Rationality

Is hope ever not irrational?

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I think hope is often not irrational. Here is an example. You get lost in a nature preserve with little food and water. You remember someone telling you that, in a situation like this, it makes sense to walk in a straight line with the help of the sun and your watch. That's what you do, while hoping that you'll get to a road before nightfall.

This hope is not irrational relative to what you know: there are a few hours left in the day, the terrain is not too difficult, and you recall from the map that the nature preserve isn't all that large. So you have good reason to believe that there are roads no more than a few miles away in all directions and that you can cover a few miles well before nightfall.

The hope is also not irrational in a practical sense. You know that people sometimes panic in situations like this, thereby making their predicament much worse through bad decisions caused by fear or anxiety. Your hope helps you keep your cool. Calmed by your confident belief that your method is bound to work, you monitor your direction carefully and manage to maintain it well. Every 25 minutes or so there is an increase of one mile in the distance between you and the point where you realized that you were lost. ...

How is your hope in this sort of case irrational?

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