Or you could say that it is because people are rational actors, but that rationality is often itself irrational. Reason is a useful and important skill, but re

Or you could say that it is because people are rational actors, but that rationality is often itself irrational. Reason is a useful and important skill, but reason is the manipulation of symbols that exist within our own minds, not autonomously in the external world. If we take reason for granted, apply it without recognizing its subjective nature, and consider its product to be objective knowledge of the world, then we are acting rationally, but it is irrational to do so.