There is truth or calibrated credence or knowing what “good” means or carefully optimizing goodness. Then there are methods that are more or less effective at helping with attaining these things. If you happen to be practicing the better methods, then to the extent they really are effective, you become better at finding truth or calibrated credence or at developing goodness.
And then there is rationality, which is aspiration towards those methods that are better at this. Practicing good methods is sufficient to get results, if the methods actually exist and you actually practice them, the methods screen off influence of rationality on object level results. But being on the lookout for useful methods, and for understanding of their effectiveness, is what systematically guides their attainment, and that’s rationality.
There is truth or calibrated credence or knowing what “good” means or carefully optimizing goodness. Then there are methods that are more or less effective at helping with attaining these things. If you happen to be practicing the better methods, then to the extent they really are effective, you become better at finding truth or calibrated credence or at developing goodness.
And then there is rationality, which is aspiration towards those methods that are better at this. Practicing good methods is sufficient to get results, if the methods actually exist and you actually practice them, the methods screen off influence of rationality on object level results. But being on the lookout for useful methods, and for understanding of their effectiveness, is what systematically guides their attainment, and that’s rationality.