrant are themselves quite controversial. Second, rationalists must give an account of innate knowledge that maintains and explains the distinction between innate knowledge and non-innate knowledge, and it is not clear that they will be able to do so within such an account of warrant. Suppose for the sake of argument that we have innate knowledge of some proposition, P . What makes our knowledge that P innate? To sharpen the question, what difference between our knowledge that P and a clear case of non-innate knowledge, say our knowledge that something is red based on our current visual experience of a red table, makes the former innate and the latter not innate? In each case, we have a true, warranted belief. In each case, presumably, our belief gains its warrant from the fact that it meets a particular causal condition, e.g., it is produced by a reliable process. In each case, the causal process is one in which an experience causes us to believe the proposition at hand (that P ; that something is red), for, as defenders of innate knowledge admit, our belief that P is “triggered” by an experience, as is our belief that something is red. The insight behind the Innate Knowledge thesis seems to be that the difference between our innate and non-innate knowledge lies in the relation between our experience and our belief in each case. The experience that causes our belief that P does not “contain” the information that P , while our visual experience of a red table does “contain” the information that something is red. Yet, exactly what is the nature of this containment relation between our experiences, on the one hand, and what we believe, on the other, that is missing in the one case but present in the other? The nature of the experience-belief relation seems quite similar in each. The causal relation between the experience that triggers our belief that P and our belief that P is contingent, as is the fact that the belief-forming process is reliable. The same is true of our experience of a red table and our belief that something is red. The causal relation between the experience and our belief is again contingent. We might have been so constructed that the experience we describe as “being appeared to redly” caused us to believe, not that something is red, but that something is hot. The process that takes us from the experience to our belief is also only contingently reliable. Moreover, if our experience of a red table “contains” the information that something is red, then that fact, not the existence of a reliable belief-forming process between the two, should be the reason why the experience warrants our belief. By appealing to Reliabilism, or some other causal theory of warrant, rationalists may obtain a way to explain how innate knowledge can be warranted. They still need to show how their explanation supports an account of the difference between innate knowledge and non-innate knowledge. So, Locke's criticism -- that there is no true distinction between innate versus non-innate knowledge that rationalists may draw -- still stands, in the face of the best rationalist defense of the Innate Knowledge thesis.

According to the Innate Concept thesis, some of our concepts have not been gained from experience. They are instead part of our rational make-up, and experience simply triggers a process by which we consciously grasp them. The main concern motivating the rationalist should be familiar by now: the content of some concepts seems to outstrip anything we could have gained from experience. An example of this reasoning is presented by Descartes in the Meditations . Although he sometimes seems committed to the view that all our ideas are innate (Adams 1975 and Gotham 2002), he there classifies our ideas as adventitious, invented by us, and innate. Adventitious ideas, such as a sensation of heat, are gained directly through sense experience. Ideas invented by us, such as our idea of a hippogriff, are created by us from other ideas we possess. Innate ideas, such as our ideas of God, of extended matter, of substance, and of a perfect triangle, are placed in our minds by God at creation. Consider Descartes’s argument that our concept of God, as an infinitely perfect being, is innate. Our concept of God is not directly gained in experience, as particular tastes, sensations, and mental images might be. Its content is beyond what we could ever construct by applying available mental operations to what experience directly provides. From experience, we can gain the concept of a being with finite amounts of various perfections, one, for example, that is finitely knowledgeable, powerful and good. We cannot however move from these empirical concepts to the concept of a being of infinite perfection. (“I must not think that, just as my conceptions of rest and darkness are arrived at by negating movement and light, so my perception of the infinite is arrived at not by means of a true idea but by merely negating the finite,” Third Meditation, p. 94.) Descartes supplements this argument by another. Not only is the content of our concept of God beyond what experience can provide, the concept is a prerequisite for our employment of the concept of finite perfection gained from experience. (“My perception of the infinite, that is God, is in some way prior to my perception of the finite, that is myself. For how could I understand that I doubted or desired—that is lacked something—and that I was not wholly perfect, unless there were in me some idea of a more perfect being which enabled me to recognize my own defects by comparison,” Third Meditation, p. 94).

