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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2016-08-18 17:32, William Flynn
Wallace wrote:<br>
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<blockquote
cite="mid:CAO+xQEbpABuOzRKFut46Wnr-VSFkwtPidYoz0rhX1eEPdctMVg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Given
that, we cannot define irrational behavior. spike</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Weight
in on this Anders - please?</span></p>
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<br>
Huh? I thought Caplans definition is pretty clear. There is
epistemic rationality - trying to believe true things - and
instrumental rationality - trying to choose the most effective means
to get one's goals. People can fail at these, and then we may say
they are irrational. <br>
<br>
Sometimes we overestimate how much they know or can think, so it can
be unfair. Sometimes they have goals we do not fully understand, so
we think they are irrational about something while they are actually
pretty rational (a lot of economics is about this). Rational
irrationality is simply due to having goals that make it
instrumentally rational to be epistemically irrational: there is a
goal (which is often hidden to outsiders) that is best served by not
being too epistemically rational. <br>
<br>
A philosopher friend told me about her religious mother responding
to her probing questions about religion when she was young by saying
that she also had that kind of questions, but she decided she was
better off not inquiring. That is rational irrationality: the mother
benefited (perhaps emotionally) from being religious, and suspected
poking too much at her belief foundations would lose the benefit. <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAO+xQEbpABuOzRKFut46Wnr-VSFkwtPidYoz0rhX1eEPdctMVg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I
think if one cannot define a word one should not use it.
On Match.com, which I was on a few years ago, I had to
pick: Religious, Spiritual but not Religious, neither
Spiritual nor Religious. I picked the second one but
cannot to this day say what Spiritual means. I just did
not want to severely limit my matches. But I do not use
words that if I were asked I could not define to my
satisfaction. So, for ex., I do not use these words:
intuition, instinct, spiritual.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">(as
for your engineers, I would think that 'whatever works' is
rational and whatever doesn't, despite theory, first
impression, or expert opinion to the contrary, is
irrational)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">bill
w</span></p>
</div>
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<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 10:06 AM, Dan
TheBookMan <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:danust2012@gmail.com" target="_blank">danust2012@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">
<div>This discussion reminds me of Caplan's concept of
rational irrationality:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_irrationality"
target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/<wbr>wiki/Rational_irrationality</a><br>
<br>
<div style="line-height:normal">
<div style="line-height:normal"><span
style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Regards,</span></div>
<div style="line-height:normal"><span
style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><br>
</span></div>
<div>
<div style="line-height:normal"><span
style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Dan</span></div>
<div style="line-height:normal"><span
style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">
Sample my Kindle books via:</span></div>
<div style="line-height:normal"><font
style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"
color="#000000"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://author.to/DanUst"
style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"
target="_blank">http://author.to/DanUst</a></font></div>
</div>
</div>
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<p><br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
</pre>
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