December 13, 2017, by apybgb

Is it a rational decision to click on this link? Lets find out

Making decisions is easy, but how do I know i’m being rational when making these decisions? The UoN Philosophy department took a page from Prof. Laurie Paul in todays taster lecture to investigate…

 

What is a rational decision?

Well, a decision must weigh each competing outcome of a choice and be able to assign values to what it will be like to experience each alternative.

Choosing the best overall outcome, based on their probability for success, is a rational way to make decisions.

The issue of accurately considering what its like for each alternative is at the core of rational decision making.

 

What if we can’t know what an experience will be like?

People sometimes either don’t or can’t consider ‘whats its like’ in all possible outcomes. Some decisions are so transformative to the person, they couldn’t possibly predict how they would feel or react to it, because the only way to know would be to experience it.

An example? I’m glad you asked.

In today’s lecture, we considered the situation: whether or not to drink alcohol at a party for the first time. Think about it, if you’ve never been drunk before, how could you know if its your thing? So, basing a decision off outcomes that you can’t predict becomes a non-rational decision.

We then looked at irrational decisions, referring to choices made directly against the values given to each outcome.

 

So what did we learn?

Well, you can be rational. Paul is just saying don’t kid yourself, some decisions just can’t be. Intuition can still be a useful device, and there a more solutions too, solutions you could be studying at Nottingham.

So if you want to learn more, come to one of our open days, or check out our Philosophy course at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/courses/philosophy/ba-philosophy.aspx

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