Rationality and Reason

Social scientists have demonstrated, repeatedly, that we all suffer from biases that make it almost impossible for us to make truly rational decisions. On the other hand, as an interesting essay on NYTimes.com demonstrates, those biases do not mean that our actions are completely devoid of reason; we do have a conscious mind capable of exerting a force of will on our thoughts and behaviors, and that conscious mind does respond to reason (or at least reasonable sounding arguments). But this be...