A framework revealing how the very ideal of rationality can mislead—by excluding emotion, intuition, and embodiment from the realm of valid knowledge, by treating only certain kinds of reasoning as legitimate, and by ignoring the social and historical contexts that shape what counts as rational. Fooled by Rationality Theory shows how the pursuit of rationality can become irrational when it denies its own limits, when it dismisses other ways of knowing as inferior, when it mistakes its own perspective for the view from nowhere.
Fooled by Rationality Theory "He was so rational he couldn't see why his wife was upset. Fooled by Rationality: treating reason as the only valid response, ignoring emotion, intuition, relationship. His rationality made him irrational—blind to whole dimensions of human experience. The pursuit of reason became unreasonable."
by Dumu The Void March 8, 2026
Get the Fooled by Rationality Theory mug.The systematic study of how rational frameworks operate, how they're constructed, how they change, and how they relate to culture, power, and history. The Theory of Rational Frameworks argues that rationality is not a single, universal standard but a family of related practices, each with its own logic, its own history, its own domain of applicability. It examines how rational frameworks are learned (through socialization, education, practice), how they're maintained (through institutions, norms, authority), how they change (through historical shifts, cultural contact, paradigm shifts), and how they're related to power (whose rationality dominates, whose is marginalized). The theory doesn't claim that all rational frameworks are equally good; it claims that rationality is plural, situated, and historical—and that understanding this is essential for understanding human reasoning.
Example: "He'd thought rationality was the same for everyone, everywhere. The Theory of Rational Frameworks showed him otherwise: different times, different places, different rationalities. Medieval rationality wasn't failed modern rationality; it was different rationality altogether. Understanding that didn't make judgment impossible; it made judgment more careful."
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 9, 2026
Get the Theory of Rational Frameworks mug.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
Get the Fallacy of Impossible Rationality mug.by Nick Garr February 2, 2025
Get the KRISHNA x RAYMOND mug.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
Get the Post hoc rationalization mug.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
Get the Theory of the Elasticity of Rationality mug..
《¤》Jose《¤》Valde《¤》Samuel《¤》Vilain《¤》Raymond《¤》Robles《¤》jose《¤》valde《¤》samuel《¤》vilain《¤》raymond《¤》robles《¤》josE《¤》valdE《¤》samueL《¤》vilaiN《¤》raymonD《¤》robleS《¤》
by InterpersonalCommunication February 22, 2025
Get the 《¤》Jose《¤》Valde《¤》Samuel《¤》Vilain《¤》Raymond《¤》Robles《¤》jose《¤》valde《¤》samuel《¤》vilain《¤》raymond《¤》robles《¤》josE《¤》valdE《¤》samueL《¤》vilaiN《¤》raymonD《¤》robleS《¤》 mug.