The Irrationalities of Human Behavior

[Laura]

I asked a question earlier today, somewhat relevant to the lecture. At which time, heads turned back and I received a blank stare that came from the front of the hall. It wasn't so much of a 'what-is-the-point' stare but rather a 'why-should-I-know/care' look. Which strayed me even further off of the topic and I sat there typing away about the situation and why I thought so much about it. I have concluded to end the thought of the situation with a question: "Is the quest/attainment of knowledge irrational if other think of you as a fool?" Considering the value of knowledge, I would assume not. Yet why is it treated as such? I can name numerous times back in High School when other classmates gave me bewildered looks, probably feeling that I knew too much about the subject.

 

 

 

Straying from knowledge, I think of all the irrationalities in the world, the unjustifiable and immoral events that go on everyday. The demeaning of someone's character as a basis for our self esteem. Purposely ignoring laws set by society as if one if higher than the law. Rape, murder and torture. The list goes on.

 

 

 

I find the reason for me living is to rationalize the irrational. Yet, I cannot fathom the purpose behind actions such as these. Is it in our nature? Have you ever thought something near similar? What other actions do you find unjustifiable, immoral, or illogical?

[mmmcannibalism]

I find the reason for me living is to rationalize the irrational. Yet, I cannot fathom the purpose behind actions such as these. Is it in our nature? Have you ever thought something near similar? What other actions do you find unjustifiable, immoral, or illogical?

 

 

 

I think it has something to do with the part of the brain that makes us see patterns or try to even if there are not.

 

 

 

I guess a lot of the unjustifiable is the human tendency to rely on instinct and selfishness; primitive minds do primitive things.

[Lenticular_J]

I find it irrational that we have the ability to find something irrational. We invented logic. Other animals are aight with doing illogical stuff. What would rational behavior be, anyways?

 

 

 

So yeah I'm gonna completely stray from what you're really asking because I really have to do some homework. Sorry.

[mmmcannibalism]

I find it irrational that we have the ability to find something irrational. We invented logic. Other animals are aight with doing illogical stuff. What would rational behavior be, anyways?

 

 

 

So yeah I'm gonna completely stray from what you're really asking because I really have to do some homework. Sorry.

 

 

 

that melted my brain a little

 

 

 

anyone else inspired to see if we can confuse an animal now?

[deathdrow]

I find it irrational that we have the ability to find something irrational. We invented logic. Other animals are aight with doing illogical stuff. What would rational behavior be, anyways?

 

 

 

So yeah I'm gonna completely stray from what you're really asking because I really have to do some homework. Sorry.

 

 

 

that melted my brain a little

 

 

 

anyone else inspired to see if we can confuse an animal now?

 

You can. animals get confused all the time.

[Laura]

I find it irrational that we have the ability to find something irrational. We invented logic. Other animals are aight with doing illogical stuff. What would rational behavior be, anyways?

 

 

 

So yeah I'm gonna completely stray from what you're really asking because I really have to do some homework. Sorry.

 

 

 

that melted my brain a little

 

 

 

anyone else inspired to see if we can confuse an animal now?

 

You can. animals get confused all the time.

Just look at his avatar. :P

[Madmanpur3]

Straying from knowledge, I think of all the irrationalities in the world, the unjustifiable and immoral events that go on everyday. The demeaning of someone's character as a basis for our self esteem. Purposely ignoring laws set by society as if one if higher than the law. Rape, murder and torture. The list goes on.

 

 

 

I find the reason for me living is to rationalize the irrational. Yet, I cannot fathom the purpose behind actions such as these. Is it in our nature? Have you ever thought something near similar? What other actions do you find unjustifiable, immoral, or illogical?

I don't really think there are unjustifiable events that go on, as the people who do what others may label as unjustifiable have justified it and rationalized it for themselves. The same goes for morality, there is no universal moral code that's set in place, rather we all have our own personal moral codes which we try to live by. I guess what I'm trying to say is we shouldn't be confused by something just because it's not something we ourselves would never even dream of doing.

 

 

 

As for logic issues, that all just comes down to differing levels of intelligence/problem solving. Someone might think an upside down pyaramid house would be unique and stylish, while the rest of us know that it won't withstand the first big storm that passes. So yeah, it's illogical to do that, but some people simply don't think ahead.

[Perakp]

"- ... a nation should be defined as ["a multitude of rational beings in common agreement as to the objects of their love."] What we value most highly - what we collectively love most - is thus the central test of the social contract." [City of God, Augustine], Jon Meacham, Newsweek, April 20th 2009

 

 

 

It was so well put I had to write it down when I read it yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is there any reason to believe that causality doesn't work everywhere?

[EdgedThesis]

Rationalize what seems irrational you mean?

 

 

 

Haha-- the purpose for undertaking such quests is because you can.

 

 

 

I sure as hell don't research, explore, learn because I have to. It's because I want to.

 

 

 

Its the very, very 'irrational' desire to seek knowledge that gives you purpose.

 

 

 

Irrationality fueling rationality. Yay for the paradoxical.

[Lateralus]

Irrationality fueling rationality. Yay for the paradoxical.

 

 

 

Sounds like Nietzsche. Truth stems from untruth, morality from immorality; the rational from the irrational.

[Housepig]

Human behaviour is often irrational because emotion and how we are brought up influence are actions.

 

 

 

I find it irrational that we have the ability to find something irrational. We invented logic. Other animals are aight with doing illogical stuff. What would rational behavior be, anyways?

