Editing Rationality (section)

=== Internalism and externalism ===
An important contemporary discussion in the field of rationality is between [[Internalism and externalism|internalists and externalists]].<ref name="Moser2006"/><ref name="Langsam2008"/><ref name="Finlay2008"/> Both sides agree that rationality demands and depends in some sense on reasons. They disagree on what reasons are relevant or how to conceive those reasons. Internalists understand reasons as mental states, for example, as perceptions, beliefs, or desires. In this view, an action may be rational because it is in tune with the agent's beliefs and realizes their desires. Externalists, on the other hand, see reasons as external factors about what is good or right. They state that whether an action is rational also depends on its actual consequences.<ref name="Moser2006"/><ref name="Langsam2008"/><ref name="Finlay2008"/> The difference between the two positions is that internalists affirm and externalists reject the claim that rationality supervenes on the mind. This claim means that it only depends on the person's mind whether they are rational and not on external factors. So for internalism, two persons with the same mental states would both have the same degree of rationality independent of how different their external situation is. Because of this limitation, rationality can diverge from actuality. So if the agent has a lot of misleading evidence, it may be rational for them to turn left even though the actually correct path goes right.<ref name="Broome2021"/><ref name="Moser2006"/>

[[Bernard Williams]] has criticized externalist conceptions of rationality based on the claim that rationality should help explain what motivates the agent to act. This is easy for internalism but difficult for externalism since external reasons can be independent of the agent's motivation.<ref name="Moser2006"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kriegel |first1=Uri |title=Normativity and Rationality: Bernard Williams on Reasons for Action |journal=Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly / עיון: רבעון פילוסופי |date=1999 |volume=48 |pages=281–292 |jstor=23352588 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23352588 |issn=0021-3306 |access-date=2022-08-18 |archive-date=2022-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818102627/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23352588 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Chappell |first1=Sophie-Grace |last2=Smyth |first2=Nicholas |title=Bernard Williams: 5. Internal and external reasons |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/williams-bernard/#InteExteReas |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=10 August 2022 |date=2018 |archive-date=10 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710193743/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/williams-bernard/#InteExteReas |url-status=live }}</ref> Externalists have responded to this objection by distinguishing between [[Motivation#Motivational reasons and rationality|motivational and normative reasons]].<ref name="Moser2006"/> Motivational reasons explain why someone acts the way they do while normative reasons explain why someone ought to act in a certain way. Ideally, the two overlap, but they can come apart. For example, liking chocolate cake is a motivational reason for eating it while having [[high blood pressure]] is a normative reason for not eating it.<ref>{{cite web |vauthors=Alvarez M |title=Reasons for Action: Justification, Motivation, Explanation |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reasons-just-vs-expl/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=13 May 2021 |date=2017 |archive-date=26 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726142611/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reasons-just-vs-expl/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Miller C |title=Motivation in Agents |journal=Noûs |date=2008 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=222–266 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0068.2008.00679.x |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/MILMIA-2 |access-date=2022-08-18 |archive-date=2021-05-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513123328/https://philpapers.org/rec/MILMIA-2 |url-status=live }}</ref> The problem of rationality is primarily concerned with normative reasons. This is especially true for various contemporary philosophers who hold that rationality can be reduced to normative reasons.<ref name="Broome2021"/><ref name="Broome2007"/><ref name="Kiesewetter2017"/> The distinction between motivational and normative reasons is usually accepted, but many theorists have raised doubts that rationality can be identified with normativity. On this view, rationality may sometimes recommend suboptimal actions, for example, because the agent lacks important information or has false information. In this regard, discussions between internalism and externalism overlap with discussions of the normativity of rationality.<ref name="Moser2006"/>

==== Relativity ====
An important implication of internalist conceptions is that rationality is relative to the person's perspective or mental states. Whether a belief or an action is rational usually depends on which mental states the person has. So carrying an umbrella for the walk to the supermarket is rational for a person believing that it will rain but irrational for another person who lacks this belief.<ref name="Knauff2021b"/><ref name="Precis"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Carter |first1=J. Adam |last2=McKenna |first2=Robin |title=Routledge Handbook to Relativism |date=2019 |publisher=London, U.K.: Routledge |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/CARRAE-9 |chapter=Relativism and Externalism |access-date=2022-08-18 |archive-date=2022-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818103039/https://philpapers.org/rec/CARRAE-9 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to [[Robert Audi]], this can be explained in terms of [[experience]]: what is rational depends on the agent's experience. Since different people make different experiences, there are differences in what is rational for them.<ref name="Precis"/>