346 Quotes About Rationality

Action is the activity of the rational soul, which abhors irrationality and must combat it or be corrupted by it. When it sees the irrationality of others, it must seek to correct it, and can do this either by teaching or engaging in public affairs itself, correcting through its practice. And the purpose of action is to enable philosophy to continue, for if men are reduced to the material alone, they become no more than beasts.

-Iain Pears

  • Author Eliezer Yudkowsky
  • Quote

    One of chief pieces of advice I give to aspiring rationalists is "Don't try to be clever." And, "Listen to those quiet, nagging doubts." If you don't know, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know how much you don't know, and you don't know how much you needed to know.

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One of chief pieces of advice I give to aspiring rationalists is "Don't try to be clever." And, "Listen to those quiet, nagging doubts." If you don't know, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know how much you don't know, and you don't know how much you needed to know.

-Eliezer Yudkowsky

  • Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Quote

    In short, one may say anything about the history of the world—anything that might enter the most disordered imagination. The only thing one can’t say is that it’s rational. The very word sticks in one’s throat.

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    #history #rationality
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In short, one may say anything about the history of the world—anything that might enter the most disordered imagination. The only thing one can’t say is that it’s rational. The very word sticks in one’s throat.

-Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Rationality is undetected rhetoric.

-Vizi Andrei

If we were rational enough to judge what we are fed based on what we are fed, those in the business of selling us hope (i.e., public speakers, presidents, priests, etc.) wouldn't wear suits.

-Mokokoma Mokhonoana

  • Author Matthew Arnold
  • Quote

    Spells? Mistrust them.Mind is the spell which governs earth and heaven.Man has a mind with which to plan his safety.Know that, and help thyself.Empedocles on Etna: Act I, Scene II

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    #mind #rationality
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Spells? Mistrust them.Mind is the spell which governs earth and heaven.Man has a mind with which to plan his safety.Know that, and help thyself.Empedocles on Etna: Act I, Scene II

-Matthew Arnold

It has always been the regular state of things. There is no clarity, no relief. At he end of all rationality, there is simply the need to decide and the faith to live through, to endure.

-Ken Liu

  • Author Jean Baudrillard
  • Quote

    Never would the humanities or psychoanalysis have existed if it had been miraculously possible to reduce man to his “rational” behaviors. The whole discovery of the psychological, whose complexity can extend ad-infinitum, comes from nothing but the impossibility of exploiting to death (the workers), of incarcerating to death (the detained), of fattening to death (the animals).

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    #exploitation #philosophy #psychoanalysis #psychology #rationality
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Never would the humanities or psychoanalysis have existed if it had been miraculously possible to reduce man to his “rational” behaviors. The whole discovery of the psychological, whose complexity can extend ad-infinitum, comes from nothing but the impossibility of exploiting to death (the workers), of incarcerating to death (the detained), of fattening to death (the animals).

-Jean Baudrillard

The only test of rationality is not whether a person's beliefs and preferences are reasonable, but whether they are internally consistent.

-Daniel Kahneman

 

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