Rationality and rational analysis

One of the central goals of this book is to show how empirical data on human reasoning can be reconciled with the notion that people are rational. This raises two questions: first, the general theoretical question of how the concept of rationality relates to human behaviour; and, second, the methodological question of how to develop ‘rational’ explanations of behaviour. The answer to the first question will provide a starting point for tackling the second; for which John Anderson’s methodology of rational analysis is advocated. This chapter is divided into two parts. First, it discusses formal and everyday rationality, and various possible relationships between them. Second, it outlines how the programme of rational analysis, which is the framework of the research in this book, leads to a new conception of how formal and everyday rationality are related.