"Irrational" is a word I use quite a lot. I use it to describe people, ideas, religions and decisions frequently. This, it seems, has lead a good few people to infer that I am claiming to be perfectly rational, which I don't believe I ever have. Certainly, I do my best to hold myself to a high standard of rationality in my daily decision making, but I also recognise that I am human and therefore flawed. Like everyone else on this planet, there are certain things that I am predisposed to doing without critically examining them- seek food, and shelter, think in ways that may not be beneficial to my long-term goals, experience emotional outbursts which may cloud my judgment and a host of other behaviours which have been ingrained into me by millions of years of evolution combined with countless influences from the world around me. A large part of what makes me a somewhat rational person, however, is that I recognise these things. When I have calmed down, I tend to be able to step back and admit that the basis for my behaviour was flawed and illogical.
Sure, rationality isn't the be-all and end-all. However much I might like it to be different, I have to deal with the fact that I live with my thoughts being somewhat controlled by a series of squishy, hormone-pumping organs which make demands of me, and sometimes it's just easier to give in to those demands than to fight them in some arbitrary battle for intellectual purity. Provided the risk of negative consequences is minor, it's perfectly acceptable to do things simply because one feels like it. As long as one can afford to do it, and it causes no harm to anyone else, "because I want to" is a perfectly good reason to do something. There's nothing inherently wrong with mindless pleasure. The problems come when one uses feelings as a basis for significant decisions, especially those which one is poorly educated on, especially if they are in fields not well suited to our brains which are adapted for tasks such as finding good fruit, running away from predators and spotting a concealed tiger. Even in these tasks, civilisation has brought methods which vastly improve on the abilities that our bodies are capable of in nature (shop-bought fruit, motorbikes and thermal imaging). In most other areas, whether it be in setting public policies, in deciding what clothes to wear, or in conducting an argument, acting in a rational manner is almost always the best way to go.
In-and-of itself, rationality won't make the world a utopia and won't provide us answers for everything. I'll likely never live up to a perfect standard of rational behaviour and I'll probably never be able to give the definition of exactly what is "perfectly rational behaviour". Nevertheless, rational decision-making is extremely useful, both on a personal and public level and putting aside one's feelings in order to do or think what is correct, rather than what makes one feel better right now, can be extremely important. It's quite often difficult to do- on some subjects, one may have very strong feelings even if one has no factual basis for one's beliefs but, by not thinking rationally on a single issue, one often risks clouding related issues or decisions with bad judgment.
As I've stated, I'm in no way claiming to be able to constantly hold myself up to this high standard of rational thinking, but at least I'm bloody trying. I'm not in denial about being human- I recognise that there are some emotional aspects of myself that I must sometimes bow to- but that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of things about being human which are worth trying to change. I'd like to think that I do a better job than most of reigning in the more unpleasant or damaging aspects of human nature and that I'm more willing to admit mistake and change my position when demonstrably wrong. It may not always make me a happy person, but at least I can honestly say that I try to be a good person and that I generally base my decisions on the best information that I reasonably can at the time.
Then again, maybe hedonism would be a laugh.
Links:
Interesting anonymous British police blog-
PC Bloggs.20 sites
every scientist should know.