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

Science and Spiritual Practices by Rupert Sheldrake

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough

Spiritual Naturalism

125 books — 54 voters

The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray

The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt

Critical Thinking in the Age of Woke

155 books — 59 voters

The Oxford Handbook of Rationality by Alfred R. Mele

Rationality

100 books — 3 voters

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman

Quantum Computing Since Democritus by Scott Aaronson

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Books metioned in rationally speaking podcast

118 books — 22 voters

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

17 books — 1 voter

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky

Pre-Teen Genius

7 books — 4 voters

Featured News & Interviews

Get Ready! Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026

Read »

Quotes Tagged “Rationality”

“ But there seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously — after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important … so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though h ...more ”
― Robert A. Heinlein, To Sail Beyond the Sunset

56 likes

“ Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality. If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge. ”
― Eliezer Yudkowsky

64 likes

More quotes...