Comment on [META] 'Rational' vs 'Optimized'

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:46:58 GMT

Similarly to the use of 'right' and 'good'. For a consequentialist, x is right because y is good.

At the margin, I think 'rational' best describes actions and 'optimal' best describes outcomes. Thus, if action x causes outcome y, we might say that x is rational because y is optimal.

While 'behaving optimally' doesn't seem very wrong to me, "Studying the art and science of human optimality" absolutely does. To study what is optimal partly implies we're finding out about values; to study what is rational implies that we're finding out how to optimize for values, whatever they are.

If the distinction I'm observing exists, it's rather weak and there's plenty of slippage.

Discuss