Editing Rationality (section)

==== Theoretical ====
Theoretical rationality concerns the rationality of cognitive mental states, in particular, of beliefs.<ref name="Mele2004a"/><ref name="Audi2004"/> It is common to distinguish between two factors. The first factor is about the fact that good reasons are necessary for a belief to be rational. This is usually understood in terms of evidence provided by the so-called [[sources of knowledge]], i.e. faculties like [[perception]], [[introspection]], and [[memory]]. In this regard, it is often argued that to be rational, the believer has to respond to the impressions or reasons presented by these sources. For example, the visual impression of the sunlight on a tree makes it rational to believe that the sun is shining.<ref name="Kolb2008"/><ref name="Mele2004a"/><ref name="Audi2004"/> In this regard, it may also be relevant whether the formed belief is involuntary and implicit 

The second factor pertains to the norms and procedures of rationality that govern how agents should form beliefs based on this evidence. These norms include the [[rules of inference]] discussed in regular [[logic]] as well as other norms of coherence between mental states.<ref name="Mele2004a"/><ref name="Audi2004"/> In the case of rules of inference, the premises of a [[Validity (logic)|valid]] argument offer support to the conclusion and make therefore the belief in the conclusion rational.<ref name="Kolb2008"/> The support offered by the premises can either be [[Deductive reasoning|deductive]] or [[Defeasible reasoning|non-deductive]].<ref name="Hintikka2006"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Backmann |first1=Marius |title=Varieties of Justification—How (Not) to Solve the Problem of Induction |journal=Acta Analytica |date=1 June 2019 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=235–255 |doi=10.1007/s12136-018-0371-6 |s2cid=125767384 |language=en |issn=1874-6349|doi-access=free }}</ref> In both cases, believing in the premises of an argument makes it rational to also believe in its conclusion. The difference between the two is given by how the premises support the conclusion. For deductive reasoning, the premises offer the strongest possible support: it is impossible for the conclusion to be false if the premises are true. The premises of non-deductive arguments also offer support for their conclusion. But this support is not absolute: the truth of the premises does not guarantee the truth of the conclusion. Instead, the premises make it more likely that the conclusion is true. In this case, it is usually demanded that the non-deductive support is sufficiently strong if the belief in the conclusion is to be rational.<ref name="Knauff2021a"/><ref name="Kolb2008"/><ref name="Hintikka2006"/> 

An important form of theoretical irrationality is motivationally biased belief, sometimes referred to as [[wishful thinking]]. In this case, beliefs are formed based on one's desires or what is pleasing to imagine without proper evidential support.<ref name="Mele2004a"/><ref name="Mele2004b"/> Faulty reasoning in the form of [[Formal fallacy|formal]] and [[informal fallacies]] is another cause of theoretical irrationality.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dowden |first1=Bradley |title=Fallacies |url=https://iep.utm.edu/fallacy/ |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=19 March 2021 |archive-date=29 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100429214410/https://iep.utm.edu/fallacy/ |url-status=live }}</ref>