An empiricist response to this general line of argument is given by Locke ( Essay , 1.4.1–25). First, there is the problem of explaining what it is for someone to have an innate concept. If having an innate concept entails consciously entertaining it at present or in the past, then Descartes’s position is open to obvious counterexamples. Young children and people from other cultures do not consciously entertain the concept of God and have not done so. Second, there is the objection that we have no need to appeal to innate concepts in the first place. Contrary to Descartes’s argument, we can explain how experience provides all our ideas, including those the rationalists take to be innate, and with just the content that the rationalists attribute to them.

Leibniz’s New Essays offers a rationalist reply to the first concern. Where Locke puts forth the image of the mind as a blank slate on which experience writes, Leibniz offers us the image of a block of marble, the veins of which determine what sculpted figures it will accept ( New Essays , Preface, p. 153). Leibniz’s metaphor contains an insight that Locke misses. The mind plays a role in determining the nature of its contents. This point does not, however, require the adoption of the Innate Concept thesis. Locke might still point out that we are not required to have the concepts themselves and the ability to use them, innately. In contemporary terms, what we are required to have is the right hardware that allows for the optimal running of the actual software. For Locke, there are no constrains here; for Leibniz, only a particular type of software is, indeed, able to be supported by the extant hardware. Put differently, the hardware itself determines what software can be optimally run, for a Leibnizian.

Rationalists have responded to the second part of the empiricist attack on the Innate Concept thesis—the empiricists’ claim that the thesis is without basis, as all our ideas can be explained as derived from experience—by focusing on difficulties in the empiricists’ attempts to give such an explanation. The difficulties are illustrated by Locke’s account. According to Locke, experience consists in external sensation and inner reflection. All our ideas are either simple or complex, with the former being received by us passively in sensation or reflection and the latter being built by the mind from simple materials through various mental operations. Right at the start, the account of how simple ideas are gained is open to an obvious counterexample acknowledged, but then set aside, by Hume in presenting his own empiricist theory. Consider the mental image of a particular shade of blue. If Locke is right, the idea is a simple one and should be passively received by the mind through experience. Hume points out otherwise:

Suppose therefore a person to have enjoyed his sight for thirty years and to have become perfectly acquainted with colors of all kinds, except one particular shade of blue, for instance, which it never has been his fortune to meet with; let all the different shades of that color, except that single one, be placed before him, descending gradually from the deepest to the lightest, it is plain that he will perceive a blank where that shade is wanting and will be sensible that there is a greater distance in that place between the contiguous colors than in any other. Now I ask whether it be possible for him, from his own imagination, to supply this deficiency and raise up to himself the idea of that particular shade, though it had never been conveyed to him by his senses? I believe there are but few will be of the opinion that he can… ( Enquiry , 2, pp. 15–16)

Even when it comes to such simple ideas as the image of a particular shade of blue, the mind seems to be more than a blank slate on which experience writes. The main question is whether the veins in Leibniz’s metaphor should count as part of the knowledge or just as part of our biological mental architecture: all the knowledge we can ever acquire is constrained by the type of beings we are. This does not require our positing that concepts be part of the inner workings, at the beginning of our lives.

