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Very good article! I think it really comes down to the fact that people can rationalize anything nowadays. Get 10 people in a room and they'll all disagree on

Very good article! I think it really comes down to the fact that people can rationalize anything nowadays. Get 10 people in a room and they'll all disagree on what's right and wrong. You know, I always feel like deep down, everybody knows what is really right. Whenever you make a bad decision, you've just got to know that you're rationalizing why it's okay. How could you not? But maybe I'm wrong; I doubt that sociopaths and psychopaths have a true sense of right and wrong. There's stories of these people being in interrogation rooms and revealing all of the atrocities they've committed with no trace of emotion. It's only once they read the faces of their interrogators that they realize other people are horrified. And then they pretend to have remorse because it improves their own chances of a good outcome.

yason 14y ago
> the fact that people can rationalize anything nowadays. That's the whole point of rationalization. Rational process of thinking can be applied to anything, to choices deemed good or bad, much similarly to science which can be (ab)used for purposes deemed good or bad. Nobody can't make a decision based on pure rationalism because anyone half-skilled in rationalizing is able to counter-argue his own argument down. Rational thinking is a valuable tool to gain insight into things but only a fool thinks he can solve dilemmas of good vs. bad with it. Ethics itself is a product of a mind and what mind does is always rational.
- mooism2 14y ago
  You seem to be confusing rationalisation with rational thinking. Rational thinking involves making logical deductions from a set of objectives and constraints to determine what actions to take. Ideally some of the constraints will be ethical, and perhaps some of the objectives will be emotional. Rationalisation involves coming up with reasons to justify a decision that has already been made for other reasons. Perhaps the real reasons do not satisfy the person's conscience. Perhaps the real reasons will not persuade other people. Perhaps the real reasons are emotional and not rational. But the process of inventing these reasons is not allowed to challenge the original decision.
stephengillie 14y ago
Very good article! I think it really comes down to the fact that people can rationalize anything nowadays. Get 10 people in a room and they'll all disagree on what's right and wrong. We know what happens when we put 12 angry men in a room.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  Legendary acting performances?

yason 14y ago

> the fact that people can rationalize anything nowadays. That's the whole point of rationalization. Rational process of thinking can be applied to anything, to choices deemed good or bad, much similarly to science which can be (ab)used for purposes deemed good or bad. Nobody can't make a decision based on pure rationalism because anyone half-skilled in rationalizing is able to counter-argue his own argument down. Rational thinking is a valuable tool to gain insight into things but only a fool thinks he can solve dilemmas of good vs. bad with it. Ethics itself is a product of a mind and what mind does is always rational.

mooism2 14y ago
You seem to be confusing rationalisation with rational thinking. Rational thinking involves making logical deductions from a set of objectives and constraints to determine what actions to take. Ideally some of the constraints will be ethical, and perhaps some of the objectives will be emotional. Rationalisation involves coming up with reasons to justify a decision that has already been made for other reasons. Perhaps the real reasons do not satisfy the person's conscience. Perhaps the real reasons will not persuade other people. Perhaps the real reasons are emotional and not rational. But the process of inventing these reasons is not allowed to challenge the original decision.

stephengillie 14y ago

MartinCron 14y ago
Legendary acting performances?