Max Weber (1864-1920)
In Philosophy, rationality is the exercise of Reason. It is the manner in which people derive conclusions when considering things deliberately. It refers to the conformity of one’s beliefs with one’s reasons to believe, or with one’s actions with one’s reasons for action.
However, the term “rationality” tends to be used differently in different disciplines.
A rational decision is one that is not just reasoned, but is also optimal for achieving a goal or solving a problem. Determining optimality for rational behavior requires a quantifiable formulation of the problem, and the making of several key assumptions.
When the goal or problem involves making a decision, rationality matters as to how much information is available (e.g. complete or incomplete Knowledge). Collectively, the formulation and background assumptions are the model within which rationality applies.
It is thus meaningless to assert rationality without also specifying the background model assumptions describing how the problem is framed and formulated.
Theories of rationality
Max Weber, a German sociologist proposed an interpretation of social action that distinguished between four different idealized types of rationality.
1. The first, which he called purposive / instrumental rationality is related to the expectations about the behavior of other human beings or objects in the environment. These expectations serve as means for a particular actor to attain ends, ends which Weber noted were “rationally pursued and calculated.”
2. The second type, Weber called value / belief-oriented. Here the action is undertaken for what one might call reasons intrinsic to the actor: some ethical, aesthetic, religious or other motive, independent of whether it will lead to success.
3. The third type was determined by an actor’s feeling, or emotion – to which Weber himself said that this was a kind of rationality that was on the borderline of what he considered “meaningfully oriented.”
4. The fourth was traditional, determined by ingrained habituation. Weber emphasized that it was very unusual to find only one of these orientations: combinations were the norm.
His usage also makes clear that he considered the first two as more significant than the others, and it is arguable that the third and fourth are subtypes of the first two.
In the psychology of reasoning, psychologists and cognitive scientists have defended different positions on human rationality.
One prominent view is that humans are rational in principle but they err in practice. In other words, humans have the competence to be rational but their performance is limited by various factors!