On the other hand, consider, too, our concept of a particular color, say red. Critics of Locke’s account have pointed out the weaknesses in his explanation of how we gain such a concept by the mental operation of abstraction on individual cases. For one thing, it makes the incorrect assumption that various instances of a particular concept share a common feature. Carruthers puts the objection as follows:

In fact problems arise for empiricists even in connection with the very simplest concepts, such as those of colour. For it is false that all instances of a given colour share some common feature. In which case we cannot acquire the concept of that colour by abstracting the common feature of our experience. Thus consider the concept red . Do all shades of red have something in common? If so, what? It is surely false that individual shades of red consist, as it were, of two distinguishable elements a general redness together with a particular shade. Rather, redness consists in a continuous range of shades, each of which is only just distinguishable from its neighbors. Acquiring the concept red is a matter of learning the extent of the range. (1992, p. 59)

For another thing, Locke’s account of concept acquisition from particular experiences seems circular: “For noticing or attending to a common feature of various things presupposes that you already possess the concept of the feature in question.” (Carruthers 1992, p. 55)

Consider in this regard Locke’s account of how we gain our concept of causation.

In the notice that our senses take of the constant vicissitude of things, we cannot but observe, that several particulars, both qualities and substances; begin to exist; and that they receive this their existence from the due application and operation of some other being. From this observation, we get our ideas of cause and effect. ( Essay , 2.26.1)

We get our concept of causation from our observation that some things receive their existence from the application and operation of some other things. Yet, to be able to make this observation, we must have our minds primed to do so. Rationalists argue that we cannot make this observation unless we already have the concept of causation. Empiricists, on the other hand, argue that our minds are constituted in a certain way, so that we can gain our ideas of causation and of power in a non-circular manner.

Rationalists would argue that Locke’s account of how we gain our idea of power displays a similar circularity.

The mind being every day informed, by the senses, of the alteration of those simple ideas, it observes in things without; and taking notice how one comes to an end, and ceases to be, and another begins to exist which was not before; reflecting also on what passes within itself, and observing a constant change of its ideas, sometimes by the impression of outward objects on the senses, and sometimes by the determination of its own choice; and concluding from what it has so constantly observed to have been, that the like changes will for the future be made in the same things, by like agents, and by the like ways, considers in one thing the possibility of having any of its simple ideas changed, and in another the possibility of making that change; and so comes by that idea which we call power. ( Essay , 2.21.1)

We come by the idea of power though considering the possibility of changes in our ideas made by experiences and our own choices. Yet, to consider this possibility—of some things making a change in others—we must already have a concept of power, rationalists would say. Empiricists, on the other hand, would point out, again, that what we actually need is for our minds to be able to recognize this, by having the correct abilities and faculties. Just as we don’t need to have a concept telling us how it is that we have binocular vision, being able to recognize change would be cashed out by us having the requisite faculty enabling us to do so.

Another way to meet at least some of these challenges to an empiricist account of the origin of our concepts is to revise our understanding of the content of our concepts so as to bring them more in line with what experience will clearly provide. Hume famously takes this approach. Beginning in a way reminiscent of Locke, he distinguishes between two forms of mental contents or “perceptions,” as he calls them: impressions and ideas. Impressions are the contents of our current experiences: our sensations, feelings, emotions, desires, and so on. Ideas are mental contents derived from impressions. Simple ideas are copies of impressions; complex ideas are derived from impressions by “compounding, transposing, augmenting or diminishing” them. Given that all our ideas are thus gained from experience, Hume offers us the following method for determining the content of any idea and thereby the meaning of any term taken to express it.

When we entertain, therefore, any suspicion that a philosophical term is employed without any meaning or idea (as is but too frequent), we need but inquire from what impression is that supposed idea derived ? And if it be impossible to assign any, this will confirm our suspicion. ( Enquiry , 2, p. 16)

Using this test, Hume draws out one of the most important implications of the empiricists’ denial of the Innate Concept thesis. If experience is indeed the source of all ideas, then our experiences also determine the content of our ideas. Our ideas of causation, of substance, of right and wrong have their content determined by the experiences that provide them. Those experiences, Hume argues, are unable to support the content that many rationalists and some empiricists, such as Locke, attribute to the corresponding ideas. Our inability to explain how some concepts, with the contents the rationalists attribute to them, are gained from experience should not lead us to adopt the Innate Concept thesis. It should lead us to accept a more limited view of the contents for those concepts, and thereby a more limited view of our ability to describe and understand the world.

