Consistency as an Indeterminate Factor for Rationality

Abstract

Consistency and rationality are aligned with each other because they are presumed to be conterminous, but this conclusion is suspect because irrational behavior when continuous and deliberately directed is also consistent. Beneath the analysis of a relationship between consistency and rationality lies free choice as the foundation for human behavior. Because consistency has reduced relevance, an individual’s behavior when grounded in subjectivity becomes the pivotal characteristic for all actions, whether rational or irrational. If irrationality means that a person has moved away from himself because a rift has appeared between rational behavior as the expression for one’s own well-being and the world at large, then consistency becomes subordinate or reduced in meaning.