David Hume

Professor Ken Binmore klargör begreppet rationalitet:

As Hume extravagantly observed, he might be criticized on many grounds if he were to prefer the destruction of the entire universe to scratching his finger, but his preference could not properly be called irrational, because (contra Kant) rationality is about means rather than ends.

Hume uttrycker denna uppfattning i A Treatise of Human Nature (s. 416):

’Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. … Since a passion can never, in any sense, be call’d unreasonable, but when founded on a false supposition, or when it chuses means insufficient for the design’d end, ’tis impossible, that reason and passion can ever oppose each other, or dispute for the government of the will and actions.

Den som har en värdering som vi ogillar bör vi därför inte kalla irrationell utan säga Bu! till och om.