Consider, for example, our idea of causation. Descartes takes it to be innate. Hume’s empiricist account severely limits its content. Our idea of causation is derived from a feeling of expectation rooted in our experiences of the constant conjunction of similar causes and effects.

It appears, then, that this idea of a necessary connection among events arises from a number of similar instances which occur, of the constant conjunction of these events; nor can that idea ever be suggested by any one of these instances surveyed in all possible lights and positions. But there is nothing in a number of instances, different from every single instance, which is supposed to be exactly similar, except only that after a repetition of similar instances the mind is carried by habit, upon the appearance of one event, to expect its usual attendant and to believe that it will exist. This connection, therefore, which we feel in the mind, this customary transition of the imagination from one object to its usual attendant, is the sentiment or impression from which we form the idea of power or necessary connection. ( Enquiry , 7.2, p. 59)

The source of our idea in experience determines its content.

Suitably to this experience, therefore, we may define a cause to be an object followed by another, and where all the objects, similar to the first are followed by objects similar to the second… We may, therefore, suitably to this experience, form another definition of cause and call it an object followed by another, and whose appearance always conveys the thought of the other . ( Enquiry , 7.2, p. 60)

Our claims, and any knowledge we may have, about causal connections in the world turn out, given the limited content of our empirically based concept of causation, to be claims and knowledge about the constant conjunction of events and our own feelings of expectation. Thus, the initial disagreement between rationalists and empiricists about the source of our ideas leads to one about their content and thereby the content of our descriptions and knowledge of the world.

Like philosophical debates generally, the rationalist/empiricist debate ultimately concerns our position in the world, in this case our position as rational inquirers. To what extent do our faculties of reason and experience support our attempts to know and understand our situation?

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analytic/synthetic distinction | a priori justification and knowledge | Ayer, Alfred Jules | Berkeley, George | concepts | Descartes, René | Descartes, René: theory of ideas | epistemology | Hume, David | innate/acquired distinction | innateness: and language | innateness: historical controversies | justification, epistemic: foundationalist theories of | Kant, Immanuel | knowledge: analysis of | Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm | Locke, John | Plato | Quine, Willard Van Orman | reliabilist epistemology | skepticism | Spinoza, Baruch

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Application of Rational Thinking in Business Essay

The field of business is a very complicated branch of our life. Each company has its nuts-and-bolts and which are extremely difficult to overcome. The difficulty the company undergoes is the outcome of various factors, such as human, social and psychological. Besides, the business sphere always involves a constant decision-making process in order to solve tricky problems. This process is quite important since the effect of that decision can be unpredictable and may even lead to a company crash. Still, a rational way of thinking is the most effective approach in business because it excludes emotions and subjective meaning while handling the company. Further, it makes business more organized and well structured, and, finally, it contributes to the higher competitiveness of the company.

Rational thinking denotes the ability to sort out logically the pure facts out of the source. It shows your capability to single out the most important components out of the deluge of information. Next, rational thinking also implies a thorough analysis of those extracted components by using some deductive methods and statistic analysis. Finally, rational thinking means the ability of a person to describe the obtained data to publicity. In general, the role of rational thinking is rather concrete for the reason that it only helps a person discriminate ideas out of wrong presumptions and gives the opportunity to define veritable evidences (Klein, Gary 260).

The business policy covers many issues of our life. It is the source of money and power. The more powerful company you have the more possibilities you meet on your way. Running the company success is not an easy matter since sometimes you should scarify your personal principles in order to promote your company to the advanced level and to enhance its competitiveness.

The above-mentioned idea proves the obvious connection between the business field and rational thinking. To prove that, it is better to explain that by the rule of contraries. First, business without rational thinking does not right exist because business is mostly an analytical field where figures and tablets dominate. As a result, the ability to sort out and analyze is in greater demand. Second, exclusion of rational thinking will distort the actual state of affairs that may lead to an overestimate attitude to the business procedures.

