Rationality
In decision theory, rationality is defined as" the rational choice of decisions is the set of decisions which have the greatest probability of the goal being achieved" .
But this definition is far from enough because probability should not be the only factor to assess the rationality of decisions because we should also consider the other factors like economic costs. When two choices have the same likelihood of achieving, we should consider the more economical one more rational. If there are other factors like ecological, social and political rationality most of time becomes weighing cost/benefit rather than assessing the likelihood. We may also choose a set of decisions which has a little bit of less probability but more economical, it is not an easy task to tell which one is the rational choice. We have to take time and effort into consideration, effectiveness and efficiency should also be included in our rationality assessment. So Rationality is the synthetic balancing of all factors rather than maximizing one.
Scientifically, rationality is relative and is a synthetic assessment of accordance with the rules of nature,
which includes feasibility appraisal, effectiveness, efficiency, social and
ecological impacts, etc. Rationality is relative because we have to talk about
rationality with in a specific system of factors. A rational choice within a
smaller system of factors may not be rational at all when put in a larger system
of factors. Given only all the other factors equal, we can say that the
rationality definition by the decision theory is correct.
Religiously, rationality is a measure of closeness to god will.
