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Paradoxically, you can't be a human and be rational and consider yourself to be rational. You need to work within the limits of the human mind and body. Dependi

Paradoxically, you can't be a human and be rational and consider yourself to be rational. You need to work within the limits of the human mind and body. Depending on the circumstances of your body your bias, impulses, and ability to rationalize things changes completely.

Jensson 4y ago
A rational interpretation of the question "are you rational?" is if you are rational relative to other humans, not that you are a theoretically perfect rational being. Same thing as how "are you tall?" means relative to humans, if you answer "I'm not tall, a skyscraper is tall! No human is tall!" then you didn't understand the question.
- robonerd 4y ago
  > A rational interpretation of the question "are you rational?" is if you are rational relative to other humans, not that you are a theoretically perfect rational being. Experience with people who tout their own rationality has shown me that such people rarely recognize the limits of their rationality. More often than not, they think themselves some sort of rational demigod gracing the irrational masses with their very presence.
  - Jensson 4y ago
    Yes, which is why you shouldn't trust what people say about themselves, and why sometimes you shouldn't say things that are true about yourself since people will take it the wrong way. You find many smart people not calling themselves smart, because many people think that smart people shouldn't call themselves smart, so the smart thing to do is to say that you just were lucky or worked hard etc, because that is what people want to hear. Meta communication like that makes it really hard to gather much information from what people say though, but there is still some informational value in it. If you find some statistical correlation between people saying they have attribute X and what they do otherwise, then that means something. For example, people who are good at X tend to say that they are good at X. Not everyone who is good at X will say it, and some who are bad at X will say they are good anyway, but it still adds some bits of information you can use.

Jensson 4y ago

A rational interpretation of the question "are you rational?" is if you are rational relative to other humans, not that you are a theoretically perfect rational being. Same thing as how "are you tall?" means relative to humans, if you answer "I'm not tall, a skyscraper is tall! No human is tall!" then you didn't understand the question.

robonerd 4y ago
> A rational interpretation of the question "are you rational?" is if you are rational relative to other humans, not that you are a theoretically perfect rational being. Experience with people who tout their own rationality has shown me that such people rarely recognize the limits of their rationality. More often than not, they think themselves some sort of rational demigod gracing the irrational masses with their very presence.
- Jensson 4y ago
  Yes, which is why you shouldn't trust what people say about themselves, and why sometimes you shouldn't say things that are true about yourself since people will take it the wrong way. You find many smart people not calling themselves smart, because many people think that smart people shouldn't call themselves smart, so the smart thing to do is to say that you just were lucky or worked hard etc, because that is what people want to hear. Meta communication like that makes it really hard to gather much information from what people say though, but there is still some informational value in it. If you find some statistical correlation between people saying they have attribute X and what they do otherwise, then that means something. For example, people who are good at X tend to say that they are good at X. Not everyone who is good at X will say it, and some who are bad at X will say they are good anyway, but it still adds some bits of information you can use.