(July 12, 2023 at 7:28 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:(July 12, 2023 at 6:52 pm)FlatAssembler Wrote: I don't understand. The Principle of Rationality is the assumption that the society as a whole behaves as if every individual was rational, because the irrationalities of individuals cancel each other out. It was first formulated by Karl Popper, and it is one of the basic principles of modern social science. Prisons appear to contradict that principle, as no rational person can believe that prison is a good thing. For prisons to exist, politicians would need to be systemically irrational, all in the same way (to think that the existence of prisons is a good thing), and suggesting a systemic rationality contradicts the Principle of Rationality.
Why is it irrational to believe that prisons are a good thing? If one can present rational reasons for them (such as segregating dangerous individuals from the rest of society), it's not an irrationality. Therefore, politicians would not need to be systemically irrational for prisons to exist.
Boru
Prisons are places from which mentally ill people return even more dangerous than when they entered them.
