Editing Irrationality (section)

{{Short description|Thinking, talking, or acting without inclusion of rationality}}
{{About|the quality of human behavior|the concept in mathematics|Irrational number|the TV series|The Irrational}}
{{Distinguish|Irrationalism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}

'''Irrationality''' is [[cognition]], thinking, talking, or acting without [[rationality]]. 

Irrationality often has a negative connotation, as thinking and actions that are less useful or more illogical than other more rational alternatives.<ref>[[Margaret Mead|Mead, Margaret]]. ''Male and Female: The Classic Study of the Sexes'' (1949) Quill (HarperCollins) 1998 edition: {{ISBN|0-688-14676-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1177/105649269431012|title = Castrating the Female Advantage|journal = Journal of Management Inquiry|volume = 3|pages = 74–82|year = 1994|last1 = Fletcher|first1 = Joyce K.|s2cid = 145589766}}</ref> The concept of irrationality is especially important in [[Albert Ellis (psychologist)|Albert Ellis]]'s [[rational emotive behavior therapy]],  where it is characterized specifically as the tendency and leaning that humans have to act, emote and think in ways that are inflexible, unrealistic, absolutist and most importantly [[self-defeating prophecy|self-defeating]] and socially defeating and destructive.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ellis|first=Albert|year=2001|title=Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy|publisher=[[Prometheus Books]]|isbn=1-57392-879-8}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref>

However, irrationality is not always viewed as a negative. Much subject matter in literature can be seen as an expression of human longing for the irrational. The [[Romanticism|Romantics]] valued irrationality over what they perceived as the sterile, calculating and emotionless philosophy which they thought to have been brought about by the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Steven |last=Kreis |url=http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture16a.html |title=Lecture 16: The Romantic Era |publisher=Historyguide.org |date=2009-08-04 |access-date=2012-12-08}}</ref> [[Dada]] [[Surrealist]] art movements embraced irrationality as a means to "reject reason and logic". [[André Breton]], for example, argued for a rejection of pure logic and reason which are seen as responsible for many contemporary social problems.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.screensite.org/courses/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm |title=Manifesto of Surrealism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090401002841/http://www.screensite.org/courses/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm |archive-date=2009-04-01 |website=ScreenSite |year=1999 |orig-year=First published 1924 |first=André |last=Breton |access-date=2014-01-29}}</ref>