Great Rationality Debate

The Rationality Debate—also called the Great Rationality Debate—is the question of whether humans are rational or not. This issue is a topic in the study of cognition and is important in fields such as economics where it is relevant to the theories of market efficiency.

The idea that man is a rational animal is commonly attributed to Aristotle.

Many studies in experimental psychology have shown that humans often reason in a way that is inaccurate or imperfect—that they do not naturally chose the ideal method or solution. An example of a problem which causes difficulty and debate is the St. Petersburg paradox. This is a lottery which is constructed so that the expected value is infinite but unlikely so that most people will not pay a large fee to play. Gerd Gigerenzer explained that, in this case, mathematicians refined their formulae to model this pragmatic behaviour. Keith Stanovich characterizes this as a Panglossian position in the debate—that humans are fundamentally rational and any variance between the normative position and empirical outcomes may be explained by such adjustments.

See also

• Dual process theory – Psychological theory of how thought can arise in two different ways
• Dysrationalia – Inability to think and behave rationally despite adequate intelligence
• Rational irrationality – Economics concept

References

Sources

• Gigerenzer, Gerd (1991), "How to Make Cognitive Illusions Disappear: Beyond "Heuristics and Biases"" (PDF), European Review of Social Psychology, 2, John Wiley: 83–115, doi:10.1080/14792779143000033
• Stanovich, Keith (2011), Rationality and the Reflective Mind, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195341140
• Stanovich, Keith; West, Richard; Toplak, Maggie (2011), "The Great Rationality Debate", The Science of Reason, Psychology Press, ISBN 9781136939099
• Stein, Edward (1996), Without Good Reason: The Rationality Debate in Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780191584725
• Tetlock, Philip; Mellers, Barbara (January 2002), "The Great Rationality Debate", Psychological Science, 13 (1): 94–99, doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00418