Reasonable, If Not Rational (Or Vice Versa)

By J. L. Speranza

for the Grice Circle





----


In the William James Lecturres, Grice considers the hyphenated expression,

"To follow the maxim is the

rational/reasonable

thing to do."



And:

"I am enough of a RATIONALIST, and I have named my maxims after Kant, to think that the observance of the maxims is not just something people do, but something that people SHOULD do; and the latter not just because it's the REASONABLE thing to do, but because it's the RATIONAL thing to do. Or vice versa".



---- In the Kant Lectures, he returns to the topic.


"Those of you who attended my William James lectures on the East Coast some twenty years ago will recall that my definition of rational depended on my definition of reasonable -- or vice versa. I forget".

"After some meditation on this," he adds, "I'm happy to report that I'm none the clearer."

"But, I propose to inflict on you a couple, as it were, of criteria, by which we should be entitled to say if an item -- call it x -- of our discourse is, or fails to be, rational, or, as the case may be, or fails to be, not so much "irrational" but "reasonable"". "Follow?"




Example One:



"To expect my wife to clean

my football boots

is not reasonable.


It is rational (possibly -- although perhaps not _to_ *her*.





Example Two:


"Now, the football boots themselves
were bought -- and

at a

reasonable price, at that.

But never (I expect) at a 'rational' price."



Example Three:


"Changing the subject slightly".



"It may be _rational_ to

cheat a man

if you know you may be found out

& as a result lose a valuable client,

but it is _never_ (or at least not often) reasonable."



Example Four:


"A fourth range of cases involve

situations of a more 'social' kind."


"It _may_ be, for example,

rational to accept an invitation

to go out drinking when you
know you ought
to prepare the lecture for tomorrow,

but it is not,
ceteris paribus, and under the same
circumstances, reasonable -- on the condition
that, after all, you do have to prepare the lecture
for tomorrow. Surely your audience
is not expecting some sloppy thoughts on
rational vs. reasonable

[UPROAR LAUGHTER from audience at this spot. Tape B-23c
The Grice Collection, BANC-34/90c]

Finally,

Example Five:

"Having gotten your firm into a difficulty
&
having confessed it to your boss
you may be, finally,

*both* rational _and_ reasonable."

"And this harmonious outcome to be dissected as follows."

You've been 'rational'

by telling you the best course to take.

Similarly, but not identically,
you've been 'reasonable' by
not being too hard on you."