Rational Thinking Quickie
Rational thinking allows us to make sense of our lives reasonably so we can operate in a world we understand.
Rational thinking involves weighing your ideas, thoughts, experience, etc against each other in relation to you and your needs so you can understand the world and make reasonable judgments.
All of the words in bold above are involved in the evolution of the concept of the term rational.
Oftentimes discussion on this topic gets pretty abstract and fast. My objective is to give you an idea of how I use this term and how I understand the concept without getting lost in examples that may not apply to you and language that might not make any sense.
Rational thinking is extremely useful to me. I hope this helps you.
Rational thinking allows us to get what we want with what we have because rationally that might mean changing what we want to something we can reasonably get with what we have.
Merriam-Webster’s first definition for the word rational is:
“a) having reason or understanding
b) relating to, based on, or agreeable to reason.”
Ok, the “b” part is pretty straightforward, it’s about reason, being reasonable. The “a” part is not that helpful. “Having reason or understanding,” does not quite get at what is so useful about this concept. Let’s go back a bit.
Etymology is the study of the development or history of words. If we look back all to the Latin root we see that it comes from the word ratio.
Here is the entry for ratio in the Online Etymological Dictionary:
ratio (n.)
1630s, “reason, rationale,” from Latin ratio “reckoning, numbering, calculation; business affair, procedure,” also “reason, reasoning, judgment, understanding,” from rat-, past participle stem of reri “to reckon, calculate,” also “think” (from PIE root *re- “to reason, count”). Mathematical sense “relation between two similar magnitudes in respect to quantity,” measured by the number of times one contains the other is attested from 1650s.
Focus for now on the last sentence, the mathematical sense. This refers to ratios. You know, like 3 out of 4. Or, 30%, 2/3, etc.
Rational Thinking Involves the Concept of Ratio.
This in relation to that. This includes the concept of weighing one thing against another.
Think of ole time scales that the blind justice woman has in the statue from the law commercials. Notice that the word judgment is included in the history of the word rational.
Judgment is about weighing evidence. Reasonable results require a rational process.
A thing that we already have a reasonable understanding of must be on one side of the scale in order for us to make sense of anything we put on the other.
Example: What we want must relate to what we have. We have to be able to reasonably imagine achieving a goal in order for the goal to be rational. Fantasizing about what we want is a great way to keep ourselves open to opportunities without being unreasonable in our expectations.
Rational thinking involves weighing your ideas, thoughts, experience, etc against each other in relation to you and your needs so you can make reasonable judgments.
Nothing has rational meaning by itself abstracted from everything else. You cannot make sense of the world in a reasonable way unless you are rational in your thinking, meaning that what you think makes sense in relation to you and your needs, deepest desires, moral compass, the best information available, etc.
Conclusion
Meaning is really only found in looking at the way something compares or weighs against other stuff; it’s in the ways things relate to other things. If we are looking for meaning we must be rational in our thinking; we must make sure that we keep in mind how the things we think compare, weigh against and relate to the other inputs we have. Including, our feelings, beliefs, values, principles, the information we have, what we want, available resources, etc.
Another way of putting it is a rational thinker takes on making sense of the real world while honoring their inner space.