"I have goofed" is hardly a rationalization, is it?
Or "I did this, because all the elephants are flying." is not making an excuse, IF you really believe that they are indeed flying - either. No matter that at least some elephants are not flying. You just have a wrong belief.
A rationalization is (in the sense of "making excuses"), when you are rationalizing with a knowingly wrong reason.
Would you call THIS comment "a rationalization"?
Yeah. This pretty much describes my issue with common usages of the term "rationalize" as well most of the comments on this board. It seems people here are calling "rationalize" poor reasoning and simultenously calling rationalize justification provided for action, beliefe, attitude, and conclusion which fulfills an emotional role such as making them not feel guilty, or helping them to avoid aknowleging they violated a value. Thing is... an emotional benefit from a justifcation doesn't mean the justification is false or even insinsere. If "rationalizing" i...
Anna Salamon and I are confused. Both of us notice ourselves rationalizing on pretty much a daily basis and have to apply techniques like the Litany of Tarski pretty regularly. But in several of our test sessions for teaching rationality, a handful of people report never rationalizing and seem to have little clue what Tarski is for. They don't relate to any examples we give, whether fictitious or actual personal examples from our lives. Some of these people show signs of being rather high-level rationalists overall, although some don't.