Rational Thinking And The Irrational Thinking example essay topic

What does it mean to think rational, nonrational or irrational? To speak about this I have to accept that we can divide the way people think into this three category, and no more. First, I have to define those words as simple as I can, but not too simple, that will not help. Second, I have to compare them to see the similarities and the differences, and only after this can I prove the uselessness of this separation. What is rational?

I would use the Ed. Miller's explanation, that rational thinking " [... ] seeks to eradicate [... ] ignorance, superstition, prejudice, blind acceptance of ideas, and any other form of irrationality. It presses us to coherent and valid expressions of our ideas". I would say that rational thinking is based on examination, explanations and reasons.

A rational thinker is someone who first waits and sees what happens, then go step by step to explain what had happened and why did that happen, always connecting an idea to another, making his reasoning coherent and valid. Rational thinkers try not to throw in factors like a god or some supernatural being, because they cannot connect it with a very good reasoning. People say that this is a very intellectual way. To say an example for a "rational area", most people would say science or math. On the other hand, how can I define irrational? Now that I defined rational, I can say that this is just the opposite of it.

The reasoning of the irrational thinkers contains no logical connections, it is "incompatible with general experience or reason". For example, if a cup of tee is hot, somebody will find the lost continent of Atlantic tomorrow. As anybody could see, this does not include a good reasoning. Of course, if somebody can say some steps between the tee being hot and the conclusion, and the person can say some good reasons about how did he get from one step to another, well, then that is rational thinking. People say that superstitius men and people who are really afraid of something are irrational thinkers, to give an example for an "irrational area". It is time to define nonrational.

It is somewhere between the rational thinking and the irrational thinking, but it's hard to tell where exactly. I define this thinking method as almost rational thinking with standpoints what people cannot prove just accept, but they do not use "pure" reasons to justify. They use feeling, intuition, mystical experience or religion. For example, if I accept that there is a God somewhere, I can then justify why is there any humans in the world. God created them, because he was able to, and there is maybe another reason or two which only he knows.

So to say a "nonrational area", I mention religions. Now it is time to compare them. As I said before rational and irrational are just the opposites of each other. One is based on experience and pure reasoning, while the other is incompatible with experience or reason. But nonrational thinking is very interesting. Nonrational thinkers can prove their statement with the use of some supernatural being, mystical stuff, feeling, or something like that.

They may be quite absurd, but not as absurd as irrationals. Now I would like to prove the uselessness of this theory. My theory is that rational and irrational thinking is really the same as nonrational thinking. As I said before, rational thinking means that you can prove something with reasons.

But what are these reasons based on? They are based on experiences, which may or may not be true. People in this category accept that those experiences are true, just like the nonrational accept the standpoints they use, and they use these axioms as they were true. I say that science and math is very similar to religions, because of the reason above. And what about the irrational thinkers? For example, if somebody is superstitius and he believes that if he kills a spider he will have bad luck, isn't that the same if I say that he believes that there is an unseen force or supernatural power that will begin to work if he steps on that spider?

But believing in a mystical force means that the person is a nonrational thinker. That means that there are no big differences between rational, nonrational, and irrational thinking, but than why do we separate them? And if we do not separate them, and we say that there is only one category, we do not need that category.