Re:Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?
by emodendroket on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @10:43AM
(#17238077)
I think there's something to the Hume quote about reason being a slave of the passions.
Re:Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?
by buckminster on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:06PM
(#17242059)
Hume was right. I recommend The Righteous Mind.
Agreed. For the most part, going to church is not economically rational. For the most part, having children is not economically rational. For the most part, being monogamous to one's spouse is not economically rational. For the most part, patriotism to one's country is not economically rational.
In a slightly different sense, going to space, or colonizing Mars, would all be economically irrational.
I'm wary of a definition of "rational" that tends take all of the things that humans hold dear, and declares much of it "irrational".