On the Difference Between Total Rationale and Incidental Rationale

On the Difference Between Total Rationale and Incidental Rationale

Topic:Personal
Posted on:Jun 19 2015
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I think the marketer or even the individual in general must determine the difference between total rationale and incidental rationale. A person may do something that seems illogical when considered against and within its full context. But the same person may employ logic and rationale to achieve a specific irrational aim.

For example, it might be that the individual recognizes that cigarettes are harmful for them. They might concede at an unbiased time that using tobacco could injure their health. Yet the same person, during a time of intense desire, may employ a distinct rationale to obtain a cigarette. They may use this rationale to justify why they are smoking a cigarette and/or they may use their powers of reason to develop a way to obtain (and possibly hide) their cigarettes. It is a mistake to consider the two behaviors irrational.  

This is more than a paradox; this is an insight into the stochastic probabilities of human behavior at the point of transaction. Marketers cannot ignore the power of reason, even when appealing to the most basic needs. There is almost always a form of rationale involved (at least in any non-voluntary physical action that requires any sort of processing).

The manipulative marketer may abuse the power of reason to justify an act that is ultimately irrational. We must be careful. We must consider how reason is employed at an incidental level as opposed to a totality level. And, on a more personal note, we should reflect on how many of our own actions are incidentally rational but, in fuller context, absolutely irrational. 

 

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