you should substitute more specific language in place of “rational”: “The self-benefiting thing to do is to run away, but I hope I would at least try to drag the child off the railroad tracks,”
Wouldn’t it be correct to say that it would be ‘instrumentally rational’ to run away in this case? It sounds rational to me, as far as you ‘winning’ means you ‘surviving’.
I think by winning, he meant: “art of choosing actions that lead to outcomes ranked higher in your preferences”, though I don’t completely agree with this word choice of “winning” which could be ambiguous/causing confusion.
A bit unrelated, but more of a general comment on this—in my belief, I think people generally have unconscious preferences, and knowing/acknowledging these before weighing out preferences are very important, even if some preferences are short term.
Wouldn’t it be correct to say that it would be ‘instrumentally rational’ to run away in this case? It sounds rational to me, as far as you ‘winning’ means you ‘surviving’.
I think by winning, he meant: “art of choosing actions that lead to outcomes ranked higher in your preferences”, though I don’t completely agree with this word choice of “winning” which could be ambiguous/causing confusion.
A bit unrelated, but more of a general comment on this—in my belief, I think people generally have unconscious preferences, and knowing/acknowledging these before weighing out preferences are very important, even if some preferences are short term.