Rationality

Rationality is the quality or state of being reasonable, based on facts or reason. Rationality implies the conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons to believe, or of one's actions with one's reasons for action. "Rationality" has different specialized meanings in economics, sociology, psychology, evolutionary biology, and political science.

Determining optimality for rational behavior requires a quantifiable formulation of the problem, and making several key assumptions. When the goal or problem involves making a decision, rationality factors in how much information is available (e.g. comp ...more

Rationality Books

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making

Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck

Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

More rationality books...

Lists

The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel

Heterodox Bookclub

5 books — 2 voters

The Oxford Handbook of Rationality by Alfred R. Mele

Rationality

100 books — 3 voters

Black-and-White Thinking by Kevin Dutton

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe by Steven Novella

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli

Becoming More Rational

18 books — 1 voter

The Collapse of the Weimar Republic by David Abraham

Manifesto of the Communist Party, and Principles of Communism by Karl Marx

Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by Kremlin, Moscow

Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R. by Joseph Stalin

Planned Economies - Socialism

18 books — 2 voters

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky

Pre-Teen Genius

7 books — 4 voters

Science and Spiritual Practices by Rupert Sheldrake

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough

Spiritual Naturalism

126 books — 53 voters

Featured News & Interviews

Readers’ Hit New Books of the Year (So Far)

Read »

Quotes Tagged “Rationality”

“ Now that science has helped us to overcome the awe of the unknown in nature, we are the slaves of social pressures of our own making. When called upon to act independently, we cry for patterns, systems, and authorities. If by enlightenment and intellectual progress we mean the freeing of man from superstitious belief in evil forces, in demons and fairies, in blind fate--in short, the emancipation from fear--then denunciation of what is currently called reason is the greatest service reason can r ...more ”
― Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason

21 likes