

You Should Probably Study Rationality - lionhearted
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=209

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patinador
Rationality is over priced. Some experiments indicate that people use
rationality to explain things they did, for example under hypnosis they
suggest you should open your umbrella at a party, then you do it and try to
explain why.

In this case rationality is a false distortion of what is going on. Living and
thinking is at a higher level that rationality. We can use computers, logic,
maths and rules to improve our rational mind, but thinking is much more that
rational thinking. Creativity and emotions play a vital role. Destroy emotions
and you loose your memory (citation required), because memorizing is linked to
attention and attention is linked to emotions and feeling.

As a mathematician I can prove a theorem and give a prove, but there is
something creative in finding a proof. Sometimes our mind is a wonderful mind.

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ugh
That’s rationalization which is not the same as rationality. If you were
interested in being rational you would learn as much as you could about
rationalization and try to detect or avoid it.

Rationality is also not the opposite of emotionality. You don’t have to be
Spock to be rational.

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patinador
Thanks for commenting the difference, but what would happen when people use
rational thinking only to construct excuses, that is rationalization of what
they do.

An example: I am a rational people, I will pick certain portion of reality
that allow me to construct a good model of myself, with blind eyes for the
part I don't want to see.

You can use "rational thinking" to construct rationalization of your
behaviour.

Since there is no logical notion of justice, rational thinking and
rationalization are not far away.

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mikemol
Non sequitur; you can't call your actions driven by being a rational person,
yet choose to exclude data points because run counter to your desired
conclusion.

If you're excluding data points because they lead you away from your desired
conclusion, then you're not thinking rationally, you're rationalizing.