 

 

 

Intersting idea, but I have to disagree. Animals act on instinct, and so have no sentience or ability to determine rationality...but I guess natural selection would make sure no animals who acted irrationaly in terms of survival exist. Logic is the processes by which we think, so you could say we invented it. Trouble is, people's minds are being molded--some greatly, some less so--from the day they are born, so no two people will exhibit the same logic.

 

 

 

Raise five people with the same IQ in a sterile environment, exposing them all to the exact same experiences for twenty-one years (or whenever the brain reaches full maturity). Then ask them any moral or philosophical question, and I am confident they will come to the same conclusion, given the same evidence to evaluate. Thus you have created a definition of logic, from which all people can be judged.

[AndyPandy]

If we rationalize the irrational, then all we achieve is a clone society. Everyone acting on the basis of what others do. There is definitely a need for some irrationalismness, otherwise we couldn't learn in the way that we do. If everyone acts just as the person before them does, how do we discover new things?

 

 

 

The greeks discovered static electricity by rubbing amber with fur. If they were all completely rational, no one would try it. We learn by experimenting with the world around, much of the time irrationally. How amny times have you been bored in class, and just played with something, a pen or something, and you've learnt something from it? Like 'This pen is too hard to snap' or 'The tube with the ink in is sealed somehow at one end'. Take this discoveries out of the clssroom, and apply the theory to everyday life. How was gravity 'discovered'? Newton saw things falling, and didn't just think 'That's how it happens' like anyone else, he tried to think of a reason for that happening, same with gallileo. Eveyone thought that everything rotated around the earth, any other views were considered incredibly irrational. Galileo cchallenged this, he thought irrationally, and he was right. He paved the way for all our discoveries about space, by being irrational.

 

 

 

Did all that make sense? Probably not, it did to me :?

[Lateralus]

If we rationalize the irrational, then all we achieve is a clone society. Everyone acting on the basis of what others do. There is definitely a need for some irrationalismness, otherwise we couldn't learn in the way that we do. If everyone acts just as the person before them does, how do we discover new things?

 

 

 

The greeks discovered static electricity by rubbing amber with fur. If they were all completely rational, no one would try it. We learn by experimenting with the world around, much of the time irrationally. How amny times have you been bored in class, and just played with something, a pen or something, and you've learnt something from it? Like 'This pen is too hard to snap' or 'The tube with the ink in is sealed somehow at one end'. Take this discoveries out of the clssroom, and apply the theory to everyday life. How was gravity 'discovered'? Newton saw things falling, and didn't just think 'That's how it happens' like anyone else, he tried to think of a reason for that happening, same with gallileo. Eveyone thought that everything rotated around the earth, any other views were considered incredibly irrational. Galileo cchallenged this, he thought irrationally, and he was right. He paved the way for all our discoveries about space, by being irrational.

 

 

 

Did all that make sense? Probably not, it did to me :?

 

 

 

I think you're confusing irrational with experimental.

[AndyPandy]

If we rationalize the irrational, then all we achieve is a clone society. Everyone acting on the basis of what others do. There is definitely a need for some irrationalismness, otherwise we couldn't learn in the way that we do. If everyone acts just as the person before them does, how do we discover new things?

 

 

 

The greeks discovered static electricity by rubbing amber with fur. If they were all completely rational, no one would try it. We learn by experimenting with the world around, much of the time irrationally. How amny times have you been bored in class, and just played with something, a pen or something, and you've learnt something from it? Like 'This pen is too hard to snap' or 'The tube with the ink in is sealed somehow at one end'. Take this discoveries out of the clssroom, and apply the theory to everyday life. How was gravity 'discovered'? Newton saw things falling, and didn't just think 'That's how it happens' like anyone else, he tried to think of a reason for that happening, same with gallileo. Eveyone thought that everything rotated around the earth, any other views were considered incredibly irrational. Galileo cchallenged this, he thought irrationally, and he was right. He paved the way for all our discoveries about space, by being irrational.

 

 

 

Did all that make sense? Probably not, it did to me :?

 

 

 

I think you're confusing irrational with experimental.

 

 

 

Yet to experiment, is to be irrational, no? Unless the experiment has been done before?

[Lateralus]

No; the rational is that which is guided by the intellect. Experimenting to see the outcome is definitely an intellectual activity. I'll admit that rationality is difficult to define since there's no real standard for it, but I don't see any irrationality in rubbing amber with fur, for example.

 

 

 

Counterintuitive and irrational are also not the same thing.

[Madmanpur3]

Yet to experiment, is to be irrational, no? Unless the experiment has been done before?

Only in the eyes of the people who believe it to be irrational, and most of those have long since left this world. Now obviously if someone's experimenting with something that is irrational, like "I'm gonna try to tape cement wings onto this pig and see if it can fly", then yes the experimenting is irrational, but that irrationality isn't derived from the experimentation itself.

[Boris5000]

Logic seems to fail me. And most forms of rationality anyway. So now to quote the grand Angelina Jolie;

 

When I get logical, I don't trust my instincts - that's when I get into trouble

 

 

 

We lose any form of irrationality(if being irrational is trusting our instincts) if we become logical?

 

Here is a question... A toddler asks around 400 questions a day because I has the need for knowledge, so... Is there a psycological influence depending on how much the child wants to learn in the future in its teens depending on how many questions that it asked, actually got answered. (