T Fast wrote:
>
> Rationality is internally conferred to some degree. One can be mistaken
> about ends and means and still be rational. Anything more than that and you
> have ascended to the status of a god i.e., perfect foresight. Could we
> please stop throwing the term rational around like it had some connection
> with "rightness" "effective" and the like.
I don't think "rational" is a always synonym for "logical," though it _can_ be. It can (and often does) simply mean "makes sense" or "is intelligible within a certain framework" (but need _not_ be a rigorous formal deduction from that framework, as would be the case if one meant "logical" by it). You yourself note rationality is internaly conferred only "to _some_ degree" (emphasis added).
And frankly, I think it nonsense to interpret a strong or flat argument as claiming the status of a god. That's cheap rhetoric. In fact it's bullshit. You can always argue against a position someone takes, regardless of how strongly they assert it. A god has power to implement his/her diktat.
Carrol
P.S. The meaning of a word as a word _is_ its whole history, not what someone says it ought to mean. And we do haved a nearly godlike :-) source for that:
_Rationality_ in OED
1. The quality of possessing reason; the power of being able to exercise one's reason.
1628 T. SPENCER Logick 49 Rationalitie is the intrinsecall part of man. 1698 FARQUHAR Love & Bottle V. i, Thou hast impudence enough to draw thy rationality in question. 1726 BUTLER Serm. Rolls Chap. vii. 129 Some kind of brute Force within, prevails over the Principle of Rationality. 1777 M. MORGAN Ess. Falstaff 159 [Vice] is inconsistent with moral agency, nay, with rationality itself. 1830 GALT Lawrie T. I. ii. (1849) 5 She spoke with great rationality. 1870 J. H. NEWMAN Gram. Assent II. viii. 274 We call rationality the distinction of man, when compared with other animals.
2. a. The fact of being based on, or agreeable to, reason.
1651 BIGGS New Disp. {page}234 The ingenuity and rationality of it will prevail more then our slender performances. 1681 Whole Duty Nations 20 The Wisdom, and unquestionable Rationality of the Divine Ordination among the Jews. 1744 HARRIS Three Treat. III. I. (1765) 155 [To society] we owe..the very Elegance and Rationality of our Existence. 1806 A. KNOX Rem. I. 29 To preserve the rationality of religion..to secure it from the charge of enthusiasm. 1871 TYNDALL Fragm. Sci. (1879) II. ii. 21 A principle of belief, to which he flatly denies rationality.
b. A rational or reasonable view, practice, etc. Also attrib.
1660 JER. TAYLOR Duct. Dubit. II. ii. rule 6 §69 There are some little rationalities..which are well, and decent and pretty. 1660 BURNEY {Kappa}{geacu}{rho}{delta}. {Delta}{gwfrown}{rho}{omicron}{nu} (1661) 57 The Court of Admiraltie, who depend upon that great head of Rationalities, Iustinian. 1835 F. W. FABER Lett. (1869) 21 Anticipating quite as much danger from the mysticisms of Newman as from the rationalities of Whately. 1865 LECKY Ration. (1878) II. 148 The rights of rationalities became a great question in Europe. 1908 Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. III. 166 Any act..is immediately justified by distorting the mental processes concerned and providing a false explanation that has a plausible ring of rationality. 1933 J. L. GILLIN Social Path. xxvi. 452 Capitalism is characterized by rationality. By that we mean a tendency to long range planning, careful consideration of the adaptation of means to ends, and cold and careful calculation of what measures will bring the greatest gain. 1961 H. M. JOHNSON Sociol. ix. 204 The expression 'economic rationality'..is perhaps confusing, since purely technical rationality in production is also 'economic', although not necessarily economical. 1969 SIMON & STEDRY in Lindzey & Aronson Handbk. Social Psychol. (ed. 2) V. xl. 272 The first [principle] is the assumption of objective rationality, which permits strong predictions to be made about human behavior without the painful necessity of observing people. 1975 T. MCCARTHY tr. Habermas's Legitimation Crisis (1976) II. iii. 46 Output crises have the form of a rationality crisis in which the administrative system does not succeed in reconciling and fulfilling the imperatives received from the economic system. Ibid. v. 62 A rationality deficit can arise because contradictory steering imperatives..are then operative within the administrative system. 1976 H. LEIBENSTEIN Beyond Economic Man v. 73 Suppose, but only for a moment, that rationality is interpreted as 'calculatedness'.
3. The tendency to regard everything from a purely rational point of view.
1791 BOSWELL Johnson an. 1784, 5 May, Even men of pretty dry rationality may believe that there was an intermediate interposition of Divine Providence. 1876 GEO. ELIOT Dan. Der. VIII. lviii, Phlegmatic rationality stares and shakes its head at these unaccountable prepossessions.
{dag}4. Math. The quality of being rational (5a). Obs.
1570 BILLINGSLEY Euclid x. prop. xviii. 247 These wordes in length and in power are neuer referred to rationalitie, or irrationalitie.
{dag}5. = RATIONALE 2. Obs. rare{em}1.
1646 SIR T. BROWNE Pseud. Ep. 373 Many well directed intentions, whose rationalities will never beare a rigid examination.
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