Many companies consider rational analysis as the crucial point in decision-making process and objective assessment of company’s potential. Thus, a famous global training and consulting company, Kepner-Tregoe strictly follows rational thinking strategy and has incredible results. This company is known all over the world due to its great achievements in the business field. Kepner-Tregoe’s high quality production is the result of concentrating on the facts and information, rather than on emotions. Always making constructive decisions, Kepner-Tregoe continues to create research programs and propose three training courses to master rational thinking skills: “problem solving, decision-making, analytical troubleshooting, and project management” (Southern Community College unpaged)

A great number of Universities express their deep concern in the study of rational thinking process. They try to work out different programs for students in order to supply them with all useful information in terms of rational thinking. The outright example of it is Graduate school of business in Australia that specializes in training reasoning skills of students. Their method of training is rather interesting because the major peculiar feature of the study is the practical experience of students. In this respect, students do not have books since they their knowledge will be based on their experience. Consequently, this school is also the supporter of the anecdotal approach in studying rational thinking.

Many companies have different philosophical approaches in handling their business activities. Most of them do their best in creating new streams and trends based on rational and creative thinking. For instance, company Coca-Cola is the most famous company all over the world that has gained the greatest share of the target market. Thus, the company makes an accent on the philosophy rather than on the product itself. This company introduced the co-called “cola” culture into the world of commerce. The scope of Coca-cola culture is that product made by the company has no prototypes among other drinks. That is why, Coca-Cola is not only beverage but also the image.

Coca-Cola Company’s experience also shows that there are cases when rational approach to the decision-making process is not profitable. Although the abuse drinking of Coca-cola does harm to your health, still it is in high demand among the buyers. The great success of the product owes to beneficial advertising of the beverage. For instance, its slogan: “Welcome to the Coke Side of Life” of 2009 is a rational attempt to make the drink more available to customers. This slogan gave the opportunity for customer to be involved in the world of Coca-cola. At first sight, the slogan is the result of creative thinking but after deeper analysis, we could see obvious traces of rational aspect. Hence comes, rationality is the basis for the creative thinking. Further, Coca-Cola Company makes an accent on the philosophy of colors including psychological aspect in it. Red color is the most aggressive one and attracts the most of the audience. Simple but wise approach to colors allowed him to become the most profitable company (Nandy, Ashis unpaged).

On the contrary, the opponent company of Coca-Cola, Pepsi acknowledges rational and sincere way of thinking as the core prerogative of respectable company. An outright competitor of the Coca Cola Company, he proposed the opposite advertising strategy. As results show, there observed a decline in demand (Sturges, David L. and Minor M unpaged).

However, there rare cases people are mostly guided by creative or even spontaneous thinking which is typical for business activities where data and figures are crucial. Such cases are typical of unusual situations when time is more decisive point than gradual rational analysis. If rational thinking helps to solve the problems, creative thinking chooses what problems to solve.

Therefore, after a detailed consideration of the topic, an important conclusion arises. First, rational thinking in business stands on several pillars: “experience, opinion, people, facts and data” (Richetti, Cynthia T. et al. 8) Experience is the basis for the acquired advantages, which is the prerogative for the oldest companies like Coca-cola or Microsoft. Rational thinking is always the result of people’s opinion that forms any possible variants of further solutions. In addition, all the rational outcomes originate from the facts and data obtained by people. This principle helps to organize an effective organizational structure and contributes to the carrying out the most intricate business transactions. Anyway, rational thinking is mutually connected with business and, in its turn, business deposits to mastering of rational thinking process.

Works Cited

Klein, Gary. A. Sources of power: how people make decisions. US: MIT Press, 1999.

Kepner-Tregoe Expands Partnership with Southwestern Community College. Southern Community College. 2004. Web.

Nandy, Ashis Philosophy of Coca Cola Multiuniversity: United States Chapter . 2005.

