Rationalism is concerned with forming accurate models about the world.
That’s not the way the term is primarily used in this community. We generally orient us more towards decision science. From Jonathan Baron’s textbook Thinking and deciding:
The best kind of thinking, which we shall call rational thinking, is whatever kind of thinking best helps people achieve their goals. If it should turn out that following the rules of formal logic leads to eternal happiness, then it is “rational thinking” to follow the laws of logic (assuming that we all want eternal happiness). If it should turn out, on the other hand, that carefully violating the laws of logic at every turn leads to eternal happiness, then it is these violations that we shall call “rational.”
When I argue that certain kinds of thinking are “most rational,” I mean that these help people achieve their goals. Such arguments could be wrong. If so, some other sort of thinking is most rational.
It’s instrumentally useful for the world to be affected according to a decision theory, but it’s not obviously a terminal value for people to act this way, especially in detail. Instrumentally useful things that people shouldn’t be doing can instead be done by tools we build.
That’s not the way the term is primarily used in this community. We generally orient us more towards decision science. From Jonathan Baron’s textbook Thinking and deciding:
It’s instrumentally useful for the world to be affected according to a decision theory, but it’s not obviously a terminal value for people to act this way, especially in detail. Instrumentally useful things that people shouldn’t be doing can instead be done by tools we build.