About Some Features of Rationality

Abstract

The article discusses some problems of the philosophical understanding of ratio­nality. When trying to answer the question about the specifics of rationality, we are faced with the need to define its criteria. Often, to identify them, they turn to the study of science as a normative form of rationality. Analysis of the history of science shows the existence of “crazy ideas” that can change the course of sci­entific research and contradict the previously accepted standards of scientific ra­tionality. This demonstrates that scientific rationality relies on existing para­digms and research programs. They are accepted by scientists due to their success. An important condition for considering a certain set of ideas as rational is that they have a history of successful application and use. This creates a con­ceptual space for the creation of “crazy ideas” that can “establish” new research worlds. It is shown that representatives of different cultures can follow different types of rationality, which conceptualize and “establish” the worlds of their own existence in different ways. They may be based on various intuitions and seem irrational to representatives of another culture. In this case, rationality should be considered as a mechanism for “establishing” and describing the world. It should allow solving problems related to existence in the world. This gives us reason to talk about the similarity of scientific rationality and other rationalities in the pos­sibility of “establishing” new worlds. As a result, there are many rationalities and the possibility of constructing projects for building communication between them.