Rational Correctness

Rationality seems to be popularly confused with correctness. While, undoubtedly, rational thoughts can be correct, not all rational choices are necessarily correct. In fact, one can be perfectly rational and completely wrong at the same time.

The problem seems to come from the assumption that people cannot be perfectly rational without access to perfect information. This seems rather unusual, seeing as the level of information should have little bearing on the procedure of a thought process, though it will undoubtedly affect the content and outcome.

This leads to the matter of choice, where choices are often seen as "bad" on hindsight, quite invariably due to the unavailability of information at the time of that decision. Still, chances are that the choice made at the time was due to a cost-benefit analysis at the point of time, and was really quite rational in nature. Unfortunately, it proved non-beneficial when the alternative turned out to be far better...