Structural Rationality
Updated 2026-09-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Structural rationality concerns whether a person's mental states cohere with one another: many typical forms of irrationality are cases in which one's mental states fail, in a fairly broad sense, to cohere. Believing that I am a good cook, that good cooks never overcook eggs, and that I overcooked the eggs is a clear case of incoherence.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- State checkup: check whether beliefs and intentions undermine each other, as when belief and action contradict. - Critique locating: before asking whether a state's content is right or wrong, locate the irrationality in the structure of the agent's combination of states.
Anchor fast decisions
Structural requirements do not evaluate the content of individual states but the way they are combined: if a set of states logically or practically undermine one another, the subject is in a criticizable condition. Their binding force is thought to come from the conceptual structure of the states themselves; belief and intention carry built-in standards of coherence rather than requiring an extra goal.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationality-structural/verified
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