As I noted in the previous thread, I can tell (sometimes) that I’m rationalising, even if my conclusion does turn out to be correct—it’s a matter of arriving at a belief by a bad process. (In my case I get my polemicist on even though there’s a little voice in my head noticing that my epistemology isn’t quite justified. This is harder to notice because my output looks much the same those times I consider that I really do have my epistemological ducks in a row—I have to notice it while I’m doing it.)
Yeah. This pretty much describes my issue with common usages of the term “rationalize” as well most of the comments on this board. It seems people here are calling “rationalize” poor reasoning and simultenously calling rationalize justification provided for action, beliefe, attitude, and conclusion which fulfills an emotional role such as making them not feel guilty, or helping them to avoid aknowleging they violated a value. Thing is… an emotional benefit from a justifcation doesn’t mean the justification is false or even insinsere. If “rationalizing” is a “bad process” than fine. Rationalizing is use of logical fallacies. Rationalizing is use of unsound premises. But that’s a far cry from the way “rationalizing” tends to be used. “I will eat a piece of cake to raise my energy” is not a bad process either in terms of “fure reason” (classic logic” or in terms of unsound premises. It’s just insinsere.
As I noted in the previous thread, I can tell (sometimes) that I’m rationalising, even if my conclusion does turn out to be correct—it’s a matter of arriving at a belief by a bad process. (In my case I get my polemicist on even though there’s a little voice in my head noticing that my epistemology isn’t quite justified. This is harder to notice because my output looks much the same those times I consider that I really do have my epistemological ducks in a row—I have to notice it while I’m doing it.)
Yeah. This pretty much describes my issue with common usages of the term “rationalize” as well most of the comments on this board. It seems people here are calling “rationalize” poor reasoning and simultenously calling rationalize justification provided for action, beliefe, attitude, and conclusion which fulfills an emotional role such as making them not feel guilty, or helping them to avoid aknowleging they violated a value. Thing is… an emotional benefit from a justifcation doesn’t mean the justification is false or even insinsere. If “rationalizing” is a “bad process” than fine. Rationalizing is use of logical fallacies. Rationalizing is use of unsound premises. But that’s a far cry from the way “rationalizing” tends to be used. “I will eat a piece of cake to raise my energy” is not a bad process either in terms of “fure reason” (classic logic” or in terms of unsound premises. It’s just insinsere.