What does being rational mean?

Based on one's culture, environment, and influences, and how the individual perceive those in-total.

We all want to believe we are rational beings, but that is primarily based on our genes and environment, and how we react to it.

Rational is in the eye of the beholder; that's all.

Oh, so when some skitzo dude tells you he was abducted by space alines last night, you thin he is rational? Infact you are defusing the pscycological terms such as psycotic and skitzophrenic as nonexisting?

well tickle my funny bone, I always thought "rational" simply meant coherently predictable. But then, I only graduated 8th grade.

To act rationally is to act with reason. Many people act according to emotion rather than intellect, irrationally.
To be rational is to consider logical consequences of an action.
Do we all consider ourselves to be rational? Sounds like some confusion about thinking we are right equating to thinking we are rational.
A rational person may still be wrong. It would be irrational to believe otherwise.
People engage in rational processes, arriving at rational conclusions.

I would have to say that Emotion plays the greatest role in determining rationality. Intellect/Emotion determines who is rational and who is not.

wayne, you're babbling.

I thought he was just being irrational.

Yes, but have you ever seen such rational babble?

Hi CI!

That's my take on it too.

Thank you, and have a great day.
Mark...

HeX! Hi.

Why are nearly all the characters, including me, in your posts primarily schizophrenic?

What if the person (dude) in question was abducted by someone or something he believed to be alien (space aliens) or was indeed abducted by aliens?
You cannot prove otherwise.

He/she believes himself/herself to be rational in his/her mindset.

Whether he/she is neurotic, delusional or has issues relating to personality disorders is another matter.

Is there an alien lifeform that kidnaps mainly people with mental disorders? I don't know, but neither can I prove it.

Thank you Hex!
have an abstract everything!
mark...

Here's another interesting aspect of "rational" and what people perceive to be actual events they have observed. Many pilots and a few astronauts claim they have seen flying saucers.

Can they be deemed unrational?

It seems rational to believe what you yourself have seen, it may, however, be irrational to tell anyone else you've seen a flying saucer.

Hi CI!

I can't judge what others may or may not have seen. I've studied extensively the body language of some of these pilots you mention, and I didn't perceive any delusional traits or visible signs of deceit from any of them.

So No. I don't see them or their behaviour as irrationlal.

I'm not certain that any behaviour is irrational.

One man's real is another man's false.

Kind regards CI!
mark...

yeah, rationally the sun comes up in the east, it's rationally predictatble.

Rationally the sun doesn't come up at all. The earth revolves.

really?

The superior of an arbitrary system of subordinates will determine what is and what is not rational.

dyslexia is the only rational contributor to this thread, so far. His posts are enhanced by the fact that he is correct, and/or true or right...depending on your terminology.

Another premisis is not to compulsivly ask selfexplanatory questions.

So you are not? I take it. And ergo, neither is this statement.

'Liar's paradox' - Look it up.

Mark...