Richetti, Cynthia T. and Tregoe, Benjamin B. Analytic Processes for School Leaders US: ASCD, 2001.

Sturges, David L. and Minor M. Total Quality Communication Novem. 1999.

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IvyPanda. (2021, November 7). Application of Rational Thinking in Business. https://ivypanda.com/essays/application-of-rational-thinking-in-business/

"Application of Rational Thinking in Business." IvyPanda , 7 Nov. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/application-of-rational-thinking-in-business/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Application of Rational Thinking in Business'. 7 November.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Application of Rational Thinking in Business." November 7, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/application-of-rational-thinking-in-business/.

1. IvyPanda . "Application of Rational Thinking in Business." November 7, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/application-of-rational-thinking-in-business/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Application of Rational Thinking in Business." November 7, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/application-of-rational-thinking-in-business/.

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Rational Thinking – A Skill For Young Minds

Learning is an instinct. Thinking is a skill.

Learning begins at birth. Thinking begins with practice. Learning promises growth. Thinking promises survival.

Harnessing the learning potential of children, from the first day, can help in making them rational thinkers. In fact, it is a child’s natural inquisitiveness that builds the foundation for developing this life skill.

What is rational thinking?

Rational thinking is a process. It refers to the ability to think with reason. It encompasses the ability to draw sensible conclusions from facts, logic and data.

In simple words, if your thoughts are based on facts and not emotions, it is called rational thinking. Rational thinking focuses on resolving problems and achieving goals. It is largely developed by the means of regular practice. This concept requires different skill sets in different situations and is built on some essential parameters such as developing perspectives, making connections, and communicating ideas.

Why is it important to promote rational thinking in children?

It is often said that rational thinking is the key to a child’s seamless existence. It not only aids in the holistic development and character building of children, but it is also essential to problem-solving. Rational thinking is considered to be a stepping stone to success, especially if started young.

Rational thinking is held in such high regard because:

• It enhances analytical power This disciple plays a massive role in improving the vision of children. It expands their capacity to easily grasp things and absorb them much faster. This in turn increases their brainpower and helps them grow up to be more logical and reasonable people.
• It helps in framing individual opinions Rational thinking is the ability to consider, access, organize, and analyze relevant information and then arrive at a systematic conclusion. Through this process, children can sort out different ideas, pick aspects they like best and also voice their opinions more confidently. This in turn helps them gain respect and attention from society, perform well academically and also align themselves to the demands of rapidly changing times.
• It widens insight and intellect Rational thinking encourages little minds to observe, think and question intelligently. This technique helps children to comprehend situations and problems more holistically. Widening the outcomes they can consider, also enables them to stay prepared for both the best as well as the worst. This is an important trait that makes them fit to survive the outside world.

How can rational thinking be promoted in schools and used to enhance young minds?

It’s not surprising that rational thinking has now become an indispensable part of the ever-evolving elementary education system. Research says that by carefully planning classroom experiences, it is possible to train young minds to practice the art of developing logic and reasoning skills. This in turn can help them make better decisions in life.

Here are some rational thinking exercises for children

• Thinking challenges –  Offer a range of intriguing manipulatives. Ask them to classify objects, compare quantities and form individual perceptions by exploring a concept from multiple perspectives.
• Open-ended questions –  Give children a chance to apply what they have learned, consider different situations, think on their feet, problem-solve and boost their self-esteem.
• Different learning styles –  Provide children with lots of random materials to explore. Observe whether they like watching an activity or asking questions and help them strike a balance between the two.
• Decision making –  To help children apply knowledge and evaluate solutions, encourage them to weigh the pros and cons and pick an idea that works best for them.
• Brainstorming –  An excellent learning tool, this critical thinking exercise can give birth to more creativity, better imagination and original thinking. This can lead to constructive inventions, in academics as well as in life.

Contrary to popular opinion, not all thinking is rational. It’s important to adopt the right techniques that can make children ready to meet the challenges of living in a diverse, complex world.

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