December 13, 2017, by apycn1
Deciding whether to go to university? Maybe you can’t be rational.
Perhaps.. just perhaps.. some decisions simply can’t be made rationally. At least that’s what I learnt in my Philosophy lecture today whilst studying Laurie Paul’s paper¹.
Here’s what I learnt:
1. Realistic rationality
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It seems like most of us want to be on the road one day. The important thing is making this a rational decision. To do this, we must weigh up all the possible outcomes for learning to drive versus not learning to drive. Then, pick the one with the best overall outcome. Simple.
2. Irresponsible irrationality
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So, where do our decisions go wrong? Well, weigh up all your outcomes and choose the one which doesn’t add up to the highest value, and your completely irrational.
Like that classed you skipped whilst knowing it would have been better to attend it… (Its okay, I’m not telling).
Nevertheless, we’re all guilty of making irrational decisions.
3. Nicely done, Non-rational
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Here’s the nice part. Going to university is a transformative experience. You cant possibly know ‘what its like‘ because you’ve never experienced it.
You haven’t yet experienced the night your suddenly living in halls with strangers or the crazy fresher’s week to follow. Therefore, you can’t then assign values to outcomes of this type, since they aren’t accessible to you.
This means the decision can’t be rational, or irrational, because it’s non-rational.
Turns out, Laurie Paul lets us of the hook.
So..
Should you study here at Nottingham? Go for it. One things for sure, you can’t be irrational in deciding to do so.
Are you convinced? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.
¹ Paul, L.A. (2014). Transformative experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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