On 01/04/2014 10:19 AM, John Kennison wrote: > I am interested in two things. One is to explore the conundrum that it > seems to be rational to sometimes engage in non-rational behavior. How can > this be the case? Do humans have a need to be irrational at times?
What is inadequate about my previous response to this? The way I see it, the result, the end-point, final position someone takes is neither rational nor irrational. It's the weighing of various positions against each other that is rational (or irrational). Hence, people will, almost by definition, arrive at different conclusions because the metrics by which they weigh their options against one another will be different. I.e. what seems like a reasonable conclusion to one person will seem like nonsense to someone else who reasons with different assumptions or inferential rules. That seems, to me, like a good answer to your question. Even _if_ all humans use rational decision making procedures, their conclusions can seem "irrational" to each other. Only those closest to (within) _your_ clique will seem to arrive at "rational" conclusions because they reason based on the same assumptions and calculi. Now, that carries us to how/whether/why humans would use irrational inference procedures. But I think we would _need_ some evidence that people actually use irrational reasoning procedures. I think even so-called "irrational" things like _emotions_ are, somewhere deep down, rational. Those emotions are an evolutionarily selected decision-making ability that has its own calculus. > If so, how what is the nature of this need? How deep is it? How did it > arise? I have some theories (hardly original with me) but I first wanted to > pose the question in a neutral way. Although I don't quite buy Kahneman's "fast" and "slow" circuits, I think it's a useful fiction. We have various ways of thinking (various ways of being rational) that we engage in various circumstances. The reasoning procedures I use when, say, solving an engineering problem are very different from the reasoning procedures I use when arguing with relatives at dinner, or advising a drug abusing friend. Of course, some people might have a richer set of different rationality procedures. Perhaps more autistic people stick to a few ways of being rational, whereas flaky artist types, doff and don ways of thinking like scarves or hats? -- ⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella Occam's razor makes the cutting clean ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
