Fallacy of Impossible Rationality

The practice of demanding that an opponent's reasoning be free of any and all cognitive bias, emotional influence, or cultural perspective before it can be considered valid. It sets an unattainable standard of "pure reason" that no human has ever achieved, then uses the inevitable failure to meet it as grounds for dismissal. This fallacy is common among those who have just discovered that biases exist and now use that discovery to disqualify any argument they disagree with. "You only believe that because of confirmation bias" becomes a conversation-ender, as if having a bias automatically makes a claim false, and as if the speaker themselves were miraculously bias-free.

Example: "He dismissed every study I cited with 'that's just your Western rationality'—a Fallacy of Impossible Rationality pretending that because perfect objectivity doesn't exist, all reasoning is equally worthless."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Projection of Rationality

A cognitive bias where one projects the claim of rationality onto one's own thinking while denying it to others—assuming that one's own conclusions are the product of pure reason while others' are driven by emotion, ideology, or irrationality. Projection of rationality operates when someone says "I'm being rational, you're being emotional"; when they present their own views as logical and others' as illogical; when they cannot see the values and assumptions embedded in their own reasoning. The projection lies in the invisibility of one's own irrationalities—the assumption that one's own cognitive processes are transparent and pure while others' are opaque and contaminated. It's a form of intellectual narcissism, the belief that one's own mind works the way minds should work while others' are broken.

Example: "He presented every conclusion as the result of pure logic while dismissing her reasoning as emotional—projection of rationality, assuming his values were just reason while hers were just feeling."

by Dumu The Void March 19, 2026

Post hoc rationalization

Funny how it isn't good enough when it comes to the rape-porn...

Hym "But you will take any post hoc rationalization to justify a years long surveillance and harassment campaign that resembles the delusions of reference commonly associated with schizophrenia. And that's all this is. 'Rage-baiting' until you can generate some post hoc rationalization for what you wanted to do from the get-go which was 'ruin somebody's life.' And it can't be allowed to happen. It doesn't matter what I said about your kids or what I said about your religion or rape because when someone does it to your pastor and he goes to a costume warehouse and then takes a trip down to your local senator's house... SOMEONE is going to wish someone would have pulled the lever to the trolly at some point down the antecedent chain. But you are trying to condemn people into living a ruined life by democratic fiat or arbitrary whim. And as you can see from the gif below... You are not doing what you need to do to contain the pandemic. And no me threatening your kids does not make you more rational than you actually are which is 'not at all.' So the does need to end the weaponization. FOR ME. AND NOW. They need to do their job and play ref because the score is still X-0 and it's not even a game."

by Hym Iam July 23, 2025

Theory of the Elasticity of Rationality

A meta-framework examining how conceptions of rationality stretch across history, culture, and discipline. The Elasticity of Rationality studies how rationality has been defined—from Platonic reason to economic rationality to ecological rationality—and how these definitions stretch under pressure from new contexts. It asks: what are the limits of rationality's stretch? When does a new conception break rather than stretch? How does rationality recover from its own excesses (rationality used to justify oppression)? It's rationality reflecting on its own history and possibilities.

Theory of the Elasticity of Rationality "Economic rationality assumed perfect information and self-interest—then behavioral economics stretched it to include heuristics, biases, social preferences. Theory of the Elasticity of Rationality says that's how rationality evolves: stretching to accommodate new evidence, new contexts. The question isn't whether it's rational; it's how far the concept can stretch."

by Nammugal March 4, 2026

Any number that can be written by dividing one integer by another-in plain English, any number that can be written as a fraction or ratio. (An easy way to remember this is to think of rational’s root word “ratio.”)

Any number that can be written by dividing one integer by another-in plain English, any number that can be written as a fraction or ratio. (An easy way to remember this is to think of rational’s root word “ratio.”)

Any number that can be written by dividing one integer by another-in plain English, any number that can be written as a fraction or ratio. (An easy way to remember this is to think of rational’s root word “ratio.”)

by Adlane33 March 13, 2021