Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Are all actions rational?
As a part of a discussion in the class I raised a question about 'suicide bombers' .The definition of rational action ,as I understood,was actions performed willfuly and which are conscious and apparent . So if I take into account the actions of these people, they are considered 'irrational' by the society . But what is the justification opted by these people for the actions they perform , what seems so apparently illogical to the rest, is very clear and logical to them. This I felt contradicts the concept that all actions performed by an individual have a rationality behind them . It totally depends on their perspective, what is rational to me might not be rational to somebody else. But another aspect which needs to be considered is 'are these individuals performing these actions on their own or are they being coerced into doing them'?. If they are doing it voluntarily then it defies the whole concept of individual using rationality as a basis for his actions .
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Rationality is very subjective and relative. What could be rational for me could be irrational for you. A fishermen will find the smell of rotting fish to be amazing and I would puke at it. This does not mean that fishermen and/or me are not rational! It is just the way one sees.
If somebody is brainwashed or coerced into some action, than rationality does not come into play.
But, if someone is doing something voluntarily, he could have his own rationale' behind his rationality. And judging his rationality to be wrong or right... this will also depend on rationality of the responder! :)
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