A Very Short Essay: The Myth of Perfect Rationality
Introduction
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool." — Richard Feynman
We ask ourselves the question: is there such a thing as 'perfect rationality'? Meaning, a theoretical person who has completely rational beliefs and behaviours generalised across all domains. Probably not—not even history's greatest thinkers were capable of this.
I intuitively believe that such a thing does not exist—because people cannot deeply introspect on every single belief that they hold. Many of our beliefs are emotionally heuristic-based; beliefs that we haven't actually thought deeply about. And there are many reasons why it's not practically feasible to sit down and judge every single belief.
However, if you have a certain belief and someone has challenged it, I think the first step is realising that fact—realising that your emotional heuristics are not objective truths. Thinking that they are, without at least some level of rational analysis, is where the problems arise.