I thought of a slightly different exception for the use of “rational”: when we talk about conclusions that someone else would draw from their experiences, which are different from ours. “It’s rational for Truman Burbank to believe that he has a normal life.”
Or if I had an extraordinary experience which I couldn’t communicate with enough fidelity to you, then it might be rational for you not to believe me. Conversely, if you had the experience and tried to tell me, I might answer with “Based only on the information that I received from you, which is possibly different from what you meant to communicate, it’s rational for me not to believe the conclusion.” There I might want to highlight the issue with fidelity of communication as a possible explanation for the discrepancy (the alternative being, for example, that the conclusion is unwarranted even if the account of the event is true and compete).
I thought of a slightly different exception for the use of “rational”: when we talk about conclusions that someone else would draw from their experiences, which are different from ours. “It’s rational for Truman Burbank to believe that he has a normal life.”
Or if I had an extraordinary experience which I couldn’t communicate with enough fidelity to you, then it might be rational for you not to believe me. Conversely, if you had the experience and tried to tell me, I might answer with “Based only on the information that I received from you, which is possibly different from what you meant to communicate, it’s rational for me not to believe the conclusion.” There I might want to highlight the issue with fidelity of communication as a possible explanation for the discrepancy (the alternative being, for example, that the conclusion is unwarranted even if the account of the event is true and compete).