Rationally Thinking About Classic Rationality and Feeling Fatigued About It

Wait -- rational thinking and classic rationality are different? Yes! They are -- very different actually. The main difference between the two, is that humans have the ability to think rationally, though the idea of classic rationality is actually unattainable for humans.

To be completely honest, this concept has really been confusing me the past few days, so I’m here to explain it to you -- hopefully this will relieve some fatigue for you when you are trying to study these concepts for the exam!

To begin with, classic rationality relies on three assumptions: that humans have perfect knowledge (can analyze all possible outcomes), everything can be evaluated using a single metric (full substitutability), and that humans are able to maximize all outcomes.

Perfect knowledge essentially means that humans have perfectly developed cognitive maps. It means that humans cannot learn anymore, have no further room for experience. This assumes that humans are born with perfect knowledge of how to act in every situation. It leaves no space for exploration. I think that this is the most important differentiation between classic rationality and rational thinking -- classic rationality means that humans have no desire or reason to explore or learn new information. Classic rationality is not adaptable, while being rational is adaptable.Thinking rationally means making good and smart decisions, even though we do not necessarily have perfect knowledge.

The idea of play for humans is something that goes against the idea of classic rationality. As we learned at the beginning of the semester, the ability to play is not only adaptive, but very important for humans. Playing gives humans the chance to gain experience and build cognitive maps. It is not humanly possible to be able to know everything, which is a good thing so that humans can keep building experiences. For example, I am constantly trying to learn new information and understand different concepts. This would not be possible if I was not able to enhance my knowledge through different experiences. Because we as humans are able to play and learn more about the world, we are able to anticipate unknown or future scenarios. This keeps us going, it keeps us motivated. Our internal maps and models may be incomplete, but we can create images based on salient features. This allows us to put together pieces of a picture in order to come up with a whole picture versus constantly only being able to see the whole picture -- leaving no room for brainstorming.

If we didn’t have this ability -- the world would be a boring place. There would be no reason to create new ideas and having the ability to already know the answers to everything would never fatigue us. Humans would not feel challenged.

As we have talked about a lot in class, it is actually important to be able to have attention that fatigues. The adapted ability to have attention that fatigues encourages humans to take breaks and take time to self-reflect and restore their attention. This promotes creativity, and helps us think of new ways to change the world! This is something we wouldn’t be able to do if classic rationality applied to humans. When we become fatigued our abilities to think rationally decreases. 

If we are fatigued, we might choose the wrong situation! It also depends on motives -- if we thought in terms of classic rationality, this man wouldn't have problems making decisions, instead he would be able to make them in the moment. 

Through different restoration techniques, such as being away, or finding different forms of fascination, our directed attention is restored, allowing us to have clear minds. Clear minds allow us to be aware in situations, and make decisions based on our cognitive maps that we were able to develop through exploration.

The ability to think rationally allows one to still try and attempt to address situations and provide the best solution for all parties, but our ability to do so isn’t because we have perfect knowledge, but because we have experienced different situations. We are able to use our different experiences to predict outcomes of future scenarios -- we may not always be right, but we can try.

This is very important in my day to day life. I hold the head RA position at my dorm, and if I was not able to restore my attention, I would definitely not be able to be rational in some situations. I often have to face difficult situations where I place one solution over another -- which might affect people differently. This is very hard and I don't always have the perfect response in every situation. Life is a learning experience though, and I would prefer to learn and develop my skills through experience instead of knowing the perfect answer to every situation with classic rationality.

I need to stay on my toes and be able to learn to help and support these girls. Classical rationality has some perks in that the best solution known, but what fun does that offer? Stay alert through restoration and let your mind go where it needs to be in order for you to be successful and rational!

These are some of my residents who I support through my ability to think rationally. We destress together!