irrasjon

Irrasjon is a Norwegian noun that denotes the quality or state of being irrational. It refers to beliefs, judgments, or actions that lack sound reasoning, coherence, or justification. In everyday and academic language, irrasjon is used to describe thoughts or conclusions that do not follow evidence, logic, or rational principles. The term is common in philosophy, psychology, political discourse, and media when contrasting irrational with rational thought.

Etymology and related forms: The word is built from the root reason (Latin ratio) with a negating prefix, yielding a term linked to irrasjonalitet and the adjective irrasjonell. In practice, irrasjon is closely associated with irrationality in both normative debates and descriptive analysis. In mathematics, the related concept is expressed with irrational numbers, which denotes quantities that cannot be written as a ratio of two integers; in Norwegian, the standard mathematical term is used rather than the everyday sense of irrasjon.

Usage and nuance: The concept of irrasjon is often invoked to critique beliefs, policies, or decisions that appear to be guided by emotion, cognitive bias, or misinformation rather than evidence and reason. While it can carry normative judgments, in scholarly contexts it is discussed as a feature of human thinking that can be studied and mitigated through critical thinking, data evaluation, and argumentative rigor.

See also: Rationality, Irrationality, Irrasjonell, Irrasjonale tall (irrational numbers)