Re:Why poetry is good for the rational mind
by cvick on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:12PM
(#12174027)
Yeah, I find that people use "Logical" wrong as well, or, more specifically, "Not Logical" or "Illogical". When asked to explain why something is or isn't logical...blank stares.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
[dead]
Re:Why poetry is good for the rational mind
by Pamar on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @04:35PM
(#12176302)
Once, a couple of years ago, I had a chat with a woman online, and I used "rational" in describing a given choice (we both disapproved) - something like: "Well, this is not something I consider rational".
She was a bit surprised at my choice of words (we were basically in agreement on the main topic, but the moment I said "Rational" she reacted badly) because in her experience "rational" is almost a bad word, because (according to her) it is banded around (by men) to belittle their counterpart in a discussion.
I told her that I had just finished an online course on IA, and therefore I meant "rational" strictly in the sense of "rational agent" as per Wikipedia: a rational agent is an agent that has clear preferences ... and always chooses to perform the action with the optimal expected outcome for itself from among all feasible actions.