Rational Double Standards

The practice of applying different standards of rationality to different people or positions—deeming one's own reasoning rational while dismissing similar reasoning from opponents as irrational. Rational Double Standards are what allow people to see their own biases as insights, their own emotions as intuitions, their own leaps as logic—while seeing the same things in others as errors. They're the cognitive machinery of hypocrisy, the engine of special pleading, the foundation of every double standard that privileges one's own side.

Example: "His gut feeling was intuition; her gut feeling was irrational emotion. Rational Double Standards in action: same phenomenon, different labels, depending on who was experiencing it. The double standard was invisible to him, which is how it worked."

by Dumu The Void March 10, 2026

Rationality Power

A close cousin of logic power, but broader: it's the social authority granted to those who are seen as embodying rationality itself. The person with rationality power isn't just making logical arguments; they are perceived as the "reasonable one" in the room. Their preferences are assumed to be well-considered, their judgments sound, and their biases invisible. It's the power to have your irrationalities overlooked because you've successfully claimed the mantle of "the rational person."

Example: "She got her way in every meeting because she had rationality power—everyone just assumed her position was the smart one, even when it wasn't."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Rationality Hegemony

The cultural dominance of a specific model of rationality—typically means-end calculation, utility maximization, and consistent preference ordering—as the only legitimate standard for sane, competent decision-making. Rationality hegemony operates when economic models of rational choice become the measure of all human behavior, when anyone who makes decisions differently is pathologized as "irrational," and when alternative frameworks for good decision-making (based on virtue, relationship, tradition, or spiritual insight) are simply invisible. It's the assumption that Homo economicus isn't a model but a description of how humans should be.

Example: "His decision to care for his aging parents instead of taking the high-paying job was treated as 'economically irrational'—a perfect example of rationality hegemony mistaking one model of choice for the only model."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Rational Orthodoxy

The established, institutionalized set of beliefs about rationality that dominate Western thought—the often-unexamined assumptions about what counts as rational, how rational decisions are made, and who counts as rational. Rational orthodoxy includes specific commitments: that rationality means following logic, that rational agents maximize utility, that rationality is universal, that emotions are irrational, that rationality is the highest human capacity, that rational consensus is possible. Like all orthodoxies, it provides a framework for evaluating thought and action, but it functions as ideology when it becomes dogmatic—making a particular conception of rationality seem like the only conception, obscuring how rationality varies across cultures and contexts, and delegitimizing alternative ways of thinking (intuitive, emotional, relational, spiritual). Rational orthodoxy determines what arguments are considered "reasonable," what decisions are "rational," and who counts as a "rational person" versus "irrational."

Example: "He dismissed her decision as 'irrational' because it didn't maximize utility—not because he'd considered different kinds of rationality, but because rational orthodoxy had made his conception of reason feel like Reason itself. The orthodoxy's power is making one kind of thinking feel like the only kind."

by Dumu The Void March 17, 2026

Rational Projection

A cognitive bias where one projects one's own standards of rationality onto others—assuming that everyone should reason the same way, value the same things, reach the same conclusions from the same evidence, and that those who don't are simply irrational. Rational projection operates when someone says "any rational person would agree" about matters where reasonable people differ; when they dismiss alternative values as irrational rather than differently valued; when they cannot recognize that rationality itself is culturally and historically variable. The projection lies in mistaking one's own rationality for Rationality itself—assuming that the way one thinks is simply the way thinking should be done. It's a form of cognitive imperialism, imposing one's own standards while remaining blind to their specificity.

Example: "He insisted that any rational person would support his policy preferences—rational projection, assuming his values were universal reason rather than particular commitments."

by Dumu The Void March 19, 2026

Rational Contextualism

A philosophical framework holding that rationality is context-dependent—that what counts as rational reasoning, good reasons, and appropriate justification varies with the context of inquiry, the domain of application, and the purposes of the reasoner. Rational contextualism challenges the idea of a single, universal standard of rationality. What is rational in a scientific context may not be in a moral context; what is rational in everyday life may not be in a courtroom. Contextualism doesn't abandon reason; it recognizes that reason is always reason-in-context. It demands that we attend to the contexts that shape what counts as rational.

Example: "His rational contextualism meant he didn't demand scientific standards of rationality for personal decisions. It was rational to choose a partner based on love, even if it didn't follow the rules of decision theory."

by Dumu The Void March 20, 2026

Rational Multicontextualism

A philosophical framework holding that rationality is shaped by multiple, irreducible contexts—scientific, moral, practical, cultural, personal—that interact to constitute what rationality is and does. A rational decision in one context may be irrational in another; what counts as good reasoning depends on the context of the problem, the context of available information, the context of the community, the context of the reasoner's values. Rational multicontextualism insists that no single context exhausts the nature of rationality and that understanding reason requires attending to this contextual multiplicity.

Example: "Her rational multicontextualism meant she studied medical decision-making not just through clinical guidelines, but also through patient values, cultural beliefs, institutional constraints, and ethical considerations—all of which shaped what counted as rational."

by Dumu The Void March 20, 2026