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    If minimal rationality permits arbitrary selection among ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→A minimally rational agent need only make some of the valid inferences that follow from the agent's beliefs, not all of them.

    If minimal rationality permits arbitrary selection among valid inferences, agents could systematically ignore inconvenient entailments and still count as rational.

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Rationality requires consistency, but consistency only constrains actual beliefs held, not all logically derivable consequences.
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    • 2.Cognitive limitations make processing every entailment impossible; selective inference reflects realistic rationality constraints.
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    • 3.If rationality demanded acknowledging all entailments, agents with finite minds couldn't be rational—an implausibly high standard.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Systematic avoidance of inconvenient entailments is motivated reasoning, which undermines the evidential basis of beliefs themselves.
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    • 2.Rationality requires responsiveness to reasons; arbitrarily ignoring valid inferences means treating some reasons as irrelevant without justification.
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    • 3.Distinguishing 'minimal rationality' from self-deception requires that agents *could* recognize entailments if motivated—systematic avoidance violates this.
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    Related

    A minimally rational agent need only make some of the valid inferences that foll...Cognitive limitations make processing every entailment impossible; selective inf...Distinguishing 'minimal rationality' from self-deception requires that agents *c...If rationality demanded acknowledging all entailments, agents with finite minds ...
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    Rationality requires consistency, but consistency only constrains actual beliefs...Rationality requires responsiveness to reasons; arbitrarily ignoring valid infer...Systematic avoidance of inconvenient entailments is motivated reasoning, which u...

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