Treatment of Women in the Middle East

Human action is necessarily always rational. The term "rational action" is therefore redundant and must be rejected as such. When applied to the ultimate ends of action, the terms rational and irrational are inappropriate and meaningless. The ultimate end of action is always the satisfaction of some desires of the acting man. Since nobody is in a position to substitute his own value judgments for those of the acting individual, it is vain to pass judgment on other people's aims and violations. No man is qualified to declare what would make another man happier or less discontented. The critic either tells us what he believes he would aim at if he were in the place of his fellow; or, in dictorial arrogance blithely disposing of his fellow's will and aspirations, declares what condition of this other man would better suit himself, the critic.

It is usual to call an action irrational if it aims, at the well being of another human being. In this sense people say, for instance, sometimes with approval and sometimes with disapproval, that a man who sacrifices his morality, goodness, and moral instinct to the attainment of higher goods such as: religious convictions, honor, and political convictions, is motivated by irrational convictions.